Notebook Set-Ups 2015-2016

This year I set up my notebooks pretty similar to last year's with some minor changes. For the covers, students used cardstock and a pre-made class label. They had to put 5 numbers that represented them. After they were finished, I covered them with some clear plastic covers I found at Five Below. It was kind of like laminating/contact paper in one, but much easier to work with and thicker. I had bought it hoping to make a cabinet dry erase when I discovered they were actually clear. That was a happy mistake because they made excellent notebook covers. Here are what mine look like. I used all of the same numbers about me for each. I wasn't feeling too inspired that day I guess.

 

We all set up our notebooks just like mine. I do this for a couple of reasons:

1. If they miss a day, they can get caught up pretty easily from anyone that was there.

2. It makes it a lot easier to grade since there's is supposed to look like mine.

3. It teaches them organization.

4. They actually use them to help on their homework/open note tests since they're more organized.

On the inside front cover we put our notebook rules. We go over them and discuss how their notebook will work. Since this was their first year with me, it took them a little while to get used to how we take notes. I don't think the teacher before me required it. After a while, they quit asking "what page does this go on" and "do we have to write this down" because they knew the answers to those questions.

 

On the first page is our Table of Contents. We do this together every day so all of them look the same. We do this so they can reference to something quickly instead of flipping through all of their pages to find something.

On the next few pages is the vocabulary section, which I call "Words Worth Knowing" or WWK. I kind of got a little lazy with this part, unfortunately, and we didn't have nearly as many words as we probably should have. There's always next year...

After that is the syllabus.

Then we start our notes for that class.

On the last page we have the iPocket. This is where we put papers/foldables that we didn't get a chance to glue into our notebook yet or we're still working on.

And on the back cover is the common types of math mistakes. I go over this with them at the beginning of the year, hoping they would be more proactive and fix their own mistakes instead of hearing "I don't know what I did wrong" or simply "I don't get it." Alas, that was not the case.

So here is our math notebooks this year. I'll be posting foldables and activities soon from each class. If you would like any types of resources, use the contact me button on the right hand side and I'll be happy to send you what I have! Happy teaching!