Using Evernote and Squid to Stay Organised

I've felt much more organised this year which is a good thing, since I have a chatty bunch of grade 2's to deal with. It's also funny how everything has just seemed to fall into place in my second year of teaching. I am feeling much more confident and much less stressed about the small stuff.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A
with s-pen (8" version)

One way that I have found I have kept myself better organised is by using my new tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab A with S-pen). In particular, I have been using a combination of the apps 'Squid' and 'Evernote' to keep all my reading conferences, running records and number assessments together.

Before I talk about the use of the apps, I have to first explain the choice of tablet. I used to own a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and I loved it. I used it a lot whilst I was studying but decided to sell it so I could buy a decent laptop. I didn't think I would have a need for a tablet like that once I was teaching. The one thing I loved most about it was the fact that the stylus was the closest resemblance to writing with an actual pen.

I feel so organised by keeping all my
notes in Evernote.

Fast forward to teaching and I had been using an iPad that my school provided and I found annotating or any form of note taking (using handwriting) so difficult using those awful fat, squishy styluses and even worse using my equally fat, squishy fingers (haha). I know I could spend money to get a decent stylus for the iPad but they are still clunky, need batteries or in some cases will only work on certain apps. So, this is why I went back to buying my own 8 inch Galaxy tablet with the s-pen.

*disclaimer - this is not an ad for Samsung, I know there are a few brands with pen-like styluses; I just prefer this brand as it is what I am most familiar with.

What is Squid?

Meet Squid (formerly Papyrus)

Squid (formerly called Papyrus) is a note taking app for use with Styluses. I really like their features because they allow me to scribe over the top of pdf files which is perfect for when I am doing running records. Once I have annotated the pdf's I am easily able to export it to my chosen Evernote notebook for later viewing.

It may sound a bit like double handling using two apps but I find that Evernote (in particular, the Skitch feature) for Android is a bit laggy when it comes to handwritten annotations.


Anyway, I have rambled enough. Here is some photo's to help you get started. If you need some help, feel free to leave a comment and I can walk you through it.