The ISN changed my life. Period.

Way back in the fall of 2008, my life changed as a teacher.   I was introduced to the Interactive Student Notebook, or the ISN, by a group of pretty amazing educators.  The day that I first learned about what it was and how it could be used in class, I fell in love.  It could possible be the love of my life - my teaching life that is ;)  Here's an example of my cover.

This is the front and back of my ISN from the 2011-2012 school year.  I try to have the kids come up with things that have to deal with "science".  We have a discussion in the beginning of the year and they brainstorm ideas.  I needed to fill in some space this year, so that's where the quotes/words came from :)

If you don't know what it is and you walked by my classroom, you'd probably wonder what is she doing in there with those 8th graders.  It looks like "baby work". That statement has been said to me and about my teaching before by people who have never stepped foot in my class.  Let me tell you, it's not.  The ISN allows for the student to truly understand and explore the material being taught in the classroom.  The students are creating their own textbook where the teacher can really look and see what they understand and what misconceptions they still have.  The work completed in the ISN does not have to be the same from student to student.  Honestly, is that really how life works?  We are all the same? That's not how life works.  We're all different.  Why do we as educators expect to see all the students' work to be the same?  I feel like school is the one place where we want everyone to uniformly be successful at everything in the same exact way.  It's wrong to think that way and it bothers me to no end that some educators still do this in 2012.  There are students that love to write and rather express themselves that manner.  Some students like to draw and can explain the material through drawings better than through words.  Some students may have to come up with ways to actually do something in order to explain things and use their ISN down to jot down or maybe even record what they did.  It's ok.  It's ok to be different and learn in different ways.  We're human and the ISN takes into consideration the person, not just the student, that sits in your classroom day in and day out. 

Below is an example of one of my ISN's from this past year.  I go though about 2 a year (maybe 3 next year).  You really can't put a number on the number of books you use during a school year - it depends on what you want in it and how often you want to use it.

This is an author page.  I know it's a little like my cover BUT this one is all about the author of the ISN.  Some of the things on the cover can overlap.  Obviously I love science behind sports and my NY sports teams.  This is just a fun way for the teacher to learn a little bit about the student that will be learning in their classroom.

This is just an example of a title page for a unit.  Depending on how you set up your ISN you may have multiple units. A fun thing to do is have the kids create a cover on what they know about the topic.  You can scaffold it depending on what your students needs.

That's my little intro about a little book that took over my teaching life.  I'll get into more of the logistics and organization (that might be the best part about it) of the ISN.  This will be my 5th year using the ISN and I'm constantly coming with new things to make it better.  If I had my way, I'd love to see the ISN take over the world.  I think life would be pretty awesome if students were able to explore learning through means that are best for them.  Who knows, it might enhance learning for our kids.

It's really ok to fail - I promise!

Three weeks until the big day exactly.  I'm getting married to a pretty amazing guy.  So awesome!  Yet, the only thing that I can think of is getting this blog up and somewhat running.  Teacher brain. I want to shut it off, but even in the summer, I can't.  Good thing I have an amazing fiance that keeps me level.

So what's the big need to start this blog.  I'm not too sure, but I feel like it's been years in the making.  I think I've been afraid of actually taking this step.  My first issue is that I'm not the best writer.  Spelling and the grammar rules that are out there just never stuck with me.  I'm going to try my best, but please, please, please forgive me in advance for mistakes.  This is huge for me to actually do this.  It's a huge fear of mine to actually have my writing out there in the public because I'm always afraid of making a mistake or even worse *gasp* failing! (more on that later).

It has also taken me forever to start this because I am a perfectionist in my work (I do try with grammar rules, but I always seem to make mistakes no matter what).  I needed to figured out a name for this blog and then try to come up with a decent layout.  The name of the blog killed me.  I pondered this particular issue for what seemed like an eternity.  Then it hit me while trying to get rid of this awful tan line (it's all about looking good in the dress).  I'm writing this blog about my experiences in middle school as a teacher.  

I. Love. Middle School.  

You should like it too. I'm serious.  Love it.  Forget about what you experienced when you were there.  Live through me now.  Love it and appreciate it.  Middle school can be the best time of your life as you begin to explore who you are, begin to really learn how to function in relationships, and look to find ways to succeed as a human being.  It's a lot to take on as a teenage.  It's even crazier where the chemicals in their brains' are going absolutely nuts.  It's a good time for the teacher, ha.

Middle school is the place where kids NEED to realize that's it's ok to fail.  I'm taking the chance with this blog.  It may fail - so what.  At least I'll have a place for me to write about my awesome experiences as a middle school science teacher.  I took a chance this past school year in changing up the way a teach and how my students received and processed the information being taught in class.  I did it the last two months of the year, and I also teach 8th grade.  The odds were stacked against me because who wants change they have one foot out the door of the middle school and one foot in the high school.  Was I worried of failing?  Absolutely.  Were their days when I thought that this mix of flipping my classroom, project based learning, and bringing their on devices (the evil cell phone) was going to backfire?  I thought that everyday, but we moved on and tried this crazy idea of making paper roller coasters.

Here are the results:

Just a few of the 22 that decorated my classroom - my classroom is not the biggest.  It was a bit of a tight squeeze.

The one roller coaster that is in the bigger picture was over 5'6".  The kids thought that it would be funny to make one taller than their teacher.  Yea, I have short parents.

The kids asked me day in and day out if we were going to finish this project and if it was going to be a success.  I kept saying that we're going to try to do our best and that if they don't work, it was ok that we failed.  Some of the kids looked at me somewhat perplexed.  It's ok to fail?!  Yea, I said it to them and I don't care.  It's a lesson that everyone needs to learn because when you fail, you learn.  You learn what needs to be changed in order to become successful the next time around.  There were lots of failures during the project, but they kept on working and trying to fix those failures and make them successes.  

This project could have blown up in my face, but with the determination of my kids and I, we did it.  It was the greatest feeling in the world.  We were ready to fail, but man, it felt good to just be awesome.  It was also great to see the fun they had when they were finally able to try out the coasters. 


As I close, in hopes that this blog doesn't fail, this is going to be a place for me to explore my profession and reflect on my work.  It's going to be a place where I can place my thoughts as I begin to evolve as a teacher once again - mind you, I'm starting year 6.  I get bored easily so I'm going to try to go full force into PBL, flipping my classroom, and adding even more integration of technology.  I have this idea for a skype project that I'm beyond excited about, but I'll save that for another day.  Gotta get up and work on wedding things then head to a soccer game at Yankees stadium.  (You will soon learn I am one of those psychotic NY fans - sorry to anyone who might be a Philly or Boston fan - my allegiances to my teams doesn't effect my teaching -for the most part!).  I leave you with this thought.  Our space program is full of failures, but just the other day, we celebrated the anniversary of one of, if not the greatest successes of that program - the first man on the moon.


It's ok to fail.