Your Thoughts: Do You Scrap in Chronological Order?

So this has been on my mind lately. Do you scrap in chronological order? I don’t usually scrap in chronological order, and I think there’s good and bad to it. I like that I can scrap whatever speaks to me whenever, when I feel inspired to scrap something. If I try to stay in order, it seems more like a task than a hobby to me. However, I know that by jumping around, I risk forgetting to scrap something, or losing a story. How can I be sure that I am getting all of the memories I want to scrap done?

So what do you do? Do you scrap in chronological order? Why or why not? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Entering the Depths of my Pinterest Boards

I’ve been on Pinterest for a while now.

In fact, I’ve been using it from pretty much the beginning. I absolutely love the inspiration I get from the pins I find on other people’s boards. I’ve created layouts from things I’ve found on Pinterest, I’ve made recipes I’ve pinned, and I’ve used it as the main inspiration for the remodeling my wife and I have been working on around our house. When I look at my account, I have 469 pins arranged into 20 different boards. I was amazed, but it led to another question..what things have I pinned?

So I decided to look back into my pins.

I was amazed. I think it’s easy to remember what you pin over the course of a few days, and it’s easy to remember the pins that are at the top of your boards. Have you ever thought about the pins that you can’t see though? The pins from months ago? Well I went to find those, and I was floored at the things that I found. Recipes I swore I was going to make that week, things I wanted to print out for my girls, and tutorials I really wanted to follow up on were all hidden in the depths of my Pinterest boards. I even found a good number of pins that I pinned multiple times. Yup, that’s right, I pinned the same thing three times over. Guess I really liked it, just not enough to remember it.

So my question is this.

How do you keep track of what you pin? Do you bother to see what things you have pinned over time, or do they just live in the bottom of your boards? How do you keep track of the recipes or crafts you want to try, and the ones that you’ve done? After going through my account, I’ve come to see that I really need to get a handle on this. What strategies do you use to make Pinterest more efficient for you? Let me know in the comments below, I will be forever grateful…and so will my Pinterest boards!

A Week in the Life 2012

I don’t have a good record of keeping up with long term projects. I did Project 365 for all of 9 days. I can never seem to keep resolutions. Project Life and Project 52, all have fallen by the wayside after swearing that I was going to be able to make it through them. Needless to say, while A Week in the Life has always intrigued me, I’ve been hesitant to jump into the project. This year though, I am jumping in.

I’ve gathered a few resources this time around to help make it a bit easier to get this project done. First, I’ve decided that I’ll be using my phone exclusively to take the pictures for the project. I am planning on using Instagram for the majority of the pictures. I like the sharing aspect of Instagram.  I’ll be using #weekinthelife to label the pictures, as Ali suggests in this post.  I realize that the pictures I take with my phone and Instagram may not be the best, it will sure make it easier to get the pictures taken than having to carry around my point and shoot.

In terms of writing, I’ll be using a mixture of techniques. On her blog, Ali has provided some great sheets for recording notes as the week goes on. I’ll be using those. I also anticipate having a ton of small notes jotted down on all kinds of paper. These will make nice inclusions in the final album. I also plan on using Evernote on my phone for capturing some journaling on the go. When I go to put the album together, I’ll gather from all of these sources.

I’ll admit, one of the things that was holding me back from doing this project was what the final product would look like. How would I lay it all out? Would all of the pages look the same? What should I include? Do I want it to be a more graphic magazine style, or am I going to stick with a scrappy look? On Saturday morning those questions were answered. This weekend, Sara Gleason released this fantastic product:

I’ll be using these album templates exclusively to capture my Week in the Life. What I really like about them is that there are varying pages and prompts to help the album flow together. I also like that it includes both 8.5×11 and 12×12. I am planning on using the 8.5×11 and printing them out to include in an album. I’ll also be using some page protectors to gather all of the little pieces of memorabilia that I gather throughout the week. While I’ve seen some impressive Shutterfly books of the project, I like the idea of including all kinds of goodies in the final product.

So that’s the plan. I am really hoping that I can stick with it this time. Just putting it here on the blog will help keep me motivated to get it done.

Are you doing A Week in the Life? How are you planning on making it easier on yourself?

What Makes Me Happy

Teaching is not easy. I know there are people out there that think we have a cushy job, full of vacations and ends at 3pm. To put it simply, they just don’t know what they are talking about. Teaching is a challenge each and every day, but that’s not what this blog post is about. This post is about why teaching makes me happy.

Lately, I’ve been feeling very frustrated at school. We are in a weird transition time between the holiday break and the upcoming winter vacation, which always makes the kids (and a lot of the time, the teachers) crazy. On top of that, we have high stakes state testing coming up soon, so everyone is feeling the pinch. Over the last few weeks, I’ve found myself leaving school more and more frustrated every day. Last week, I told my wife that I didn’t think I could do it much longer. For someone who has wanted to be a teacher since he was five, this was utterly devastating. I didn’t let it get me down for long though, smiling and trying to make it through my days, and then coming home and feeling the same again. Until yesterday.

Yesterday, at the very end of the day, I got a visit from one of my previous students. Due to the fact that I’ve moved around a lot in my building, I had this student for two straight years, sixth and seventh grade. She started out as a difficult student, but managed to completely turn herself around and become a hardworking student. She was the sweetest girl, and would play with my two little girls when they were at school. I was so happy that she had turned things around.  Then, she was faced with some incredible challenges. Challenges that changed her life, and made coming to school difficult, challenges that made her whole attitude change again. Still, I knew my good girl was inside.

So, while everyone tried more and more to make her come to school and do well, I quietly supported her. Helping her whenever I could, letting her know that I cared, but giving her my famous hairy eyeball and telling her to come to school everyday. In fact, I didn’t think about it much, it was just how things were between us. I saw her at summer school once over the summer, and told her how happy I was to see her there and that she HAD to keep going. When she came today, she told me that she has in fact been going to school every day, and her grades were decent. She was happy, and doing well. She even asked how my two girls were. I knew that she had turned things back around.

This is what makes me happy: as her teacher, I made a difference in her life. I made such impact that she felt the need to come and see me and tell me how well she was doing. I made so much impact that she remember my two daughters by name. Through all of the frustration of everyday school life, I had forgotten what an effect I can have on each of my students’ lives. I left school today with a smile on my face, and a renewed sense of what it means to be a teacher.

Teaching is more than tests and books, it’s changing lives. So, as you go about your day, think about the people whose life you could be changing. The reality is that whether we know it or not, we are making a difference in someone’s life. In the hard times, remember, that to someone you are a positive change.

Thanks for listening today.

Help! To Do Lists on the Go?

If you’re a long time reader here, you’ve heard me talk about my never ending To Do lists that keep me organized and working.  I’ve tried tons of other methods, but my lists are by far the most effective.  Right now, I have a notebook that I bring with me to school and keep on my desk when I’m at home with my various lists in it.  Recently, I’ve been longing for something that will really help me take my lists with me wherever I go.

So today I need your help.  How do you keep your to do lists with you while you are on the go?  Please help me find something that will work for me!

The specifics:  I have an Android phone, and a Nook Color.  I do use Google Tasks in conjunction with my Google Calendar.  That’s it…the rest is up to you.

What do you recommend?