Yesterday I was working on a project at work and was looking for some artifacts to share with our teachers. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I am one of those people that purge pretty frequently. I know it is shocking given my obsession with antiquing and ephemera. But, when it comes to every day stuff I clean out…a lot.

So yesterday when I needed artifacts from my teaching days (which really weren’t that long ago), I had very few. At one time my file cabinets were full. Full of resources and examples and artifacts. Over time those files have been whittled down to what is most necessary. If I haven’t used something in a year, it is gone.

Here I was in desperate need of literacy stuff and even though I had very little to share, I knew exactly what I needed to do.

I emailed. I Voxed. I messaged. I texted.

I asked for help from my network. A network I have grown over 14 years in education.

The educators I have worked with and those I network with all have their strengths. Collective knowledge to the rescue. In a matter of minutes I had a few routes to take, blog posts, shared Google drives, and anecdotes. Even better, I was reminded of strategies and tactics I used when teaching literacy, things I had forgotten I did.

And, through the few documents I found on old jump drives I had a walk down memory lane. I looked at class lists I hadn’t seen in years, data charts, and guided reading lessons, and parent notes. I had forgotten so much and on a Friday, after a long week, it was good to be reminded of the years I shared with those classes. The successes we had as a group.

On Monday I will be armed with just what I need. All because I asked.