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| Quote made with PicMonkey |
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Places I Visit
Here are some places I love to visit.
- Mr. Roughton
- My class is all about teaching my students to appreciate history. In a perfect world they would do that naturally but in our modern hyper-interactive world that usually isn't the case. My goal is to bridge the gap between their lives and the lives of the past through use of modern technology and techniques.
- The Middle School Mouth
- I currently teach 7th grade language arts and science. This is my seventeenth year teaching. I am loving teaching two different subjects, especially science. I never thought I would be allowed to teach anything but language arts. Interactive notebooks have become my new go to tool and I am looking for more ideas, foldables, etc. to use in them. Any suggestions, sites, materials, or whatever are SO welcome!
- Free Technology for Teachers
- The purpose of this site is to share information about free resources that teachers can use in their classrooms.
What are your favorite blogs?
Monday, September 3, 2012
Interactive Student Notebook
The Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) is a tool that I use in my classroom to help students with organization, note taking, studying, and focusing. I went to my first Teachers' Curriculum Institute - History Alive! training in 2003 and have been on the band wagon ever since. I can't imagine teaching without my ISN!
If you aren't familiar the ISN it is "just" a spiral notebook. This year I went BIG and asked students to get a humongo spiral. A Mead Five Star college spiral in the 5 subject size. It will last the entire year, has lots of pockets, and will also have space for our Social Studies vocabulary. I use the traditional left and right side, but with a twist. A professional development class I went to suggested using the Hook, Line, and Sinker terms - just student speak for having preview, notes, and processing sections for your ISN.
Last Friday was ISN set up day in class. It's one of my favorite lessons. I really sell the ISN. First, I decorate a medium sided box to look like a present. The top of the box is open and you can only see the colored tissue paper that is inside the box. You can not see the ISN that I have hidden inside the box.
Then, I play the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme. Very dramatically I slowly move the box around the classroom. I do not let students see inside it. I act like I'm peeking in the box and that I am thrilled with what is inside. I continuemy award winning acting following along with the music waiting for the big moment in the music.
Finally, when the music is ready for its big crescendo I remove the colored issue paper and reveal my ISN. I use my ISN from last year. Along with the temp of the music I flip the pages of my ISN revealing some of the activities that I did last year. I'm very dramatic and silly with it. They end up being very curious and it's an awesome enroll.
The set up of the ISN is themed around a fishing trip. This relates to our format - the hook, line, and sinker sections of the ISN. I show these slides in class and help them remember which side is which. I also started Teach-Okay for the first time ever. Students reviewed the parts of the ISN, what the Hook does, etc. with each other. I really enjoyed using Teach-Okay and will work on future lessons to fit this Whole Brain Teaching concept.
You'll see a lot of red notes on the slides. That's because in my class students write down what I have in red. This eliminates the "Mrs. Jackson, do I have to write this down?" questions.
Do you use the ISN in your class? What are some struggles that you face introducing the left and right side pages? How much do you love the ISN? Can't wait to check out what you are doing with the ISN in your class!
If you aren't familiar the ISN it is "just" a spiral notebook. This year I went BIG and asked students to get a humongo spiral. A Mead Five Star college spiral in the 5 subject size. It will last the entire year, has lots of pockets, and will also have space for our Social Studies vocabulary. I use the traditional left and right side, but with a twist. A professional development class I went to suggested using the Hook, Line, and Sinker terms - just student speak for having preview, notes, and processing sections for your ISN.
Last Friday was ISN set up day in class. It's one of my favorite lessons. I really sell the ISN. First, I decorate a medium sided box to look like a present. The top of the box is open and you can only see the colored tissue paper that is inside the box. You can not see the ISN that I have hidden inside the box.
Then, I play the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme. Very dramatically I slowly move the box around the classroom. I do not let students see inside it. I act like I'm peeking in the box and that I am thrilled with what is inside. I continue
Finally, when the music is ready for its big crescendo I remove the colored issue paper and reveal my ISN. I use my ISN from last year. Along with the temp of the music I flip the pages of my ISN revealing some of the activities that I did last year. I'm very dramatic and silly with it. They end up being very curious and it's an awesome enroll.
The set up of the ISN is themed around a fishing trip. This relates to our format - the hook, line, and sinker sections of the ISN. I show these slides in class and help them remember which side is which. I also started Teach-Okay for the first time ever. Students reviewed the parts of the ISN, what the Hook does, etc. with each other. I really enjoyed using Teach-Okay and will work on future lessons to fit this Whole Brain Teaching concept.
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| Hook Section of the ISN |
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| Line Section of the ISN |
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| Sinker Section of the ISN |
Do you use the ISN in your class? What are some struggles that you face introducing the left and right side pages? How much do you love the ISN? Can't wait to check out what you are doing with the ISN in your class!
Monday, August 27, 2012
First Day
"They're Ba-ack!" ~ Carol Anne from Poltergeist II
Today we started back to school. This will be my ninth first day of school as a teacher. I still get butterflies.
Class Happenings:
When students first arrived I greeted each one and welcomed them to their new school. Students got busy working on a short student survey. The survey allowed me to continue checking in students, allowed students to get into the routine of having a warm-up, and gave me priceless information about them.
During the presentation I was conscious of students losing interest so I built in Brain Breaks. Our first Brain Break was a getting to know you activity. I found this activity from the Finding JOY in 6th Grade blog. I did change about 5 of the questions. I didn't have any dice so I made mine with paint pens and small wooden cubes from Hobby Lobby. It worked and was low cost. While students were participating I checked in with each group and would comment or dig deeper on some of their answers. I think activities like this help build a cooperative learning environment and strengthen our classroom culture. Another Brain Break was a quick high-five to 10 students. During that activity I had a student ask me "Is this really necessary?" I should have expected this, but I was actually taken aback by her question. Usually on the first day students are very compliant. I commented that getting to know each other was important and added that a positive attitude goes a long way.
I did touch on content. I focused on the 5 strands of social studies: culture, history, economy, government, and geography. I wanted students up and out of their seats so I created a SMART Board activity where students matched terms and definitions.
I then taught and practiced how to get their attention. I use the attention getter: Class-Yes from Whole Brain Teaching. I ended the class with another SMART board activity to help students get to know me. There were several different colored boxes on the board and students would click a box to reveal a picture about me.
Even with the hiccup it was a great day!
I'm ready to get going, but have to slow down a bit to make sure I cover more procedures and expectations. Gotta start the year off right!
Hope you had a fantastic first day of school. What do you normally cover?
Class Happenings:
When students first arrived I greeted each one and welcomed them to their new school. Students got busy working on a short student survey. The survey allowed me to continue checking in students, allowed students to get into the routine of having a warm-up, and gave me priceless information about them.
During the presentation I was conscious of students losing interest so I built in Brain Breaks. Our first Brain Break was a getting to know you activity. I found this activity from the Finding JOY in 6th Grade blog. I did change about 5 of the questions. I didn't have any dice so I made mine with paint pens and small wooden cubes from Hobby Lobby. It worked and was low cost. While students were participating I checked in with each group and would comment or dig deeper on some of their answers. I think activities like this help build a cooperative learning environment and strengthen our classroom culture. Another Brain Break was a quick high-five to 10 students. During that activity I had a student ask me "Is this really necessary?" I should have expected this, but I was actually taken aback by her question. Usually on the first day students are very compliant. I commented that getting to know each other was important and added that a positive attitude goes a long way.
I did touch on content. I focused on the 5 strands of social studies: culture, history, economy, government, and geography. I wanted students up and out of their seats so I created a SMART Board activity where students matched terms and definitions.
I then taught and practiced how to get their attention. I use the attention getter: Class-Yes from Whole Brain Teaching. I ended the class with another SMART board activity to help students get to know me. There were several different colored boxes on the board and students would click a box to reveal a picture about me.
Even with the hiccup it was a great day!
I'm ready to get going, but have to slow down a bit to make sure I cover more procedures and expectations. Gotta start the year off right!
Hope you had a fantastic first day of school. What do you normally cover?
Monday, August 20, 2012
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