My greatest strength and also probably my greatest weakness as a teacher was that I have ideas…lots of ideas. They occur to me in random order at random times and lead me down tangents to other ideas. I was always researching and trying to think of news ways to approach things…explain things. I also could get overwhelmed with my ideas. I had more things I wanted to do than I had time to plan for or follow through on.
So organization is often my best friend. I have journals and binders separated by topics and full of lists and topics, resources, handouts. I played with so many ways to organize desks, organize supplies, and organize my work to be graded and to be handed out. My favorite oxy-moron to describe teaching is organized chaos. For me, it took organization for me to build my foundation to allow for creativity. I need a solid box so I then can think outside the box. I need parameters to start and then I can break them, mold them, reshape them.
Idea backpack is my chance to store my ideas and share my ideas. I hope for others to benefit from the organized chaos that is my mind for the organized chaos that is the classroom.
Through my blog posts, products, and sub-pages I want to organize my suggestions and resources I have found helpful to provide help and inspiration for teachers.
Many blessings, happy sharing, and happy learning!
~AprilYou can contact me at ideabackpack@gmail.com.