Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

This is a short 3 minute video on how I've incorporated movement into a science classroom. Hopefully it will spark some ideas on how you can get your students moving in class to help them remember some concepts with movement. NOTE - When I show the Xylum/Phloem movement I forgot to add the the half jumping jack creates an X (which is what the word Xylum starts with to help students remember).

Day 2 Prior to class starting you should have your science textbook on each table (or make sure each child brings their copy of the textbook). Pass out notebooks . See if students can remember any of your rules (review). Show them the instruction booklet you glued in the day before. Have them turn to the instructions about title pages and have them make their first title page next to the page you glued the inquiry standards on. I make a sample title page on the Interative White Board (IWB) and we go through what could be drawn in each block (this is a nice classroom discussion and gives you an idea of what students already know about science). Block 1 is generally something about safety, block 2 is some kind of tool a scientist might use, block 3 is a graph of some kind, block 4 I have them draw the five senses (this is where I teach them the interactive definition of observation - see video above. This gets them up and moving. Students can copy what you drew on the IWB...

Here is what would be my rough plan for the first day in my science classroom: (DISCLAIMER - As many of my readers know I took an Instructional Technology Coach position last year and will be doing the same this coming year. Although my main job in the schools I serve....four this year....is to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom I still help out with teachers who want to implement notebooking in the classroom. Floating between four schools also gives me the opportunity to see great teaching ideas and share among schools and this blog!). Day 1 - This is usually collecting supplies, going over classrooom rules (everything from bathroom procedures to tucking in chairs - I usually act out the behaviors I don't want to see and the behaviors I do want to see...which usually cracks up the students). Show them where you keep things in the classroom (particularly the Plan of the Day). I have students practice a fire drill so they know where to go when they a...

I recently went to a training with a friend of mine who teaches fourth grade (all subjects). It was the kind of training where somethings were useful but then there were large pockets of time where we were doodling, writing our "to do" list, and generally not paying attention. During that time I put together a rough plan of how I would spend the first few weeks in science and the rough timing for the rest of the school year. I'm posting it in case readers might find it helpful during the planning phase of summer (I am trying to develop an entire unit plan for my Teachers Pay Teachers site but I'm not sure I can get it done quickly enough). The first weeks in science is dedicated to our inquiry standards. The general understanding is that our inquiry standards are introduced in those first few weeks and then many of the concepts are woven into our other standards (Weather, Organisms, etc.). The problem with our inquiry standards is that they can ...

I saw this in June/July 2012 issue of Family Fun Magazine and I thought was kind of fun. I definitely would have used it when my son was younger because somehow he could never get his dirty clothes into the hamper (all around it but never in it). I solved my problem by only washing the clothes that made it into the hamper and after a few washings he got the general drift. This poster would have been a lot more fun. The parent in question would tear off the bottom strips each time clothes were left on the floor. Each strip was worth extra TV time for her children. I thought this could be used in a classroom with the tear off strips on the bottom worth extra recess time (5 minutes for each tab left on Friday). It could be made to gauge classroom behavior for the day or (in my case) were all papers turned in with names on it (my pet peeve). It is possible to reverse it so instead of tearing off strips for the infraction you could add strips if the class was good (positive versus ne...

This is a short (4 minute) video of a lesson plan kit for scientific tools and their uses I put on the Teachers Pay Teachers site. The video gives a description of what you get in the packet and how to use it in your classroom. If you are interested hop on over to my TpT site at - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Notebooking-Scientific-Tools-and-Uses

I've had a lot of requests for the copy of the interactive notebook book guidelines that students get at the beginning of the year. This something I did not create. It was given to me when I first started notebooking. I have since tweaked it a bit and modified it so it could be printed in booklet form (which made it easier to glue to the front cover of the composition book). In the interest of "paying it forward" I am adding it to my Teachers Pay Teachers listing as a free download - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Notebooking-Student-Instructions . Enjoy!

I told a friend of mine that I was saving to purchase a Vitamix blender (my mother got me into drinking green smoothies on a recent trip home - unfortunately those blenders run $500!!!!). I am currently making them in my regular blender (so far so good) but I still would like to get a Vitamix. My friend suggested that I make templates for some of the things that I post on my blog and put them out on Teachers Pay Teachers. I thought I would give it a try. You are required to post your first item for free. The first item I posted was my PowerPoint of a completed student notebook (which I have had posted for free on this blog for the better part of two years). Here is the link if you are interested - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Notebooking-in-Science-PowerPoint The second item I posted was a cut and paste template for the paper pull out pictured above. I set the cost at $2.00 only because the seller gets about $0.30 on the dollar (after fees to both the TPT...