Off My Planned Track, but on Irene's

The best laid plans...learned a lot about that over the last week or so. I took all that time in planning out my notebook and setting up the first few weeks of the school year and Irene made her appearance. While we didn't get any rain here in the Smoky Mountains, the Outer Banks of North Carolina really were impacted by the hurricane as was Lewes, Delaware where my mom and brother's family live. So, we did some hurricane work. We started with looking at the projections on Weather Underground and then we used the coordinates found on that site and a tracking map to keep track of the hurricane. We also graphed the central air pressure and wind speed that went a long with the coordinates. I did have my students put both of these into their notebooks as well as writing a key question.

I also have to use the Comprehension Toolkit Strategies even though I don't teach reading so I pulled some articles on hurricanes and used these as well while my students tracked their thinking. We also made some anchor charts. The students taped their tracking map and graph into their notebooks and also put their post it notes from the article into their notebook. We are just finishing up our conclusions and reflection. I will post photos then.

We'll get back on track this week. They were so interested in the hurricane, a lot of them followed it last weekend and have been looking at the storms developing in the Gulf and Atlantic this week. It was well worth it. When we get into air pressure and the water cycle in the next month or so, I'll be looking at how they make these connections back to Irene. So while this threw me off track, my students were really excited about science this past week.

We also worked on our notebook covers here and there. I did a lot of modeling, since I always make my own cover as an example of how to make a collage. We cut out a lot of the pictures during class time and then start laying out the full collage. This coming week they will be finishing them at home and have them back in class by Friday.

And We're Off to Another Great Year!!

My blog has been slightly silent for the past few weeks due to a few workshops that I've had to prep and teach for AIMS Education Foundation  and starting to work in my classroom. I've put in a new survey about what you'd like to see in the blog and so as next week progresses, I'll work on some assessment things that I do and in the next few weeks, I'll have some student samples ready for you all. 

We go back to school in Haywood County next week and I know some of you have already started back. If you're like me and are making changes to your curriculum and/or pedagogy, this is the time to jump in and start it. I find that I have problems in making major shifts in my pedagogy if I don't plan and get it started right away. So now is the time, get those composition books, graph paper in binders, spiral notebooks, WHATEVER you want to you, plan it out and jump right in!! 

Here's to a fantastic year for you, the teachers and your students. I know you will be making a positive difference in the lives of your students this year! Happy New School Year!

The Fish...View the Fish

I'm still reading a lot about math journals and making notes about what I think would fit with my math teaching and students. Kind of thinking of tabs so we have a few sections for a few different types of writing, this isn't 100% set in stone, just tumbling through my mind. I read another good article, 10  Big Math Ideas, and though writing in math isn't the main focus of this article, there are some very important things about teaching math in the article. So, I'm going to keep on working on what I want from my math journals.

So the fish...look at the fish a bit further down on my blog. They are very cool and interactive. If you left click in the white space, little yellow dots will appear, that's their food. Watch what happens when you feed the fish!!

Anyways, need to read more about math journals, finish prepping for two upcoming AIMS workshops I will be teaching, received my schedule for the year and am trying to figure out how my teaching partner and I will divide our days, and my class list will be here this week. Also, 22 of my @ 220 Children's Book Council/NSTA Outstanding science trade books are here and I've got to start reading.  Wow...you know these long summer vacations teachers always get where we don't even think about our classrooms...LOL!

What Works for You

For people just trying science or math notebooks for the first time my main advice is to do what works best for you, within the guidelines of making the notebooks student centered. Everyone has to find the best set up, meaning types of notebooks, what you want in them, and how they are used, that will work for your needs. Notebooks are not stagnant, so if the actual notebooks doesn't work this year, change it up next year.

I keep notes in my notebook as the year goes on, I make these notes bright and flashy so I can see them later, these notes are things that work and don't work for me and/or my students. If you are just starting and don't know what you really want your students to put into your notebooks, some suggestions. First, read some articles and books about the components of a notebook. There are some helpful websites and articles on my Live Binder about the various components of a science notebook. (I'm still working on my math notebook ideas). Make a list of the components you want your students to have in their notebook.

Once you have an idea of the components of a notebook, lay out a notebook. Take one of your lessons that you know you'll be using this year. Lay it out in the fashion, just like your students would do, and make it fit the lesson. See how it feels and works for you. Change it if you feel necessary until you have a working feel of what your notebook is going to be like.

Next dive in with your students!!! You'll know what works and doesn't work for your students and it's okay to change your notebook components as the year goes on. The important thing is to model for your students what you want, your exceptions, and give them time to work with their notebooks. Look at them often and give them time.  My students have not used science notebooks when they enter my class at the beginning of the year, maybe in first grade, but that was awhile ago and in a different format.  I do spend a lot of time early on helping my students work through their notebooks, but in the end, this time pays for itself and my students become very independent in using their notebooks!

Math Journals

Today I've spent some time reading a variety of articles about math journals. While I'm really comfortable with science notebooks, math journals are a different story. I'm working my way through them. I have used a problem solving notebooks, but I'm not fully satisfied with that format. So, in my live binder on science notebooks, I've added a few more articles on math journals. I guess tomorrow I will try to lay out what I'd like to see when my students write about math.

If you have been using math journals or notebooks; whatever you call them, share your ideas. This is an area I need to really improve on in my daily math instruction. I'm also reading Class Discussions, Using Math Talk to help Students Learn by Chapin, O'Connor, and Anderson. Gene Williams (a MEMTA instructor) lent this to me in New Orleans and rereading Sherry Parrish's (another MEMTA instructor) book Number Talks: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computational Strategies, Grades k-5. The reason why I'm mentioning these books in an post about writing in math, it's similar to writing in science, students have to be able to talk and discuss to clarify their ideas before writing down their thinking in math.

Not ditching the science notebooks, I think that I've go those settled to start the school year when I can get student samples posted. I do have a series of questions we used with the elective MEMTA notebook session that I will be posting on for the next week or so. until then, please share any math journaling ideas!

Designing the Notebook Cover - Making it their Own!

This is one of my kids favorite assignments, they love getting to design their own cover. We start in class by using magazines to find text and photographs they can cut out to put on their collage. I overly stress not to glue anything down until they think they have all of the text and pictures they want to use. We don't spend more than three partial class periods on this. They do take it home and work on it to finish it. In those three days we work on it in class, I try to model the process by making my own collage.  

Science Notebook Cover Assignment                          Due date: Friday, September 2, 2011

Parent signature: ______________________________________                                                                                              

Requirements:

·         Use of color

·         Use of pictures (photographs and drawings)

·         Collage style (covered with words/drawings/pictures)

·         Must relate to fifth grade science content (water, weather, landforms, force/motion,

      and ecosystems)

·         Title (Science Notebook) and name must be clearly visible

·         Be creative-make some lettering or pictures yourself

·         Use all of the space on notebook, no white space is acceptable.

Optional:

·         Photos of self that relate to science content

·         Words cut out of magazines, other print sources, computer type, or written by hand

Grading Rubric - Please turn in this sheet with your finished cover.

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Science Content	The student gives a reasonable explanation of how every item in the collage is related to our science content. For most items, the relationship is clear without explanation.	The student gives a reasonable explanation of how most items in the collage are related to our science content. For many of the items, the relationship is clear without explanation.	The student gives a fairly reasonable explanation of how most items in the collage are related to our science content.	The student's explanations are weak and illustrate difficulty understanding how to relate items to our science content.
Design	Graphics are trimmed to an appropriate size and interesting shape and are arranged well, some in front and some behind. Care has been taken to balance the pictures across the cover. No white space.	Graphics are trimmed to an appropriate size and interesting shape and are arranged with some items in front and others behind. The cover, however does not appear balanced. Very little white space.	Graphics have been trimmed to an appropriate size and shape, but the arrangement of items is not very attractive. It appears there was not a lot of planning of the item placement. White space visible.	Graphics are untrimmed OR of inappropriate size and/or shape. It appears little attention was given to designing the collage. A lot of white space can be seen.
Creativity	Several of the graphics or objects used in the collage reflect an exceptional degree of student creativity in their creation and/or display	One or two of the graphics or objects used in the collage reflect student creativity in their creation and/or display.	One or two graphics or objects were made or customized by the student, but the ideas were typical rather than creative (e.g, apply the emboss filter to a drawing in Photoshop).	The student did not make or customize any of the items on the collage.
Titles and Text	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read from a distance. Text varied in color, size and/or style for different text elements.	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read close-up. Text varied in color, size and/or style for different text elements.	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read close-up. There was little variation in the appearance of text.	Titles and/or text are hard to read, even when the reader is close.
Time and Effort	Class time was used wisely. Much time and effort went into the planning and design of the collage. It is clear the student worked at home as well as at school.	Class time was used wisely. Student could have put in more time and effort at home.	Class time was not always used wisely, but student did do some additional work at home.	Class time was not used wisely and the student put in no additional effort.

Getting Started with My Students

I introduce the science notebook on the very first day of school, if I happen to have a notebook from a previous student, I show the students that notebook. Since I have notebooks for everyone already, I'll hand them one that first day. I will let them know how important this one notebook will be for them during the school year. We'll start by setting up the table of contents and then I will tell them how important having page numbers in their notebook will be, since we will need to be able to look things up with their classmates and I'll need to find their work using their table of contents. I will get them started, but homework for the first night of school will be to finish numbering their pages (see Marcarelli's book).  I have always had them number pages in their notebooks, but as they went through the year, but she has her students do this first thing in the year. I like this change since it won't be something they have to worry about doing any other time, they'll just have to match it in their table of contents. The other thing is that they can't tear out their pages and it will help keep their notebook in order!!

The second day I will give them the pages for the basics and we'll start putting them into their notebooks. Their homework will be to get the 5 pages of basics into their notebook. If a student doesn't have scissors or clear tape, I will loan them some. The second day is when I will have them make their sample vocabulary card to put into their notebook as well, even though it will be a week or so before they get their first vocabulary words (my students explore and we start our explain in a 5e lesson before getting vocabulary), I just want this in their notebooks since on Monday (we start school on Thursday this year), I'm ready to get into "Picture a Scientist." As they are drawing their scientists, I'll pull each student so I can get their photo taken and that will be ready for Tuesday when we discuss the idea that they are scientists too, they can ask questions, explore, investigate and find answers about the world around them.

On Tuesday, they'll start working on the page about themselves as scientists...and I'll introduce their assignment for the cover of their notebooks. I have an assignment sheet and rubric for them. I have a model for them to look at, plus I will make one for myself at the same time they are working on theirs. They will receive a piece of construction paper precut to meet the size of their notebook cover. I have a lot of old National Geographic magazines and other science type magazines. We'll spend a few days going through those looking for photos and cutting them out during part of class time and they'll have about a week and a half to finish it at home and get it back to class. Again, if a student needs some materials I will provide them. That is how I'm getting started this year. I'd love to be able to keep on the track that I have set up because that means with a week, I'll be ready to get started with my science content.

If you'd like a copy of the assignment sheet for the notebook cover, with rubric, let me know, I'll email it to you unless I can figure out how to add it to this blog.