OneNote - The Beginning

This month I tried using Microsoft OneNote in my classroom. I've been eager to try it for over a year, but finally jumped in and did it. I was originally going to try it out with a small group of students. Another student overheard and asked to try it too. I took that as a sign to go ahead and launch it with the group.

My regular double block students LOVE using OneNote. It took a bit for them to become comfortable with using it. We still have some kinks to work out, but overall I can see the value in this particular program.

When we return from Winter break, I plan to try to utilize OneNote on a more regular basis. I'm thankful my kids are willing to "try" new technology related things with me. They seem eager to try and are always more than willing to share their opinions with me. Here's a sample of one of my student's bellringer journals. They beg me to continue to do the bellringers on the computer. The sad part is that they are slow typers, but they welcome the practice.

We tried another activity digitally instead of on paper. My students were working on combining sentences using a comma and a conjunction. Instead of running it all off on paper and having the students complete it one paper, they were able to manipulate the sentences using OneNote. 

Things I like about using OneNote:

• Automatically saves changes.
• I only create one master and push it out to the student's notebooks.
• They are learning how to use technology.
• They look forward to using it.
• I like being able to have all of the information in one location for the students. 
• I save time on making copies! 

I look forward to learning how to incorporate this into my classroom on a more frequent basis. 

** The sentence activity is by Jessica Osborne and can be found here on teachers pay teachers.
** The bellringer activity is by The SuperHERO Teacher and can be found here on teachers pay teachers.