Who We Are
NorielNotes.com is a small business that strives to provide educators and parents with educational resources.
NorielNotes.com just started off as a small family business. It started off as an idea like most things in life but then we decided to give it a try. We are currently based in Malta, although our dream is to travel. We wanted to created something that is different while at the same time accommodating the learners as well as the educators.
We are currently a team of two people, my husband and myself. We both have experience in the education sector, and giving students and educators the tools they need to succeed is one of our goals with this website.
Our Philosophy
We believe that life is all about perspective. In the case of education, being present at the back of the classroom offers different shades on the palette than that of being a teacher at the front of the classroom. From my experience, I can say that I worked well with most of the teachers and many, including myself, were curious of what it feels like to be on the other side of the classroom. There were a couple of lessons where we switched places. It was fun for us as well as for the students. Additionally, it gave us a completely new perspective.
For example, when I took the place of the teacher, I could realise how difficult it is for the teacher to conduct a lesson while the Learning Support Educators are supporting the students they are assigned with especially when there is more than one LSE in class). So I was wondering whether I may be too loud for my teacher sometimes for instance. The teacher on the other hand told me how patient an LSE must be to be able to sit down at the children’s level and see everything from the students’ perspective while needing to discern what to educate and what not to correct and thus let go.
Why We Do What We Do
As a learning support educator I was exposed to a variety of resources (and the lack of them) for students with different needs and abilities. I was also interested to understand how teachers plan their work and what difficulties they find when planning. Everyone may understand how time consuming planning is and this is one of the main reasons why norielnotes.com came to be. Educators need resources to facilitate learning. So why not create a platform where educators and parents can find ready-made resources? Most packs are available in both a free and a premium version. Another aim for norielnotes.com was that knowing that the classroom is full of different strengths and needs it takes planning to another level. Teachers have to have more than one worksheet with different levels depending on the students while sticking with the same learning outcome. This may be breathtaking to plan and it is not always easy to find adaptations of this kind. Slowly, with norielnotes.com we are trying to accommodate this request as well.
About Our Resources
While building the resources, we try to keep in mind as many things as possible. This includes high flyers, gifted students, special needs students such as students with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, among others. We might not always be successful as we are also on a learning journey so please do forward us any suggestions you may enquire along the way. We are trying to keep our feet on the ground. We built resources ourselves through the experience we already gained.
In fact, there are some things which we would like you to know before glimpsing at what norielnotes.com has to offer. Our resources as you may see, are as constructive as possible meaning that students should not get lost working them out because they will know exactly what to look at, what to do, and where to put the answers. You will notice that our resources are colour coded. Through experience we noticed that this helps everyone, adults and children. Through colours, children may easily understand which subject they are going to learn (should us adults forget to remind them!). This is how we distributed the colours:
- Maths: red
- English: blue
- Maltese/Italian/Languages: orange
- Religion: purple
- Science: green
- Music: brown
- Art: pink
Some resources may be printed and used without any preparation work needed, others need to be printed and laminated, while others need to be cut and used with Velcro. All resources may also be printed in black and white. Learning needs to be fun and we have noticed that when children need to use a whiteboard marker or Velcro, they tend to learn faster because they enjoy it. Most of the time, their motivation is increased, and they start asking themselves to be given resources to work out. For me, that is the most satisfying part of the job!
Thinking Ahead
Should this project work out, we have other plans in mind, which may involve you too: your ideas, your queries and most importantly, your work. We want norielnotes.com to be the place where one person’s time saves hours of work for others. In such a dynamic world, time is indeed precious and sharing is caring as well as satisfying. Do not be shy or timid to ask the students what they like or dislike from the resources that we provide. Who can tell you better than the consumers themselves?
We thank you for taking some time to read our objectives and who we are. Enjoy going through our resources. Stay tuned as more resources are always being made and should you or the children have any suggestions kindly feel free to inform us. We are always ready for constructive feedback from our clients.
norielnotes.com team