Google Keep, Who Knew?

I was pleasantly surprised with how popular Google Keep with educators  in Central Vermont graduate course. In addition to the benefits they saw in their own practice, they recognized it's usefulness for upper elementary students using Chrome Books for notetaking.

I love this simple but effective notetaking tool and it's user friendly post-it note style makes it a snap to use--even for elementary students.  Color coding and labels were a big hit. But teachers quickly discovered that the power of Keep is how it works seamlessly with other G Suite applications.

We downloaded the Chrome Extension for Keep in the Chrome Web Store here.  The extension makes it super easy to add website content to Keep.  Here's what the icon looks like when you install the extension in Chrome.

There's also a free app for Android or iPhones.  Find a resource to use in class when you're on your mobile device?  No problem  Just add it to Keep when  you're on the go, and look at it later.

Keep's integration with Google Docs makes it a snap to add your notes and resources to a Doc.  Open the Tools menu in your Doc and the 'Notes from Keep' pane opens on the right.  Click and drag your Keep notes into the open Doc and you're good to go.

And Keep also plays nice with Google Slides. So think about teaching students research and notetaking skills using Keep.  They can use color coding and tagging to organize information into categories for a presentation.  When they're ready, they open Google Slides, click on the Tools menu and add Keep notes to their slides--all with just one tab open.  No lost information.

Google Keep is a keeper for your classroom tool kit!