Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

Last week we have been focusing on the steps of the scientific method and identifying variables in an experiment . Notebook Activities DAY 1 Left Hand Side - Steps of the scientific method in order with explanation of each step. Whole group instruction. Right Hand Side Activity - Students created a poster of the scientific method with steps, pictures, and color. Day 2 Left and Right Side - Lab paperwork (see picture above). We were testing out the effectiveness of different coozies . Students took the temperature of their soda in the coozie every 5 minutes for 20 min. Students watched a taped episode of Food Detectives - How To Cool Your Mouth After Eating Spicy Foods (scientists mention the scientific method during the part where they test the 5 second rule for food dropped on the floor) in between the timing of the soda. Reviewed the steps of the scientific method before and during the experiment and during the TV Show. Day 3 Reviewed scientific method (we had it down as a chant b...

I get a lot of requests for the above clock partner wheel so I downloaded it to my file downloads . This is modified slightly from a similar activity I did during a conference. I introduced clock partners in my science class this past Wednesday and the students loved scheduling times with one another to meet as partners. My principal walked in while students were moving around getting their clocks filled up and he enjoyed watching the activity. Whew! I have a class that requires some heavy differentiating. I choose to wait to introduce it to this group until I get a better feel for the students and their ability to work in small groups. I wrote about clock partners more in depth last January (if you click on "clock partners" under labels on the right it should take you to my original post on the subject). I plan for the first month or so to have students meet as partners twice a week to work on an activity in the notebook. It is my hope that by doing that that students will q...

In a previous post I have links to a set of starter pages that are downloadable and just wanted to clarify. I don't use everything in those pages and they are not in the order I would put them in the notebook (although I wouldn't put them in the book next year except in booklet form to save my gluing sanity :) and space. The page picture above is a perfect example. I don't use the sensory figure instructions. In my modified set of starter pages I have taken this out. It seemed more for social studies notebooks then science. Also, a few posts down I noted that I changed my title page requirements to simplify. I changed my starter pages to reflect that and I included the number of lines students were to go down after experiencing problems last year. The original starter pages that I received my first year of teaching had a TON more pages - my contact information, table of content, class requirements and textbook information, an overview of our topics of study, more detailed...

I finally figured a way to store and share files on this blog (I think). Click here if you are interested in downloading a copy of the grading checklist. Click here if you are interested in downloading a copy of the notebooking starter pages. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works :)

There had been a request to post the check system that I use. This is one I received from a fifth grade teacher at our school that has been working well. I'll try and convert to a pdf so I can post for download.

Best Buy has these Flash Drives on sale this week. The 8G is only $20, which is a really good price. I like it because it slides in and out. I have one with a cap and I am PARANOID about loosing it. Last year I bought an 8G for school and I am always saving lesson plans, notebook pages, video downloads, pictures, and music downloads for school and I've never run out of space. Check to make sure that it comes with a lanyard, some of them don't (which is really annoying!). They do sell them separately.

In my first year of teaching I was given these starter pages from my team teacher, Mrs. Gannon, who maintains a social studies blog for the Interactive Notebooks (IAN). There are about 16 pages of "instructions" on various notebooking activities from how to write an appropriate acrostic poem to how to put together a storyboard in the notebook. Students can use these instructional pages to refer back to how an assignment should be done. Over the years I have modified these instructional pages, deleting what I don't use, clarifying something I might use a lot, or simply revising it all together. I've seen some other revised starter pages that also include Cornell notetaking strategies. I have always pre -glued these pages into the notebook, skipping the first page (which is the notebook title page). As stated above this takes up 16 pages of the notebook. It hasn't been a problem for me, as I have always had enough space. Last year both Mrs. Gannon, and another n...