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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

.@Evernote For The Busy Administrator #EdChat

One of the big issues administrators need to deal with are regular teacher evaluations. Having talked with many admins, this is a very time consuming part of their job and many use different systems to evaluate teachers. I think Evernote is a perfect tool for admins to use while making their evaluation rounds.

Evernote allows the user to create specific notebooks that store the notes users create. A notebook could be created for a specific teacher and notes on that teacher can be entered into that notebook. On the day of the evaluation, the admin can arrive a few minutes early and take some pictures of the class setup  and save them directly into Evernote. The observation notes can be stored in Evernote and then later shared with the teacher before the follow-up meeting. A new note could be created and the follow-up meeting's notes could be stored and then later shared with the teacher as well. All of the information regarding the observation would be saved on Evernote and would be accessible from any device with the app or an internet connection.

This teacher's notebook would fill with different notes over the course of the their career. If the admin retires or leaves, the notebook can be shared with the next admin who takes over the observation duties. Evernote is also perfect to add those informal observation notes. If the admin sees something awesome the teacher did in class or the hallway, a quick note can be added to their notebook on that teacher that can be shared with them later that day. On the other side, if the admin notices something that needs to be addressed, it can also be added to the notebook and talk to the teacher about the specifics of the incident.

I also see Evernote as a great way for admins to store all of their meeting information. One of the main reasons it is so hard to get time to talk to an admin is because they are always in meetings. These meetings span from budget issues to discipline issues. Evernote is great for keeping many different notebooks for different topics. No longer are multiple notepads needed for different topics. The camera can be used to take pictures of handouts received at meetings or the Doxie Scanner can scan them into Evernote after the meeting. All of these different notebooks would be available at all time on a personal device or an internet enabled desktop.

The days of running around with different binders filled with tons of paper are over for the busy admin when they sign up and use Evernote. Any leader that is looking for a better way to organize their professional life needs to take a long hard look at integrating Evernote into their daily routine.

1 comment:

  1. While I think this is a fantastic idea, in NJ, individual administrators are not allowed to keep files on teachers that contain evaluation material. All of that must be stored in a central location, typically the BOE office or HR. However, I really like the idea of using it for the informal walkthrough. I am just imagining opening my Evernote and there is a nice note from my supervisor telling me what a great job I did that day with a picture of what was going on in class. I think a lot of people would benefit from this.

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