Scale that mountain of data with Digital systems in place for keeping track of your teacher-Life!
I have always been a spreadsheet person, but little did I know how incredibly handy that it can be! There is so much information to keep track of from your students IEPs & 504s, to science inventories, to.. what was that perfect video that showed photosynthesis that my kids liked? Down below are two skills I use on a daily basis that are !
Learn those HOT KEYS!
I use Hot Keys so often now that I do not even realize it! I’ve memorized only a few basics, but it has allowed me to accomplish things faster when I can hit Control-Print instead of having to touch my track pad to find the correct action in the menu bar.
Here is an image of a Mac Keyboard and the keys you will use often.
For each command, the keys have to push down simultaneously!
Use LINKS!
Digital links can be made between any text or images, to a website using the hot keys Ctrl and K. The benefit of doing this regularly in worksheets, slides, or any other digital document you create is that now you have a permanent record of the resources that you have spent so much to gather.
Keep track of videos by linking them into a document that houses your daily curriculum
Link Student information to specific documents, contacts, or data
Find outside resources quickly from PDs to online resources by linking them in specific documents
Curriculum Planning
Using Google sheets (or another spreadsheet application), and multiple tabs in Google sheets, can be very helpful to manage data that is not easily available from other sites. One spreadsheet that I always have handy every year is a data file to keep track of my students. It holds information ranging from preferred names and pronouns to IEP and 504 information. It can also be useful when matching online assignment scores to official student names.
Links student work samples for upcoming parent-teacher conferences
Tally class results and convert scores to school grade scales
Quickly access pronoun and nick name information for particular students
Organize your drives!
Files build up quite quickly once you are a beginning teacher, and the number of those files are only going to continue to grow! By being intentional at HOW you organize your work in your hard drive, Google drive, or any device that stores your data will save a lot of stress in the future when you NEED that one file that you made only a month ago! Creating a system that makes sense to you AND learning how to use the search engine properly will take the headache out of everyday tasks.
In my google drive, I separate my school, our school district and outside PDs into 3 separate folders. Here is a breakdown below:
School Files: - 7th Grade Science, 8th Grade Science, STEAM Elective
School District: District Professional Development, Important information or Flyers on upcoming Events, Time Sheets
Teacher Resources: File templates, Downloaded files from paid and free sites, and Field Trip information
These breakdown further by categorizing those subjects and nest them under each larger folder
Naming convention: Naming your files can be very helpful if done intentionally as well.
If I want some files to be grouped together or have them be chronological instead of sorted alphabetical, put numbers in front
If I different versions of the same file I put an underscore _ and add some small text to differentiate the two
Lastly, do not forget to use the drive’s search engine to your needs! Here are ways to seach for files more effectively:
Use the “Recently” folder to find files quickly that you were just working on!
Use the “Type” of file such as spreadsheet, slideshow or docs.
Be consistent with your naming of files so that you can easily remember! (For example, I number the assignments in my Google Classroom so that they the students know the order of what to get done, and I can easily search by number!