How are you staying organized at school and finding time to do all the family things that you cherish?

By Katie Higgins and Emily Albrecht

“Life may be messy, but the mess is worth it.”

― Emily Ley, Grace, Not Perfection

Work Home Organizing Life 4 Teachers (WHOL4Ed) started as a conversation.  Multiple conversations actually between two friends who both happen to be teachers.  The setting was always changing, a neighborhood block party, a meal making event, or an afternoon playdate, but the conversation was always the same.  How are you staying organized at school and finding time to do all the family things that you cherish?  This was the cadence of every conversation between two busy wives, moms, friends, teachers.  

For the past five years we have had the great privilege of sharing our WHOL4Ed journey as we strive to keep both our lives at home and at school organized.  We decided to share this conversation with other teachers through the Graduate Professional Development for Educators (GPDE) program at Saint Mary’s University in the form of a summer course offering. This incredible, engaging, and provocative conversation always returned to the idea of balance. How do we, as teachers, balance our personal and professional lives in ways that bring joy to both? We have three strategies that we employ to help achieve balance even on days it feels like true balance is nothing but a myth.

Strategy #1: Systems

Systems include routines, rituals and predictable practices that help our daily lives run more smoothly.  Systems help bring order and minimize wasted time because tasks are predetermined and familiar.  Systems encompass anything from monthly meal calendars and cleaning schedules to weekly school task checklists.  These predictable strategies lessen indecision, streamline weekly tasks and bring order to busy days.

Strategy #2: Margin

When life feels unbalanced, building in margin, or buffer to our space and time is essential. It is when we don’t build in margin that we allow our circumstances to raise our stress levels unnecessarily. For example, if you know you have a meeting at 3:30 and it takes you 30 minutes to get there, do not allow ONLY 30 minutes. Instead, add 15 minutes of margin time. This will allow extra time to park, find your meeting, and gather your focus.

Strategy #3: Self Care

We often neglect this important concept right when we need it the most. Many of us feel guilty when we take time to do something that brings us joy or helps  recenter us in the midst of life feeling chaotic. Letting go of this guilt is the first step of self-care. When life feels unbalanced, taking care of ourselves will restore our energy for the tough work ahead. Read that book. Take that bath. Kill that workout. Your outlook, to-do list, and loved ones will thank you.

These are just three of many strategies infused throughout the WHOL4Ed philosophy that can be the spark of transformation to a more balanced life both at home and at school.

Check out the next blog in the train! Amy Reznicek and her blog, https://fourthfearless.blogspot.com/

Welcome to Summer 2018!

Wow! Another school year has come and gone and summer is here! Summers are for relaxing and re-energizing as well as tackling our to-do lists. WHOL4Ed is here to help! We are excited to announce the second chapter in our WHOL4ed story--WHOL4Ed 2.0! This experience is based on a life-changing book, The Simplified Life by Emily Ley. Join us to learn more about how to balance through the process of simplification!

Watch Out Summer Here We Come!

Classrooms are packed up!  Kids are enrolled in summer activities!  It is time for another summer of WHOL4Ed classes and we couldn't be more excited!  We can't wait to help other busy people find some balance, set some goals, and get organized for September!  The WHOL4Ed conversation never goes out of style ~ it is a constant dialogue and we can't wait to learn from all of you this summer!

HAPPY SUMMER VACATION!

30 Day Challenge is up and running!

Habits and new skills typically do not emerge out of nowhere. They are the result of daily practice and/or deliberate attention. A large, daunting task can be tackled simply by making small, daily changes. If we want to create more balance in our lives we must approach it in small, manageable chunks or we will talk ourselves into failing any HUGE task. We also have to be content despite the predictable ups and downs of learning a new skill or establishing a new habit. If you haven't yet watched this video on how to make small change over 30 days...take a bird walk and do so.


I'm not sure how your decision-making process for your 30-day challenge went, but for me it was a cinch. I've recently gotten into making wood signs and humbly admire those unicorn-esque creative types that actually HAND LETTER these wood signs. Me? I cheat and use a Cricut, otherwise known as a cutting machine. It would be a dream of mine to one day hand letter a wood sign. Problem? There is nothing good or right with my personal handwriting. On a good day it is messy and frightfully ill uniform. Well, I did some digging and found out that one's own handwriting and the ability to hand letter are two very distinctly different things. Turns out that my bad handwriting may have nothing to do with my ability to hand letter. Who knew? However, where does one start learning how to hand letter? Do you need special supplies? Maybe someone to guide me would be nice? After a bit of research, I think I have found the best place to start--hands down! A hand lettering blogger and YouTuber by the name of Dawn Nicole Designs already had a 30-day hand lettering challenge which includes a daily video and practice worksheet. Here are all the details on how I am prepped and ready to start my hand lettering 30-day challenge. Hopefully, I haven't left anything out! Please lurk around Dawn Nicole's blog as it is filled with so much information and I'm pretty sure SHE hasn't left anything out.

1. I snagged the Tombow Fudenosuke (try pronouncing that one out aloud--hee hee) brush tip marker. Supposedly it's the holy grail of hand lettering tools.

2. I also ordered the Tombow colored brush set in primary just in case they let me use color in this gig.

3. As for paper, I ordered the Rhodia dot pad because this girl CANNOT write in a straight line to save her life....dots to the rescue...I hope.

4. Each video goes with a practice sheet. Using up all my ink to print the worksheets? Check!

They say I will be FLOORED at how much progress I make in 30 days and at the end I will have learned a new skill. Yay me! (I may be a bit prematurely excited for my potential success)

Follow along with my 30-day challenge on my Instagram! @embellishedangel

Google Drive +BLOG TRAIN!!!

We are jumping in here this first week of fall to give some Google Drive organizational tips and to share a really cool learning opportunity via a great blog community. BE SURE TO READ ALL THE WAY TO THE END TO LEARN HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR BLOG TRAIN.

If you are like us, Google Drive has become a great and easy way to create and share documents. If you are also like us, your Google Drive can get a little out of hand and disorganized which makes documents hard to locate. After a bit of research and trial and error, we have gathered our top 5 Google drive organization tips to keep you productive and efficient!

1. See how you are using up your drive space and purge! 
Scroll through your drive and take a few minutes to get rid of any files or documents that you no longer need. This is an important first step so your organization flows better.

2. Create folders and color code them
Check out this AMAZING blog post on how to uber organize your folders with colors and symbols!

3. Star the folders you access often.
If you place a star next to the folders you access on a regular basis, they will be easily accessible via the left navigation menu. Simply click STARRED and those folders will appear!

4. Make sure to "add to your drive" any needed files
Files that are shared with you are not automatically added to your drive. To maintain your drive organization when a file is shared with you, add it to your drive and organize it into a folder immediately. Click the drive+ icon and then choose organize.

5. One final helpful tip...

We often need to share a document with others in which they need to make a copy and add their own thoughts. I'm sure we are not the only ones who get frustrated by the original getting messed up because someone forgot to make a copy before adding their edits. There is a tiny trick to prevent this-

1. adjust your sharing settings FIRST so anyone with the link can edit. Do not use the link provided in the sharing box
2. Return to the document and look at the web address of the documents. The last four letters (a word actually) should be EDIT. Delete just this word and replace it with the word copy.
3. All those given access will be prompted to MAKE a COPY first before they can edit.
 VOILA!

Apple Valley Blended 1 Blog Train! 

We are the start of the blog train. Come back here if you ever get lost. Be prepared to learn and laugh as you ride this educational blog train. Each blog will have a post specific to the blog train sharing a favorite resource, tip, or topic. Please feel free to download any goodies along the way as well. We would really appreciate if you would leave a bit of blog lovin' in the for of a comment on each blog. Be sure to bookmark or subscribe to blog you particularly enjoyed. The next stop on the blog train will be linked at the bottom of each post. 

Stop #1 on the blog train: The Misadventures of Mr. Hanson

Olympic Spirit

These guys caught the Olympic Spirit!  

#mindsetmonday

Giving you permission to set boundaries in today's mindset Monday. Part of achieving more balance yet still enjoying life is to set boundaries and stick to them. Allow yourself to say no in order to preserve more of yourself for things you have already said yes to. Lay down what is good and find what is best.