Posts Tagged ‘online’

TalktoCanada.com Teacher of the Week – Laura McCusker

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Laura McCusker

Hey there, I’m Laura and although I’ve been lucky to live in Northern Ontario and British Columbia, the UK and also Taiwan, I currently live in my hometown of Hamilton, On. I guess you could say my house is multi-national as my dog was rescued in Taiwan and my boyfriend is Irish. I love learning about other cultures and working at TTC offers this unique advantage. My favourite travelling experience has to be Indonesia, which is not only beautiful but has fabulous people and truly smells like paradise with all the spices. I hope that one day I can make the trip again. I think people would describe me as hard-working, compassionate and creative as I’m always doing photography, cooking and even sewing. I love the summer and like to be outdoors as much as possible either with friends or just relaxing. (Even though I love reading….I am taking a break as I’ve spent the last few years reading nothing but textbooks!)

Being happy is really important and so is being yourself…honesty plays a big role in my life.

Virtual Manager MUST have Tools…

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Being a manager and a teacher who works in about 10 different time zones every week — I’ve come to realize the importance of being organized and punctual.  I’d like to share some of my tricks with you to keeping organized — especially when you have a pretty full plate.

  1. Google Calendar –  by far the BEST google application since gmail!  I’m able to organize all of my appointments, classes, and teachers.  I can invite others to join on the calendar — and it is all synced automatically.  I can even get reminder pop ups or emails before I have something scheduled.  A must have for ANYONE who has a busy schedule.
  2. Time Zone Converter – another essential tool – it lets you figure out your time zone differences.  So for example 2pm in Uruguay is 11am in Toronto and 5pm in Madrid.  I use this application all the time — to check and double check appointments — can’t be an effective manager if I’m doubled booked all the time :
  3. Sticky Notes – yep just like post its — only on your computer — I have a few going at once — they stay on my desktop even after a shutdown — great for keeping notes in a meeting, or words during a lesson — or a “TO DO” list of sorts.

With Virtual managing becoming more and more popular the need for ease and tools to make your job more efficient are a must.  I’d be interested to hear your tips to keep things in check…