New Adventures + old email You Can Do

Last week I shared my plan for what to do with your Google Drive if you are moving from one district to another in New Adventures + old files You Can Do . I do NOT recommend using Takeout or Transfer as I firmly believe we are all digital hoarders. If you are making a move, use this as an opportunity to go through your Drive and take what will benefit you, not what will weigh you down - and if your Drive was a mess then, it's not like it's going to clean itself up by moving to a new account!

Something else that you might need or want to look at as you move from one district to another is your Gmail. This one is a bit trickier. You can't really "export" emails. You can export your contacts.  But honestly ... stop and ask yourself ... which ones do you really need? And if you are brutally honest with yourself, I don't think you find there are all that many.

I'm going to share my thoughts - but this is all based on the idea that you have NOT tangled your personal emails with your school emails - meaning you don't handle bills or personal accounts through your school email address. If you DO, PLEASE STOP. I think of it as "multiple identities". Anything to do with home gets done with my personal Gmail. Anything related to my job, through school email. I don't cross these lines. Period.

Just with my Drive, I'm a big user of labels in my Gmail. Here's also where knowing some searching tips comes in really handy. When you find the ones you want to preserve, forward them to the newly created - or personal account - you are using to house the files you are taking with you.

Here are some things to think about:

• Looking for an email(s) from a specific person? Search their name at the top ... and comb through the ones that appear.
• Looking for an email(s) about a specific topic? Search the topic at the top ... and go through those.
• If you use labels, think about which labels are worth even looking at - and go through JUST those.
• Want to have email addresses for certain people? Search for one of their emails and forward that. Their email will show up for you.

You might just find there aren't a whole lot of emails you really need to keep. 

Good luck! Making changes is always hard - even when it's a really good change. 

Also, do NOT wait! Some districts are very strict about shutting off accounts. And once you are locked out, you could be locked out forever. 

FINAL tip: in the future, create in your personal account and share it to your school account. Then make a copy to use at school. Making it in your personal account will prevent the above 'song and dance' in the future.

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New Adventures + old files You Can Do

How's your summer going? It's still the early part of July, and I am fully enjoying the slower pace, the sunshine, and the over all relaxed atmosphere in my house. I'm writing this in one of my most favorite spots at my house ... the front porch.

One of the pieces of my job at the end of the year is to help those who are retiring or leaving our district decide what to do with items in their Google Drive. I know, based on the conversations in the Google Trainer group, many districts struggle with this. There really isn't any one perfect method. I'm not the biggest fan of Takeout or Transfer - too often you are taking a bunch of "crap" that you will never look at or use again.

Instead, I always recommend making 2 folders - "Keepers" and "I don't need". (Some of you may need a 3rd folder "Transfer ownership".) Create these, then go through your Drive and make FAST decisions. Don't open everything, don't stress about it, just decide. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you go through your Drive:

• did I use this file/folder THIS school year?
• will it help me in my future position?
• should I digitally "give" this to someone who is staying here?

You could also use the "Last modified" date to help you decide if you are unsure. If it wasn't modified in the pas 2 years or so, I'd say you most likely won't miss it. You might be surprised at what you REALLY end up taking with you.

Once you've done this clean up, don't worry about the "I don't need" folder. Just leave it alone. For the "Keepers", it gets a little tricky. You CAN share it with a personal or other school domain account, but that doesn't transfer ownership. You CAN make copies in your personal account ... but this takes a TON of time.

INSTEAD:

• right click on your "Keepers" folder & select download
• note where it downloads - it'll become a "zip" file
• click ONCE on the zip file - THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT ... ONCE. ONLY ONCE.
• you should now see a file folder named "Keepers". DO NOT OPEN IT.
• Open the Google account you want to move it to
• MAKE sure you have the setting turned on to "Convert uploads to Google Docs editor format" 
• drag & drop the "Keepers" folder in

VOILÁ!!!

You have just saved what YOU choose to take with you to your new adventure! It might even be smart to create a brand new Google account to keep your brain straight, or depending on how much you decide to keep, you might need it for storage purposes. 

Transferring ownership is a wonderful ability within Google Drive. If you are good with it and you don't have 1,000 files, rather than sharing or making others to make copies of files you own, you can transfer ownership. Yes, it must be done to each individual file - ugh - but it IS easy. OR ... share the folder with those who need/want these files and they can make their copies for themselves. One final option - if you have the ability, you could create a shared drive and drop files in there, adding on those who need/want them, and they can pull the files out and become the owners. This all depends on the sheer number and the comfort level of you and those you are sharing with.

ONE MORE THOUGHT ... have you thought about your email??? Let's tackle that next week!

Here's the link: New Adventures + old email You Can Do

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A Scheduled Email You Can Do

I was surprised by an email last week. It was an email I'd scheduled to myself and I'd forgotten about it. It was a happy surprise - so I thought I'd put the thought out there for you. I was inspired last year by James Clear to do this and it's super simple. He suggested composing an email to yourself and schedule it for one year out answering this question:

"How, specifically, do you want your life to be better at this time next year?"

I challenge you to do this. I have already done this and scheduled it to arrive June 1, 2024. Don't limit yourself to improvements at school. I included things for my family, my health, and professionally. It doesn't have to be lengthy - include what makes sense to you.

Do you know how to schedule an email? It's really easy and there are many uses for it. I do it all the time to ensure information gets to people when it needs to be there. It's a huge help when I'm working on a project and I schedule email reminders (even to myself at times) because I know how crazy inboxes can be and I want to be respectful of that.

If you want to learn how, check out my blog "5 Intermediate Gmail Tips You Can Do". The "how to" is on Slide 4. 

Do you have another use for scheduling an email? I'd love to know! Reach out on any of the social medias or send me an email. 

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End of Year Tech You Can Do: Tip #1 Reflect

My first end of year tip could possibly be THE most important. It's one I take very seriously, but I didn't always. I'm tired. You're tired. We are all tired. BUT ... take time to reflect before you go full on summer mode. 

Why?

This year is freshest in your mind right now. All the ups and downs, the back and forth, the good and the bad. You'll never have a better view of this school year than now. It's also a great way to wrap up and end the school year. (And over your years in education, what a nice collection of reflections you'll have.)

Here are some of my guiding questions:

• What were the 3 "best" things this year? 
• What were the 3 hardest things this year?
• What are 2 things that you do NOT want to change next year?
  
• What are 2 things you feel you MUST change or do differently next year?
• What was your happiest moment/activity/event?
• What was your saddest moment/activity/event?
• Who helped you make it through this year? Reach out to them and thank them.

The numbers on the above questions aren't magical. You can change them to best suit you. If you want to simply narrate your year, that's a great idea, too! 

When I was young teacher, I didn't take time to reflect. I really wish I had. Can you imagine the collection of year end reflections I'd have right now as I am wrapping up my 22nd year in education? I also reflect on my "to do lists", routines I did or want to change, and how I keep track of what needs to be done.

The best part about reflecting is that it can't be done wrong. But it IS an important part of wrapping up a school year, so please take the time to do your own reflecting.

Now ... on to enjoy summer!

*** Every Monday, I share a newsletter with a collection of Tech You Can Do resources. It is delivered right to your inbox. Interested? Sign up here!  ***

End of Year Tech You Can Do: Tip #2 Clean up your LMS/Google Drive

This week’s tip is very important. I know we are all exhausted - you might you are too exhausted to tackle this. But I promise you won’t regret it. Depending on your LMS and how your district is set up, you might think you are in good shape, but there are a few key steps you really need to make sure happen.

Step 1: Return ALL ungraded work. Most LMS’ have a handy spot to see what work this applies to. In Google Classroom, go to your “To Review” list. In Schoology, on your main page, there is an area in the upper right corner that shows you what work needs action. Ideally this is a step you do on a regular basis throughout the year, so it shouldn’t be a lengthy task.

Step 2: Archive/preserve your current content. This depends on your LMS. 

With Schoology, your district might have it set to archive your courses automatically when the grading period is over. They might not. If they don’t, make sure you know how to - the last thing you want is to see all of this year’s courses when you start off next year. You might also want/need to do this with any course or group that you have custom created during the year. While you can access your archived courses fairly easily, we still recommend out teachers save their courses - if they want to - to their resources.

With Google Classroom, you will need to archive your current courses to clean up your Classroom homepage. Your district might be syncing your courses for you, which will take care of this step - minus any manually created classes you created. Teachers might overlook this step, but this one is SUPER important for your students, too! Any class their teacher has not archived will still be there for them next year … and that makes it tougher for them as they are still mastering the use of digital classrooms. You can re-use content from these classes even when they are archived. It will also keep YOUR homepage clear of clutter.  If you are looking for a more detailed explanation, please check out my End of Year Google Classroom You Can Do.

Step 3: Clean up Google Drive. Using an LMS like Schoology or Google Classroom is beneficial when it comes to your Google Drive. Both of these systems take care of the organization with work and assignments. This will leave you time to focus on cleaning up/organizing the random non-LMS related files we all accumulate over the course of a school year. I highly recommend setting a timer for this step.

Steps to take if you are leaving your current district: 

Now, if you are NOT returning to your current district, please still complete the above steps AND keep the following in mind:

Decide what you want to and are allowed to take with you. This is not as clean as you might think. Check with your Tech Director or IT person to find out the steps to take if you want to take files with you. 

I recommend to our teachers to make a folder in their Google Drive and move any/all files in there they want. Then download THAT folder. It will create a zip file. Click the file ONCE and then move the blue folder onto a flash drive (or if you are able to, upload it right into your personal Google Drive). This will preserve the files as Google files. Don’t open the blue folder! Also, do yourself a favor ... don’t take everything! You don’t need it. It might feel better to take everything, but really, you are just taking a lot of unnecessary items that you aren’t using now and won’t use in the future. 

In Classroom, all work basically funnels through Drive, so as long as you take the files you want, you should be good.

In Schoology, there are a few different thoughts:

• if you are moving TO another Schoology school, this video by JillR "Schoology - Export Course Content/Importing into LMS (Schoology)" might be helpful
  
  
• if you are moving to another school that does NOT use Schoology, I did find a page Export AND Download your courses from Schoology from the Forest Grove School. It provides specific steps as well as what can and cannot be downloaded.
  
  
• I've never had much confidence in exporting for future use with Schoology - but that doesn't mean it isn't possible! If you create most of your items in your Drive and then use the Google Drive assignments, you should be good to go!

*** Every Monday, I share a newsletter with a collection of Tech You Can Do resources. It is delivered right to your inbox. Interested? Sign up here!  ***