Interactive Student Notebooks

Forced organization is a crucial part of teaching middle school students.  Many students in the 7th grade could not find their head if it was not attached to their bodies, let alone the homework from last night or the notes from three months ago.  As a mildly OCD, type A personality, with a (not so) secret love for The Container Store this general unorganization would not fly in my classroom.

Enter the Interactive Student Notebook.

The idea of a student notebook is not entirely a new concept, though it does seem to be gaining a renewed sense of popularity.  Essentially an Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) is a composition notebook where the students keep their notes and self practice work all in one place.  However, a good ISN is so much more than that.  Ideally notes are taken in ways that will help students remember the concepts; ideas are grouped on pages using foldables and color.  Examples are specifically chosen to represent the main ideas of the concepts and student work included is purposefully selected.

Much of my ISN is based on Sarah Rubin's Interactive Notebooks.  She is a genius when it comes to explaining how notebooking works and how she started.  I HIGHLY recommend you go read her blog posts to help you get started.

(Sarah Rubin's Everybody is a Genius Blog)

Now for my two cents.  While I loved Sarah's set up, I was struggling to find a way to keep myself organized and tie in a way to help absent students catch up.  Thus, the ISN Bucket was born.  

The ISN Bucket is the organizational system behind my ISN.  Each hanging file folder corresponds to one set of ISN pages.  Within each folder are the copies or foldables used on that page.  Each tab is also color coded to show which groups of pages are from the same chapter or unit.  The very first file holds my ISN as an example for students who were absent.  The last three files contain extra blank paper, graph paper, and vocabulary boxes similar to the ones found here.  I added a file to the box as we added pages to our ISN's last year but this year I will have my ISN pages ready to go! (Not that I won't do some tweaking and editing but it will be a nice place to start!)

I should add that this bucket sits out on a counter in my classroom and students have free access to its contents.  When students return from being absent, and want to know what they missed, I just point to the bucket and they know what to do! 

Are you using an Interactive Student Notebook?  What else do you do to make your life and students lives more organized?

SBG

SBG, or Standards Based Grading, is a new way of thinking about grading.  However, it is not really that "new" of a concept.  SBG is based in the idea that students should have a grade that reflects their content knowledge, not their ability to follow rules, stay organized, or make it through the maze that is a school day.  It is such a novel and logical idea that it just may work! I am working through the details for using standards based grading in my very traditional school this year.  Below is the introduction I plan to use with my parents on back to school night.  I hope to share more about this as I finalize my plans.

Puppy Love

While the focus for this blog will be engagement and instruction of human students I must take a minute and share with you my newest (most favorite) student:

Meet Ellie!  She is our new ten week old yellow lab and I am slightly obsessed with her! This summer teaching has gone from integers and ratios to sit, stay, and good girl.

Introduction

This is my very first blog post ever! While I may be new to writing a blog, I am no stranger to reading other's blogs.  I think that blogs are a great way for teachers to communicate, share best practices, and support each other.  The following are a few of my favorite teacher blogs:

Middle School Math Rules: Written by a 7th grade math teacher who is currently in the middle of a summer book study series

4mulaFun: A blog with math and special education in mind.  She has GREAT foldable and flippable ideas for interactive student notebooks

Everybody is a Genius: A great classroom blog written by a high school remedial math teacher.