Evernote - Annotating Notes

I've talked about annotating notes in Evernote in previous posts and have decided to make an instructional video for those of you willing to give this feature a go.

In this example I have used a real student work sample to demonstrate what I have started doing in my writing conferences with my grade 3 class. There is a great deal of interactivity with this method and the students love to take over the mouse of my computer and annotate the note as we discuss it. As a result, they are more deeply engaged in the learning process because they are doing all the work.

This is my first video based around Evernote and welcome your feedback.

Evernote - Getting Started in the Classroom

When I did my last post on my use of Evernote I didn't expect so many people to look at it. It seems it is something that a lot of you want to know more about. I am certainly no expert but I am learning more and more about this product everyday as it becomes ingrained in my daily routine.

I figured I would share more of what I have been doing with Evernote as it may give others some ideas of how they can put it to work.

When I started to use Evernote in class I found it

Little Bits of Tech (Part 3) - Tellagami EDU

I love Tellagami. I'm not lying when I say this. As an educational tool, it is something that I find is one of the best 'all round' tools for sharing and assessing writing, speaking and listening, reading, maths, spelling, art and music.

In my class, I have used Tellagami mainly to assess my students speaking and listening skills and writing skills. My favourite activity and the one I have received praise for was

Little Bits of Tech (Part 2) - Evernote

Evernote has become a major part of my teaching and my students learning and this post is probably one that will have follow ups as I learn more and more about this fantastic tool.

The best thing for me about Evernote is that

Catch Up Time

It has been such a busy few months and I haven't really posted much at all. I am in the process of working on a new series of blog posts titled 'Little Bits of Tech' where I share my knowledge and experiences of using a variety of ICT tools in the classroom. The first post about using Google Drive is up now, so check it out here.

For now I guess I will update what I have been up to.

Little Bits of Tech (part 1) - Google Drive

I have learnt over time that people sometimes struggle to adapt to new technologies that are relevant to their industry. I found this to be true from my time working in finance and I am finding it to be true in education as well. I have always loved new technologies and find that by having a go and playing around with it, I am able to quickly learn new things (sometimes useful and sometimes not so).

I thought then that it would be a good idea to talk about the types of technology I have been using this year (so far) and how I have found it. First of all is Google:

"Because I'm Happy"

I was recently asked to be involved in the making of a motivational video for a young girl in the US that suffers a very rare medical condition.

Of course, being able to do something that makes someone happy made me jump at the chance. As a result, with the help of Bec Spink we got my year 3 class to make a video so that we

Where are we going?

It's Easter Sunday and i'm half way through the school holidays. I am sitting in front of my computer just thinking of something to write about with the hope that inspiration will come along and smack me in the face. Of course, it's never that simple but I like to believe that it will.

It's a peculiar Easter because it is the first one since I moved to Melbourne and my kids have gone home to their mums for the school break. It is oddly silent in the house and I am finding that I don't actually know what to do with myself.

I get itchy feet staying at home all day - I don't like it. I like to get

Little Victories

It is so heartening to see your students making big strides in their learning.

Today, during a writing task I stopped to check over one students work. This student is not the best speller and is quite messy, so I have been giving him little pointers over the past few weeks on ways he might be able to improve. His work has been so bad that I cannot read it at all and he even struggles to interpret for me when reading aloud.

My first goal for him a few weeks ago was to

Meet the Parents

Recently, I had my first 'meet the teacher' evening at school. I was rather surprised that, as a graduate teacher I was not briefed on what to expect and left much to my own devices to feel my way through the evening. Each parent was only assigned ten minutes to discuss their child so I figured it couldn't be too bad and was happy to just 'go with the flow'.

For the benefit of any new teachers out there I can say that it is vital that your