Hey, I Could Use That!

I can't be the only one who trolls the internet looking for awesome ideas to use in my classroom next year.  My bookmark bar is filled with different pages of lesson ideas, classroom set-ups, and cute organizational strategies.  I also have an entire section for the stuff on Evernote.  If you haven't used Evernote, I'll explain more about it later.  But what to do with all those ideas?  I'm definitely NOT going to go through all my lessons in order to find the *perfect* place to put an idea.  Not now, when I should be on vacation!  Usually that kind of inspiration happens as I begin to (re)plan a particular unit.  Soooo.....what to do with those ideas in the meantime?

Messy, messy files

I'm a bit scatterbrained when it comes to holding on to this kind of stuff.  I have a Pinterest page, an Evernote account, and my bookmarks bar.  And that's not even counting the random handouts and packets I receive from well-meaning administrators, friends, and speakers at awesome conferences.  How does one keep it all together so as not to forget it when planning a unit in, say, November?

One way to help this is that I've seriously been considering sticking it all in Evernote so it's all in one place.  You can clip whole pages or parts of pages from a website into Evernote.  You can scan documents and put them in Evernote.  You can share your resources with other people in order to collaborate.  You can sync it all with your phone or any computer you use.  It's very versatile and I've just started to use it.  Here's another blog from a teacher who used it all year for everything, including his lesson plans!  If anyone has used it for a while and wants to share some advice on it, please share!  I'm not what you would call tech-savvy.*

Any other ways you keep up with the clutter of ideas you come across?

--Mrs. Teacher Ma'am

**I am in no way getting paid for talking about Evernote.  I just think it's really cool.