Please can you help a secondary school teacher?

[MrSnowdon 3]

Hello All I'm a n00b on the forum but I've used Evernote premium for around 2 years.

 

Last year I started creating a notebook for each class I teach and then creating a note within these notebooks for each lesson I teach.

The notes had a title that consisted of the period (P1, P2 etc) and the date of the lesson, I then can drop links to the Prezi or Powerpoint file straight into the relevant note and all other resources required for that lesson including using document camera to take a picture of the lesson plan. I also keep a separate note within the notebook documenting pupils achievements and information I need to support their individual requirements. With the web version of Evernote and Android version etc I can access these notes anywhere and update the notes if I get some inspiration regarding something that will make the lesson more engaging.

During the lesson I can take pictures or video of the pupils work and put it straight into the relevant note, I also add in homework reminders and deadlines etc.

 

It's an incredibly powerful workflow tool for me, however.

I am starting a new year in September and rather than manually create a new note in each notebook for each lesson like I did last year I'm hoping there may be a way to automagically achieve the same.

 

We work on a two week rolling timetable but 12 of my 20 hours teaching per week are fixed time and day each week. Ideally I would also like to have each note set with a two week reminder so I am ahead of all the planning for each lesson by two weeks.

As I'm a n00b on the forum I'm restricted to 5 more posts today, so if you need more info to help me resolve this query please can you ask for it all in one go?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I could just manually create them all but I'm sure one of you guru's can help me.

 

Thank you for reading!

[gazumped 9,568]

Hi. 

 

OK - for future posts,  it's always good to quote your operating system (Windows / Mac etc) because there are differences between the clients that might be important;  but that probably won't apply here.

 

And - for information there's an Educators' forum that you might want to browse around for more ideas here > https://discussion.evernote.com/forum/244-evernote-for-educators/

 

On your specific query,  there's no easy way to set up a suite of notebooks and notes based on previous entries.  I can think of a few things that might work however - something to look at between now and September!

 

There's an option in the installed desktop version of Evernote (not the web version) to export notes to ENEX files.  Be careful when you do this,  because the options don't default to including note tags - you have to select that manually - and ENEX files do not store any notebook information.  So restoring two notebooks' worth of notes gets you one notebook with a lot of notes.  You could however export your previous notes to separate ENEX files - one for each class - and then restore them to another notebook.  If you do this I'd suggest copying the notes from your last year into a 'Templates' notebook (or a Stack if you have more than one notebook/ class) so you can strip out the specifics from last year and create a template for your class notes.  Export again,  and you have a portable archive of class templates for future use.

 

You can do exactly the same thing with the Copy to Notebook option - create your new notebook structure and select all the notes in one notebook.  Right-click the selected notes in List (or whatever) View and choose Copy to Notebook...  choose an appropriate notebook to duplicate the content.

 

Templates are notes that you have set up with a particular format for specific purposes - you might create a 'telephone note' template forinstance to include headings like Date / Time / Caller / For / Query,  and also give it a specific background colour so it stands out.

 

Chris Mayo (AKA Grumpmonkey in the discussion forums) -also involved with teaching- has an excellent website with lots of practical Evernote information, some of which is linked from here;  but you should definitely have a look around.  See his templates page which includes some set up with background colours > http://www.christopher-mayo.com/?p=459

 

For much more detailed information on Evernote templates and specialist layouts,  see Transpose (formerly Kustomnote) here > https://transpose.com/
 

For information it's also possible to export a template note to ENEX and save that file to your desktop - clicking on that file will generate a new note in your default notebook.  Good for quick notes - like phone calls - but not sure that it would be relevant here.

 

Hope that's some useful food for thought.  Please do ask further if you need more help. 

[ursula 42]

I am also a secondary school teacher. For the past four years, I've used Evernote for my lesson planning. This is my method:

 

I have one notebook: School. All of my school-related documents go in here - lesson plans, unit plans, student notes, materials, etc. 

 

Within this notebook, I use titles to organize my classes: eng12.Y1415.GP4.Wk3 is my lesson plan for English 12 for the school year 2014-2015, 4th grading period, 3rd week. I plan by the week because it's easier to move activities between days if needed. I use a weekly lesson template for this. Titling notes this way makes them automatically fall into order.

 

I also create planning notes for each unit: eng12.Y1415.GP1.unit.beo is the Beowulf unit. Here I put links to any documents I plan to use (handouts, reading questions, quizzes, tests), as well as any teaching notes and ideas. Since I also use tags for units (e.g. eng12.lit.beo) I can easily find all of the Beowulf materials, copy their links, and paste them into a new unit note for the current year. All materials that I'm using for the current week get tagged #sch.desk; I have a shortcut in my sidebar to quickly see what's there and untag anything I'm done with.

 

When I move to a new year, I create new notes: eng12.Y1516.GP1.Wk1, for example. I do this in one of two ways: 1) copy last year's note and change the year in the title, or 2) create a new note and paste or type in lessons I plan to use. I never teach exactly the same lessons on the same days, so this is what I usually do, but I always refer to the previous year's notes when planning. Having a date in the title, e.g. 2015-09-08, is less useful to me; I'm more interested in finding lessons by grading period, week, and unit. 

 

I have lesson notes for four years, so it's easy for me to look at eng12.Y1213.GP1 to see what I was doing three years ago and decide if I want to use any of the same materials. I also use tags for this, to quickly find all of my lessons from first grading period or a specific unit. 

 

Perhaps this does not sound like something you would want to do, but it suits the way I plan and does not take me much time. It's a lot more flexible than an online lesson plan service or a designated program. 

[JMichaelTX 4,104]

It's an incredibly powerful workflow tool for me, however.

I am starting a new year in September and rather than manually create a new note in each notebook for each lesson like I did last year I'm hoping there may be a way to automagically achieve the same.

 

We work on a two week rolling timetable but 12 of my 20 hours teaching per week are fixed time and day each week. Ideally I would also like to have each note set with a two week reminder so I am ahead of all the planning for each lesson by two weeks.

As I'm a n00b on the forum I'm restricted to 5 more posts today, so if you need more info to help me resolve this query please can you ask for it all in one go?

 

There is no direct way to achieve what you want, but by using the "Copy to Notebook..." tool you can setup a nice template system for future use.  If you can use AppleScript, or Keyboard Maestro, on the Mac (or similar tools on Windows), you could highly automate the process.

 

Here's the Template System:

1. Create Notes with the standard text, layout, and format that you want.  I call these "template" notes, although there is no such thing in Evernote.
   1. I have found I can create the best templates using MS Word tables, then copy/paste the Word table into an EN Note.
2. Put all of these "template" Notes in a Notebook for ease of reference.  I use a NB named "Templates"
3. Whenever you want a new Note using one of these "template" notes, just select the "template" note, right-click, and choose "Copy to Notebook.."
   1. After the Copy, the focus will still be on the "template" note, so you will have to navigate to "All Notes" or the Notebook you choose to find the note you just created.

You can, of course, create a separate template for each Note that you will need using the "eng12.Y1415.GP4.Wk3" naming convention.

 

However, if the initial contents of the Notes is the same, you could use a macro app like Keyboard Maestro to replace placeholders in the Title with choices you would select.  

So the template title would be something like this:

[DEPT].Y[YEAR].GP[PER#].Wk.[WK#]

 

The macro would then replace the placeholders in brackets with the actual data, some of which it could calculate (like the year), and some of which you could choose from a dropdown list, or enter.

 

If this macro stuff is more complicated than you want to bother with, then just ignore it.  

 

Also you might consider putting spaces in your Title to facilitate Searches using the "intitle:" qualifier, which searches on words in the title, but cannot search on characters within a word.  So you would have:

eng12 Y1415 GP4 Wk3

 

Please let us know if you have any questions.

[Analyst444 182]

MrSnowdon - You gotten some great ideas from the other people who have responded to your inquiry.

 

I'd like to offer some other ideas. - - - I'm playing off 2 of your statements:

• "The notes had a title that consisted of the period (P1, P2 etc) and the date of the lesson".
• You'd like to not have to "manually create a new note in each notebook for each lesson like I did last year".

So, I'd ask, Why are you creating new Notes each year?

 

If the answer is because you've got the "date of the lesson" in the title, then consider removing the dates. - - - No doubt, your response will be, "but I need to know when I will teach each lesson". Then, create one separate Note (call it "Master Schedule" ????) which is a list of the lessons and the date you will teach each in the new year. Then, that one separate Note is the only one you will have to change each year.

 

Now I can hear you say, "Yes, but, some lessons change each year and I'd like to save the old versions". Well then, do as JMIchael suggests, duplicate the Note by selecting "Copy to Notebook..." If you decide to go this way, then it will likely be helpful to add a Tag to each Note/Lesson. The Tag would either be "Active" or "Inactive" to designate whether the Note/Lesson applies to the new year. (Presumably, you know how to assign a specific Tag to many Notes in one swoop to get you started on this.)

 

Also, if you do remove the dates from the Titles, I suggest you give each Note/Lesson a unique number. A 5 digit number would be a good choice. Use a sequence like: 00100, 00200, 00300. etc. The sequence would imply the order in which you plan to present the lessons and will make it easy for you to have Evernote sort the Notes/Lessons for you. (That presumes you put the unique number at the start of the title.). If you go with something like this, the starting zeros in the Note/Lesson number is critical to get the sorting to work the way you want. Also, increasing the sequence numbers initially by 100 is important because somewhere down the road, you will want to change the sequence, but not want to change all the numbers. So, if you need to insert a Note/Lesson between 00100 and 00200, give it the number 00150.

 

I'd also suggest that you consider removing the period (P1, P2, etc.) from the title of the Notes. Only put static information into the title of the Notes. The period for each lesson could placed in the "Master Schedule" Note I suggested. It would have columns like (left to right):

• Lesson Title (For each Note/Lesson, select "Copy Note Link", and paste it in the appropriate row on the list. This will pick the Lesson #, if you put it in the title.)
• Subject
• Period
• Date to Present (use the format YYYYMMDD to make searching easy)
• Grade Level
• And any other pertinent data element.

 

I hope you feel my response is helpful. 

[MrSnowdon 3]

This is more than I could have asked for, I've some excellent idea's now regarding planning. 

 

Thank you very much to all who contributed.

[Keanu64 0]

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