Craft: An All-In-One Tool To Help Keep Teachers Organized
Let’s face it, teachers are always trying to find ways to stay organized. I should know. I’ve been teaching for almost 20 years and if there was a new, better way to help me stay organized, I was all about it!
As a teacher, you might have a couple of calendars. One calendar for upcoming meetings and another for lesson planning. When it comes to daily or weekly to-do’s, you might have another app for that. Oh, and don’t forget, you need a place to store reminders so you don’t forget to prepare that test for your class.
You might also have a couple of notebooks. One notebook for staff meeting notes and another for student meeting/IEP/SST notes. Then, you might have a folder, digital or otherwise, where you keep your documents. And perhaps you keep a daily journal.
Craft is an app that can handle all this for you. It also has the ability to post things like your syllabus and student assignments online. Instead of using many different apps, Craft is the one-stop-shop for teacher organization.
Craft is a fantastic writing and notes tool that can do many other things. It can help you, the teacher, be more organized and more efficient. One of the great things about Craft is that you can mold it to fit your workflow.
The Craft app is available for iOS, Mac, and iPadOS. Before you say “darn, I only use a Chromebook or Windows device,” don’t fret. You can access Craft from your Chromebook or Windows device via the web at Craft.do. As a matter of fact, I’m using my Chromebook to write this in Craft!
Remember I said it has the ability to fit your workflow? In essence, Craft is what you make it. If you want to use it strictly for it’s easy calendar integration, you can! Click the calendar icon and create a note or schedule an appointment for a particular day. If you want to use it as a journaling tool, you can do that too! But you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t use Craft for more.
Craft gives you the ability to create folders and sub-folder’s so you can sort your classes and other activities through folders. Then, inside each folder you can get more specific. I created a folder with the title of the class. Inside the class folder I included sub-folders for documents, another for reminders, and another for meeting notes.
The Documents folder is where I upload any handouts from meeting or anything else I find in my teacher mailbox that I deem important. I write down any to-do’s or reminders in the Reminders folder. I record meeting notes in the appropriate staff or student meetings folder.
As I mentioned earlier, Craft can serve as a way to post your syllabus or an assignment on the web. That’s right! Not only can it help you stay organized, but you can use it to post student assignments and post announcements as well as your syllabus. Craft provides what they call a “Secret Link.” click on the share button to the right of a page and turn on the feature. Then, share the link with your class — that’s it!
Craft is a great all-in-one tool I recommend you check out. You can find out more about Craft at Craft.do.
