Organization on a Personal Level First!

So... organization is very tricky in this new job. How many tools do I carry on my body throughout the buildings. What do I have in my car/traveling office that should be available?Having the right tool to document/note/make a list, right on the spot is tricky. In my past jobs, I've pushed carts with tools, worn schedules clothes-pinned on my body, created felted bags and purchased small pocketbooks for hauling my toolkit. I've had a garage in my classroom where all of my carts and boxed teaching materials were parked. Now... I have the large items in my CES Huddle-Trailer. But the "day to day" tools are still my organizational nightmare! Do I strap my phone, my ipod and my flip camera on my person... but then what if I want to take a simple still picture? Ah... I need that one, too! How does this blog help me with my memory? So far... I've been too exhausted to write every night. So... I'm playing catchup with my thoughts, concerns and soul-baring admissions. I also have my moleskin journal and my hardbound calendar planner. Then there's my Entourage Calendar with my schedule...and there's the Google Calendars for all the PLCs of each school. And OH!! how do I handle all of my paper copies of items from meetings, and coach training sessions? As far as the coach training documents...I certainly KNOW that I need to keep those language stems close to my head and mouth!! On to the Laptop: I have school folders on my computer... color coded. I have calendar schedule that's color coded for each school and I can view my teammates calendars as well. I have Yammer as a micro-blogging tool for noticing what's happening out in the schools for insight. I have emails from 3, actually 4 schools coming in. Then Face 2 Face: I have at least 1 huddle meeting a week with My Team to coordinate and come together with stuff...we often meet midweek and then at Cville Coffee prior to the Friday Forum. We have cluster meetings intended for weekly right now.... (only 1 so far since school started, but another one this week). and...We have Friday Forums for our entire coaches PLC time. I also have my second team to coordinate with as well... my Team, Too. I'm meeting with them this week as well. Face 2 Face is good, but it's hard to coordinate it all.

The latest plan that My Team is piloting is to try a google doc for writing up things daily that have happened, or teams we are working with, etc. We hope that this collaborative document will help us know what each of us is doing at a given school and with what folks or teams. We start this tracking tool this week! So... as I feel discombobulated... I just need to breathe and exhale. This will be a challenge for a while, but hopefully we will all be in a groove soon.