8/31/09 A whole bunch of redundant paper, recycled Today after school I held the first session of EEL 532: Good First Teaching, a graduate course through the University of Maine that I am teaching for kindergarten through second-grade educators across my school district. Looks like we have an absolutely fabulous bunch of teachers, all excited to continue learning and improving their work with children.
However, after the class I didn't get home until 7:30 (arriving just in time for a delicious dinner courtesy of my beautiful wife; thanks, Joanna!), and I hadn't figured out what would be downsized today. That's why the challenge is so great: it carries on whether it's convenient or not.
In planning for the graduate course, I have had a huge binder (see the BEFORE photo above) on my desk for the last month. This is the binder of teaching materials I used when teaching a similar course last year. Since the courses are related, there are materials I'll need to refer back to in this behemoth, so I can't just toss the binder. However, the thing was so chock-a-block full of random junk that I didn't even want to deal with wading through it to find the gems amongst the pebbles.
After dinner, I celebrated the first day of the new class by tackling the remnants of the old class. I was able to cull about seventy-five percent of the papers from that binder and, in the process, actually make the remaining information far more accessible.
Thank you, Downsizing Challenge, for forcing my hand tonight. Time for bed.
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