Evernote is a great resource you can use as a teacher to help you organize all of the sites and information you have as well as keeping it in one place. You can get rid of the hundreds of bookmarks you have made and put it all together. There are multiple ways to use Evernote and you as the teacher can play around with it to see what works best for you and your classroom. It is okay to change things up because what worked one year may not work the next.
If you don't already know that the elephant is the Evernote's symbol then maybe you haven't heard why it is. According to Greene (2013), Evernote's symbol is an elephant because with the help of Evernote you will no longer forget anything just like an elephant. I thought this was very interesting and I had never even thought of why they chose an elephant to represent their site.
Another really cool feature about Evernote is that you can download the Web Clipper. When you do this the Evernote symbol will appear above your bookmarks bar. This allows you to simply copy and drag the website you're using onto your Evernote without logging directly onto the site. When you drag the website you have different options such as saving the entire article or a part of it or just a screenshot of a specific picture. You can make tags for the resource and decide where on your Evernote you choose to place it.
If Evernote seems like something that would help you out then I encourage you to continue reading to learn more about how to use Evernote as a teacher.
There are so many fun and cool ways to use Evernote as teacher and note taking is only one little thing you can do. According to Sra.Carro (2013) who is now a spanish immersion math and science teacher came up with multiple ways to use Evernote. One of them is to use Evernote to help make lists of all of the resources you have as a teacher. How many times have you been working on an assignment and thought that you needed to go out and buy something for it only to come back and realize you had it all along? By using Evernote you can log everything you have so that way you can check before going out and buying it again. Including pictures of some of the resources you have could also be helpful, especially if you can't picture what it is based off of the name. Evernote's cool feature of allowing you to create multiple notes is how you can organize all of the resources you have. You can do it for each subject or even each lesson depending on what works best for you. If you type all of your information on the Evernote website but are at the store trying to remember what you have it is okay! You can use the Evernote phone app to see what you had on your computer. It automatically syncs the information to all devices.
Sra.Carro (2013) also talks about the using Evernote to make to-do lists for yourself as the teacher. Throughout the day you're constantly remembering different things you need to do for a lesson or e-mails you have to send out to a parent but using Evernote can help save your brain from going into overdrive. When you remember something you can simply add it to your Evernote and then when you have a free time go back and check to see what you have to do. This eliminates you having to remember everything for the entire day and risking you forgetting to do something important. She also talks about how Evernote now as a feature for reminders. You can make reminders for yourself and have them go off at a specific time. The notification will pop up on your phone to remind you what you have to do.
My favorite use of Evernote that Sra.Carro decided to do was creating a tab for each student. She could take notes on these individual students, take pictures of their work and upload it onto their specific note and write down students behaviors and then be able to go back and analyze that information. Having each student be on their own tab is a smart and easy way to be able to incorporate Evernote into teacher conferences. Sra.Carro said she would show the parents the information she has gathered on their student all year and the pictures of their work. I think this is a fabulous idea because of course parent's want to hear how their child is doing but if you have actual proof that you can show them, that is even better. If you have a student who you have been having problems with you can use this as a tool to monitor their behavior to keep the parents up to date.
According to Stan Skrabut (2013), Evernote has multiple uses especially for teachers. One that I really liked and that stuck out to me was creating a folder that is for substitute teachers. This way you don't have to have a binder but instead you can have everything you need for the sub on the computer. You can update it whenever because it will automatically sync so if you're home sick and thought of something you forgot to add you can do that from home. When the substitute goes to look at it the new information will have synced already. Another cool feature that Stan mentioned is that you can use it as a tool for easy retrieval of past information. Instead of searching through old paper work scanning each word to find what you're looking for you can easily retrieve the information by doing a search into Evernote.
I have been using Evernote in a couple different ways. I mainly use the Evernote website because most of my work I do is on my laptop. I have downloaded the Web Clipper which I have found to be extremely helpful and easy to use. I mostly use Evernote for my classes but I also have used it generally as well. Throughout my four years at High Point I know it is important to write down activities I have done, things I have been involved in and for my major which schools I have been to. Eventually I will compile all of this information into a resume but for now I just wanted to have it all someplace. I decided to add a notebook on my Evernote page that was dedicated to my resume. I created a page for each year I have been at HPU and filled in the information pertaining to that specific year.
I also have a notebook set up for two of my education classes this semester. For my notebook for my one education class I created a page that is dedicated to additional resources that I can use in my future classroom. My teacher posts links for us on Edmodo about great sites we can use, so I decided to compile all of this information into one place on my Evernote. I now can just go to my page and look at all of the recourses there instead of scrolling through Edmodo trying to find what I need. I did the same thing for my other education class as well.
I also found it very helpful to use Evernote as a place to store websites that I find during research for different assignments. For this assignment I actually used Evernote to keep all of the websites that I found information on regarding how to use Evernote in the classroom. I really liked being able to add the website I was using just by clicking the Evernote icon on the top of my page. This was so easy because I didn't even have to log onto Evernote I was just able to do it in two seconds. I also liked being able to choose if I wanted to save the whole page or part of it, I could also choose to screenshot a part of it which I used for pictures.
I plan to incorporate Evernote into my academic and daily life. During class I will add important notes to it about things that I don't want to forget for when I have my own classroom. Often times in class I just think I will remember the websites we talk about and I say I will write them down later but now I can use Evernote to store all of those great sites. I also want to use Evernote in my future classroom as a way to monitor and watch the growth of my students. I really liked the idea of having a page for each students and compiling everything regarding their work in school in that one place. I think this would be extremely helpful for me as well as for the parents and principal. Next semester when I take Math and Science Methods I want to use Evernote to help me stay organized. This class deals a lot with how to teach math and science to students and making lesson plans. I could use Evernote to create Notebooks for the various lessons. In each notebook I could crete different notes for the different parts of the lesson. You use a lot of internet resources to help plan lessons and I could use Evernote as a place to keep these in one place to reference when I go back and write my lesson plan. I also plan to use Evernote as a place to store my ideas I have for different lesson or projects. Instead of hoping I remember or writing them down on a random post it note I could jot them down in an Evernote page and that way I can always go back and add more or change any ideas. I also like that I can access this whenever I want either on my computer, iPad, or iPhone.
I have really enjoyed learning how to use Evernote in my classroom as a teacher and now as a student. There are so many ways you can use it and it is fun to change it up so you don't get bored. I will continue to use Evernote in my educational career to help me stay organized. Being organized is so important in every profession especially education and I am very glad I have learned how to use Evernote now instead of later. I look forward to seeing what new things Evernote does in the future to upgrade their site as well because I bet when I start teaching there will be cool new things you can do using Evernote.
References
Carro, S. (2013, August 11). FlapJack Educational Resources: Six Teacher Tips for Classroom Organization with the Evernote App. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
Category Archives: Implementing Evernote in the classroom. (2013, November 8). Retrieved October 15, 2014, from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evernote.wear
[Evernote Icon Image]. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
Greene, B. (2013, May 30). 6 Creative Ways to Use Evernote. Retrieved October 15, 2014.
