As implied by the title of this blog, I am a teacher and I hate paper. There, I said it! I know that there are many teachers out there who LOVE paper. The more the better. They have file cabinets filled with blackline copies of everything they've ever done in the classroom. They have binders filled with lesson plans, unit plans, reading passages, data on behavior, data on attendance, data on skill mastery, data, data, data, more data.... (Teacher life, am I right?). One colleague in particular comes to mind who has a wall of binders behind her desk that she is particularly proud of.
Well, I hate it. I love teaching... hate all the paper that goes along with it. If you give me paper to sort and keep track of, well I am inevitably going to lose it or keep it in unsightly stacks all over my room. Grading, filing, tracking, passing back out, the constant copying (ugh)... it never happened. I just ended up with a cluttered room. I also ended up with a lot of stress trying to keep track of everything. It also seemed like such a waste of resources.
After about a year of failing at life when it came to paper and thinking that I was just a horrible teacher, I finally realized that the way that other teachers did it wasn't the way that worked for me. I am much more organized in the digital world than in the paper world--and the great thing about messing up organization on the computer is there is usually a search option to save you! I have since started digitizing my professional (and personal) life. If I can do it digitally, then I do! Each year has seemed a little better and I continue to find ways to de-stress my work life so I can go home and enjoy my personal life and save some trees and money on the way.
I have always been pretty tech savvy. I have also always lived by the "work smarter, not harder" philosophy and have found that technology can help me do this. My colleagues have noticed and are always asking me about technology in the classroom. When my administrators observe me they continually comment on my use of technology and how I use it to enhance learning. So I made this blog. Even if only to share with my colleagues that I just do not have as much time to share my tech wisdom with as I would like.
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