New Post Coming Soon!

Hey guys!

I pretty much never blog. Ever. But I wanted in on the upcoming Pintester Movement, so look for a new blog post from me on November 15 telling all about how the girls and I made a craft from Pinterest!  Hoo boy.  By way of preview, I will tell you that I have fans running and windows open in my house right now.

Raising Achievement & Closing Gaps Conference: Day 2

What I really want to do is post about American Idol, but check me out on Twitter for that story. Moving right along...

Session #1: Establishing Relationships to Raise Academic Achievement of All Students

I really loved the presenters because they were a husband-and-wife team nearing 80 years old, and they were very passionate about it. And I was very excited about the material at first. It had to do with identifying personality types, which is something that makes a sucker out of me every time; I love that stuff. However, the more I thought about their presentation, the more I thought that it was really just a lot of best practices repackaged in a cute format. Now, if cute is what it takes to reach students, I'm all for it! But basically what they were saying is that we need to build relationships with kids and teach for multiple learning styles. Got it.

Session #2: Warnings, Warnings, Warnings... How Many is Enough?

Bordering on excruciating, the presenter was basically giving a 45-minute sales pitch for her discipline program. And the thing is, her "program" is just a rather clumsy conglomerate of a bunch of strategies we all learning in undergrad classes. The program might be good for lateral entry folks though. Maybe. One who shall remain nameless was sitting near me tweeting presentation "don'ts" throughout.

Session #3: Engage Students Using High-Tech and Low-Tech Tools for Teaching Visual Literacy

My favorite of the day. A couple of staffers from LEARN NC showed us some cool resources and talked a bit about visual literacy in the classroom. I haven't been a big LEARN NC user before now, but I may have to start.

Some Links I Need to Explore:

Especially in the last session, I heard about some really cool stuff. Here you go:

• The Commons on Flickr: Really awesome photo database pulling from organizations like The Library of Congress (only Flickr is a lot easier to use than the LC web page, believe me).
• Wikimedia Commons: Another free database, this time for all media types.
• Instructify: A blog by the LEARN NC people that looks fairly promising. Focus on instructional technology, and looks like some good tech hacks for the classroom.
• The Dream Teacher: This is really from yesterday, but it's a link, so I'm putting it here. This is Cindi Rigsbee's blog.
  

Getting My Foot in the Door

Remember how I said they should hire me to write for Unclutterer? Well, I'm on, sort of. Here's a before and after project post in which one of my projects is featured. The post is on the Real Simple: Home and Organizing blog, but blogger Erin Doland is the editor-in-chief of Unclutterer. Neat, huh? (Disclaimer: No, they're not hiring me or anything. I just sent in my pictures when Erin asked for before-and-after project pics. But hey...)

I am fodder for satire and biting social commentary.

With more and more people jumping on the productivity bandwagon -- reading all the books, magazines, and blogs, and even becoming productivity hobbyists -- it's no surprise that productivity satire is beginning to creep into the media. Tyler and I watched Chaos Theory a couple of weeks ago. He liked it, and I did too, but I'm sure I appreciated it more than he did. I had to explain that even the main character, Frank Allen (played by Ryan Reynolds), is a really really thinly-veiled David Allen character. In the movie, Frank is an "efficiency expert" who has written a wildly popular book on productivity and efficiency and travels the country giving speeches at conferences about his system and how it works. (Frank's system is basically a list-making management scheme a la Getting Things Done.) So, I thought the movie was really well done and funny in an absurd kind of way, which also caused a bit of a sheepish reaction, since I could definitely be considered a productivity/efficiency/organization geek.

While I don't think my style of organization is particularly absurd, it does come off that way to people. Last night, we were talking with some friends, and Judy (who I love dearly) commented that she wished she had more of my gift for administration and organization.

"You're a list-maker, aren't you?" she asked.

I nodded, and my husband nodded vigorously, probably mentally noting the multiple lists I have strategically placed in at least three rooms in our small house and all over my office at work.

"But," Judy continued, "when you make a list and then don't get something done on your list, do you feel like a failure?"

I paused but then nodded again ruefully, and my husband nodded vigorously, probably mentally noting the numerous occasions on which I have apologized to him for not doing things he didn't even know (or care if) I was supposed to be doing.

So, I guess one of the major pits that list-makers like me can easily fall into is irrational pressure placed on oneself with resulting unfounded and legalistic guilt.

But, like I told the group, I don't think my lists are a bad thing; they do help me work more productively and efficiently, and I'm getting better about the irrational guilt/pressure/legalism thing. That stuff happens because I'm a perfectionist, not because I'm a list-maker.

I'm going to keep on making my lists and reorganizing my closets and reading my productivity blogs, books, and magazines. I am a librarian, after all. And the nice thing about having a habit (or, gag, a hobby) that people view as absurd is that you can just laugh along with them because you know that whatever they think about it, your absurdity serves you well.

In my case, I think about how fortunate I am that my propensities and tendencies work so well for me in my chosen profession. I mean, really, could I have a job that more fully suits me? I think not. And what a blessing to have found this niche that I just knew had to be out there somewhere!

Another Productivity and Organization Blog? But why?

Welcome to my new blogging home, known as Library Pendragon. My cute name comes largely from a children's book by Carmen Agra Deedy called The Library Dragon. In the book, a school librarian, Miss Lotta Scales, guards the books in the library fiercely: "She kept a fiery eye out to make sure no one removed any books from the shelves.... The very thought of sticky little fingers touching and clutching, pawing and clawing, smearing and tearing her precious books just made her hot under the collar." But in the end, the Library Dragon learns that being a librarian is not about protecting the books, but about sharing them with children.

In that vein, the purpose of my blog here is to talk about how to run libraries and homes in such a way that they can be used, since that is the purpose for which they are designed. As a rather typical librarian, I have a special place in my heart for organized spaces. However, the most beautifully organized space is completely obsolete if it can't be used for its intended purpose. Both in my library and in my home, I strive to make my space user-friendly, organized, and efficient. And I'm pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.

This summer, I have really enjoyed getting into blog reading (about 5 years later than the rest of the world), and I have discovered an abundance of blogs covering the topics of organization and productivity. A few of my favorites of these are listed at the end of this post. So, how will my contribution to this arena be unique? In all honesty, it may not be, but until Unclutterer decides to hire me, I need a place to throw my two cents in too.

So, whether you are a friend of mine who would read my blog even if it was about photosynthesis of the deciduous flora of Outer Mongolia, or you are someone I haven't met who has a sick obsession with organization and productivity, welcome.

Here are my ideas for upcoming posts. Leave me some suggestions of posts you'd like to see:

• review of (crappy) Mint.com on-line budgeting tool
• thoughts on our vegetable and herb garden
• the messy/clean debacle of mismatched mates and how to make it work
• house cleaning schedule that won't make you cry or display avoidance behavior such as sitting in front of the TV eating chocolate
• my current project: DVD consolidation and organization
• efficient, effective, and stinkin cool library/school administration using Google products
• my new and improved laundry room, even without stacking units, thank you very much
• the spice cabinet wave of the future
• minimalism for productivity and organization
  

And as promised, here are some of my favorite blogs on organization and productivity:

• Unclutterer
• Real Simple: Home & Organizing Blog
• Simple Productivity Blog
  
• LauraEarnest.com