Language Sensei

A Language Teacher's Journey

Evernote “Growing Pains”..the journey of an newbie to on-line organizing continues…

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This is an occasional update as I endeavor to use Evernote for my teaching this year…

I am into my 4th month as an Evernote-r and the journey has not been without its ‘fits and starts’ as I adapt to an on-line/in-the-cloud way of organizing myself. So what have the challenges for a paper-rooted newbie been?

How to input my lesson plans? One of my struggles has been how to input my daily lesson plans. Initially I started by creating a lesson plan in Word and then uploading it, 3 times for the 3 different classes I teach, into the 3 notes I had created. This got to be cumbersome for me and seemed to creating more work than not. Solution? I now input directly into the note for that specific class – I know…duh… but I needed to make that mental shift to the cloud.

 How to organize my lesson notes – by day or by unit day or by… ?  One of my struggles has been how to label my daily lesson plans. Initially I started by date. Then I wondered how that would make it easy for the next time. So I switched to ‘Date=Day of Unit’. That went well for a while until I tried to find an activity that I had done for a class. What day was that? So now it is by “Unit – Day of Unit – Major Item” (eg. Unit 4  Day 3  Oral Story Discussion). Perhaps by the end of the year it will be a whole new way!

Keeping a daybook?  I am required by the Education Act in my province to have a physical daybook available. What if you are trying to go ‘on-line’ to save paper etc.? Initially I was printing out my lesson plan done in word and then taping (yes taping) into my book.When I stopped doing my Word lessons and inputted directly into Evernote what to do? Now I just jot down the basics onto the page for the day (wasting ink but not paper) to satisfy the requirement.

Photos – how to get them in? One of the beauties of Evernote for me, and an initial selling point was the ‘multiple platform’ idea. I use my phone to record not only what is going on in my class, but also to record my lessons as they unfold. Then I would send my photos to my email and then upload to that day’s note. Really? It suddenly dawned on me that I could add it directly from my phone to the note..wow!

Oh I know that more learning is to come – I haven’t even tried to print out a .pdf from a note yet…but I am on the journey now and into the cloud!

Colleen

 

 

 

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