Digital Spring Cleaning!

Well it is about that time of year again!  As we wind down the 2016-17 school year, we are reminded that spring cleaning also involves the cleaning of our digital closets!  Here are a few items to consider for the end of the school year...

First, If you're leaving Resurrection, there may be some digital items that you want to take with you (or need to make available for others). If you use Google Apps or Schoology and want to share, keep or take your stuff, please visit our previous post located here with directions on how to go about doing so.

Google Apps

The first stop on our digital spring cleaning adventure is our Google Drive!  While Google Drive has changed how we share and collaborate, it can become the digital equivalent of a cluttered basement if not properly maintained!  Primarily, there are two areas of Google Drive that are going to need our yearly attention, our main drive and our "Shared with me" drive.  Let's take a few moments to review how we can organize each section: 

1. Main Drive:  Over time, as more Google Docs and presentations are created, your Drive can become cluttered.  The first step to take when organizing your Drive is to utilize a folder organization system (remember that Drive allows you to create folder within folders for added organization). From clubs to various courses that I teach, I have a folder for everything.  If you are in the habit of creating new documents/presentations directly from your Drive, you may have a number of loose documents in your Drive.  Take some time to sort those loose documents into their designated folders.  (TIP: If you create new files from within a selected folder, the file will automatically store itself in that folder.)  Also take this opportunity to delete any old documents that you will not need in the future.  While this can be difficult, it can also provide a feeling of relief!
2. Shared with me:  Unfortunately, this section is the wild west of Google Drive.  This section of Drive does not allow for the same organizational options as our main Drive (i.e. creating organizational folders).  Here are a few tips to help with your "Shared with me" section:
1. Any files that you would like to keep from your "Shared with me" section need to be added to your main Drive.  To do this, simply right click on the desired file and then select "Add to Drive".  Once you have added it to your Drive, you can organize it in the ways that we described above.
2. As with our main Drive, take an opportunity to delete old files that you will not need access to.  I try to take ten minutes here or there to do this so that I don't spend two hours just deleting files.

Schoology Materials & Resources

Statistics show us that over the past two years we have continued to see an increase in faculty Schoology usage.  As we continue to build our courses and add resources, we want to make sure that we don't have to reinvent the wheel each year.  Please take a moment to visit Schoology's official "End of the Year" checklist blog here to learn more about your courses, resources and how to end the year.

Reminder: Our Schoology school year ends on June 30th. That means that on that date, your courses will be auto-archived. You will still have access to both the courses and your resources but they will no longer appear under the "Courses" dropdown menu. I would not recommend ever deleting a course, simply archive it.

Tip: Teachers can create summer Schoology courses that students could access during the summer if needed.  If you need a summer course set up please let us know in advance.  You will need to select the summer grading schedule when setting the course up. 

Hapara Teacher Dashboard

In the same fashion as Schoology, Hapara also requires a yearly archiving process.  The archiving also will happen in July but there is no need to worry about lost student files.  Any archived folders and files will still be retrievable in your Google Drive.  Students will also have access to their own files even after the archiving process. To learn more about how the archiving process works for Hapara (remember, this impacts your Google Drive) please click here.

Tip: If you plan on having students access resources and/or turning in work over the summer, please remember that the folders they are using now will be archived and you will not have the same access to them at the start of next school year.  I would recommend having students keep summer work in their Google Drive and then adding them to their new folders at the start of the new school year.  Making submissions through Schoology would be my other recommendation.

A little bit of yearly spring cleaning will go a long way in helping you start off the next school year on the right foot!  As always, if you have any questions about items listed above, please contact me at JLascon@reshs.org