One of the realities of working at an international school is the yearly transition of teachers moving on to new schools at the end of the year.  Already there are boxes of stuff filling rooms and hallways from those who are moving.  But what about all your digital stuff?  How do you take it with you?  What happens to files you’ve created after you leave?  Here are a few things to take care of before you go…

Google Apps

You should make a backup of any files you’ve created on your school’s Google Apps account.  If you’ve created any documents as part of a team or department, you will want to transfer ownership of those documents so they do not disappear after your account is deleted.  Here’s a video I created explaining what to do:

E-Mail

Since you will probably be losing your school e-mail address, there are 3 things you need to remember to do here.

FORWARD – Any e-mail and attachments you are going to need to a personal e-mail account.  This could be anything from awesome lesson ideas you received, important documents and attachments, and login/account info for anything you may have signed up for using your school e-mail account.

FORWARD – Any important information that people at your school are going to need after you leave.  This could be important invoices, receipts, inventory lists, or account information for online tools that will be needed for the next school year.  You’d want your predecessor to do the same for you, right?

UPDATE – Your default e-mail for any online accounts you created using your school email address.   While you will likely no longer have access to any subscription services that were provided and managed by your school or district, you probably also used your school e-mail to create accounts for a variety of different online tools or services.    Better login, go to account settings, and change the default e-mail.  Once you no longer have access to your school e-mail, you will no longer be able to recover any account information, or reset a forgotten password.

Update Your CV or Resumé

This transition time is also a good time to update your CV or resumé with your new school, e-mail, and contact info.  You probably also want to update your profile info on Social Media too.  It saves you from having to explain to people, “Oh, yeah. That’s my old school. I’m not there anymore.”

So, if you are one of those joining the ranks of the “Dearly Departed”, congratulations! Blessings and best wishes on your new adventure.