#MTBoSBlaugust - Thinking About Notebooks

If you've known me for any length of time, you probably know that I love organization and one of my favorite parts of my class are the student notebooks.  Every year, I have kids that that overwhelmingly tell me that they find the notebook so helpful as they prepare for the AP Exam and even have kids email me a few years later to tell me about asking their parents to mail the notebooks to college for their college stat classes. 🥰

I first learned about Interactive Notebooks (INBs) at TMC12, when Megan presented about them and we all quickly fell in love.  I jumped in with both feet in the Fall of 2012 and have never looked back...

Until now.

COVID-19 is causing quite a disruption in my classroom procedures, y'all!  Assuming we are back in person, student desks will be moved into rows, as separated from each other as possible, so no more groups of 4 students working together.  There will be no shared supplies, so there goes my table buckets with scissors and tape and glue sticks and my table folders to pass out papers...

So, what do I do?  I turn to the Twitters of course! :)

Read the entire thread here

Before I figure out what to do, I needed to think about what my big goals were for their notebooks.  I mean, other than organization, what's the reason for them?  And honestly, the biggest thing is to have an easy reference for the key ideas for the course.  I try to organize the notebook so that the left side has the daily notes and on the right side is the daily problem set.  The notes are often in a foldable or some other guided format, mainly because stat questions are really lengthy overall.  

So with that in mind, here's what I am thinking so far...

• If we start in person - For AP Stat, create a semester long booklet with the essential questions / reading guides to go with our textbook.  This ensures they have the big ideas for each section in an easy to find format.  If we have to pivot to remote learning for either short or long term, they already have a guide for continuing our course.

• If we start remotely - If I don't have a chance to see them at all, then I want an easy to follow notes format that can be used consistently with a variety of lesson formats - Desmos / videos / lecture.  I also want it to be something that they can easily replicate on notebook paper or print out a blank template if they choose.  I want to make sure it has the elements of the WSQ (Watch, Summarize, Question) format from Flipping with Kirch, plus an area for referencing their textbook and the daily lesson objective or essential question.  Right now, here's the format I'm playing with:
  
  
  
  

  
  I settled on this generic format because in the spring, I did a digital notebook on Google slides and while I liked it overall, it really needed to be printed for full impact and I cannot reasonably ask my students to do a lot of printing if we are in an extended remote situation.  I've tried out the format above with a sample lesson and it worked okay, but it's still in beta testing. 🙂

How are you handling the notebook situation for Fall 2020?  I've been lurking on a digital NB group on FaceBook and I've already decided that I don't have the time or patience to do something too fancy, but I'm eager to hear your ideas!