Student Conferences with Evernote and KustomNote
Posted by missspink in Education, tags: assessment, Daily5, data, evernote, iPad, iPhone, KustomNote, teachers using EvernoteEvernote has transformed the way I keep notes on students in my class. I type notes, record audio and video and take photos of their worksamples. All this information is then stored in individual student notebooks within Evernote.
I first began using Evernote for individual reading conferences and since then just about all of my organisastional data and student anecdotal notes are taken using Evernote. I love that it allows me to keep everything in one place, it keeps me organised and able to track students and information easily with the tap of a button.
Although Evernote has become a necessity for me in my classroom, I have never been one hundred percent happy with the formating tools. I am a very visual person so not only do I want my information accessible I want it to look good too.
Today I stumbled upon a web app called KustomNote. KustomNote was originally designed for the Evernote Dev Cup. Think Google Forms and Evernote all mixed into one! I like it as it takes out all the need for formatting and produces professional looking, neat notes.
Below I have included a little story of how my notes have changed since I began using Evernote-
At this stage I can not see a way to record audio or video through KustomNote but once your note has been saved you can go in and add audio and attachments as you usually would.
I like the fact that once I have my templates made all I need to do is edit and the information is easily saved in my desired notebook in Evernote.
I have created the following templates and have made them public for other users to copy.
- Reading Conference
- Writing Conference
- Strategy Group- Reading
- Strategy Group- Writing
- Maths Focus Group
How could you use KustomNote in the classroom?
How do you format your notes for student records?
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WHOA! You have blown my mind today! I had already taken your idea for student notebooks in Evernote and been getting things set up (it’s summer break for us here in the US) for my next class, and was way excited about doing running records and recording kids’ reading in Evernote. NOW I am WILD with excitement about the templates – I’ve used two of your for reading, modified them, and done some practice/samples that included merging notes (the filled-in template + audio recording + photo). SO SO SO excited to set up some more templates – thank you so much for the information!
@ Amy,
I am so glad you have been inspired by my posts! EN will change the way you think about assessment. It is great. I am loving Kustomnote! I was tweeting with the developers today and made a few suggestions so hopefully it gets even better.
Thanks so much for your comment.
Keep me updated on your progress with EN!
Bec
Hi Bec
Thanks for the fantastic post about KustomNote. I also use Evernote for my student records and find it a great, but this just takes it to the next level. I really like the idea of check boxes in evernote, but find they are very limited so this looks like it ‘ticks all the boxes’ for checklist and anecdotal records.
Thanks for sharing your templates too. I am definitely going to have a go at using the reading and writing conference templates.
Meanwhile, hope you are having a great holiday.
regards
Deborah
@ Deborah,
Thanks for your comment. I think Kustomnote is a great add on for EN. It is very user friendly, I am glad you liked the post.
Enjoy the rest of your break.
Bec
I think that Kustom Note will be a very useful tool to use within my classroom. I am confused as to how to make a clone of my own templates as I’d like to personalize it for each student. Do you know how? I thought if I put ‘public’ on it then it would be in the public templates but it’s not showing up there.
I wish he had a help button on his site.
Hi Kelly,
Using Kustomnote has definitely saved me a lot of time in the classroom! It is very handy and I love the way the notes look!
You can email support@kustomnote.com for help. They have been great and will definitely try and help you out.
Thanks for your comment,
Bec
Hi Bec,
I’ve been a lurker for a bit now. Love using EN, maxed out my premium upload this month! I have a question re Kustomnote. How do you add a field so that you can make a class list? Can’t work it out! Probably simple, but….
Regards,
Anne
All good, I found out by accident! Now I can make my class lists etc.
Hi Bec,
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been looking for something which would make the shared notebooks look a little more professional, too.
Did you consider using editable PDF templates? Before I bark up that tree for a while I thought I would ask you. You have obviously researched this very thoroughly.
Regards,
Steve
Hi Steve,
I did think about it but I am pretty sure you can not edit them once the are in Evernote. I like being able to go back in to Evernote and edit the notes if need be.
Regards,
Bec
Thanks for all of the support with Evernote! I can’t seem to access the templates listed above (they aren’t live links for me). I am interested in the math template if you can lead me to the file? Thanks! Shelley
Hi Shelly,
Try this http://kustomnote.com/template/50/
Hopefully that works, let me know if it doesn’t.
Bec
Got it! Thanks so much for the quick reply and for sharing your templates!