An Administrators Favorite Mobile Apps

Our group of AVID Administrators was recently asked what mobile apps we use most often to help me in my work. I provided a list and did not explain my why. So now that she has asked, I decided to put the what and why here. These are the apps I use DAILY in my work as an administrator:

On my phone, I need apps that will do the following:

• Organize me
• Let me dump resources easily into spots that are easy to find
• Keep me on schedule and where I am supposed to be
• Allow me to easily share the awesome things that are going on at school everyday

Google Keep - This is my favorite app for so many things:

• The first is the obvious to do list. But Google Keep is so much more than a to do list! I can make check boxes to check things off and share it with others so they can add or edit as we go. My husband and I have our collaborative grocery list running at all times. 
• Like other Google apps, it syncs with my laptop so when I'm working at my desk I can see all of my google keep notes and to do lists: 
• When I'm in a classroom, I can take photos from the Google Keep app and put them directly into a note.
• I can take a handwritten note on my phone if I want to draw a picture of something
• There is color coding and priorities
• Notifications and reminders - you can even get a notification by place (when I drive by a certain Walmart, my grocery list comes up on my phone!)
• Oh and you can voice type into the app to take notes also which is very handy when I leave a classroom walk through
• I can even dump articles and highlights from Kindle books into Google Keep (I prefer Google Drive for that but it's handy).
• It is also an organization app that I am teaching my 13 year old son to use to organize himself.

There is so much more when you consider how students can use it also!

Google Drive - As a mobile app, Google Drive has replaced my use of Evernote.

• It is my dumping grounds for all resources I find online. When I am reading articles, blog posts or looking at links on my phone I can easily dump and organize them into Google Drive folders with a few taps. I get so many resources on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere that I want to save and Google Drive has it available from any device wherever I am am.
• I have 3 Google Accounts: School, Professional, Personal and I send things seamlessly to the particular one that pertains to the resource I am saving.

Evernote - I started using Evernote in 2007 as my dumping ground for resources. I keep my account because I have so much stuff on it but I barely use it anymore because I use my Google Drives. I don't think any particular app is better, what is important is that you have a place to easily "dump" stuff for future use/reference.

Google Photos - I take a lot of photos at school and around the district and Google Photos allows me to not take up space on my phone because they are uploaded to the cloud. I can organize photos into albums, share with others, easily search for photos, create collages, make basic movies, animations, and then there are the editing tools. Google Photos make sharing photos to school social media accounts so simple.

Google Calendar - This is my number one organizational tool! I would be lost and missing everything without this. I love that when I am standing in a teacher's room and we want to do a collaborative lesson or an observation I am putting it in my phone and inviting her on the spot. Again the sharing ability is key. Our teachers have access to my calendars and they can look and see where I am and what I am doing. We have our School Master Calendar for all staff to see... I can go on and on...

Bitly - Bitly is my go to URL shorten-er that I use when I am sharing a resource that has a very LONG URL. As a Twitter user, with the limited characters, I don't want to waste characters on an URL. Also, when I am sharing with teachers and/or students, I can personalize the URL so that it is easier to type in.

(Twitter, Instagram, Facebook to post school happenings and photos)

I use many more mobile apps but these are the ones I use ALL throughout the day, EVERYDAY!

SIDE NOTE:
One thing I tell everyone, think about what you want to do or what you need the app for and then find the app that suits that need. If someone uses Dropbox then they don't need to switch to something else like Evernote. The apps are technically doing the same job just a bit differently. I picked Evernote because it suited a need for me to dump resources and easily share them with students and teachers.