We're Back to School!!

I can't believe how quickly this summer flew by! As I've talked to the other teachers, they feel the same way but they did a lot of fun things...travel, camping, etc. I stayed home and played with family and did a lot of sewing. One thing I did NOT do was work on lesson plans; at least until the last week of summer. Consequently, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Oh well...I'll get over it or something. :)

Today we started putting the Interactive Notebooks together. I'm adding some things which I hope will be valuable and help them with the Common Core Standards. Part of the ELA Common Core states students should be able to read informational text and determine meaning. I want them to be able to figure out what the author wants us to know and how we can make meaning to our lives. It's got to have a personal connection! In addition to reading newspaper articles, documentarries, etc., I think you can get a lot of practice reading and interpreting motivational quotes. So, I will be adding those to their notebooks. I found a great website via Pinterest that has "Doodle Pages" of great quotes. I debated whether to use these or not because I was afraid many would be coloring when they should be working on other assignments. I decided to give it a try and see how it goes; worse case scenario, I'll give them the quotes and they'll have to write them down themselves. (I will be having them write what it means to them and how they can use it in their lives, too.)

The first one I printed out was from Dr. Seuss in his GREAT book, Oh the Places You'll Go. (I LOVE that book!!)

I told them I truly believe they have the power to determine the direction their lives will take them. If they choose to do well in school, they can do it! Of course it will take work and effort but THEY CAN DO IT!! A lot of them were really excited about being able to color; others think "coloring is dumb!" Oh well...can't please them all. ;)

 

We then added the "Who Are You??" page I used last year on page 9. We'll add more tomorrow.

 

(SIDE NOTE: As I explained last year, I went with The Middle School Mouth's suggestion of using the acetate covered college-ruled notebooks. I bought 40 extra notebooks during the sales and told students I'd have them today if they wanted to bring money to purchase them from me. Between students who were unprepared (they owe me the money for the notebooks), got the wrong size (wide-ruled instead of college...there is a difference in size of the notebook and all my handouts are geared for the larger size), or just wanted me to do the shopping instead of them ;), I went threw ALL of them by 5th period!!! I took the ones I traded (wide-ruled) and ran to WalMart on my prep and brought back 15 more. By the end of 7th period, I have 3 left!!!!!!! Just call me the "WalMart Extension!!")