Foldable Fun + Goodbye Student Teacher

I am a huge fan of foldables in my math classroom.I think they make note-taking so much more interesting. My first year of teaching, I remember going to a Dinah Zike's workshop and falling in love. My students had foldables galore that they put in a sheet protector in their binders. When I asked students to pull out their notes though, very few still had them.

Then, interactive notebooking inters my life. My students now use spiral or composition notebooks, have a table of contents, and their foldables are glued in on a specific page they can find. Now,more students have their notes and can locate them at a later date to study if needed.

Then, I attend CAMT 2013 in San Antonio, and not only does Jennifer of 4mulaFun do interactive notebooks, but her foldables (flippables as she calls them) are interactive too! I was coming up on the topic of converting rational numbers in my 6th grade math classroom. Taking notes for converting between fractions, decimals, and percents can be a long process and very cumbersome...but not with this product I bought from Jennifer.

So, instead of me going through notes, students started with a foldable that only had the outside labels. They cut out all the pieces that would fill the inside of the foldable with an example and written directions for each process. Students then did a matching activity where they used their prior knowledge to complete the foldable with all directions and examples in the correct places.

I checked off each groups' placements before allowing them to glue them in. Within 10 minutes, all students had completed notes that were not dictated by me.

And we were able to move on to using the notes to get the practice needed to apply the information.

I loved it and the kids did a great job! I will definitely be looking to make my note-taking more interactive in the future. Thanks so much to Jennifer for being willing to share a great product. If you're not familiar with her, you should definitely check out her blog and TeachersPayTeachers store.

In addition to a great day of math class, it was also my student teacher's last day, which made it bitter sweet. I had the kids write a note to her using templates I found here. Students chose to either write about something they remember her teaching, five reasons she'll be a great teacher, advice for teaching, or why they loved having her as a student teacher. I then took all of their notes and made a keepsake book with pictures of the kids, all their notes, and a few notes from me along with a gift card to a local teacher supply store to get her started on her way.

Unfortunately, because of the crazy Texas weather, my student teacher didn't get to walk the stage, but she's a graduate nonetheless. I hope she had a great experience in our classroom and I wish her all the best!