5 Tips For Storing Your Tech This Summer

It is the end of the school year for so many of us.  Some of us are excited about summer.  Many of us are disappointed for the school year to end.  Several teachers will be looking for a new job, whether it be budget cuts or looking to move up into administration.  Either way, in the 21st century, cleaning up the classroom at the end of the school year can be a daunting task. 

Most school districts will have instructions for what to do with technology.  If your district does not, here are some helpful tips to help you store your tech this summer.

1.) Do you keep files on a flash drive or school network drive?  Before unplugging all that, store your most important documents in the cloud.  You can use services like Dropbox, Box.net, Google Drive, or Microsoft SkyDrive to store all your files.  That way you have them available to you this summer from any computer.  This will also help you out if you change schools.  It might take a lot of time to do this, but it will be worth it in the end.

2.) Buy a Can of Condensed Air.  Before you put the keyboard, monitor, desktop, laptop, etc. away, take the can of air and blow all the loose particles out before storing them.  These little pieces of dust slow down and damage all this technology.  We all know how dusty classrooms can get.

3.) Buy some wire ties with labels to store and identify all the wires and cables that go with all the peripherals.  Wires everywhere can be a pain, especially for those of us that have a mild case of OCD.  Learning how to wrap them and store them can make it easier to store them as well.  When I was working as a TIS, it never failed to have a teacher or two who needed help hooking something up because they didn't know which cable went with which piece of equipment.

4.) Did you keep the boxes for all your equipment?  If so, put as many pieces of technology back in the original box.  Makes it easy to store it, keeps it dust free, and makes it even easier to transport to a new room or school if that applies to you.  You can also label the boxes with your name and room number.  Make sure that the equipment is also labeled.

5.) Unplug everything if you aren't storing them away.  Districts are trying to save money.  You would be surprised how much extra it costs school districts every year for keeping technology plugged in all summer that is not being used.

Have a great summer!!