Paper, paper, and more paper... such is the life of a teacher. Seems every time we turn around someone is handing us a memo, loading us up with handouts at staff meetings, or filling our mail boxes with forms to fill out in triplicate. And to make matters worse, we add to the problem ourselves as most of us seem to have a penchant for the many flavors of sticky notes -- inspirational (i.e., "Teachers Change Lives") to humorous (i.e., "Is it summer yet?") -- which invade our desks and walls in multi-colored patchwork.

It used to be that each day when I got home from school, I would empty my pockets, unearthing even more sticky notes or scraps of paper reminding me to do something that I didn't have time for during the day. At times, I wouldn't get to these notes until my pants were pulled from the dryer days later and the wrinkled, faded notes had to be reconstructed and deciphered.

If this sounds like you, I've got some tool ideas that will put an end to at least some of your paper onslaught, by making sticky notes a thing of the past.

Protopage

With Protopage, you can move the sticky notes to a "virtual online desk" where they remain ordered and can be accessed from any computer with Internet access. No more notes in pockets; now you can take the entire desk with you! Adding a "sticky note" is as simple as clicking on the "add widgets" menu item. Like a real desk, you can drag your sticky notes around, and stack them as you like. Unlike real paper, you can "expand" or "contract" the notes, allowing for more room. Notes can be color-coded and the font size can be changed (so really important memos can be huge!). Sticky notes aren't the only thing you can add to your desk. Other widgets include additional useful tools like: weather, clocks, calendars, to-do lists, Web pages, email in-boxes. You can even have RSS feeds (from blogs or podcasts) pump right into the page.

>> Check out other alternatives similar to Protopage: Netvibes, Lino Jjot.

Jott

This tool has changed my life. What happens when you're away from your computer and you need to make a sticky note? There's no reason to resort back to those scraps of paper filling your pockets. With Jott, you simply use your cell phone (or any phone, for that matter) to send yourself notes, reminders, or to-do list items. Jott's perfect for when you're driving and you get that genius idea or remember that important thing you need to do for your first class tomorrow. You simply call Jott's toll-free number and speak your message, which will then be turned into text sent to your email box, or as a text message to your phone, or even sent to a friend's computer or phone. You can even post to your blog with Jott! The transcription from speech to text is incredibly accurate and with difficult or odd words, you can simply spell them out for Jott. You can set reminders by saying the date and time and Jott will wait until then to email or text you. Besides using this remarkable tool to make your own life neater, you could use this with students to set up a group collection of their email addresses or text numbers and send them messages, like homework questions. And there's no excuse if your message gets transcribed incorrectly because the recipient can always go and hear the actual audio which is stored on the Internet.

>> Check out a new alternative to Jott: reQall.

myMemorizer:

In the computer lab the other day, a first grade teacher told me she loved the lesson I had on counting numbers to 100. Her only suggestion was that I introduce it earlier in the year. I was happy to comply, but what was the best way to remember to do that five months from now? Simple: send an email reminder to my "future self." I used myMemorizer to "ring me up" late in August when I'm sure I'll be working on September's lessons. With this tool, you simply pick a date on the calendar and enter what type of reminder you want and the message to send. I had myMemorizer send me both an email and a text message for this lesson reminder. The benefit of using myMemorizer over something like Jott is that you can not only set reminders well into the future, but you can easily view them on a calendar and have the ability to look at an entire year (any year) at a glance.

>> Check out other alternatives similar to myMemorizer:
L8R and forLater.net.

It's easy to save trees; turn your sticky notes digital. And, if you're missing your inspirational and humorous quotes at the top of those sticky notes, you can still go to Inspirational Quotes and Borg for your fix.

Bob Sprankle has been a multi-age teacher in Wells, ME for 10 years and has served as the school's Technology Integrator for the past two years.

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