For this week's blog post I'm going to talk about 2 ways that I help keep students organized in the classroom when dealing with interactive notebook. I love interactive notebooks but they are definitely something that needs some managing and organization. Where are materials kept? How can students access them? What if a student is absent on the day of a new page? First I want to share a method of organizing materials that I implemented last year to great success. Students already receive numbers in my classroom for calculator use. So, in addition to using their number for a calculator, the number also corresponds to a pencil pouch on the wall. Each pencil pouch contains one of the following: scissors, glue stick, pencil, eraser, highlighter, 6-inch ruler, dry erase marker and dry eraser. Items that are easily lost (pencil, eraser, ruler) are labeled with their number. Even though the pencils were labeled with a bright pink or green duct tape flag, I still lost many. It's a never ending battle, right? Besides the loss of pencils, this system worked fabulously. I had four classes (this year, 5) so the pouch itself is shared among 4 or 5 students which makes tracking down lost materials very easy. It also helped solve the problem of my desks eating supplies. Some students even got into the habit of grabbing the pouch every day as they walked in, regardless of whether we needed them or not. The second picture shows what the wall looks like after all the pouches are removed (in use). I found out the hard way that these labels are necessary after the first use last year when 24 students were all trying to hang up their pouches on a blank wall. The numbers give each student a place and makes putting them back easy. I'm trying something new to help organize extra INB copies especially when students are absent. Last year I used these hanging folders to hold worksheets/notes pages for absent students but the problem was that the INB pages would slide down and students had no idea they were there. Take two: Sorry for the slightly blurry picture!
I'm still using the file folders but I'll be using Sarah Carter's "While you Were Out" template. These forms will be filled out by either myself or another student and stuck in the corresponding folder. Full size worksheets will also be housed in these folders. All INB pages however, will go into these binders, one for each prep. This also helps out my co-teacher and paras looking for extra copies of INB pages. I'm also going to try to keep a master copy of the table of contents for each prep to help students stay organized. Since this is something new I'm trying, I'll post an update with how it goes.
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The first day of school is rapidly approaching and while I'm the type of teacher that has thought about the upcoming school year all summer long, my 1st day plans are still not 100% finalized yet.
Of two things I am entirely sure I am doing: 1)Order of Operations Seat Finder I used this last year and I loved it! Students are doing math as soon as they walk in my door. I hand students a question card as they walk in the door and they need to simplify the expression and find the corresponding seat number. Some students found their seats quickly and others struggled. Students naturally helped each other out. I only had one instance where a student simplified incorrectly, but it led to some good mathematical discourse and error analysis on day 1! 2) Sara VanderWerf's Name Tents (linked here) I did not use these last year as I knew most of my students from the previous year. I'm excited to use these this year and really commit to strong relationships with all of my students from the very beginning. I like that they can get started on this as soon as they find their seat, too. Here's where I have options. I know I want to do math. I know I want to engage and encourage all students. I don't know what that looks like yet. Some ideas I've tossed around:
Which do you prefer? What other suggestions do you have? It's the start of August and that means it's time to start to really think about the upcoming school year. Currently, I'm splitting my energy between classroom decoration mode and actual teaching preparation and I thought it was as good a time as any to pick up blogging again (everything seems easy in August, right?).
Anyways, here goes, here are my goals for the 2017-2018 school year. 1. Reflect. Every day. In writing. Yeah. I know. Ambitious. I'm setting my bar low and saying that a one sentence reflection is better than no reflection. And who knows, maybe this will help with more consistent blogging? 2. Stay organized. Instead of tossing extra copies into one pile and originals in another (sometimes even the same pile) and sorting through them each vacation, I'm hoping to at least create piles for each prep (I have 2). I also want to create crates for all of the INB extras for each prep so students and paras and coteachers and myself can find them easily. Along with this, I'd like to have lesson plans and copies made for at least the entire week if not two weeks in advance. 3. Relationships. It seems obvious. I want to pay particular attention to the 20 students I'll have in homeroom every day. Those 5 minutes are hard to fill with meaningful interactions. Suggestions are appreciated! 4. Flexible thinking This seems to be the guiding focus for my SLO this year (student learning objective). Still formulating what exactly this will look like and how to write a SLO surrounding it but I'm excited to explore it with my students. Ideas include: a play/fidget table, mental math Mondays and which doesn't belong? Also open to suggestions here. Four seems like a good place to stop. I don't want to be completely overwhelmed in goals. I'm ready to #pushsend and jump back (and hopefully stay) into blogging this school year! |
AuthorI teach 8th grade math in Connecticut. This is my 3rd year teaching! Archives
August 2017
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