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Digitizing and Organizing Paper Handouts with DocScan HD

 Are your stacks of Professional Development notes, research articles, and flyers stacking up on your desk? Today I’m sharing an awesome app to keep all those ‘random’ papers teachers collect from hitting the trash can and never being seen again.
You know what I am talking about – the pile of paper you’re handed at the staff meeting, the chart with
Lexile/DRA/Scholastic Counts conversions, the sweet parent note you found inmyour mailbox. In my first-year teacher, I found that I was handed so many great resources, but two months later I have no idea where they are. Yes, I have a folder, but *sometimes* I am an overly aggressive purger. Hand a document to me; I’ll have it for the week. Send me the document in an email or PDF; and I’ll have it forever.
Doc Scan
DocScan HD which allows you to scan in any document, handout, magazine, etc. and it will turn it into a PDF that can be emailed or saved to DropBox (it is an app that costs $1.99 but to me, it’s totally worth it)! Below I’ve show how this little app works.
Within DocScan, I keep several folders active – Staff Meeting Handouts, Positive Notes, Assessments, Student Resources, and Professional Development. I’ve loved using the app to store magazine articles I want to share with my 5th graders. I can save the articles so I have them for future years, as well as, allowing me to add the articles to our 5th grade Showbie account.
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It’s a really simple app, but fantastic for storing hard-copy materials in a digital format, so you always have access to them!  Do you have any favorite apps for scanning documents or the perfect system for organizing staff meeting materials? If so, please let me know! I love learning new tricks. Happy organizing, friends! 🙂

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15 Responses

    1. Yep, it's that easy! You can organize them in folders and then, save them as a PDF. Then, I save them to my DropBox or leave them on DocScan. Either way, it's simple! 🙂

  1. This is such a great idea. Our copier is actually a scanner, so I can probably use that instead, but like you I am a super purger and get rid of things easily. Creating folders for things on my computer for digital versions is probably something I should start doing!

    Kristin
    Teaching In A Nutshell

  2. This would be a great way to quickly scan and add notes and handouts from school to a class website to ensure parents have access to see them. I know many of those notes get lost and left behind by students. Thanks!

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