One of the hardest things to do in grading students is jotting down notes, or observations, about individual students at the end of quarter or semester. Those jotted notes just tend to get lost in the mix of daily life. I’ve been thinking about how to capture these notes fast, particular to the student. I was seriously thinking about getting an iPad Mini with an Apple Pencil to do this, as long as I could pre-load it with all the students names of a particular class. When I think about it though, nothing beats regular pen and paper: it’s fast, it’s cheap.

I believe ClassDojo might solve this note-capture problem, as long as I get into the habit of using it. Takes about 2 clicks minimum to say, give a point to a student for being on-task. At the end of the day, I could note this somewhere (ideally I would be able to review this in a ClassDojo browser). I also like that I can take photos as proof of their fine work.

I’m trying to do this one-handed, and the iPhone Pro 11 does not feel good working one-handed.