Interactive Notebooks: Year End Review

I've been wanting to write this post since I started  using INBs but then after school was over, I didn't feel like I was 'allowed' to write it until I had finished sharing all of my INB pages from the year. Well that still hasn't happened and here we are so #nobodycares if I am 'allowed' or not.

General overview here:

• Thumbs up
• Using them again
• Better than what I was doing
• Keep reading for more details

Things I Loved

• Pretty!
• Organized!
• Student Reaction: "I didn't even know you could do all this stuff to a notebook!"
• Pocket for small pieces that didn't get used yet
• Milkshake straw duck taped to spine as a pencil holder
• Duck tape also helped reinforce spine so two birds, one stone
• Helped me better focus my teaching and notes by thinking about what was necessary for the notebook and the best way to organize that information
• Table of Contents
• Page numbers
• Colorful tabs
• Being able to answer questions like this: "Did you look in your notebook?"
• Highlighters- if the notes were pretty straightforward boring, highlighters were a low-prep way to spice it up
• Tiny post-its- this doesn't need explaining
• Not grading them!
• Making copies or taking pictures of my INB for students who were absent
• Notebooks were still slim and neat at the end of the year a.k.a. didn't use the whole notebook
  
  
  
  
  
  

Things I Didn't

• Bookmark- should have been cooler than it was but I don't think some people know how to use bookmarks *shocker*
• Glue sticks sucked- the glue dried out over time and little pieces fell out but it's a pain to tape a bunch of little individual pieces in the case of sorting, which I LOVE
• I didn't use the right hand pages for processing like I wanted to; too much of a control freak and I don't know if that's as possible or effective for math as it may be for other content
• I mostly gave them the beginning or easiest parts of a concept, then a handout that got more complex; when they looked back in their notebooks, they had nothing helpful. Toward the end of the year I noticed this and figured out that my notes should cover all types of whatever we're doing, not just the easiest
• Related to the previous point, I don't need so many handouts!!! Practice can be games or cards or on the desk if they have all the vitals in their notebook already
• Not one student wanted to keep their notebook at the end of the year; I feel betrayed by other INB enthusiasts. Liars!

Things I Wanted To Do and Didn't I'd Like to Do This Year

• Have a giant test at the end with no review but allowed to use the notebook- now my admin will do it for me since he no longer wants us to review in any kind of way for their End of Course Exam
• Redo the Table of Contents so that the concepts are numbered and grades are easier to track
• Make formula sheets to put in the front that students can refer to through the year (especially for Mental Math Mondays)
• Make a PPT of what every page in the notebook should look like (since I already take pictures of every page) and have students grade each other's notebooks page by page
• Color coordinate pens to each content area's INB.
• Color coordinate all handouts for each unit the same across all content areas.
• Make extra INBs for students who move in
• Laminated graph paper inside the cover
• Save last 18 pages for Would You Rather writings every other week; focus on improving by one MP standard at a time, shows growth over time (had to add one I probably won't do!)
• Actually use the Plickers cards I created and laminated and apparently cut for no reason

I've written this post in my head so many times that it doesn't seem like I covered everything so please feel free to ask any and all questions! I love talking about my ideas!