Documenting Life with Project Life

I have been using Project Life for several years now.  You can read about how I got started with Project Life here.  In this post, I wanted to share with you some changes I have made for 2015.

This year I am really trying hard to get back to documenting the everyday life.  Last year I just did major events such as vacations, outings, birthdays, etc.  I liked doing that, but I felt like I was missing so much.  So far this year, I have been trying to have enough pictures taken of our everyday life to fill at least a two page spread.

Last year I didn't really do any journalizing until I developed the pictures.  I usually did not develop the pictures until I had enough to get a good deal at Snapfish or Shutterfly.  This meant that I could go months without updating my Project Life book.  Therefore, when I would get my developed pictures, it would take me hours to get everything in my book.  I don't have that kind of time right now.  This year I am trying to go through my pictures, determine which ones I want for my scrapbook, and do the journalizing on a weekly basis (usually on Saturday or Sunday).  To help me remember what pictures go where and to help in visualizing my layouts, I developed this planning page:

These pages are all kept in a binder.  I write down what picture goes where, where I want a journal card, and where I need a filler.  You can see another planning page I developed here.  Once the pictures are developed and put into my scrapbook, I remove the page from the planning binder.

I am also trying something new this year in the way that I plan out the weeks.  Last year I divided my Project Life binder up by months.  I would create a monthly divider card and also had the plastic Project Life binder dividers, each labeled with a month.  This year I am back to dividing my scrapbook up by weeks.

I decided to label each week with a mini calendar with that week underlined and then to include on the dividing card what number week it is.

How are you documenting your everyday life this year?

Updating the Bathroom

When we purchased our house almost nine years ago, we knew that the upstairs bathroom would need to be updated at some point.  Well, that "some point" finally came :)  It didn't need any major remodeling, just the updating of the fixtures.

Here is the bathroom before:

Here is the bathroom after:

We hired Rebath to come in and replace the vanity, counter top, bathtub, shower surround, and shower fixtures.  It was great having them come in and in two days have a brand new bathroom.  We had a local flooring business come in and lay the tile.  My mom did help with the some of the decorating - painting the walls and ceiling and hanging the light fixture and mirror.  My dad also came over and helped my husband install the baseboards.

Some people asked us why we didn't do more of the work ourselves.  As we have been slowly fixing up other areas of our house, we realized that we didn't have the extra time needed to do the work or the skills.  We didn't want to have to worry about bugging family members/friends and working around their schedules to get it do either.  With the new baby coming, we just wanted to get it done.  
I absolutely love the new bathroom.  It may be my new favorite room in the house :)

My Teaching Binder

I am a full time high school teacher who happens to teach in three different rooms throughout the day, plus have an office that is not located in any of these rooms.  My goal this year was to find a system that would help me have everything in one place that could easily be taken from one room to the next.  Enter the teacher binder.

I love having my important documents all in one spot.  It is also nice for a sub if I happen to be unexpectedly absent.  Everything the sub needs to know is located in this binder.  Here is what the inside of the binder looks like:

When you open it up you see my class schedule for the day.  This is more for a sub then me :)  Then I have the following tabs:

• Seating Charts - here are the seating charts for each of my classes.  On the seating chart I also have a student highlighted.  If I am absent, this is a reliable student that could help answer any questions a sub may have.  
• Calendars - I like to roughly plan out my semesters to I know that I am going to fit everything in.  I have a calendar for each class with the curriculum penciled in for the semester.  I also have the school event calendar here as well.  
• Lesson Plans - Here are my lesson plans for the week.  I also include here any answer keys that go with the lessons.  
• Parent Contact - Here I contain a log where I can keep track of any parent contact that I make.
• Meetings - I have a meeting log here where I can keep notes from all of the meetings that I have to attend.
• Standards - I keep a copy of the Power Standards for the different classes that I teach here for easy reference as I am planning my lessons.
• IEPs - I have a quick reference IEP guide that lists all of my students that have an IEP or a 504 Plan and what accommodations I need to be making for them.  Mine looks similar to this one.

Another new piece of organization that I am using in my classroom are clipboards containing my grade book instead of having one large grade book.

I have one for each class that I teach.  The clipboard contains color coded grade book sheets printed from our grade book program.  Each class has its own color.  The clipboard also contains a binder clip numbered with that class period's number.  I use the clip to attach any papers that need to be graded for that class to the clipboard.

I have really tried to go as paperless as I can in all of my classes.  This means that I grade a lot more off of the student's computer screen then collecting papers to grade.  It is a lot easier to right on a clipboard as I am walking around then a flimsy grade book.  It has also been a lot easier to grade papers as I am standing in the hallway during passing periods, breakfast break, etc.

So far the teaching binder and clipboards have increased the organization and ease of life at school this year.  I wonder what I will come up with for next year :)

Spring Cleaning

It is that time of the year when in Wisconsin you want to clean all the winter dirt, dust, and grim off everything and open up the windows to let the spring breezes freshen up the house.  This year, the days of warm spring breezes are far and few between, but hopefully we will get there :)

Usually spring cleaning happens when I am home on Spring Break from school so I have one week to deep clean the house.  Here is the post about my spring cleaning routine and a check list that I use.  However, this year because I am on maternity leave yet, I have some more time to complete my spring cleaning so I am participating in the Spring Clean in 30 Challenge put on by A Bowl Full of Lemons and Clean Mama.

Each day they give a different thing to clean in your house.  For example, Day 1 was to dust all the edges and corners of the ceiling level.  I like that there is just one thing to clean each day and depending on how large your house is, it really doesn't take that long.  I don't feel like I am spending all day cleaning.  I get to do other things throughout the day,  like caring for a newborn :)

Each day they ask that you take a picture of you completing the task and then share the picture on Instagram using the hashtag #springcleanin30 and to tag them in the picture - @cleanmama and @abowlfulloflemons.

The challenge started on April 1 and ends on April 30.  Feel free to join in.  It's okay if you missed a few days or can't do a task each day, just double up on some days.  This challenge has made spring clean fun!