Spring Cleaning: Digital Edition

As the end of the 2021-2022 school year quickly approaches, I decided to do some "spring cleaning" in my classroom and also in my work computer. I feel like this is usually relegated as we focus on finalizing grades and getting our actuals room ready for their summer deep cleaning. Part of the checkout process in my school building includes:

-Labeling tables and desks.

-Turning in remotes for different devices to the IT department.

- Clearing my desk (for cleaning purposes)

among other tasks that will help cleaning crews in the summer when we are not around.

Amidst the frenzy of getting all my "to-do's" checked, I always forget that my work computer could also use some TLC and benefit from some major decluttering.

So...here is my plan for this year:

1) Go over my Google docs and delete, edit, and more importantly, move anything that needs to be moved to its corresponding folder in Google Drive. I would also recommend downloading a .pdf or .docx copy of any of this to your local drive if need be.

2) In a similar way, I will work my way through my Google forms although I find these more difficult to organize. I wish this could be grouped in folders or in any other way. If you know a hack for this, please do share.

3) I feel like Google Drive is a three-headed beast for which I feel both love and hate at the same time. At least it has folders that can be color coded. Music to my EYES!...or eye candy?

Tackle that Google Drive and have it ready for next year!

4) E-mails. The bane of my existence but "oh-so-necessary" Delete, archive, sort, flag, and categorize to your heart's content.

5) If you are a gaming-platform fan like me, you probably have accounts with Quizlet, Kahoot!, Gimkit, Quizizz and many more. I don't know about you but my vocabulary needs tend to change from year, and even though I love to recycle materials as much as I can, sometimes I have to edit or remove staff from these sites. This is the time to do it...or at least

do most of it.

6) Photos is that category that is always, ALWAYS in need to be organized and sorted. Your work computer is no exception. In my case, is mostly images that I either create or download to use in slides, presentations, forms, documents, handouts..you name it. They usually end up in the "downloads" folder because...well..time, and I always tell myself that I will save them in the right spot later on. Guess what? later on is now.

I hope you found this list useful and that the effort you put in now pays off come Fall when you don't feel like the pool..or your bed.

Happy cleaning!