Teacher guides

This is a Guest Post by Susan Good, a 38-year veteran of the classroom! Be sure to check out her website at retiredteacher.org for inciteful blog posts about teaching and writing!

Image: Pexels

Teaching is an intricate blend of art and science, requiring a well-organized approach to truly flourish. Whether you’re embarking on your teaching journey or seeking to refine your organizational skills, this comprehensive guide from Kinney Brother’s Publishing is designed to support educators in creating a structured, supportive, and stimulating learning environment. Dive into these strategies to transform your classroom into a well-oiled educational machine, where each element is purposefully aligned for maximum teaching effectiveness and student engagement.

Personalize Your Approach to Individual Needs

Understanding and catering to individual student needs is the cornerstone of effective teaching. Maintain detailed records of each student’s progress, preferences, and challenges. In ESL (English as a Second Language) classrooms, for instance, this individualized attention is particularly crucial, as students might require tailored support to bridge language barriers and embrace new communication skills. Personalized tracking fosters a nurturing academic environment, encouraging each student to reach their full potential.

Monitor and Adapt Your Lesson Plans

Teaching is a dynamic process, demanding continuous adaptation and improvement. Regularly assess the effectiveness of your lesson plans, gathering feedback and monitoring student engagement and comprehension. This reflective practice ensures that your teaching methods evolve in tandem with your students’ needs, keeping your classroom vibrant and your teaching strategies impactful.

Cultivate an Inspiring Learning Environment

Your classroom’s physical environment plays a pivotal role in student learning. Design a space that’s not just organized but also inviting and stimulating. Incorporate elements that spark creativity, foster comfort, and reflect the diverse needs of your students, including those in ESL classrooms. A thoughtfully designed classroom is a canvas for imagination, discovery, and growth.

Discover and Implement Your Unique Organizational Style

Effective organization isn’t one-size-fits-all. Explore various strategies and tools to find what resonates with your teaching style and classroom dynamics. Whether it’s color-coded systems, digital planners, or visual schedules, the right organizational approach can turn chaos into clarity, ensuring that every lesson flows smoothly and every resource is right at your fingertips.

Master the Art of Classroom Management

Effective classroom management is integral to a productive learning atmosphere. Establish clear expectations, consistent routines, and positive reinforcement strategies. A well-managed classroom minimizes distractions and maximizes learning opportunities, creating a space where respect, cooperation, and focus are the norm.

Embrace a Paperless Classroom

In the fast-paced world of education, staying organized is essential for educators. An effective strategy is to digitize your paper records and other important documents. Additionally, when it comes to sharing files with staff, PDFs have emerged as the preferred format due to wider compatibility and ease of use. To streamline this process, consider using an online tool that allows you to effortlessly convert these types of files to PDFs by simply dragging and dropping them into the tool – making this the best solution for educators seeking efficient file management.

Break Down Your Goals

Set yourself up for success by transforming lofty goals into smaller, actionable steps. This methodical approach makes even the most ambitious targets achievable, allowing you to track progress and celebrate milestones along the way. In breaking down your goals, you’re not just planning; you’re paving a clear path toward educational excellence.

Set and Achieve SMART Goals

Ambition drives progress, but a structured approach ensures results. Establish Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound or SMART goals for your teaching career. This clear framework guides your professional development, ensuring that every step you take is purposeful and aligned with your long-term vision as an educator.

In the world of education, organization is the silent hero, setting the stage for teaching triumphs and student successes. By embracing these essential strategies, teachers—from novices to veterans—can navigate the complexities of the classroom with confidence and finesse. From personalized student support to smart goal-setting, these practices don’t just streamline your workload; they enhance your impact, leaving a lasting imprint on the hearts and minds of your students. Embark on this journey of organizational mastery, and watch as your classroom transforms into a beacon of learning, inspiration, and growth.

There came a point where I had to intervene. My students’ notebooks were a disordered mess and their bags, when emptied, were a junk pile of crumpled papers, loose cards, and past games. Taking action, I began to roll out a program using interactive notebooks.

Be sure to check out my post on CVC Interactive Notebook templates!

What is an Interactive Notebook?

You may have seen references to INBs, ISNs, or INs, all of which refer to a decades-long trend in education called Interactive (Student) Notebooks. The movement has its history in a tradition of notebooking, scrapbooking and early educators promoting creativity and interaction in student learning.

Nature journals (advocated by 19th-century British educator Charlotte Mason) provide an early example of interactive notebooks. Students began with blank notebooks and either drew or glued a plant or leaf onto a page. Then they wrote about it, labeled it, or included a related poem or thought. Ms. Mason’s Book of Centuries is another example where students explored each century with timelines, drawings, maps, and facts of interest.

The History Alive! social studies program is seen as the genesis of the contemporary interactive notebook movement. Developed in the 80s and 90s by educators at Teacher’s Curriculum Institute, History Alive! is a series of instructional practices that allow students with diverse learning styles to “experience” history. Beginning with the idea that students should be allowed to construct their own knowledge, the teachers created dynamic and highly interactive teaching strategies.

So, what is it about interactive notebooks that have attracted so many educators? How do they benefit and what can be gained for students and teachers?

Here are 7 reasons to use interactive notebooks in class by Jennifer Smith Jochen, of Smith Curriculum and Consulting, on the Minds in Bloom blog.

Interactive notebooks teach students to organize and synthesize their thoughts.
Interactive notebooks accommodate multiple learning styles at one time in (and out of) the classroom.
Student-teacher-parent interaction is built and strengthened with the use of interactive notebooks.
Students are building a portfolio that allows for teachers to track growth over time.
Interactive notebooks have students create a resource to use as they continue to extend their learning.
Students take ownership of their learning through color and creativity.
Interactive notebooks reduce clutter in the classroom, as well as in students’ lives.

Getting Started

When setting up an INB, whatever the subject, teachers regularly include a cover page, table of contents, a rubric for grading the notebooks, an agreement between student and teacher for the upkeep of their notebooks, and finally, a strategy for dividing the notebook into school terms and/or units taught.

When working with a two-page layout, the right-side pages are often reserved for teacher input (teacher-generated notes and handouts) and student output is on the left side — paralleling right/left brain activity. American educator and Wisconsinite, Angela Nerby, explains the breakdown of the interactive notebooks used in her 2nd-grade classes in multiple step-by-step blog posts at Hippo Hooray Teaching.

Tips for newbies:

Use sturdy notebooks; preferably with sewn-in pages.
Create a model notebook that you can use for planning and demonstration.
Number the pages from the outset so that everyone is on the same page.
Tape or create a large pocket for unfinished page elements.
Tape or hot glue a ribbon bookmark to the inside back cover.
Use liquid glue or tape. Pages glued with glue sticks quickly fall apart.
Have a place for students to access materials like glue, scissors, and paper. Establish a routine for cutting, pasting, and cleanup.
Take students step by step through the layout process with your demo book and sample elements. Stress from the beginning cutting and pasting techniques.
Carry through with the notebook project! The first year is going to teach you a lot about planning, organizing, and executing your INB. Use your demo book to make notes about what worked well and what needs improvement.

To help get you started, download the above templates that include a variety of basic manipulatives in pdf and png formats. They’re free, and please feel free to use them.

On the Flip Side

What interactive notebooks are NOT:

INBs are NOT a replacement for students taking notes. It is a center for interaction.
They are NOT a replacement for a textbook. However, a textbook can’t give you everything you need when teaching. I began using interactive notebooks for topics that were not covered in the textbook: picture dictionaries, songs and chants, sight word practice, extra writing practice, dictation, vocabulary activities, dialogues, clockwork, and cursive writing practice.
Foldables and flip-flaps can be amazing tools but they are NOT what defines an interactive notebook. What makes a notebook interactive is that an active connection occurs between the page and the mind of the student.

Check out the book, Interactive Notebooks and English Language Learners, by Marcia Carter, Anita Hernandez and Jeannine Richison. The authors write about addressing the needs of second language learners and how an “Interactive Notebook can be used to scaffold content to move English language learners (ELLs) to the stage where they are academic language learners (ALLs).”

Making learning fun…

In this video, Nassrin Rabi, an elementary ESL teacher in Tel Aviv, demonstrates creating a prepositions of place page for her students’ INBs. You can check out more of her videos on her Youtube channel.

This is from Victoria of CrazyCharizma, an educator known for her unique and creative materials for your INBs. Download a free version of the typewriters and try them out in class!

Since Charlotte Mason’s Nature Notebooks, and the exploratory work done by the Teacher’s Curriculum Institute, we’ve moved into the digital age — and it’s pounding on our classroom doors. If you work in a blended classroom or teach online, creating online interactive notebooks in Google Classroom helps students negotiate digital tools that are necessary to their academic and professional futures.

Here is a nine-minute video demonstration by David Lee, an EdTech Specialist at Singapore American School, showing his kids how to navigate a digital science interactive notebook.

If you’ve ever been discouraged or at a loss with your students’ notebook habits, take the initiative and give interactive notebooks a try. Yes, they are a lot of work, but the rewards for teachers, students, and parents are worth the effort!

As always, best of luck in your classes!

Donald Kinney

Kinney Brothers Publishing