Experimenting with Interactive Science Notebooks

One teaching/learning strategy I am exploring more this year is the creation of interactive notebooks with my students.  Like blogging, it is another idea that I have known about for a while, but did not commit to really pursue until this school year.  It is a logical fit to the work I have been doing in my class around assessment practices.  Being in a brand new school, it is an excellent opportunity to take this journey with my students.   I am interested to see if the incorporation of interactive notebooks helps to deepen my students’ understanding of the concepts.  I also am excited to use them as another source of evidence when assessing their understanding of the essential learnings. 

I started out small, working on a flip chart of process skills with my grade sevens.    We started by  discussing the scientific method, exploring their prior knowledge, working through some examples and activities with the Smartboad, and, of course, watching Scientific Method on Brainpop. We then did a quick little finger of five to check what they thought they knew- what their confidence level was.  Often, I find my students think they know more than they actually do at first.  I then hammed it up and did a terrible experiment in for the students and had them pick out what was wrong.  They love to point out all of my mistakes!  We had a terrific conversation through this process.  From that, we then moved on to the creation of their flip charts for their binders.  My parameters were a definition of the stage in their own words then pictures/examples that helped them understand and remember.  I was pleased with the end results and watching the students work really showed me who  needed extra support/ clarification and who did not. 

The students who struggled with the task initially asked me to just tell them the answers to write down.  We have lots of work to do on teaching them how to make meaning themselves instead of copying words in thier notebooks.  We’ll see how it goes!

Here are some samples from our study of the 3 classifications of structures... Not bad for students and teacher learning how to do interactive notebooks for the first time1

Make it so...

Looking back, I set up my blog site way back in 2006, but did not do anything with it until now.  Thinking about it, I really wondered what I could say that would have meaning for others.  I wondered what I do in my classroom that would be of interest to others. I love to teach and put my whole heart into it, but so do millions of teachers out there.  Does the internet really need one more blog?

I finally decided that this blog was not for others but for me.  A place for me to think about classroom, my students and my teaching practices.  Like all teachers, I reflect after each lesson- Did my students learn?  Did I help to move them forward?  Did I connect with each student at least once?  Did I waste their 50 minutes (and mine)?  What will I keep for the next class?  What will I improve or just toss altogether? What can be done to help that little one who seems so lost?  The one who seems so disconnected?  The one who seems to just need a hug?  At the end of the day when I finally close my classroom door and switch roles to a wife and mother, do I walk away feeling that I have done some good, or do I walk away frustrated?  These are the things I ask myself and the blog is a place for me to try and find some answers.  Or, at the very least, to record my thoughts so I can see patterns and learn.

To be frank, I often close my door frustrated...  There is always so much more to do!   My students are complex and teaching is complex; more so each year.  I often think that after 23 years, I don't have the energy to put my heart into 180+ more students one more time.  To put on the energetic, optimistic smile at 8:00 AM and pour all of myself into their learning day after day.  Maybe this blog is also a way to find out if I can or want to one more time.  In any event, it will be an interesting experiment...  how it will evolve is a mystery to me for now.

Engage!