I am trying to go paperless with my lesson plans and conferring notes. I have used The Confer App for my conferring notes and it worked adequately. I wanted to find a place where I could house my conferring notes and my lesson plans. I started using an app called Noteshelf 2. I typed my lesson plans in word and imported them into the app where I could continue to edit the them and write in notes using my Apple pencil or type additional text. My Apple pencil didn’t always work the best in this app however. I am trying an app called Notability now and my Apple pencil seems to be working better. I can still import my lesson plans from word. I have also started recording my conferring sessions when I’m going into classrooms and conferring with readers. This really helps me reflect on the language I am using with my students and helps me hold them and myself more accountable. Each conferring session lasts 5-6 minutes. While I am recording I am also typing notes. When I play back my notes, what I typed or write is highlighted as the audio plays. This is very helpful and lets me make my note taking more efficient. I am not typing as much because I can rely on the audio to help me plan for future sessions. I also plan to play back students oral reading when it becomes useful to help them notice fluency concerns or decoding attempts.
What are you using? Any suggestions? I am really liking Notability so far! This is just my 3rd day using it and am learning more about it everyday.
Troy
When thinking about student engagement as I started reading Ellin Keene’s newest book Engaging Children: Igniting a Drive for Deeper Learning, I started to think about how I engage with people. Am I truly present in conversations with my wife and children. At times I admit I may appear to be listening with intention, however I am really being compliant, not fully mentally present. I am not truly engaged anticipating what might occur next, creating new background knowledge, asking questions, showing intense focus and concentration towards the topic of discussion and trying to apply what we are talking about in a new or interesting way to help solve a problem or give insight. That is what we want when we have conversations with people, right? I actually ask a lot of questions, but my questions tend to fall short of the intended focus of the conversation and often frustrate my friends and family.
Reflect 
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