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Social-Emotional Learning

How to Start Your Day in a Mindful Way

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Starting your day in a mindful way can have numerous benefits. It can improve your mental health, boost your productivity, and even improve your relationships with others. Here are four simple ways you can improve your mornings.

Wake up at the same time every day.

wake up on time to start your day in a mindful way

You might be tempted to catch a few extra minutes of sleep. However, hitting the snooze button is sure to add some stress to your morning. Instead, try to go to bed earlier and set your alarm clock earlier than usual. This will allow you some time to gradually get out of bed and not feel rushed.

Get moving.

Do some light exercise, like taking a quick walk outside, doing yoga, or stretching. This can help get you into a more positive mindset. By getting the blood flowing, you are stimulating the body and mind, which in turn helps you feel less tired and in a better mood throughout the day.  

Eat a healthy breakfast.

eat a healthy breakfast to start your day in a mindful way

It’s easy to want to skip breakfast, especially if you are in a hurry. However, it’s true what they say, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You will have more energy throughout the day if you eat a healthy breakfast.

Give yourself a mental break.

Give yourself a mental break by taking a few minutes to sit quietly or listen to a guided meditation. It’s easy to immediately want to check your inbox or other work-related tasks. However, it’s important to give yourself a mental break first thing in the morning. If you commute, listen to an audiobook in order to start your day on a more positive note.

Want to learn even more about mindfulness and how you can incorporate it and other social-emotional learning competencies into your classroom? Join Diana for her “Exploring Social-Emotional Learning” session at the 2023 TCEA Convention & Exposition session on Tuesday, January 31 to get plenty of ideas to take with you. Register now for TCEA 2023!

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Social-Emotional Learning

Six Simple Mindfulness Activities for Your Classroom

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Incorporating mindfulness activities in the classroom is powerful, and it can also be easy to do. If you are wondering where to start with mindfulness in the classroom, be sure to check out some of the activities below. No matter how you choose to implement mindfulness, the goal is to help your students learn they can use mindfulness anytime they need to refocus their attention or reset their thoughts.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is often defined as living in the moment without judgment. But many of us don’t always function that way. I know I don’t.

When a thought pops into our heads, it’s usually colored by what has happened in the past or what we think might happen in the future. Even if the thought isn’t accurate, we may react to it as if it were.

The practice of mindfulness can help us stay focused on the present. In addition to calming us down, mindfulness can teach us to view our thoughts in a more neutral manner.

How Can Students Practice Mindfulness?

There are many activities and resources that can help your students practice mindfulness. Check some of them out below.

1. Belly Breathing

Belly Breathing is a great activity for students to practice remaining calm during stressful situations. Centervention has a complete lesson plan you can use on belly breathing. You will find everything from pre and post discussion questions to step-by-step directions. It is a wonderful calming activity to use when students need to cool down or need an emotion regulation strategy.

2. Brain Breaks

Brain breaks are activities, or short breaks, that promote learning and focus for students. These types of breaks involve students participating in activities like mindful breathing, mindful movements, and mindful yoga. Check out these resources you can use to get your students (and yourself!) up and moving.

3. Breathe, Think, Do

This free Sesame Street app isn’t specifically for meditation, but it’s great for introducing very young children to the concept of calming down through breathing. The app teaches kids the “Breathe, Think, Do” method. Kids help an animated monster facing a frustrating situation calm down by taking long, deep breaths. The app is free and available for Android and iOS.

4. Calming Corner

As mentioned in this blog, calming corners can help reduce students’ stress and provide calming visual, auditory, and tactile experiences for students to de-stress. A calming corner is a place that can help your students prepare to learn and focus throughout the day. The calming corner can be a physical corner in your classroom or a virtual space.

5. Mindful Journaling

When a student feels overwhelmed or anxious, encourage them to practice mindful journaling. Mindful journaling gives students an opportunity to cope with and manage their emotions in a healthy way. The Three Good Things: A Happiness Journal app can help students with mindful journaling by having students write down three good things that happen to them each day. As a result, their happiness and positivity increase. There is a gamification element to the app to encourage engagement, and it is free and available for iOS.

6. Smiling Mind App

Smiling Mind offers hundreds of mindfulness activities for all ages. In addition to breathing meditations, the app has sensory exercises, like listening to music. There are programs for kids in different age groups, as well as for schools, workplaces, and sports. The app also keeps track of when kids meditate. Also, it’s free and available for Android and iOS.

Additional Resources

The more strategies students have for handling emotions, the more equipped they will be to tackle challenges. For other ways to incorporate the critical components of social-emotional learning in your classroom, check out these resources:

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Social-Emotional Learning

Celebrate Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Day

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Day is on Friday, March 11, 2022. It’s a day when schools will celebrate the importance of promoting children’s social-emotional development. The research is clear that students participating in SEL programs showed improved classroom behavior. In addition, they had better attitudes about themselves, others, and school. The theme for SEL Day this year is Finding Common Ground, Pursuing Common Good.

SEL Day 2022 Video

SEL Day Events

From webinars to Twitter chats, there are many events taking place on SEL Day. You will find a list of events you can participate in for free on the #SELDay website. There are all-day events that you can register for. Some of the topics include mindfulness, advocating for SEL, and more.

SEL Day School Activities

Below are a few activity suggestions that can be done within your school community in order to celebrate the day.

For Administrators

SEL Day
  • During morning announcements on SEL Day, read a poem or quote that connects to SEL.
  • Send a message of gratitude to your staff.

For Staff

For Librarians

  • Create an SEL library area or bookshelf in honor of SEL Day.
  • Distribute lists of SEL-themed books on SEL Day.

For Students

More Social-Emotional Learning Resources

For other ways to incorporate the critical components of social-emotional learning in your classroom, check out these resources:

Want to become a TCEA Certified Social-Emotional Educator? TCEA offers a self-paced Social-Emotional Learning course that offers up tons of information on the research behind SEL plus strategies and resources for implementation in the classroom. And it’s only $29 through March 31! You can enroll now and access the course for one full year.

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Empathy
Social-Emotional Learning

Six Strategies for Building Empathy in the Classroom

by Diana Benner
written by Diana Benner

Practicing empathy in the classroom is one of the most important skills a teacher can have., but it’s not always easy to respond to student behavior with empathy. However, you build mutual trust and rapport when you show students you understand and respect their feelings.

What Is Empathy?

According to the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, empathy is “the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.” Empathy is a way of connecting with others that shows you understand that what they’re experiencing is something meaningful. Empathy is a powerful tool that can help you better understand what’s driving your students’ behavior.

What Empathy Isn’t

People often think that empathy is the same thing as sympathy; however, it isn’t. When you are sympathetic, you may feel sorry for or pity toward students. These sentiments might lead you to lower your expectations of them. Being empathetic does not mean you have to lower your expectations. In fact, being empathetic will reinforce your belief in your student’s ability to succeed. 

Ways to Practice Empathy in the Classroom

There are several ways you can practice empathy in the classroom. Below are a few:  

  • Listen actively. Express active interest in what your students are saying. Make them feel heard. Avoid being distracted by other things and don’t immediately try to “fix the problem.” After you understand the problem, you can then talk with your students about finding solutions or about how they want you to support them.
  • Withhold judgment. Don’t make immediate judgements of right or wrong. Set aside your own reaction and focus on listening to your students.
  • Be understanding. Try to understand your student’s feelings. If you can, look at your own experiences to find a way to connect with what your students are feeling. Put yourself in their shoes., and think about a time when maybe you felt the same way.  
  • Ask open-ended questions. When you ask open-ended questions, students can share what’s really on their minds. They will open up more as opposed to asking them yes or no questions.
  • Practice mindfulness. Being mindfully aware of your student’s behaviors is crucial for empathy. Practicing mindfulness will help you take the perspectives of other people. Check out some of these ways to practice mindfulness.
  • Show empathic body language. Empathy is expressed not just by what we say, but by our facial expressions, posture, and tone of voice. Is your posture open? Are your eyes focused on them? Are you speaking in a positive tone?

By using these tips, you’ll show students you want to understand them better and value them. To learn more, don’t forget about our self-paced Social-Emotional Learning online course. The $39 course offers more ways you can build upon social and emotional practices in your classroom. 

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burnout
Social-Emotional Learning

Burnout: What It Is and How to Prevent It

by Emily Horn
written by Emily Horn

Okay. So, how are you doing, really? Are you afraid to ask yourself this question because you don’t want to face the answer? I’ve been there. I led an amazing faculty and staff through the pandemic. I worried for the physical, social, and emotional well-being of the members of my school community every single day. But I didn’t spend a lot of time assessing my own well-being or planning for self-care. Is this how you operate? This is not a “humble brag.” After a lot of self-reflection, and with hindsight being 20/20, I share this with a great deal of sadness as it led to my own professional burnout.

Our field has changed dramatically over the past year and a half. This change has affected everyone: students, faculty, staff, and families. Stress, anxiety, and frustration are heightened on our campuses as we’ve had to manage an unimaginable amount of change, continuously redefined expectations, and a lot of uncertainty about the future. Throw vastly polarized viewpoints on hot-button issues and struggles with work-life balance into the mix, and things get even more challenging. None of this is news to you, I know.

What the Research Says

A recent article from Psychology Today, Burnout: An Emotional and Psychological Warfare, points out that burnout is growing, especially “for people looking after children” and “ those who are continually stressed and overburdened with workload.” More specifically, a research report from the 2021 State of the U. S. Teacher Survey through the RAND Corporation shows that teachers are likely to leave the profession at a higher rate than ever before, approximately 25 percent. It also mentions that teachers are experiencing work-related stress and signs of depression at greater rates than the general population.

Data from CDC Foundation’s May 2021 Report

According to Educators Ready for Fall, But a Teacher Shortage Looms, a recent article published by the National Education Association (NEA), their 2021 survey data reveals that 32 percent of teachers surveyed were planning to leave the profession. Additionally, the CDC Foundation published a report in May of 2021 (Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Teachers and Parents of K-12 Students), and their data shows that 27 percent of teachers reported symptoms of depression, and 37 percent reported symptoms of anxiety. Not only that, but this report shows that a whopping 53 percent of teachers who participated in their study are thinking of leaving the profession. That’s a big leap from both NEA’s and the RAND Corporations reported numbers. What does this mean? It could be an indication that a large number of educators are stressed and feeling the effects deeply. 

Signs of Burnout

In an informative article posted by the American University School of Education’s online magazine (Addressing Teacher Burnout: Causes, Symptoms, and Strategies), they share that identifying symptoms of constant fatigue, self-doubt, withdrawal, and loss of inspiration early on can help prevent full-fledged burnout effectively. Psychology Today adds a lack of concentration and decline in work performance to this list of symptoms. The Mayo Clinic provides a great set of questions to self-evaluate job burnout in their article Job Burnout: How to Spot It and Take Action. These include additional symptoms such as changes in sleep habits, disillusionment, irritability, and cynicism, among others. They also provide potential causes, risk factors, consequences of job burnout, and information for handling it. 

Managing Job Burnout 

self-care

Self-Care and Mindfulness

Self-care and mindfulness can go a long way in preventing burnout. It’s much harder to “undo” it, though. Burnout is compared to compassion fatigue in a great article from Behavioral Health News entitled Managing Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Through Self-Care Strategies by Michael Selbst, Ph.D., BCBA-D and Ashley Zultanky, PsyD. The authors provide four crucial areas for self-care planning: physical, social, emotional, and workplace. I would encourage everyone to check out the examples they give. They also reiterate that eating, exercise, socialization, sleep, and hobbies are all important parts of self-care. The article cites that healthcare workers and educators are at higher risk for burnout and compassion fatigue due to the caregiving and helping nature of their work. 

self-care

Catherine Hannay, founder of MindfulTeachers.org, shares three fantastic thoughts about self-care on her Self-Care Resources page (which I would highly recommend checking out):

  • “Self-care is only part of the equation. How we are treated by institutions and other individuals plays a big part in our wellness.”
  • “Self-care involves figuring out what aspects of our work and schedules we have control over and making choices about how to spend our available time and energy.”
  • “Self-care is far from self-indulgent, especially among those of us who are committed to serving others. It isn’t about being selfish or shirking our responsibilities. It’s about maintaining our sanity and energy.” 

I couldn’t agree with her more. On the MindfulTeachers resources page, there are many excellent links to articles and videos on self-compassion, mind-body health, self-care, coping with stress, and more.

self-care

In addition to the strategies mentioned above, the Mayo Clinic’s article suggests having solution-focused discussions with your supervisor, participating in stress-relieving activities (such as yoga), and seeking out support from peers, loved ones, or a professional. 

We are a few weeks into the school year, and have you taken the time to stop and self-assess? Yes, cue the eye rolls. “You know we’re educators, right? Who has time for that?” In this profession, we are used to pushing through on autopilot to get things done for the benefit of our students, schools, and districts. But, now more than ever before, it is important to make the time to check in with ourselves, practice self-care, and seek support if we need it. 

If you are struggling, you are not alone. If you’re not, check in on your colleagues, peers, and staff you supervise who may need your support and encouragement. A small gesture like a handwritten note, a coffee, some chocolate (because who doesn’t need chocolate?), or a simple question like “How are you doing?” or “How can I help?” can go a long way. What can we do to support ourselves, and what can we do to support each other in maintaining boundaries and practicing self-care to prevent burnout? 

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Content AreasEducational ResearchGoogle Tips and TricksSocial-Emotional LearningWeb 2.0 Tool

More Tips, Tricks, and Tech Tidbits

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

I’m back with another collection of odds and ends ideas that relate to technology. There’s one “oldie goldie” in this group, along with some new resources, tips, and tricks. Enjoy!

Teens, Tech, and Mental Health

A recent study of more than 430,000 10 to 15-year-olds from Oxford has found that there is no link between technology use and mental-health problems, including feelings of depression and suicidal tendencies. This contradicts a January 2021 study that stated that heavy social-media use was linked to negative well-being and self-esteem among teenagers. However, isolation during the pandemic has contributed to teens feeling more alone than ever before, something schools will need to address this fall as they return.

An Oldie Is Back!

Some of you may be old enough to remember the technology mainstay program in schools starting in 1984, Print Shop. If you were like me, you had not only the original desktop publishing program, but all of the accompanying clip art CDs and spent a lot of time happily creating and printing out banners, signs, certificates, and art work for bulletin boards. Well, try to stay calm, but the fabulous program is back and available free in your browser! Fans have recreated the Apple II version with some of its accompanying clip art. Your creations will appear as a PDF that can be saved and printed. Please note that the program is slow to load (as it was in 1984!), so be patient. Share this with your students to let them know how far the technology has come.

tips and tricks

Learn Anything

If you’d like the opportunity to become better at something you are interested in, be sure to check out Learn Anything. This website offers more than 50,000 free video guides called “jump ropes” from “knowledgeable and passionate creators” on a wide variety of topics. These step-by-step guides allow you to move at your own pace in the learning. And you can upload our own videos for others to peruse. It’s also available as a free app on Android and iOS.

I was interested in the “How to Draw a Hungry Caterpillar” jump rope. The learning was divided into six short segments that were clear and easy to understand. What do you want to learn today?

Search and Read Old Newspapers

Studying a primary source like a newspaper published at the time of a major event in history is a great tool for student learning. And the US News Map can help. With access via a strong search engine to more than 15 million newspaper pages published between 1789 and 1964, this is a treasure trove of information. You can search by topics (like slavery or statehood) or by year. Once you hit return, your search results show up as dots on a US map, allowing you to click into the ones you might be interested in. As you drill down, the newspaper pages are in PDF format and appear just as they did when they were published. Your search term is highlighted in pink.

This site does take a little bit to learn how to find exactly what you are looking for. I would encourage you to do a sample search first as a demonstration for your students and then have them work in small groups. A good first activity for them would be to simply all look at the same page from the same newspaper on the same day and year and note the interesting things they see there.

Hyperdocs Galore

If you love using interactive hyperdocs with your students for greater engagement and content mastery, then you must check out this HUGE collection. The Peterson website has hundreds, if not thousands, of hyperdocs ready for you to make a copy of and start using. If you go to the link above, you can see all of them listed in a very, very, VERY long list. But you can also access them by subject area in the categories across the top of the page (and then down the right-hand side). And you’ll find the CTRL-F shortcut very useful for searching for your topic on the page.

Better Than Blooms

The amazing educational expert Grant Wiggins offers this thought-provoking matrix to ensure that you are designing lessons that reach the highest levels of learning. He is not a fan of Bloom’s Taxonomy of action verbs as a method for teaching to the highest levels, but instead states that a more complex approach is required. (By the way, if you find this information from him interesting, take a look at his article on cognitive load theory, which he believed is the most important things for a teacher to know.)

tips and tricks

Take a Break

NPR has published their Joy Generator, a website that entices us to take a moment away from our stress-filled day and tap into more positive emotions. “Small doses of daily delight can shift our focus away from our worries and give more opportunity for joy to arise. You can read more about the science here.” A random video of joy-producing images appears each time you click on the “Click for Joy” button.

Airport Delays

The power of data is amazing. If you are tasked with picking up someone from the airport, you may find this collection handy. The Live Airport Delays Dashboard shows current delays in both arrivals and departures at every airport in the United States. And yes, it’s all live data. Because of everything that is included, again, you will need to spend a little time learning how to manipulate the system. But it’s well worth it! This is also a great project to show students on how data can be structured to provide greater meaning.

tips and tricks

Engaging ELA Activities with Google Docs

Eric Curts is back with some more tremendous resources, this time for ELA teachers in all grades. He offers six different activities using Google Docs that your students will love and that will help them become better readers and writers. These include activities involving highlighting, emojis, choose your own adventure stories, graphic organizers, and more. What makes these even more amazing is that he includes every possible resource for each of the lessons, meaning less work for you!

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Lunch and Learn
Professional Learning

TCEA Is Your Retreat…Step Away.

by
written by

“Wow, I’m so tired already. And it’s only Monday.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Every day, I’m sure all of you, just like me, are inundated with things to do and waves of new developments happening throughout the various aspects of our lives and the world. The lists are unbelievably long and the world so tumultuous, you truly aren’t sure how you’re going to hold it all together to make everything happen. Next week has been exhausting, am I right? 

Well, I’m about to give you one more thing to do, but stay with me, because this is ultimately something to help you relax guilt-free.

Time and Money

TCEA members are always asking us how we can give them two things:

  1. Time (because you’re swamped) 
  2. Money (because you work in education)

Well, this is how. 

Take a Break…

Once a week, starting in September, you are going to block time off on your calendar on Wednesdays from 11:45 am to 12:30 pm to:

  1. Step away from the stress of your day.
  2. Take a mental break.
  3. Close your door.
  4. Sit down.
  5. Open your lunch box.
  6. Login to www.tcea.org with your TCEA member username and password. (Email Chance if you’ve forgotten how.)
  7. Take a few deep breaths.
  8. And enjoy TCEA’s latest Lunch and Learn webinar while you learn something new and chow down on your food.

This is how TCEA gives you more time. 

As your go-to professional association for all things education and educational technology, we are carving the time out for you (just 45 minutes) in your week and creating a space for you to learn something new. As an educator, you know how powerful that is. And you get to do it while relaxing and taking a step away from the rest of the world to join other passionate ed tech professionals, just like you, working to expand their knowledge base. 

Free CPE! Free CPE! Free CPE!

“Ok, Chance,” you say, not quite convinced, “you can give me time, but how are you saving me money?” 

“Well, my dear member,” I say, “they’re free.” 

Yes, you read that conversation correctly! Not only is TCEA your educational retreat on Wednesdays from 11:45 am to 12:30 pm, it’s free, and every Lunch and Learn webinar qualifies for CPE credit (which you can then use when it comes time to re-up your certification). 

So, if you’re like me and you love to eat, and if you’re like me even more and you love to learn, then join TCEA on Wednesdays from 11:45 am to 12:30 pm to watch our Lunch and Learn webinars, which allow TCEA members to connect and share in real-time with each other on a broad array of ed tech tools and resources and research-backed instructional strategy topics that offer more than 80+ hours of free CPE credit each year.

Searching the Archive

Can’t attend the webinar live? Don’t worry. TCEA sends you a recorded link within 48 hours of the webinar so you can watch at your leisure. Simply pre-register for the webinar of your choice and receive a link to the webinar recording sent to the email address we have for you on file.

Additionally, if you have a lot of free time (haha) you can find an archive of TCEA webinars in the “Files” section of the TCEA Members group within the TCEA Community.

TCEA Time

Look, we all know the mental health benefits of scheduling time to slow down and remove ourselves from the stress of our lives and classrooms and colleagues and kids. So take a moment every Wednesday to sit, enjoy your lunch, and learn something new. Let TCEA be your retreat, and step away.

Be at peace, friend. 

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mindfulness apps
Educational Trends

Creating a Mindful Classroom with Six Helpful Apps

by Guest Blogger
written by Guest Blogger

Mindfulness, meaning mental presence and reflection, is a popular practice across the U.S., incorporating tools to help people think clearly and critically, calm their minds, and be more productive.

Many teachers also believe mindfulness can help students feel more relaxed and focused, not to mention make them less likely to engage in disruptive behavior than those who don’t meditate or undertake other mindfulness practices. Research shows that mindfulness practices can have a generally positive effect on students, though it’s not yet clear whether those outcomes are caused by specific practices or simply giving students the chance to take a breath during a busy school day.

In one study, students said they spent one-third of their study time feeling worried, stressed, or stuck. A variety of factors could cause those feelings, but the decision to make your classroom a more mindful one could help students learn valuable stress management skills. Here are six apps that might help your students be more present, relaxed, and productive.

Stop, Breathe & Thinkmindfulness apps

One of the advantages of Stop, Breathe & Think is that it gives customized meditations based on how you’re feeling at that moment. First, users go through a brief survey about their current state, then receive meditations to match the results. Students can take part in the activity even if they only have about five minutes.

Depending on the age of your students, there is a kids’ version of the app intended for young people from 5-10 years old. Also, the app creators offer educators a free lifetime membership that provides access to hundreds of activities, plus both the kids and all-ages version of the app.

Headspacemindfulness apps

Hundreds of schools use the Headspace app to introduce kids to mindfulness practices. Users get the Basics course for free, allowing them to determine if meditation is something they want to continue. If it is, subscriptions provide access to mindfulness exercises of various lengths and topics. Moreover, the content gets delivered in an extremely accessible manner. So, if you’re not yet familiar with mindfulness, but want to learn along with the students, check out Headspace.

DreamyKidmindfulness apps

Featuring quotes, a visually pleasing interface, and helpful elements like a built-in timer, DreamyKid is another mindfulness app built for young people. However, individuals of any age can get something out of it. There are apps for specific needs, too. Some of them work well for helping kids wind down before nap time, and others can help them stay committed to tasks.

Also, schools and other organizations that work with children can get DreamyKid for no charge. One of the possible downsides is that it’s only available on iOS for now, but an Android version is on the way.

Insight Timer

Insight Timer claims to offer the most extensive library of free guided meditation content with more than 15,000 options available. Also, the “timer” part of the name relates to how you can choose from several sounds that signal to listeners when it’s time to start and stop meditating. As such, learners could begin to associate a soothing noise with getting in the frame of mind to meditate. There is a specific section of content for beginners, too.

Calmmindfulness apps

This highly-rated meditation app goes beyond the kinds of mindfulness that people typically associate with the term. For example, there is a section of material for mindful movement, plus exclusive music tracks to help users get engrossed in their quest toward mindfulness.

If you get the premium version of the app, it offers a daily calm, which is a new meditation for each day. It could be an excellent way to start the school day.

Chillmindfulness apps

This app encourages people to make mindfulness part of their everyday activities, so it could help show kids that they shouldn’t only engage in mindfulness when they’re in your class. It can send up to five random reminders to people that urge them to meditate. There are also quotes and photos for users to share with their classmates on social media.

This app proves that although there are distracting ways to use smartphones in schools, it’s also possible to depend on them to help kids learn something new that could benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Meditation Apps Offer Accessibility

As this list demonstrates, there are numerous apps to promote mindfulness in your classroom. Even better, some offer the content free for educators, meaning you can try meditation with your students without cutting into your budget.

Have you tried to introduce mindfulness into your classroom? What apps or other technologies have you used? What were the results? Let us know in the comments!

Kayla Matthews is an ed tech journalist whose work has been featured in InformationWeek, Noodle, InnovateMySchool and VentureBeat. To see more of her writing, visit ProductivityBytes.com or follow her on Twitter.

Photo by Jenny Downing via Flickr.

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