We are in week two of our OneNote blog run and for this week, we are focusing on the Class Notebook. So, the Class Notebook is remarkably similar to OneNote but with a few key differences. 

Class Notebook 

If you are looking into going paperless, this tool can help. You can embed the Class Notebook into your Schoology course for students to have easy access. You can organize your lesson notes and examples. Essentially you can use this to teach your lesson instead of Smart Notebook or other smart board like software.  

The class notebook works the same way as the notebook. Again, think of that Trapper Keeper. The way that it differs though is that you control the notebook for your classroom. With the Active Directory link, the class will pre-populate so you don’t need to do it. You can create private work areas for your students, which you, as the teacher, can look into. There is also a space for collaborating. All students can work in this section and there is a third section which is like your library. Everything you put into this section; students can access. So, imagine you have a bunch of information to get to the students. Each student can see at any point and copy information into their section. 

In the content section, you can create a space where the ‘I Do’ part of your section’s lives, and students can have access to. Even when students are at home, and it automatically saves. Students can have direct access to it even after class if your notes are located in the Class Notebook. 

Within Class Notebook, you can offer a space for students to work, hand in assignments, grade assignments and send the grades to Schoology and/or PowerSchool. (Since I don’t have classes, I haven’t fully tested it yet, but I have seen it work in a demo!). Another benefit of using OneNote is that you can distribute the work to the students. This assures you that all students have received the content you have for them. No more take one and pass back! 

Check out this video for some more tips and tricks with using Class Notebook.

I am including in today’s post a training video directly from onenoteforteachers.com. It’s an awesome site that shouldn’t be missed. Next week we will look at practical ways teachers are using the OneNote Notebook – a.k.a. case studies! Let us know what you think and if you will try using this tool in your class in the comments below!