Ask any teacher what they know about their students and they'll talk for hours. Ask them to write it all down and suddenly time becomes the enemy. Anecdotal notes are one of the most valuable tools a teacher has, and one of the most consistently under-used, not because teachers don't see the value, but because finding the time to sit down and write them is a challenge that never quite gets easier.
I've spoken with so many teachers who have the best intentions around anecdotal noting. They carry a clipboard. They set reminders. They stay back after school to try and capture what they remember from the day. And still, the notes don't reflect the richness of what they actually observed in the classroom.
The observation isn't the problem. It never was. It's the documentation.
What if you could capture your observations in the moment, just by speaking, and let your device take care of the rest?
Introducing the Anecdotal Notes Sidekick
The Anecdotal Notes Sidekick is part of my Apple Intelligence Sidekicks series, a collection of Apple Shortcuts built to support everyday teacher tasks using Apple Intelligence, running securely on-device.
Here's how it works. Open the Shortcut and simply speak about your students. What you noticed. What they did well. What they're still working on. You can cover multiple students in a single recording, and Apple Intelligence compiles it all into organised anecdotal notes for you, ready to save, share, or file away. No typing. No templates to fill in. Just your professional observations, captured and compiled while they're still fresh.
Anecdotal notes. Every teacher knows they matter, and every teacher knows finding the time to write them is another story. What if your device could do the heavy lifting for you?
Why Apple Intelligence for Anecdotal Notes?
Student observation data is some of the most sensitive information a school holds. Knowing that the notes you're capturing about individual students are processed entirely on your device, and go absolutely nowhere else, should give every teacher and school leader genuine confidence.
On-device processing through Apple Intelligence means there's no cloud upload, no third-party platform storing your observations, and no privacy policy to navigate before you can get started. It's secure by design, and that matters when the subject of your notes is a child in your care.
Beyond privacy, this Shortcut is about removing the barrier between what teachers observe and what gets documented. The more effortless the process, the richer and more frequent the notes. And richer anecdotal notes mean better informed teaching, stronger conversations with families, and more meaningful reporting.
Watch the Anecdotal Notes Sidekick in Action
Anecdotal notes. Every teacher knows they matter, and every teacher knows finding the time to write them is another story. What if your device could do the heavy lifting for you? Take a look.
Download the Anecdotal Notes Sidekick Shortcut
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/93d28c09f50143f79856b0da95f96155
Device Requirements
To run this Apple Shortcut you'll need a device with Apple Intelligence enabled:
- iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max, or iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max running iOS 18.1 or later
- iPad with M1 chip or later running iPadOS 18.1 or later
- Mac with Apple Silicon running macOS Sequoia 15.1 or later
Try It, Tweak It, Share It
Give the Anecdotal Notes Sidekick a go and see how it fits into your classroom routine. I'd love to hear how you use it and whether it changes the way you approach observation and documentation.
Attach up to 5 files which will be available for other members to download.