Cleaning, Purging, Making a Mess

Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I finally found my clown bald head and nose. All crumbled up. I guess rubber does that. Like the old rubber bands that are also useless.

I'm purging. I don't need to save the checks from 1979 (although it may be amusing to see what it was like to live on $3000 a year and health insurance cost $300 a month.) I'm setting aside trash to throw away, paper to reuse, paper for recycling (to be stored in the car until the school year when paper waste is weighed for the school contest), file folders and binders... I've got a pile of things to pass on to other teachers- they are unlikely to use them, but I can't bear to toss them directly into the trash.

In my teaching heyday I had a room of file boxes. Each box had a number, in each box were numbered files. Then I had a spreadsheet with each file number/box number and the description of the contents. Then I could simply sort the tags to locate every file I had on, say, Japan, and I didn't have to sort the files, the computer did the work. I got up to box 51. I boiled it down to about 15 a few years ago. And then I lost the spread sheet. I'm going to get it down to 3 or 4 boxes and I'll make a new spread sheet. I'd like to say I'll get that done before the month is over.

I try to describe this system to other teachers when they complain about disorganization. But their eyes tend to glaze over with boredom. I should learn that some people would rather complain that learn solutions. Also that I tend to be boring.

I'm taking a trip down old tech memory lane. There are illustrations I made using stick on materials on light blue grid paper. I'll scan a few and post them here. I remember the fun I had at the art supply store. This was a few years before I had my first computer. And there are drawings on acetate for the overhead projector. I also found some folders on uses for computers for teachers. This from the days when it was work to convince teachers that they might find computers useful. Those teachers are now retired and a new generation has found other things to balk about. I found a 3.5 in disk with files from my Science Center job.