Sharing your ISN with Parents

So the past few weeks, I've been dealing with a parent. You know the type. She emails you within 30 seconds of your response. He checks online grades 4 times daily to see if anything has changed. She wants a detailed explanation of at least 3 sentences beside each grade. He organizes Junior's notebook for him every night at home because "he's just not great with organizational skills." 

Honestly, these types of parents don't usually get to me. Until last week. I finally just gave in and decided to post my ISN pages - yes, every single last one of them, online. Because otherwise, I was never going to hear the end of it. And quite honestly, I think it will help my students keep track of everything. I'm envisioning a student that was absent pulling out their phone or any other internet-connected device, and updating their notebook at home based on what's online. Last summer when I worked with a middle school teacher to present on interactive notebooking for our district, I was inspired by the fact that each day, she posted not only their topic, homework, and a link to a video daily, but also pics of her ISN for each prep. 

(I said inspired - that's definitely teacher-code for saying WOW she must be awesome, and then I did nothing to improve my own system. SMH.) 

But talking with this parent finally motivated me to get it done. I've seen lots of teachers with ISNs use Slideshare with pictures, I've seen them take doc cam screenshots (which in my opinion, is probably easiest), and I've even seen some walk downstairs and scan each page every day to post it. 

My doc cam is barely good enough to use for notes - so that wasn't an option. Not to mention, I knew for sure that if the method I chose took ANY work at all, it wasn't going to happen. 

So I chose Evernote. I'd already been using it a little (I have the free version) for organizing some online resources. But I'm fairly new to it. But in about 5 seconds (literally) per prep per day, I post my pages for the day. 

I downloaded the free Evernote app onto my cell phone. I added the "widget" to my home screen. I set 2 notebooks up called Algebra 1 ISN and Algebra 2 ISN (one for each prep). I copied the link to each notebook onto my class website so students can access the notebook as public. That's it!

This is the widget on my home screen. When I want to post new pages, I click the camera button, which opens a new "photo page," and automatically starts the camera.

This is the camera started - you take as many photos as you need (I do 1 per page)
by hitting the green button.

Once you've taken pictures, it shows the number you've taken in the bottom right corner. 

Select the check once you've gotten that day's pages.

Hitting the check brings you to the "note" that contains all the pictures. 

All that's left to do is label the note with a title and place it in the correct notebook.

In green, it lists the notebook - this note is set to go into Algebra 1 ISN.

Below is the space for the title.

 I use the page numbers as the title (here, I put 65 for page 65.) 

Then hit the check, and it saves automatically. It syncs as soon as you
connect to wifi or turn on data. 

So you can see what students/parents see, click the link below - it will take you to the Algebra 1 or Algebra 2 ISN online notebook.
 (Keep in mind I JUST started doing this - there aren't many pages up yet. We started our 2nd 6 weeks notebook on Pi Day.)

https://www.evernote.com/pub/mrs_spencer_schs/algebra1isn

https://www.evernote.com/pub/mrs_spencer_schs/algebra2isn

I know if you're unfamiliar with Evernote, this process can seem like a lot. But once you get started, the daily upkeep takes only a few seconds (which is what makes it worth it for me). Email me through my profile if you want/need more info to get started, or post questions in the comment section. 

Classroom Decorating

Wow it's been quite a week. I was at the Meredith Math Institute learning about how to create rigorous math tasks for Math 1 students - lots of good stuff there. If you teach Math 1, 2, or 3, check out this google group: it's free to join, and we have posted all of the tasks from the week. 

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/navigating-seven-seas

Right before I left for Raleigh, I had a chance to go school supply shopping and pick up my class decor stuff - fabric and bins and such. I'll post pictures once I get my room set up (this morning was the first morning we could access our rooms), but for now, this should give you a decent idea. 

Most of the fabric I found in the clearance section of Walmart, and together for 1-2 yards of each, it was around $15.  

I am so in love with that purple batik! I'm also super happy to have two of the same pattern but in a dark and light version. One of those two will become my curtains for my room. 

The solid colors will be used for the bulletin boards - I love being able to reuse them year after year, and they don't fade like the butcher paper does. My boards are across from the window, so that was a definite concern this year. 

I have 3 preps this year, so everything will be color coded in these 3 colors. Blue = Algebra Two (see what I did there? HAHA), purple = Algebra 1/Math 1, and green is foundations. I need a pneumonic device for those second two. (My hubby suggested "purple is for derples," but I don't think that will work.)

The ribbon will be woven around the crates. (An idea I found on Pinterest)  One of the great things about Walmart is I can get everything in the same colors, since they're made by the same company. The ribbons, fabric, boards, and crates match almost perfectly!

While we're color coding, I also made these contact cards to put in the front of their interactive notebooks. It has my website, google voice number, and email both in print and as QR codes. 

Download the template for free here. 

I used the website http://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/ to come up with the QR codes. 

I also made these supply labels - download the free template here. 

That's it for now - coming soon: pictures of last year's Math ISN.