Conferring Tool #1: Confer!

Apr 16, 2013

And now, a guest post from our Together Teacher Coordinator, Shelby:

When I taught K-2 guided reading and writing, I was constantly looking for a better way to keep track of my conference notes. I tried binders with tabs, clipboards, notebooks… and everything else under the sun.

I dreamed of the day and the app that would allow me to take notes on my phone or tablet and then be able to access them later on my computer! I wanted a tool that would let me not just keep track of my notes, but most importantly, ACTUALLY USE the notes I had gone to great lengths to take!

There had to be some tool, someday, that could automatically put together all my data to inform my strategy groups AND my teaching points!

TODAY is that DAY!  And there are now not just one, but TWO, great tools on the market to assist teachers conference electronically.

The first option (Spoiler Alert: Evernote is Tool #2, and I’m going to tell you all about it in just a few days…) is Confer, a pretty amazing App created by a Board Certified Teacher.

Check out this informative tutorial on all of its benefits. A few quick reasons I love Confer:

  • Easy and quick to take notes
  • Sorts data by next step, strengths, teaching points and tags
  • Sorts students by reading level and last conference date
  • Features enable easy sharing with parents, teachers and administrators

And here are a few considerations:

  • At $14.99, the price tag is a little steep
  • The app is currently only available for iOS (iPhone and iPad)
  • In order to access data on your computer, you need to export to Excel

I love Confer because it comes ready to go and has an aesthetically pleasing user interface!

Together Teacher Discussion Question: How do you track and use your conference notes? Any follow-up questions for Shelby?