Early ED DRDPs (Portfolios)

[annemarieo 1]

Hello, I am a preschool teacher new to Evernote and this forum. I am beginning to use evernote on my iPhone 4 to record for my students portfolios. We use DRDPs as our assessment tool. So far I have created a master note bk into which I have stacked a notebk for each student. I have begun taking photos of the kids and typed in notes. But I would like to set up my evernote in such a way as to be more efficient with the DRDPs. If you are not familiar with the DRDPs; It is Desired Results Developmental Profile and consists of 43 measures. Covering everything from social dev. to academic to health. We as teachers are required to show evidence of how we rate students. This is a very overwhelming task and I am looking for ways to make it easier. I was thinking of somehow listing the measures (of DRDP) into each childs notebk. But am not sure how to do this or if this is the best way. Seems you cannot reopen and add notes to any notebk. So I am stuck. I want to be able to keep track of what measures were covered for each student.

 I appreciate any ideas on how to use evernote for my portfolios. 

                                                 Anne 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,314]

Hi Anne. Welcome to the forums.

Could you tell us which Evernote client you are using (Mac, Windows, etc.?). I would recommend trying to make a go of it with tags. This might seem uncomfortable at first, but it might help prevent massive and unwieldy notes, especially if you are using an iPad. For example, I would have a tag for each child and a tag for each of the 43 measures. All of these would go into a noteboook. A search for tag:john-smith tag:32-number-sense would display all of your notes on john smith that pertain to measure 32 (only one note, I imagine). A search for tag:john-smith would show all 43 measures. A search for tag:32-number-sense would show measure #32 for all children. The benefit of this approach is that you don't have to wade through dozens of notebooks, and can sort things quite easily, depending on what you want to see.

[annemarieo 1]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply. I am using a Mac OS X 10.8 . I use my iPhone 4 at work to take notes etc....  SO a tag for each child and a tag for each of 43 measures.  Would I have the notebooks I already have for each child also? Or would this replace them? I can't see all my notes for a kids in one notebook. Sorry I have not tried using tags at all yet and am not familiar with them.

                                                                                                     Anne 

[GrumpyMonkey 4,314]

Hi and thanks for the quick reply. I am using a Mac OS X 10.8 . I use my iPhone 4 at work to take notes etc....  SO a tag for each child and a tag for each of 43 measures.  Would I have the notebooks I already have for each child also? Or would this replace them? I can't see all my notes for a kids in one notebook. Sorry I have not tried using tags at all yet and am not familiar with them.

                                                                                                     Anne 

Hi. Notebooks are best thought of as ways to organize broad categories (class, home, family, etc.), while tags work best for more precise categories. Search is the key here. By filtering what you see with the search, you could have 7,000+ notes in a single notebook (me), but see exactly the same thing you see in your notebook for john smith (the 43 notes related to him). The difference is that you need much less organizational effort, and you can freely sort things according to all kinds of different criteria. It takes some getting used to, but it works a lot better this way (in my opinion).

[annemarieo 1]

Ok I will make a tag for each child and a tag for each measure. Then put them in a master notebook. Is this correct?

Then go from there. I am sure I will have more questions. But for now thank you for all your help. It has been so useful.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,314]

Ok I will make a tag for each child and a tag for each measure. Then put them in a master notebook. Is this correct?

Then go from there. I am sure I will have more questions. But for now thank you for all your help. It has been so useful.

Hi. I hope my advice is helpful. Everyone has their own approach, of course, but I think Evernote is especially well-suited to tags. You might want to try and do this for just one kid (our fictional john smith) to see how it works. Share the notebook with us (fictional info, of course) and we can offer more concrete suggestions.

[annemarieo 1]

HI GrumpyMonkey or anyone else who may be there. It didn't take me long to become stuck. I made a tag for about 6 children. But i am having trouble placing them. I read that tags go to notes not notebooks. Is this true. I tried numerous times to drag and drop the tags into the notebook I made for my class. DId not work. Is there another way to do this? I looked to see if there was a way to create the tags from inside the notebook. Couldn't see any. I read that there is an Evernote version of this app and an App store version. Mine is from the App store. I don't want to have to switch now as I have quite a few photos and notes that I don't want to risk losing.           

                                         thanks ,Anne

[GrumpyMonkey 4,314]

HI GrumpyMonkey or anyone else who may be there. It didn't take me long to become stuck. I made a tag for about 6 children. But i am having trouble placing them. I read that tags go to notes not notebooks. Is this true. I tried numerous times to drag and drop the tags into the notebook I made for my class. DId not work. Is there another way to do this? I looked to see if there was a way to create the tags from inside the notebook. Couldn't see any. I read that there is an Evernote version of this app and an App store version. Mine is from the App store. I don't want to have to switch now as I have quite a few photos and notes that I don't want to risk losing.           

                                         thanks ,Anne

Hi Anne,

You can add tags at the top of a note, or select multiple notes and follow the prompts. The guide in my signature below might help clarify this. Please tell us if you are able to do it.

As for the Mac Appstore version, it is fine, but I just prefer the direct download. Don't worry about switching. The important thing I want to stress is that if you have synced your data to Evernote's servers, then you can switch without any problems, because everything is online.

[annemarieo 1]

Hi and thank you GrumpyMonkey. I see I have to click on the pencil icon before the  add a tag space is visible. I added a few tags to notes about some children. So to understand better: You had said in a previous post to make a tag for ea child and a tag for ea measure. Then put them in a notebook. How do I do this? Or do I?   I have so many questions! Love this program. But there is so much to learn.

                   thank you Anne 

[annemarieo 1]

OK I made the tags for the kids and the measures. But I am reluctant to give up my notebooks for each student. My Concern is sharing. I will need at some point to put the info I collect in each students portfolio folder. I am not sure how to do this. print it out ? how? put it on a disk? I thought notebooks might be easier to share.