Evernote

The subject of the December 1 #ALedchat was “Organization Made Easy.” One of the questions we discussed was: “Do you use Evernote? If so, what are some of the most valuable things you keep there?” I want to respond to a great question asked by Jennifer Hogan, founder of #ALedchat:

Knowing what I know about Evernote, if I were a classroom teacher, Evernote would be the place I would keep lesson plans. As a teacher, I would want to be able to access my lesson plans from each of the following places:

  • Computer at my desk
  • Laptop hooked to the projector that I use during class
  • Home computer
  • Personal laptop computer
  • Tablet
  • Phone
  • Any public computer

With an Evernote account “in the cloud,” the Evernote desktop client installed on my computers, and the Evernote app installed on my mobile devices, I have the capability to access lesson plans and change them from anywhere.

Today’s teacher needs more than text in a lesson. They need to be able to insert links, so they are a click away from a website being used in a lesson. Lesson plans done in Evernote can also hold images, and inserting an image is as easy as dragging it from the desktop into a note.

Here is how I would begin setting up Evernote to hold lesson plans. Let’s say I am a high school math teacher and I teach Algebra I, Algebra II, and Geometry. Here are my steps:

  • Create a new notebook for each of my courses.
  • Drag one of the notebook in the list on top of another to create a “stack.” Name the stack “Lesson Plans.”
  • Drag the remaining notebook into the stack. All of the notebooks housing lesson plans are now located together.
  • In each notebook, create a note for each week. Name the notes “Algebra I Week 1,” “Algebra I Week 2,” etc.
  • Each note would represent a week of lesson plans for that subject. In each note, key in the days of the week and whatever categories are needed (materials, objective, evaluation, etc.). This procedure would be just like entering a week of lesson plans down one column of a paper lesson plan book.
  • Add a “tag” for each note. The note for “Algebra I Week 1” would be located in the “Algebra I” notebook and have a tag of “Week 1.” Clicking on the “Algebra I” notebook would bring up all lesson plans for that subject. Searching tags for “Week 1” would bring up the lesson plans for all subjects being taught during that week.
  • “Share” each of the notebooks in the Lesson Plan stack with administrator. Right-clicking on the name of the notebook will allow you to add the email of a person with whom you want to share the notebook. This step negates the need to “turn in” lesson plans. The administrator has the ability to see lesson plans from any device as they are being created.

If you are a teacher, do you use Evernote to house your lesson plans? Let me know your thought in a comment. Or, come over to my Facebook page and let me know your thoughts.