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Blog

Google Keep: Saves My Class Prep and My Marraige

1/31/2016

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photo credit: Google
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Think about a time you have had an incredible idea.  Something that is earth shattering, that would change everything.  You quickly write your idea down on the nearest piece of paper, napkin, stickynote, etc.  Now what.  You have the holy grail of ideas on a napkin that eventually was used to wipe the peanut butter off of your toddler's eyebrows.

You do your best to reignite that creative champion moment, but for not a lack of trying...inspiration at this point has been wiped away with the peanut butter. 

If you are like me, ideas get lost, but also lists.  If I am sent on a grocery run with a paper list, it is inevitable that it gets crunched, lost or ripped before I get to where I am going... thus the family is in peril because I forgot greek yogurt on the list.

Enter Google Keep

Google Keep is a mobile cloud based "sticky Note" app that connects with your Gmail account.  You can access this anywhere, through the app, online, tablet, iOS, Android, etc.  Anywhere google can reach, you will find Keep-- simply go to keep.google.com

For me it works in two ways
1.  I can use it to jot down ideas (every one ground breaking) for my classroom/professional world.  I can organize them by color, share the information through email or google docs to colleagues and stay relatively arranged in a clear manner.  I can create a checklist and share it for information or tasks that need to be completed. 
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2. I can use Keep for my personal notes.  I can take a picture of the paper list that has been created so that I don't lose it.  I can create a checklist for items that will be crossed out as they are found. Very valuable in the husband department. 

Keep Vs. Evernote

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photo credit: Google
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photo credit: flickr

​I have been a loyal user of Evernote for a long time.  In fact I still have some files stored on it.  Keep is very similar.  Though Evernote has more functions and abilities in regard to voice, video, presentation and organizational structure (notebooks, notes, etc.) it is a bigger app than what I have needed.  Even the Pro version allows many more functions, but in using the entire suite of GAFE there isn't a need for the total Evernote.

I'm choosing Keep as my sticky notes because it is quick, easy to organize and share, and quality access on all platforms without issue.  
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The Glorious Failure

1/30/2016

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Picture*photo credit vivisorg*
We have all experienced it.  The moment of truth. Everything that you have prepared for, trained for, sacrificed for has come.  
 No time left on the clock.
The final shot is in your hands.
You take the shot, throw the pass, take a swing and everything ends.
Your goal was not accomplished.  The dreams are "shattered".
You Failed.

Or maybe you've just begun
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     Author and playwright Samuel Beckett wrote, "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."  This quote should be the mantra of all mankind in every sort of act that can bring a positive change into our world.  Think about a lesson plan, an assessment, a project that you felt would have been the PERFECT fit and how when you presented it to your students it floundered.  There was no life support that could bring that one back.  It was gone, extinct and forgotten in the records room of the warehouse where "lost lesson plans go".
"Try Again. Fail again. Fail better"
As teachers, at least sometime in our career we have made reference to how many experiments it took Edison to figure out the lightbulb, how many shots Michael Jordan missed, or how Einstein failed math.  The point is we can't give up.  We become this Glorious Failure.  This optimistic being of exploration focused on continually trying to better their situation. 

So that is what I am going to write about.  I want to share the failures and successes in my experience as a teacher, online instructor and instructional technology coach.  It's going to be a wild ride, only the Lord above knows what's coming, so let's hang on as tight as we can, knowing we are going to have a crash along the way!
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