August is my planning and technical month. I’ve been upgrading endpoints and infrastructure, testing new units, etc. I’m also working on streamlining my work flow in running collaborative projects for me schools. I’ve been inspired by Roxanne’s summer thinking on her digital workflow. So with that in mind, I’ve made myself a monster spreadsheet with columns for each project (in GoogleDocs of course), and the tasks on the left. Now I can color and check off tasks to my heart’s content! I can also jot notes to fix aspects of a project right in the appropriate cell. I can also see at a glance how it’s going.
Projects
Just as a reminder of the projects I run, here is a sample of the projects that are included in my monster spreadsheet. Some of them I collaborate with others, some are organized by other people, some of them I run on my own.
- VC in the Real World
- Monster Match
- EcoConversations
- MysteryQuest World
- Read Around the Planet
- MysteryQuest USA
Preparation Tasks
- Set dates
- Set times
- Set test call date(s)
- Update/create materials
- Update/create website
- Update/write email templates: Confirmation, Prep Reminder, Test Call Reminder, Post Project/Evaluation Reminder
- Decide registration method (some are in FileMaker Pro, some are a Google Form, some are in CAPspace)
- Create evaluation form in GoogleDocs
Facilitation Tasks
- Open registration
- Find partners
- Send confirmation letters
- Send prep reminder letters
- Send test call reminder letters
- Test calls
- Facilitate live event
- Send post project email with evaluation
My thought is that if I can make my process more consistent across the board, and do most of the prep before school starts, I’ll be able to scale my projects as the demand continues to increase in my districts.
I also have this tendency while running projects to write down random thoughts to fix something, and then the notes are scattered all over the place. Hopefully with this spreadsheet, I can write website fixes in the website cell, etc.
Your Turn: What do you think of my task list? Are you running projects for your schools? Did I forget anything?
Filed under: Collaborations | 9 Comments »
