#1 always keep dreaming not just thinking
#2 want to keep learning (most of my learning comes from conversations with colleagues, reading blogs, and following twitter)
#3 be willing to try new apps, websites etc. even if you're not quite sure what will happen some of the best lessons have come with students and teacher learning at the same time
With those above thoughts, last week my next dream came true. I had told Mr. Mark that I want to use iPods not only with Wonderopolis but I want to use it for taking notes especially for sharing notes with me. As I said in past blogs, email has been a thorn in my side although we figured it out for Storykit. We have introduced the class to a free site called evernote. To me evernote is like a virtual notebook, the students use it during reading or writing workshop and record their thinking. When they are finished, they send me their thinking and I instantaneously have their thinking from that day's workshop. On a side note, evernote would work on any laptop it is not an app for just iPods and the students could send their thinking to your teacher computer. Evernote is powerful for so many reasons:
#1 instant feedback is powerful for the student to know that I will read their thinking that day as well as sharing their thoughts using my Smartboard
#2 for my less motivated students, the fact that I am gonig to read their thinking pushed them to step up to the plate
#3 I am able to comment on their thinking however the notes are public to all students
#4 iPods are being used not only for gaining information but also for recording their thinking (that was my dream!)
Love this post! A few of us were just talking in a meeting after school about how powerful Evernote or Wallwisher could be with students. Just like that immediate response you're talking about. Thanks for sharing your journey.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I was jealous as I read your comments on Twitter sounds like an amazing group of dedicated teachers that you met with today. Thanks for commenting :)
ReplyDeleteWondering how you create the students evernote accounts, does your school have an email for the students?
ReplyDeleteNo each student had the same email address and that was mine. So all notes came to me teacher computer. We did not have separate email accounts.
ReplyDeleteHI there - i am a mother of a child in SOuth Africa, who is currently in a programme for gifted children, being run in a local school, which means resources are limited. PLease could you mail me an explain how the children send their work to you, using Evernote. I have the app on my laptop, however am not very familiar with it - would so appreciate your help. Love your blog, and am trying really hard to get our programme to where we want it to be....
ReplyDeleteFirst of all Beryldene thanks so much for leaving me a comment. I am so excited that I have reached across the continents with my blog thank you for helping me spread the word. As far as evernote, once you have set an account up on your laptop with an email then your child should be able to send their work to that email address. However, my students could only post on evernote when they were at school with me I never had them post from their homes. They wrote their thinking at home and once they got to school then their thinking sunk to my evernote account. I hope this helps-again thanks for commenting and if you haven't I would suggest you check out the site: Wonderopolis on the web. It is an amazing site that would be tremendous with gifted students.
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