Implementing Evernote in my classroom last year was life changing. I realized it’s one of those things you wish you knew as a first year teacher. Most of you are probably familiar with this app for personal use which is how it began for me since I am an obsessive avid list maker. For those of you new to the app, it is a digital notebook that allows you to take notes (including pictures, recordings, and drawings), create lists, and save documents from online. The possibilities are endless but I am going to share how I use this app in my classroom to make my life a bit easier.
After using Evernote on my phone for years to keep my life in order, I realized how easily I could use this to keep notes on each student. I use these notes during parent teacher conferences, to track growth, and to write report card comments. Of course, I also keep my school to do list on Evernote. I have a running to do list that is constantly changing but I also created a weekly to do list of tasks that repeat.
At the beginning of the year, I set up a notebook for each student. In each notebook, I create notes for reading, writing, math, and social skills for each quarter. The wonderful part of using a digit notebooking system is that it’s portable and integrates audio recording, videos, and photos.
Some of the things I add to their notebooks include:
- beginning of the year reading assessment details
- audio recordings of the child reading while I confer with him/her
- comments about completed writing projects as I grade or a picture of the graded rubric
- video of the child presenting to the class with notes on their presentation skills
- goals established during reader’s or writer’s workshop
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| Example of comments from the beginning of the year reading assessment. |
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| Example of quarter three writing notes. |
Being able to show parents their child’s reading growth by pulling up a recording of their child reading in August vs. May has been very insightful.
