Keep a Simple Log File in Windows

It’s always a good idea to keep notes of what goes on in your classroom, but with all of the hustle and bustle of daily classroom activities, it’s often difficult to find the time.  By the time you have a spare moment, you might forget all of the details that you wanted to record.  Here’s a way to keep a quick and easy log file for notes (in Windows).

• Right-click on your desktop and select New → Text File.
• Type in “.LOG” as the first line (without the quotes), then hit the return key once.
• Save the file as whatever you want (for example “student-notes.txt”)

A simple trick that adds timestamps to text files

Now, you have a text file on your desktop.  Here’s the cool part: double-click the text file, and when it opens up in the Notepad program a timestamp is automatically added.  Just type in your note, save, and you’re good to go.  You can create a separate note for different things.  Here are some suggestions:

• Student disciplinary notes (student-notes.txt)
• Calls home (parent-communication.txt)
• Professional development, including networking, web research, and etc. (pd.txt)

As a corollary tip, pressing the F5 key while using the Notepad program will also insert a timestamp.

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