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Teaching with Evernote: A 6th and 8th Grade Science Teacher Shares His Top Tips (Back-to-School Series)

Tips and Stories | By Kevin Buran
 
Name: Kevin Buran
Profession: 6th and 8th Grade Science Teacher
Location: Carmel, California
School: Carmel Middle School

Bio

Kevin Buran teaches 6th and 8th grade science to students at Carmel Middle School.

I use Evernote, Everywhere:

I love…

  • ScanSnap Scanner for scanning in worksheets and student work
  • JotNot for taking snapshots of my daily itinerary and saving them instantly to Evernote

I use Evernote for..

I first heard about Evernote about a year ago, but have become an avid user much more recently. Here are just a few of the ways that I use Evernote for teaching:

For sharing information with my students

  • Recently, there was a landslide in my area which blocked the roads and kept students from school for several weeks. Evernote’s Shared Notebooks became a simple way for me to give students a way to access class notes, worksheets, PowerPoints and labs. Even though they couldn’t make it to class, they didn’t fall behind. [How to start sharing in Evernote]

  • I put everything my students might need to access —worksheets, articles, and labs — into a Shared Notebook that they can access through a link or via Moodle, a service that our school district has integrated.
  • I have a Scanscap scanner, which I use to shoot worksheets straight into Evernote. Sometimes, I’ll scan student work that I think was particularly impressive. It’s a great way to acknowledge the work and share it with other students (via Shared Notebooks).

For research and labs

  • Before Evernote, I was bookmarking so many different websites for research purposes, or sending emails to myself with links. I found it so difficult to keep track of things I was reading on the Web. Now, I use Evernote’s Web Clipper to simply send things I want to remember to my Evernote account, where it is completely searchable and accessible whenever I need it.
  • I recently had all of my 8th grade students sign up for an Evernote account to help them do research. They clip articles from the web, take notes and track lab results in Evernote.

For extending the classroom beyond school walls

  • I put up a daily itinerary on the whiteboard for my students to see what we’ll be working on that day. For anyone who isn’t in class, I snap a photo of it and put it in Evernote. You can see all of the past daily itineraries in my Shared Notebook. I use JotNot to take those shots, which integrates really well with Evernote.

  • In the past, I’d come across interesting things related to topics we were studying in school (like environmental problems) that didn’t specifically fit into the day’s lesson plan. Now, I save articles and even video links to Evernote, where my students can see how their studies relate to the ‘real world.’

  • Our school, like many, is considering going to a 1:1 model. We’re trying to figure out how we can incorporate technology into the classroom in a more integrated way. The fact that Evernote can be accessed from virtually any device and syncs across devices means that no matter what technology we choose, teachers and students can continue to access all of their notes from anywhere they happen to be. [Learn more about 1:1 deployments]

User Tip

I like to keep my Evernote account clutter-free, especially for my students. I’ll occasionally go through my account and move notes around to different folders or delete them. My Shared Notebooks are always up to date and organized in a way that makes it easy for students to find what they’re looking for.

Join the discussion about Evernote for Schools on our forum. Learn from educators and share your own experiences, best practices and tips.

  • http://Jiripalacky.com Jiri Palacky

    I’m a university lecturer and architect. I am using Things for Mac to collect my research notes etc. but there are no sharing options and also the amazing on-line backup provided by Evernote is missing. A colleague of mine mentioned he uses Evernote in his architectural practice to collect all contractors data and product samples for future reference.
    I was inspired enough to give Evernote a try and setup a shared notebook with my co-workers to encourage the exchange of ideas as we cooperate on a research project. We also used Facebook’s hidden group feature, but it turned out to be too messy in comparison to Evernote so we use Facebook to inform each other on the additions to the project. We also use Wuala for file sharing which has notification system built in (maybe inspiration for Evernote).
    Now after reading this story I realised I could share some of our research notes, findings etc. with our students and even have them participate in it. Thanks for advice on Moodle integration.

  • http://justindorfman.com/ Justin Dorfman

    This is great. I hope more teachers would follow Mr. Buran’s foot steps and embrace technologies like Evernote.

  • goodspeech

    I really liked this article! Is great to see the practical use of technology to support education. As an administrator in education I used EN to track observations, store forms that I may need, and keep notes from all the meetings that come with the educational system.

  • Karen Floyd

    I teach in London, 11 – 19 year olds – Ict. This looks amazing, thanks so much for sharing.

    Karen

  • Bret

    Which model of Scansnap do you recommend?

    • Kevin Buran

      Hi,

      I have the ScanSnap S1100 and really like it a lot. It’s quite small and portable. Each sheet of paper takes about 7 or 8 seconds to scan. You can set it up so that each sheet is directly fed into your Evernote account.

      There are other models that are a touch faster. I think they also have some models that scan both sides at once, which would be nice. I, however, wanted something that I could throw in my computer bag and take home with me when need be.

      Kevin

  • Susan Abdelnour

    I use Evernote & clipper but until now I haven’t known the extent to which it could be used. This is going to help with project management and sharing with my colleagues.

    Thanks, Susan

  • Jannette

    Hi Kevin,

    thanks so much for all of this information. I teach in a support unit in a mainstream high school – and you have given me so many ideas to try.

  • Bob

    Kevin,

    It all sounds great. I need some help organizer my home records. Can I do all this with evernote with a MAC?

    Thank you

    • Kevin Buran

      Hi Bob,

      Yes, you can use either a Mac or a PC. I use a Mac at home and a PC at school and the integration and syncing on both platforms is seamless.

  • http://hz-ebus.co-learning.net Frank Peeters

    Actually, I am more interested in having students adding notes to a shared notebook instead of me. Looking up related information and building on top of what other peer students posted could be an excellent learning experience, I believe.
    Anybody knows if that could be arranged with Evernote?
    Many thanks in advance,
    Frank

  • Michelle

    I have been using Evernote since the beginning of the school year, and while I love it for many reasons, I’m confused as to how to organize my lesson plans by date. I’m sure it’s just something simple I’m not seeing. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

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