Aim to Be Awesome, Not Perfect

As I have been learning more and more about technology usage in the classroom, I have become really interested in Digital Notebooking.  I didn't attend TCEA , but many of my colleagues did, and they shared with me  Jessica Worley's presentation about Digital Notebooking . This has definitely inspired me a in a lot of ways. So in order to learn more and share with teachers, I took the first unit I taught last year in 7th Accelerated Math (all 8th grade Math TEKS) and made a digital notebook. I used Google Slides, since we are a GSuite for Education district. Below are some of the steps I took to create the notebook. I created a basic title page and table of contents (TOC) page.  I broke the unit into sections (which we usually do, it is a hodge podge unit) and created slides for those sections, and then hyperlinked to those slides on the TOC page. Since I have my TEKS, I know what students need to be able to do. I started planning how I wanted them to learn/practice...

There is an app that might have changed my life.  I had been looking for one like it, and hadn't really found it yet.  But then this app was recommended to me by another teacher and once I started using it, I was hooked! The app is called Scan Pages and it is by Ricoh.  Here is its icon: Once you open it up, this is what you see:  I love how I can either take pictures in the app (that is the lens icon) or use pictures that I have already taken (the picture icon).  Another great feature is that you can tag the items (see my accel, decimal, etc above the files) and then filter what you see by that tag.   After class, I take pictures of my interactive notebook and share them in my Google Drive folder.  Once the picture are in the app, then they can be used a pictures or scanned into PDF format.  This works great too for any worksheets or meeting notes that I need electronically.   And the best part, it is free! This ...

So this year I started using an "Interactive Notebook". First off, I think my decision to keep a separate notebook per class period was a good one. I think I am doing okay with it, as the kids seem to like the foldables, the occasional coloring and keeping things organized. And I have been perusing my photos of my notebook pages, trying to figure out which one I like best so I can share it here on my blog. Problem is... there isn't anything I feel like I can share. Half of the pages are okay - but not worth sharing. The other half I have seen on the blogosphere or on Pinterest and the versions out there are way better than mine. So I thought I had nothing to share.... but then the lightbulb came on. One of the questions that come up about interactive notebooks is what to do when a kid is new or absent. Some teachers make extras or have a student copy theirs... but I teach middle school and one of my goals is to help students become responsible for their own...