I promised myself this summer break that I'd spend at least one hour a day engaged in some kind of professional development: join a Summer Learning Challenge on Twitter, revise my PLN, align my curriculum maps with the CCSS, etc.
Like the meandering days of summer tend to do to a person, however, I've found myself sticking less to the "plan" and veering down the side roads instead of sticking to the guided path.
And what that means is that I've found myself time-sucked into the mighty Pinterest vortex.
I'm not the first teacher to use Pinterest as a professional development tool, and don't get me wrong--it's been an incredibly useful resource. (Never underestimate the power of a teacher's need to collaborate!) It's just that Pinterest probably gets a pretty bad rap when it comes to PD because of its "cutesy" layout--and compared to the serious nature of my Twitter PLN, it probably is. Still, I've found Pinterest provides some very practical applications for classroom use.
One of those practical applications is the Interactive Student Notebook (ISN). I hadn't heard of these until last week, and now I'm hooked. ISNs provide for purposeful, student-owned, creative, and useful critical thinking, which makes them perfect for use with the CCSS, and they can be used in ANY subject at ANY grade level.
Basically, an ISN is a regular spiral-bound notebook or binder in which students keep traditional notes on one side of the notebook, but they also paste in graphic organizers, flippables, and foldables on the other side. Here are some examples:
Like the meandering days of summer tend to do to a person, however, I've found myself sticking less to the "plan" and veering down the side roads instead of sticking to the guided path.
And what that means is that I've found myself time-sucked into the mighty Pinterest vortex.
I'm not the first teacher to use Pinterest as a professional development tool, and don't get me wrong--it's been an incredibly useful resource. (Never underestimate the power of a teacher's need to collaborate!) It's just that Pinterest probably gets a pretty bad rap when it comes to PD because of its "cutesy" layout--and compared to the serious nature of my Twitter PLN, it probably is. Still, I've found Pinterest provides some very practical applications for classroom use.
One of those practical applications is the Interactive Student Notebook (ISN). I hadn't heard of these until last week, and now I'm hooked. ISNs provide for purposeful, student-owned, creative, and useful critical thinking, which makes them perfect for use with the CCSS, and they can be used in ANY subject at ANY grade level.
Basically, an ISN is a regular spiral-bound notebook or binder in which students keep traditional notes on one side of the notebook, but they also paste in graphic organizers, flippables, and foldables on the other side. Here are some examples:
image via ohmohamed
image via sciencenotebooking
image via teachingsocialstudiesandlanguagearts
And here's an image of the basic overall concept of an ISN:
image via 4mulafun
What I love about these notebooks is that it's a combination of technology (graphic organizers and such) and traditional learning (notebooks). It also places the onus of learning where it should be: on our students.
If you're looking to transform one thing in your classroom for next year, then this is the thing to do. It will take some planning, but, hey, that's what our summers are for, right? :-)
RESOURCES
If you're looking to transform one thing in your classroom for next year, then this is the thing to do. It will take some planning, but, hey, that's what our summers are for, right? :-)
RESOURCES
top image via someecards
UPDATE: Closely aligned with the idea of interactive notebooks is the concept of visual notetaking, which is also becoming increasingly popular. Teacher Vikki Davis outlines the art of effective notetaking here.