Interactive Science Notebooks

It didn't take me long last year to recognize the benefit of students having a notebook for their notes and glued in important worksheets.  I often had kids throwing away graded assignments as soon as they got them back and students not remembering information that we had taken note on.

When researching the internet I found the fabulous Interactive Notebooks!  I knew this was going to be an important part of my classroom my second year.

Online you'll find lots of ways that other people set up their notebooks.  I have taken what I've liked and passed by what I didn't like.  One thing I really didn't like was the LEFT PAGE/BRAIN and RIGHT PAGE/BRAIN deal, where you have specific things reserved for each side of the page.  No no no.  I can't think like that.  We'll use that next page for whatever we need, whenever we need, thank you very much!

These are the students' ISN notebooks, grouped by the class they are in.  I have since moved the little black books down.  That large pile is my one seventh grade class with all 15 seventh grade sped students in one block.  Next week the schedule is changing and they'll be in two separate classes, making it more manageable.

I've gained a lot of inspiration from different bloggers, but mostly from the Math = Love blog.  She teaches math but I have taken so many of her ideas on how she organizes and gives praise when kids do well on quizzes.  I first heard about this teacher via a radio broadcast featuring her and her blog when I drove home from work one day.  So glad I tuned the radio to the news that day.  (Seriously, she's amazing.  If you've never seen her blog, CLICK ON THE LINK!!!)

Here are a few features of my Interactive Science Notebooks (ISNs):

• Title Page.
  Students were required to have their name, title of notebook, and class information, as well as a drawing of what science meant to them. In the pictures below, I've taken the shot just below their names to retain privacy.
  
  

  

  This girl hasn't finished coloring hers in yet. This is something they work on when they finish early with other assignments.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

   The green man is a scientist?  Or a bandit? Or a martian? :P
• Unit Table of Content Pages
  I got this from Math=Love (Click to get the file she posted on her blog.  That's what I used!)  Most people have a huge table of contents for the entire book, but I really liked Ms. Hagan's idea to have mini table of contents at the beginning of each unit.  I think it makes it much more manageable and acts as a preview for the unit.

One student's example (spelling is some thing we'll need to work on!)

• Progress Monitoring Page
  This one is mine.  In college one of our classes had a quiz we took multiple times throughout the semester.  We tracked our progress on the different sections throughout the semester.  When we reached passing grade for a section twice in a row, then we never had to take that section of the quiz again.  My students have the same requirement––they have to reach 85% on a quiz section twice before they have officially passed that section and don't have to take it again.
  
  This page allows students to track their progress on these quizzes and on the material taught this unit.  It also is teaching students the skill of the graphing and the relationship between a table and a graph.  My sped kids really need help with this.  I'm hoping that by the end of the year this will be a skill they have mastered, since with every unit they will put their score in the table and graph it.

I'll have to add another picture at the end of the unit so you can see the progress.  Section 1's line will all be done in orange (for every student).  Section 2 will be a different color, and so will section 3.  That way students can keep track of each section on the line graph. 

I only test the sections of the unit that we've covered.  On 8/15 I had only covered the first section.  The students just took their second trial (a week after the first), and they had to take both section 1 and 2, since we covered section 2 that week.  We'll be covering section 3 the next week and then they'll be taking the entire quiz (unless they've passed a section off already).

 I've already found this beneficial as it has encouraged the students to study.  We took their second trial on Friday and I gave them a couple of minutes to study.  I had them really trying their best and even teaming up to test each other.  So this is beneficial because the students know what material they are expected to learn (and will be tested on) and they want to improve.

Things I do to make ISNs easier:

• Have my own draft copy
  I write in this and scribble in this and have ideas of how I want different pages to look.  It's really great and gives me the space to try something or decide I don't like something before I print out the final activity and give it to students.   I have one for my 7th grade curriculum and one for my 8th grade curriculum, and started drafting in them over the summer.

From this draft I realized the print-outs were too big and there wasn't any room for the conclusion.  This allowed me to do a quick fix to the document before having the kids do it the next day.

• Have my own teacher-copy for each period.
  Each class has it's own official teacher copy for me (separate from my draft copy).  I use this to model for the kids exactly how I'm pasting foldables in, exactly what page they're on, etc.  I think this is especially helpful for my kids, being sped and needing good visual scaffolding, but is a good principle for any group of kids.  It's also useful for kids who join my class schedule late (because schedules are never official until after the first 2-3 weeks, right? And even then they change, especially since I'm a sped teacher.  Every year some kids  graduate from sped and some kids enter sped.) and I can show them mine for reference to help them get caught up.  

I'll soon be adding another one since my 7th grade class just split.  Can we say scheduling one more time?

This is the official copy of the draft above that I made with my kids.  (My averages weren't accurate––I was teaching and trying to go quick and show them how to make the graph).  Some parts are directly copying me and others are for them to fill in (in this case, the experiment results and the rest of the conclusion).

• Table Kits
  Each table has an assigned Materials Manager, whose job it is to bring materials to the table, manage materials during class, and gather and return all materials at the end.  Each table has a numbered basket that has numbered scissors, numbered markers, and a numbered glue sponge.  I kind of went over board on the numbering (Yes, I wrote the group number on every marker with permanent marker) because I'm kind of paranoid about losing materials and kids stealing them.  The baskets will also have added whatever other materials may be needed that day.  But enough about that; I know you're all wondering about one material in particular, which brings me to my next item of things that make ISNs easier:

I need a picture of the updated kits with the numbers on them. 

• Glue Sponges!
  Seriously the best thing ever.  I got this idea this summer while perusing the internet for interactive notebook ideas.  I found a video The Kindergarten Smorgasboard  who uses glue sponges in his classroom and finds they are the best way to have glue in the classroom.  They don't make a mess and they eliminate problems that arise when some students thinks the entire back of the page needs to have glue on it––and not just a thin layer of glue, but the entire glue bottle.  So we're saving glue by doing this, too. 

BEHOLD!

Kept in air-tight containers.  They are sprayed with water at the end of the day to keep them moist. 

This is the video Mr. Greg put up on his Kindergarten Smorgasboard blog that I followed watched before making my own glue sponges:

Let me know if you have any suggestions/comments, or let me know how you've set up your interactive notebooks!

Getting Organized!

Last year I was just surviving.  

It was my first year.  I was hired the week before school started and first saw my classroom (which was a dirty, disheveled mess) the Friday before.  There was nothing in the classroom besides desks with computers, which all needed to be removed to change the room from the computer lab into my classroom.  I at least got a few tables in there with mismatching chairs.  I had one small whiteboard with the promise of another big one soon.  There was one large metal cabinet with broken doors.  The teachers desk had slang written on it from past years.

The actual teacher's desk didn't really work, so I used a table for my stuff. 

Cabinet that pretty much remained open the entire year.

This is the only picture I can find of my entire classroom from last year.  It wasn't too bad, but wasn't the best.  We did what we could.  We survived and everybody learned a lot.  (At least I learned a lot!)

I had mismatched chairs all year.  I never got the extra whiteboard.  Halfway through the year someone told me that the scribbles on the teachers desk were inappropriate, so since I couldn't wash it off I covered it up with a black permanent marker.  The cabinet was never fixed.

I was surviving.  I had no idea what supplies my students needed.  The regular supplies for a classroom?  Did I really have to tell them to bring a pencil and paper to my class?

This year has started off MUCH better.  

I'm in a new classroom and actually have things that work.  There is a small whiteboard, a large whiteboard, and two chalk boards on the walls.  There are two bookshelves, and a cabinet that locks.  I have a sink.  I have places to put things.

My classroom this year (taken before students came).  I need to replace this with a more recent photo. The two whiteboards are up in the room and there's more on the walls.

And I'm much wiser on what to tell students to bring.  Bring tissues boxes!  Bring sanitation wipes!  Bring hand sanitizer!  The school does not provide any of these things so you have to tell your students to bring it.  Maybe this isn't news to someone who grew up in American public schools, but for someone like me who grew up overseas and attending an international school where this stuff and more was provided for, it was novel for me.  (I guess our tuition paid for it, but I didn't think about that growing up!)

However, physical organization is not the only thing I learned from last year.  Getting your paperwork and documentation under control is equally important.  I was not organized at all.  I had a drawer that I put most important documents and I would look in that drawer every time I needed to find something and hoped it was down there. 

This year I have a binder that has a tab for every student.

It includes the following forms:

(1) Parent-Teacher Contact Log
A very important part of this form is whether or not the parents (dad or mom: and I note down which or both) can speak English so I know if I need to get a translator.  In the "other" portion, I note if any numbers listed in their school file don't work so I don't waste my time with those.

(2) Student Behavior Log
My favorite part of this form (and an inspired part of this form) is the student signature.  This is how the form works.  Student misbehaves.  I give warnings/consequences or have a talk with the student.  When class ends and they leave I mark down whatever happened and what I did (even if it was just a warning).  The next day the student comes in, I invite them over to the big desk while the other students are working on their Bell Ringer assignment.  I have them read, or I read to them, the statement I wrote.  I ask them if they remember that happening and if they agree with it.  If they do, they sign their name.  If not, then we change the statement until we both agree (this latter part has yet to ever happen).

This student signature has two benefits.  The first is immediate.  STUDENTS KNOW YOU'RE TRACKING THEM.  Also, you've just reminded them at the beginning of the next class of the warning you gave them last class so they're much better behaved. 

The second benefit will come later, if at all.  Last year I had a problem where there was bullying in my class.  It got so bad I escorted the young man to the office after class and explained everything to the AP.  He was placed into In-School-Suspension.  A few days later his mom comes in with him and wants a conference.  I'm pulled out of class to have this conference with mom, the AP, and the student.  The student denies anything happening.  Thankfully the AP backed me up and took my side.  For some reason nowadays, in the parents' eyes, teachers are out to get their students.  If the student fails, it's the teacher's fault.  If the student gets behavior consequences, it's the teacher's fault.  So the parent in this case was much more likely to believe her son than she was to believe me.  Thus, having this student signature on this event (and also the parent contact log, since I had contacted that parent a couple of times regarding this student behavior––something this parent also 'forgot.') would have been very helpful.

(3) Student Information
This is the sheet I had them fill out on the first day of school.  It's where I was informed as to whether or not their parents spoke English or not.  I also loved seeing their favorite things and what their parents did for their living.  It was so insightful.  I'm hoping I can review their interests and goals from time to time so that I can apply them to our lessons or talk about them to build better rapport.

I already feel much more prepared to tackle the year and anything it wants to throw at me.  As a middle school teacher, I know the behavior log would be too overwhelming to many of my peer teachers who see 180 students over two days.  As a special education teacher, I only have 30 students over two days that I worry about.  Thus, my forms are much more manageable.  It's what works for me, and so far it's worked really well.

Go ahead and use anything from this post that you think may work for you.  You don't have to use the whole thing.  You can cut/paste/morph/disassemble anything to suit your needs.   Good luck!

Classroom Principle

This summer I read "Teaching with Love and Logic" by Jim Fay and David Funk.  A great book to read, and I recommend it to any teacher or parent.  My favorite thing about it was the specifics it gave and models on how to respond to certain student behaviors.  I've written a few of those down and review them often to make sure they're fresh in my mind.

One thing I loved from the book was their one rule:  

You can do anything you need to do as long as it doesn't cause a problem for yourself or others.  

It pretty much covers everything.  In our class we call it our class principle.  I have the kids repeat it at the beginning of every class and have different kids offer examples of how this rule applies to every-day interactions in the classroom (or outside the classroom).

There was a poster someone else had made for this principle, but it was bizarre with lots of colors and too many fonts.  I can't handle that.  It's chaotic.  So I created my own.  And it's beautiful and calm.  Here it is:

It's easy for the kids to understand.  It's a concept they can easily apply to other situations and environments.  It's easy to refer to when I'm explaining why a certain behavior is inappropriate for our classroom.  It's pretty much the best.   Thanks, Jim Fay and David Funk.

Starting Anew!

Can you believe that summer is over?  We're half way through our first week and I have yet to blog anything! 

Major changes this year:  I have a new classroom.  It's bigger. It has a sink.  The smartboard is a different brand that I like a whole lot better than the last one.  I have desks rather than large tables (which I think will work a lot better most of the time).  I still have large tables for when I want to put stuff out for projects or experiments.  I have a bookshelf!  All around, it's like I've been promoted!

Some pictures of my classroom.  It's still in progress, as I have yet to finish the bulletin boards and put things on the wall.  But it's functioning right now and it's all good.

Little computer station.  The printer was in the class when I got here, so I thought I might as well try it out.  I haven't been able to get it to turn on yet, though.  I might have to just get rid of it.  Too bad!  I have to go and walk all the way to the other side of the school to pick up my printed copies.

The teachers desk! The lamp was left here by the last teacher.  The Elmo Projector and the computer both connect to the smartboard you see in the background.

A view from the back of the room.  Whiteboard, smartboard, and student desks. Teacher station to the back right.

A view of the back of the room. Still to do: organize the bookshelf , do something with the step ladder, create the entry bulletin board, finish the large wall periodic table (I was going to just do that much, but then I thought it looked a little odd). 
Our half of the school got nice new waxed floors this summer.
I had a student help me with the Success! board today.  :)

The only thing you can't tell from these pictures is that the AC doesn't work, so it's so hot in the classroom!  It's bearable when it's just me, but when there are 15 other bodies in there it gets pretty bad.  But we make due.  We've already had three days of school and it's been a pretty good start.