Beginning of the school year and Interactive Notebooks - Beginning Year Three

     School has started! We had 3 days of in-service and PD last week. One of the best parts of the training is catching up with friends from other buildings that I have worked with over the years. My district is large with seven middle schools and five high schools. I've been on lots of committees and worked in three different buildings so there were lots of people to see. When I was talking to several people some of them asked me what an interactive notebook was and how to use it. This made me realize I would like to share in a little more detail how I use interactive notebooks in my classroom and what the first few days of class are like in my room.
   There are so many Numbers about Me projects out there and they are all great. I love Sarah's from Math = Love. It is short, which I need on the first day of class and an easy way for me to add color to my classroom. I start with a PowerPoint presentation about me. Numbers are on the screen and the kids need to guess why that number is important to me. It's a fun way to introduce myself to them. Examples are the number of years I've been married, the number of children we have, 13 the number of letters in my last name and so on. Then they fill out the numbers about me sheet. I put a few restrictions on the numbers they can use. They cannot pick their age or grade since they would all have the same number. We have 45 minute periods so by the time I go through PBIS tools, the PowerPoint and this activity the period is over. I collect them and get to know a little about each of the students and hang them up in the classroom.

This is from last year. Each class had a different color piece of paper for the  Numbers about Me by Sarah at Math = Love. The kid friendly Math Practice Posters above the board are from the other Sarah at Everyone is a genius.

The next day the kids discovered what learning style they have. I love the Learning Styles survey from Sarah at Everyone is a Genius. I did however have difficulty downloading it so I decided to make it a foldable. Thanks Sarah for the very detailed post on how to use these in the classroom. Stop by and read Sarah's information and how she follows up with the students. This is a great way to help kids develop study skills that are personalized to how they learn. Both these pages are adapted from Sarah's post.

I always thought I was a visual learner so it was a surprise the see I was actually kinesthetic. No wonder I love foldables and INB's so much, they are hands-on activities with a lot of movement. I also NEVER sit while I am teaching so that was a big clue. The list on my thumb is not on the kinesthetic learner suggestions but I know it works for me so I added it. As a matter of fact I have lists that tell me what list to look at. I'm serious about that!

After the kids finished the survey we had them look at Sarah's (everyone is a genius Sarah) learning style suggestions for ideas on how they can use their learning style to help them improve their retention when they study. Now I want to use this information in class to help them as well.

There will be more later this week. I'm excited to share how we start our notebooks and how the beginning pages work. The first week of school is crazy with everyday having PBIS tools to teach. (PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. For more information go to www.pbis.org.) I will be doing much more next week.

Thanks again to the two Sarah's. Without them I would never have started using Interactive Notebooks.

Here is a copy of the Learning Styles Foldable  I made.

Til next time,

Jan