Year End Reflections #3: Scattered Thoughts & Missing Links
Where I Started
My first year in the computer lab, I had basically focused on one primary application or subject each month and I thought I would do something similar my second year but add in some collaborative projects too – though the year didn’t really work out focused on one application each month. This lead to the creation of a spreadsheet during the summer with an outline of what I wanted to teach by grade and by month:
Transition to Google Docs
This was good but during the summer as I worked to prepare the lab for the next year, I’d often have an idea at school and the spreadsheet was at home. So, I switched over to using Google Docs to keep track of the links and other resources I would need when teaching and organizing the information in to some kind of lesson ideas. This solved my problem of not having the spreadsheet with me when I needed it and allowed for more room to add notes or comments about what I would be teaching.
Organization Issues
All went well with this during the 1st quarter and into the start of the 2nd quarter. Part way into the 2nd quarter, I realized that I was actually updating this document after I had completed the lessons rather than before and I then I just stopped using it during the 3rd quarter. Was that a good idea? Probably not and in the 4th quarter, I tried to use it as I had originally intended. Did I? Sometimes and sometimes not. I find I tend to spend more time collecting links and ideas using Delicious than I do organizing my thoughts and writing down plans to use in class.
The Bottom Line
I’m not sure what all of this means and I have set up and started to build my lesson plan ideas in Google Docs again this year. I’m hoping to refine my process so I can actually keep track of the links and ideas I’m collecting and turn them in to lessons that I’m actually teaching. It’s frustrating to find something I’ve saved that would have been perfect for a lesson I just taught!
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on how to organize it all?