Last summer, I wrote two blogs focusing on the theme to Work Smarter, Not Harder.   In part one, I shared my idea of creating a document with links to all the “Beginning of the Year Things to Print”.   In  part two  I shared a Google Dashboard to help keep track of all the links you need on a daily basis.  Over the course of this past year, I have found several additional ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder.

First off, you need to know that I TOTALLY GEEK OUT over brand new supplies for the new year. I especially love looking at new Lesson Plan Books.  Oh, I’ve tried them all… planners from Erin Condren,  Plum Paper, etc.  I even tried creating my own online planner (horizontal layout & vertical layout)!  You name it, I’ve tried it. Unfortunately, I always ended up with notes in different places.  Every time I needed to write something down, my planner wasn’t with me.  So I went with my motto to Work Smarter, Not Harder and here’s what happened!

How my Idea Came to Be:

In an after school meeting, my principal started to share important information.  As usual, I didn’t have my planner with me. I did, however, have my computer.  So I opened up the Google Dashboard that I had created in my last blog post.  I quickly added another tab at the bottom of the page.  Bingo!  I was able start typing in the dates my principal was giving.

AND THAT’S WHEN IT HIT ME!!! I could create a new tab on my dashboard for notes or reminders that came up during meetings!   I could have the information all in one spot.  No more looking for the sticky note I wrote it on! No more trying to find where I wrote it in my planner!

This Led to More Ideas:

My heart started racing! I realized that I could use the tabs to create additional pages!  Immediately I made a new page to organize my Substitutes/Volunteers and Vendor Contact Information. I even included a drop down box to quickly note if it was a Substitute, Volunteer, or both.

Then I remembered how students or teachers were always talking to me about new books to buy.  Or they would ask if we had the next book in the series they were reading during book checkout.  That would be another great tab to have!   A place to immediately collect ideas on new books to purchase!  I included a quick drop down box for the type of book it was as well.

The absolute BEST idea I had, though, was to put in my Weekly Lesson Rotation Schedule tab!  Since I am currently in the Special’s rotation, I see classes on a 6-day rotation.  It allows me to add in fire drills, assemblies, and all those other schedule interruptions!  This schedule helps me plan ahead to see if a certain group was missed too often.

This led me then to create a tab for all my lesson plans.  I could easily add links to the Google Slides deck that I use on our interactive boards.  It worked great!  This summer I added in a few more changes.  I created a column for the specific lesson objectives and materials needed.  This information at a quick glance tells me what materials I need so I’m not caught off guard (hopefully).

By the end of this year my mind was so tired.  But I knew to Work Smarter, Not Harder, I needed to put in some work in May.  This would make my beginning of the year go much smoother.  I looked around the library to remember everything I would need to redo for the beginning of the year.   I created a Summer To Do list which has already helped me immensely! Everything is completed for both of my Battle of the Books contests because I took the time to list out everything I needed to do to be ready.

I hope this Google Dashboard will help you stay a little more organized this coming school year!

You can download a free copy here.

Sign up for a free account with Flat Icon so that you can change or add your own icons for any new categories.  Also, let me know if you add any other tabs (that I might need to add too!!)  🙂

I hope you find this helpful!