Six Teacher Tips for Classroom Organization with the Evernote App

Are you an Evernote fan? I absolutely love it. It has been a helpful tool to organize all of the chaos in my brain. 

If you've never heard of Evernote, it's a note-taking app and website that stores your notes in a database sort of manner. The best part is that it syncs across all platforms. You can access your notes from the computer, your smartphone, your iPad, etc., and it will all be there. To learn more about the basics of using Evernote, click here.

As a teacher, I have found myself using Evernote in the classroom more than any other place. It keeps me organized and helps give me some peace of mind.

Here are six of many ways to use Evernote in the classroom:

1) Make an Inventory of Your Resources/Activities 

I hate going through my math station activities just to find a great resource I overlooked for a skill we have already covered. To help make sure that doesn't happen, I create a note for each math skill I teach with station activites/games/lessons/apps/Smart Board games I have on hand.

It's sort of in my own language, but you get the point. Every skill has its own note with all pertaining activities attached to it. When I'm ready to pull up a note, I just search the name of the skill and the note pops up.

Note: If you do your lesson plans on a computer program, you can actually attach the note as a link in your lesson plans. When you're ready to prepare work stations or activities for that day, you can click on the link for a reminder of what you have to use. You can see this in action by clicking on my link for Area/Perimeter Math Groups.

 

2) Making To-Do Lists 

Here are some important lists I have added to my Evernotes - Beginning of the Year, Parties, Field Trip, Conferences, End of the Year, etc. I'm a very forgetful person. Instead of having to go through a mental check-list for these events every year, I just access the note I need from my Evernote app, and I'm good to go.

 

3) Reminders

 

Evernote has now added a reminder feature to the notes. Have a super busy planning period coming up? Instead of laying awake all night stressing about it, make a list of what needs to be done, add a reminder that will alert you on your phone at the time of your planning period, and get some much-needed rest.

4) Individual Student Documentation 

How about a note for each student? This year I'm planning on creating a note of documentation for each student.  With Evernote, not only can I make notes of student progress and behavior, I can also insert photos of students' work. Since Evernote syncs across devices, whenever I need to document something in the classroom, I can grab my school iPad, the school laptop, my iPhone -  whatever is closest to record my observations. During conferences, I can see this as being a very helpful resource. Since each note can be shared, it may even be something I can give to parents at the end of the year to show their child's growth. We'll see how it goes.

UPDATE: Bev, a reader, just shared that she records her students reading in Evernote to use as documentation and to share with parents. Awesome idea! This encouraged me to do some further research, and I found this super helpful post by True Learning that shows how you can also insert video into your notes. This requires an extra app and a little bit of tech-savviness with your device, but I just uploaded a video of my dog into Evernote, and it worked great! Can't WAIT to use these ideas to create portfolios for each of my immersion students this year.

 

5) Resource Ideas 

Are you a teacher author/creator? Evernote is great for that, too. I am preparing a pack of Smart Board math games for second grade. Instead of having to rehash and remember my plans for this resource, I've created notes for each game that include the clip art, helpful links, the standard etc. When I'm ready, I'll dive into this job without having to remember everything all over again.

6) Blog ideas

 

 

Do you blog? Do you have great ideas for a post but always at an inconvenient time for writing it all out? Make a note or notes for your blog ideas, so you can record ideas on the go and then return back to them when the time is right.

Actually, guess where I'm writing this post right now? On my iPhone in a cabin near Charleston, SC with the rain falling right outside my window. I don't have my computer neither a good connection to the internet, but I'm inspired, so I have to take advantage of this moment. Thanks to Evernote I can. When I finally connect to the internet, it will automatically update what I have written.

The sky is definitely the limit when it comes to Evernote in the classroom. Have any Evernote ideas to share? Are you using it, too?