If
you’re going to professional development this summer or attending
a conference like I am (Helloooo
Vegas!), I have a fun and
hopefully very helpful tip
for you!Depending
on the event, you may or may not receive handouts.I
have found a GREAT note-taking app called Notability.
($2.99 in the app store, and SO worth it!) I used it last summer on my iPad mini and it was
FaBuLouS!!
It
allows you to mark-up/write/ draw/doodle right onto the PDF’s that you download
onto it! And best of all….you can even take pictures and insert them into your
notes!
A m a z i n g!!
Last
summer I had
already printed all of my handouts and put them into binders, but I didn’t end
up using them or even taking them to sessions with me because I ended up LOVING using this app. That
being said though… I am still very much a paper pencil, cute-planner type of
girl, so I did take a small notepad with me to take paper/pen notes when people
were talking super fast and sharing tons of great information! When all done I
took a picture of my notes from that
session and added them to the PDF’s (you can add blank pages right in the
middle of the PDF!)
There
are lots of great tools on Notability . You can capture audio clips to add to
your PDF’s as well!
As
with any other app, it really takes time to explore, play and get comfortable
using it in order to use it to it’s full potential!
If
you’re thinking about
trying it I would recommend giving yourself time to play before you get down to
serious note-taking with it! (Just like we do with our little ones, they need that
explore time, and so do we!)
I
was sitting in a workshop last summer and started talking to the teacher next
to me, she was interested in the app, so she downloaded it right then and there
and started using it! You can save your notes and e-mail them to your friends
too, so you can divide and conquer the sessions and share notes with each
other!
This
app has so many potential uses!
I
have used it in my classroom to help me with writing conferences. It is
particularly great
for writing because you can take photos of their writing to provide evidence of
their growth!
Documenting
growth by:
•Taking
notes about where they are at in the writing process and what their next steps
are.
•
Photos of their artifacts (So, so cute!)
This
is such a powerful tool for writing instruction!
•It
is so empowering for students to see their work being recorded in this way!
It is a proud moment for them and it really helps them to visualize their next
steps in order to create goals. :o)
•It
is, in a word, INCREDIBLE for data collection. It’s all right there!
Whatever
you need to make sure you are recording to support evidence of: Growth :o)
OR Lack of growth :o( {hopefully not!}
Organizing
files and folders is easy as well! Each student can have Their
own folder so that you have a running live record of their work!
I
shared it with my principal, and she uses Notability on her iPhone 6+ for
doing teacher evaluations now! She takes pictures and notes during the lessons
and then uses it to help her in scoring, writing, and follow-up conferences!
For
the notes in these photos I was sitting close enough that I could take pictures
of the presenters slides. I did this a lot! It really helped me to recall
information and I even added additional notes to these later on as I reviewed
them. It’s easy to type, draw, write and highlight on the note pages or PDF’s.
The camera tool is easy to use – you click on the + in the tool bar and it will
give you the option to add a photo, take a photo, or even add a link from the
web! When you select a picture you can easily crop it or move it around on a
page.
I
hope this little post inspires you to try Notability if you haven’t already! (I
don’t know the Notability people and I’m not being reimburesed in any way for
writing this, I just like the app and wanted to share!)
Thanks
to my sweet & smart friend Emma at Clever Classroom who encouraged me to
write this post!! ;o) Have fun using Notability and when you come up with great ideas for using this app please come back and share in the comments!
