Week 5: Using Evernote for teaching and learning

            Evernote can be an extremely useful tool in the classroom. Students can use it when they need to collect a variety of information. The fact that they will be using technology will mean that they will be engaged from the beginning of any projects or lessons. I think that Evernote could be used for research, note taking, and reading for enjoyment.

            I thought about using Evernote in a fourth grade classroom to help teach the Social Studies standards on the Regions of Texas. Some of our students that have not traveled to other parts of Texas have a hard time comprehending what certain land features are such as: an escarpment, prairie, or plateau. Using Evernote would be a great opportunity for them to look up these features and find the nearest location of each in order to help them learn more about each Region. Another plus would be that they could look up images of these land features in order for them to know what they look like versus having to see an illustration in a textbook. All of the information and images they collect could be stored in a notebook on Evernote called Geography of Texas. Another notebook that they could add would be Native Americans. In this notebook, they could collect the information on the Native American tribes that lived in each Region of Texas, and they could continue to take notes on a topic of study in Social Studies and have history come to life.

            I thought about having students in grades third and up use Evernote for projects. I think that students would be more interested in pursuing and completing a science or math project if they are allowed to use technology to research ideas online. Any notes they would like to take or information they would collect could go into the notebooks they would create on Evernote. If they have to create an end product, they could collect diagrams and images that would help them to create their product. I think that their interest level would remain high throughout the completion of the project.

            Allowing students in second grade and higher to search for topics of interest to them and collect information to read whenever they are given an opportunity is a great reading incentive. Providing students the opportunity to read after the completion of their work is common practice. Those students that do not like reading, however, find it difficult to stay on task. I think that allowing students to use Evernote to collect and sort their reading material will keep them engaged to where they will consider whatever time they are given for reading too short.

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s561/nl/153116495/2ff87c05-3c31-4787-91f7-7eb7dd4f2310