I am getting sad at the reality that my summer only has one more week. Yes, it's true - I go back to work on July 29th.
Not to mention I have to go in for two days this week for data training and interviews But hey...they count toward the week off at Thanksgiving....I will take it, thank you very much.
So...before our
CAMT presentation, Reagan (@
Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits) and I met at Starbucks to plan out what we were going to say, we were both nervous. Like most times teachers get together, we talked more about our plans for the upcoming year than our presentation. Reagan mentioned that she had created an interactive notebook to use as her kids arrived in the morning. You know...that time when kids are slowly trickling in and you can't really teach anything because you have a million things to do...attendance, lunch count, announcements, checking take-home folders, and breakfast
(We do breakfast in the classroom) I had seen this notebook on her blog and thought it was brilliant and the kids would love it. The best part was it was self-paced so kids could be working while the teacher is finishing up all those morning duties
maybe even get a sip of coffee (kidding). During our conversation, Reagan mentioned that some friends were asking her if she could modify this interactive notebook for the upper grades
we call them upper classmen. I told her that it was a great idea! The upper grades need to be engaged in hands-on activities as much as the primary grades. Reagan is aware that my background was in math grades 3-8 (I was the district math specialist when we met a few years ago). I taught fifth and six grade for six years prior to becoming the specialist. While teaching upper-classmen (as we call them), I realized many of my students had yet to master some basic math skills that are taught in the intermediate grades. Thus began Reagan and my venture to bring her
Rise And Shine Interactive Notebook to the upper-classmen. We spent a few days and evenings texting and sending pictures to be sure we were on the same page about both notebooks. Without further delay....
When I began creating our notebook, I thought about how I would implement it. I am pretty organized some call it anal. I organized mine by color-coding the days don't laugh now
(Monday = Pink, Tuesday = Yellow, Wednesday = Orange, Thursday = Green, and Friday = White).
I put the skills that I know kids continue to struggle with well into middle school
(Place Value, Patterns, Fractions, Coins, Input/Output, Time, Graphing, etc.).
I always hate having to try to draw fractions with equal parts and I am a pretty good artist
Therefore, I included many various graphics for fractions (pizzas, candy bars, and citrus fruit)
There are numerous cards included, which makes tailoring the binder to fit student needs is a cinch.
Since we team in the upper grades, this would be my daily warm up for the first 15 minutes of each math class. Students will come in and grab a binder, take their seat, and begin their activities. We would go over that day's activities after the fifteen are up.
The best part is that I don't have to run off weekly copies. Once the binders are made, students use expo markers and we can use them all year. I can change out any skills that my kids have mastered and continue to review those tricky ones.
To get your Rev Up Your Grey Matter, click on the preview.
If you have any questions, or want to see more pics....leave me a comment
Shannon
