I don't know how you do it all...

     About once a week, if not more, I hear the question? 

"How do you do it all?"

    About once a week, if not more, I reply the same way. 

"I don't know. I just do."

    Reality is that my brain is 100% completely overwhelmed. I have too much on my mind, too many responsibilities, too many hats to wear, and too few hours in the day with too little energy. And yet, things get done. My children get to their sports practices on time. My pantry is fully stocked to feed all 5 of them, me, my husband, and our dog. My graduate courses are completed and I am progressing towards my July 2022 finish date. My 2nd grade students are taught to the best of my abilities using methods and strategies that are current and research based. 

    But back to the original question, how? How does it all happen?

    Technology. Social Media. Blogs. The age of Pinterest and Instagram.

    Many might argue that those are a waste of time and fill up space that can be better used being productive. For my life I have found that they have aided me through the saving of more pockets of time than the cumulative minutes I've spent on those outlets. For example, it was through the following of various teacher influencers on Instagram last summer that I was able to create, design, and upkeep my Google Site last year when virtually teaching for 2020-2021. If I had not originally seen this possibility while late night browsing, I was originally planning on using Google Slides to organize my days as I had in the Spring of 2020. Once I got my site organized, using tricks and methods described freely on the Instagram feeds, I found that the site was easy to upkeep, provided my students a very simple pattern to follow, and helped my classroom run very smoothly. 

    While I am no longer virtually teaching, the skills that this experience gave me do help me, and will continue to help me, in more than just teaching. While organizing concession stand volunteer schedules, I now utilize Google Forms that embed responses directly into a calendar. When asked to form a Personal Learning Network for different Purdue course, I wrote it as a diary on a Google Site that my professor could check in on in real time. 

    But back to the original question, how? (This is where my students would comment there's an "Again and Again" occurring and you should be asking yourself why I am repeating these words and what importance do they hold to the message I am trying to convey.)

   Work smarter not harder. The world is so full of answers that I don't have. How can I creatively teach this lesson? How do I make sure I don't miss a sport practice? How can I set up an automatic grocery delivery? That technology I mentioned above, it saves me. Sure. TikTok is a distraction. So is Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and the likes. But in those moments when I need a suggestion about how to reach my high ability student struggling with perfectionism, and my own brain doesn't have the answer and is only screaming "ME TOO KIDDO! ME TOO!", those distractions are usually the jumping points of a world of possibility. 

They are my how. 

Plus, there are dancing cats.