Aim to Be Awesome, Not Perfect

In my current position, I take notes all day long on my phone. With most of them, I need to be able to access them on one of my work devices.  Luckily for me, I live in a GSuite district and I can use Google Keep, which is a note-taking service. Basically, it is digital sticky notes accessible on any device. It has become my lifesaver.    In episode 11  of of #GoogleTeacherTribe podcast, Kasey and Matt talked Kasey's blog post about personalizing your Google Keep.  They talked about using Canva to make pretty pictures to organize Google Keep.  I loved that idea - and used it the same day! I even have a Google Keep Note where I jot down things I want to try from the podcasts I listen to and another one for when I get inspired by more seasoned ITS in my district.     And all of this has even bled over into my personal life.  I use Google Keep to stay on top of my grocery list. I love the check boxes - I can check off each ...

At the beginning of the year, we all have grand ideas about all the new, amazing, awesome things we are going to implement in our classroom.  Or is that just me? I saw something cool on RockStar Math Teacher's blog - seriously, you should check her out.  She posted at the beginning of August about some great things she implements and I really love the team talk idea.  So I borrowed her team stars for my room, and what I am doing with them is really working. I took the team stars and attached them to the lids of the bins I got for my tables.  The bins hold all kinds of stuff - rulers, scissors, glue, colored pencils, etc - anything they might need for class.  I like this system because I am not having to stop class when a lot of students need one resource (and I forget to pull it out of my cabinets).  The lids cut down on the playing with the supplies and trash dumping in the bins. ( I do go and close all the bins between classes).   I...