Update: Accountability 101 - Christmas in July

Today's update is brought to you by Santa Claus!  It's Christmas in Mid-July, and I wanted to make sure I could be included on the NICE list, not by avoiding my projects and ending up on the NAUGHTY list...

What I notice is that I tend to avoid topics that are larger projects, especially when I don't have large chunks of time to tackle them.  However, I also notice I don't work well when I have long time and lots of little items.  Those TIME VAMPIRES seem to suck my time up.

However, with summer school in session, my time is a bit more limited so I expect that I can get more items checked off as the summer progresses.  Onward!  I need to earn more points to be in good standing with Santa!

Am I on track to get these tasks completed by September 1?  Of course, I always seem to add items to the lists as well.  That's part of my downfall. 

How many of these can I get finished by September 1?
Here's the status as of July 21st, now 4 weeks in, and I feel very accomplished.  Many of the sections came in chunks (like the Scouts checklist), and some have been put off (by Queen Procrastination).  However, I will say that I am getting some other items taken care of that are NOT on this list but should streamline my personal and business life significantly!  The summer is on the downhill slide, and the list is getting shorter!!!

• Home
• Organize Under Kitchen Sink
• Organize Linen Closet
• Paint Kitchen and Hallway
• Organize Dining Room
• Build Bedroom Wall
• Build Attic Stairs/Entry
• Build Bedroom Closet
• Organize Basement Closet
• Clean Basement Carpets
• Organize My Closet
• Closet Curtains
• Help Kids organize rooms
• Glassware into storage

• Yard
• Paint Bulkhead
• Fire Pit (dig out, border, pit, rocks)
• Screen House Office - replacement due to storm damage :(
• Organic Veggie Garden
• Side Shade Garden
• Trellis (Pallets)

• Personal Development
• Schedule Doctor Appt
• Life Insurance (pending)
• Read 5 Fiction Books
• Inferno
• Divergent
• Insurgent
• Allegiant
• Four
  
• Pieces
• Read 5 Non-Fiction Books (or Audiobooks)
• Smart Money, Smart Kids
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Start
• Book #4
• Book #5
• 30 day challenge
• Abs (day 15)
• Arms (day 15)
• Thighs
• Butt
• Shoulder
• Back
• Budget
• Annual Budget
• Emergency Fund Baby Step 1   95% of the way there!!!
• Sinking Fund +$2000
• Debt Snowball +600/mo

• Office
• Organize File Cabinet
• Organize Manuals
• Shred Documents
• Strong Box Break into Old and Purchase new
• Create Legacy Box
• Organize Bills
• Tutoring Business Cards
• Linkedin Account 
• Eric's Office
• Eric's Job!!!  

• Upload
•  TpT
• Essential Questions Blue/Purple
• Line of Best Fit Project
• Rule of Four
• DC POWs

• Worcester (AxiD Corporation):
• Furnace Cleaning (Scheduled August 8)
• Sprinkler Inspection (June)
• Alarm Inspection (scheduled August 8)
• Washer Service (scheduled August 8)
• Fire Extinguisher Inspection (June)
• Spackle Walls
• Hot Water Heater Moved (scheduled August 8)
• Exhaust Installed (Scheduled August 8)

• Canning:
• Tomatillo Salsa
• Red Salsa
• Pickles
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Chili Sauce

• Thirty-One:
• CONFERENCE (end of July) THIS WEEK!!!
• Year Analysis ($25K in PV)
• Budget (Jan - June)
• RSS
• Set Goals

• Family
•  Jiminy Adventure Park Raincheck
• Tubing (tenative) - CANCELLED July
• Comic Con (July) - CANCELLED
• Comic Con (August)
• Jiminy Adventure Park - reschedule August or Fall 

• Scouts:
• July 3rd Firework Games (rescheduled to July 5th)
• Boards of Review 
• Star Review - A (At Camp)
• Personal Fitness - A
• Citizen of Nation - A
• Metalwork - A (At Camp)
• Climbing - A (At Camp)
• Tenderfoot Review - C (At Camp)
• Canoeing - C (At Camp)
• Nantucket Trip (August)

Summer School: How to Tame the Paper Overload!

As summer school has started, I realize how much organization and streamlining I accomplish during the first day of any school.  It's always overwhelming, and stressful, but once my systems get into place, things tend to run fairly smoothly.  The expectations are in place, and the summer blahs that my resentful students seems to go by the wayside (for the most part).  With the program we have in place, they feel like they have control of what they can work on, as long as they are given timeline and score parameters, and it works.

This year, we set up a modified Interactive Notebook, mostly for accountability with scores, attendance, a table of contents, and scrap paper for the skills.  Training the students in our routine was half the battle.  Simple systems like numbering pages and writing the day's date at the top seemed basic, but until a routine was established, proved quite difficult.

Another paper overload area was tracking scores on the computer program.  We created two types of trackers.

One was a standards post-it tracker taped on the wall above each students' computer.  These trackers had the computer program coded skills on post-it tabs and allowed the students to self-monitor the skills assigned to the class.  They could move the tab along the spectrum, in four color-coded areas.  We discussed how they should set a small goal when they start a skill, like reaching a score of 50, then when that goal is reached, to modify it to another goal.  I was trying to get them into the 70% range (the orange, Satisfactory, area), which depending on the skill, could be quick, or could be quite challening.  However, many of the kids wanted to reach MASTERED (100%), and were frustrated when that proved too challenging.  They also noticed that their risk was greater the higher their score was.  Getting one question wrong while in the 90% range dropped significantly, and they needed one question correct for every point they wanted to earn back.

The other tracker was a hanging folder for each student and demonstrated where to access the daily data measuring their progress.  Having each student document their own data, rather than the instructor gathering everyone's, proved helpful in two ways.  They documented not only their cumulative scores,  but also their performance and time practiced.  The weighted average was calculated by me, as a percentage of time spent,

First, it allowed the student to reflect on their performance immediately.  Yesterday, in fact, I had a student who commented that they were very off track, as their total practice time was only 15 minutes (when we typically have two 20 minute target sessions).  He noted that he was very unfocused.  I hope that this reflection will allow him to keep himself on track today.

Second, it allowed me to keep all the students records in one place, in the classroom, for evidence on their progress.  Our summer school this year is set up to be more remediation practice rather than pure instruction, so this allowed us to document the skills practiced and provide evidence for the administration once the program is complete.

We'll check back in a few weeks to see how the systems are maintained.  It's giving me hope - especially for kids who are not as strong mathematically, reluctant and resentful to being here in the summer, and are weak in organizational skills.  They CAN find success and improve in their skills - especially when they feel like they are in some control, have immediate feedback, and can set and meet goals.

Right now, were working on intrinsic motivation with some electronic motivation built into the computer program.  My back up for the last week is some extrinsic motivation (in the form of stickers and candy).  We'll see how their resentful attitudes are in a few weeks.  I'd LOVE to report that I don't need to break out the stickers!

Update: Accountability 101; Independence from my list!

 

On this rainy Independence Day, while I watch the History Channel's "America: Story of Us", and reflect on my to-do list, I realize that my LONG list can certainly be daunting.  But I am determined to meet MY Independence Day target:  September 1.

Already, I've been sidetracked along the way, and I'm only 2 weeks in.  It's a long haul, like Westward Expansion, and I feel as though I only have made it through the Cumberland Gap.  However, the journey to the Pacific will still happen... slow and steady wins the race.  I must stay focused, timely, and not add TOO many new things to my list.

One thing we hadn't added to the list was the Family section.  That was still under debate when I published last.  Fortunately, we now have a few things on the calendar during these summer months.  Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate (she hasn't been too friendly the last several days).


Am I on track to get these tasks completed by September 1?  Of course, I always seem to add items to the lists as well.  That's part of my downfall. 

How many of these can I get finished by September 1?
Here's the status as of July 4th.  2 weeks in, and I feel fairly accomplished.  However, the weekend before summer school starts will be a whirlwind as I try to tackle much of this before school items hit!

• Home
• Organize Under Kitchen Sink
• Organize Linen Closet
• Paint Kitchen
• Organize Dining Room
• Build Bedroom Wall
• Build Attic Stairs/Entry
• Build Bedroom Closet
• Organize Basement Closet
• Clean Basement Carpets
• Organize My Closet
• Help Kids organize rooms
• Glassware into storage

• Yard
• Paint Bulkhead
• Fire Pit
• Screen House Office
• Organic Veggie Garden
• Side Shade Garden
• Trellis (Pallets)

• Personal Development
• Schedule Doctor Appt
• Life Insurance
• Read 5 Fiction Books
• Inferno
• Divergent
• Insurgent
• Allegiant
• Pieces
• Read 5 Non-Fiction Books
• Smart Money, Smart Kids
• Book #2
• Book #3
• Book #4
• Book #5
• 30 day challenge
• Abs
• Arms
• Thighs
• Butt
• Shoulder
• Back
• Budget
• Annual Budget
• Emergency Fund Baby Step 1
• Sinking Fund +$2000
• Debt Snowball +500/mo

• Office
• Organize File Cabinet
• Organize Manuals
• Shred Documents
• Strong Box Break into Old and Purchase new
• Create Legacy Box
• Organize Bills
• Tutoring Business Cards
• Linkedin Account 

• Upload
•  TpT
• Line of Best Fit Project
• Rule of Four
• DC POWs

• Worcester (AxiD Corporation):
• Furnace Cleaning
• Sprinkler Inspection (June)
• Alarm Inspection (August)
• Washer Service
• Fire Extinguisher Inspection (June)
• Spackle Walls
• Hot Water Heater Moved
• Exhaust Installed

• Canning:
• Tomatillo Salsa
• Red Salsa
• Pickles
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Chili Sauce

• Thirty-One:
• CONFERENCE!

• Family
•  Jiminy Adventure Park
• Tubing
• Comic Con

• Scouts:
• July 3rd Firework Games (rescheduled to July 5th)
• Boards of Review 
• Star - A
• Personal Fitness - A
• Citizen of Nation - A
• Welding - A
• Tenderfoot - C
• Canoeing - C

Accountability 101: How the Summer Projects Were Accomplished

Summertime is a time to rejuvenate and relax.  I look forward to reading a good book, sitting out on the porch, sleeping in, spending time with my kids and friends, traveling...

However, there are so many things that fall by the wayside during the school year, that it's also a time for me to get caught up on life. Renovations, annual repairs, doctors appointments, even squeezing in a long weekend vacation or two. I find that it's so difficult keeping up with the day-to-day items that I justify putting things off until later (usually a vacation week or summer), then get overwhelmed when I look at the long list that has been created.

Every year, I tape a LOOOONG piece of poster paper to the door and map out the summer, May through September, to see the big picture (as well as to see who is where and when).  I do a similar thing in January with the a new calendar, even going as far as color coding each kid's events (that lasts a little bit, mainly because I don't maintain it).  It's helpful for a visual thinker like me, but also to communicate to the rest of the household.

 I discovered two main obstacles in my attempt:

One - my to-do lists are WAY TOO LONG.  It is OVERWHELMING when I start putting everything in one place.  It is DAUNTING to start to chip away at it.

Two - my paper lists and post-its become crossed out and rewritten and despite the fact I can eliminate many of them as I accomplish them, I never feel as though I'm getting any momentum... then come fall, feel defeated (even if I have completed many of them!).  I have a post-it tracker in my office and a paper list in my calendar, but I really never have everything in one place.

This year, I'm going to try something slightly different.  I'm going to have a TOP 5 of the day.  Five main things that I want to get completed.  This is especially helpful for those little things, like calling doctors or scheduling appointments, that I remember at 11:30 on a Friday night and tend to forget when the office opens the following Monday.

So I'm going to keep an electronic master list here on this blog and check in periodically to track my progress.  I'll still use my post-it tracker and a goofy sticker chart for myself (that's the teacher in me too).  I even would be thrilled to say that each day I'll get one item completed from each facet of my life, though I don't think that's going to truly be feasible, but at least it's a start.


How many of these can I get finished by September 1?

• Home
• Organize Under Kitchen Sink
• Organize Linen Closet
• Paint Kitchen
• Organize Dining Room
• Build Bedroom Wall
• Build Attic Stairs/Entry
• Build Bedroom Closet
• Organize Basement Closet
• Clean Basement Carpets

• Yard
• Paint Bulkhead
• Fire Pit
• Screen House Office
• Organic Veggie Garden
• Side Shade Garden
• Trellis (Pallets)

• Personal
• Doctor
• Life Insurance
• Read 5 Fiction Books
• Inferno
• Divergent
• Insurgent
• Allegiant
• Pieces
• Read 5 Non-Fiction Books
• Smart Money, Smart Kids
• Book #2
• Book #3
• Book #4
• Book #5
• 30 day challenge
• Abs
• Arms
• Thighs
• Butt
• Shoulder
• Back
• Budget
• Annual Budget
• Emergency Fund Baby Step 1

• Office
• Organize File Cabinet
• Organize Manuals
• Shred Documents
• Strong Box
• Legacy Box
• Organize Bills
• Annual Budget

• Upload
•  TpT
• Line of Best Fit Project
• Rule of Four
• DC POWs

• Worcester (AxiD Corporation):
• Furnace Cleaning
• Sprinkler Inspection
• Alarm Inspection
• Washer Service
• Fire Extinguisher Inspection
• Spackle Walls
• Hot Water Heater Moved
• Exhaust Installed

• Canning:
• Tomatillo Salsa
• Red Salsa
• Pickles
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Chili Sauce

• Thirty-One:
• CONFERENCE!

• Scouts:
• July 3rd Firework Games
• Boards of Review

Happy Summer!  And here's to accountability and accomplishments!

When I finally became a townie...

I am a Navy Brat.  Our family moved every 4-6 years throughout my childhood.  I never had 'roots' in one place for very long to see the particulars of how a town changed over time; both politically, personality, economically, and even geographically...

But now, I have been established for almost 20 years in my career and raising my family.  I have managed my personal life, and navigated my career while living amongst the families that I work with.  It has been interesting, sometimes stifling, to rise, fall, and get back up amid my students and their families.  At first, I was worried of perception, then embraced my 'nerdiness'.  This is me:  mom, teacher, scout leader, neighbor, volunteer, business owner.  I'm not always warm and fuzzy.  I'm enthusiastic but not hyper (well, maybe disorganized and over-caffeinated).   I'm authentic, but not fake.  I'm assertive, not bossy.  I reflect, reevaluate and adjust, even if it stresses me out.  I will stand up for what I believe.  Take it or leave it.

I have made mistakes in rearing my children, allowing the 'system' to makes determinations, while managing my own classroom and the personalities that go along with it.  I have stood my ground with other people's kids if they crossed the line with me.  I have tried to negotiate the strong personalities and stand up for those who are not as vocal.  Even when I don't mean to, I also take on the 'Devil's Advocate' side of the conversation, always proposing and preparing for the worst case scenario, must to the chagrin of those in charge.

So I suppose this now makes me an official 'Townie', being transplanted into this area and allowed to thrive.  I can't run away and reinvent myself every 4-6 years.  I have had to find my voice, my personality, and learn how to navigate everyone else's.  It may have taken me 40 years to do so, but I'm hopeful that I can empower, inspire, and lead by example, for both my own children as well as others.

Get Your Finances in Order

Like many people at the start of the new year, I set my top 5 goals for the year.  Some were personal, others were with the family.  Some were narrow, some were broad.  Most had bullet points that I can use as a checklist.  You can read my entire blog post HERE.  

Goal #1: $$$$  Get your financial house in order  $$$

My first goal for 2014 of getting my financial house in order.  I had organized all the papers and done a 'month in review' budget for years, but decided that I needed a kick in the butt and accountability.  Enter Dave Ramsey.  I had come across his free podcast of his daily radio show that spoke of finances.  Dave has a very 'in your face' personality.  He tells it like it is... even if it's not what you want to hear.  And that's refreshing.  He had spoken about his method of getting out of debt and accumulating wealth.  It was different than the other information I had read about (mostly investing in real estate, that was out of my reach now, and in year's past).  He principals included a checklist - I LOVE CHECKLISTS! - that seemed like an easy road map to the goal I was trying to achieve.  

So, as a birthday gift to myself, I enrolled in his Financial Peace University that was being held at a nearby church.  Though I hadn't been a student in a class in a while, this was a bit of a commitment - 10 Saturday nights, plus homework - but I knew it was an investment in myself and my future!

Each week covers a particular area of this checklist, what Dave calls the 'Baby Steps'.  And the class has facilitators, but is actually a video presentation of Dave and his colleagues (so everyone essentially gets the same class).  It also had an online component, so if you missed class or wanted to recap the highlights, you could review the video at a later date at your convenience.  This worked out great when I missed class due to inclement weather!

The Baby Steps are no secret, Dave talks about them regularly on his radio show.  It's basically 'common sense' or what Grandma would have told you growing up!  They are as follows:

#1 $1000 Emergency Fund (available for EMERGENCIES)
#2 Pay off all debts (except the house)
#3 Fully Funded Emergency Fund (3-6 mo expenses in bank)
#4 15% into Retirement
#5 Kids' College
#6 Pay Off House Early
#7 Build Wealth and Give!

My journey began with Baby Step #1: $1000 Emergency Fund.  I have carried a 'savings account' that is linked to my checking, and always got nervous when it was below $1000, but never thought of it as something separate.  So a bit or reorganization, and that step is checked off the list.  It's there for EMERGENCIES, like the furnace breaks or you get a flat tire, not for a WANT.  That's something you plan for, in the BUDGET.
 So along with Baby Step #1, I also reorganized the budget and moved to an envelope system of money management.  The idea is to CASH FLOW your expenses, with cash, and not live on a Credit Card.  That was, and continues to be HARD!  But it's also changing behavior, and I certainly am a work in progress...

The budget changes month-to-month, and that's very different than how I had previously arranged my budget analysis.  Each month, you take your paycheck, before you get it, and tell you money where to go.  EVERY PENNY!  Of course, as a pseudo-perfectionist, doing this in pencil was a must, because it's a ZERO-BASED BUDGET.  No money is left over.  And I wasn't very good at that.  But once the basics were covered (Home, Utilities, Food, Transportation), and monies set aside for Sinking Funds (like auto insurance, home insurance, the dentist, Christmas/Vacation savings and those other bills that are planned, but not monthly), then the other bills (ie: DEBT, like credit cards) could be addressed.

So cross that one off the list!
#1 $1000 Emergency Fund (available for EMERGENCIES)

So on to the next step.  That's the step I'm on now, Baby Step #2: Pay off all debts (except the house).  It's taking care of all the debts I have (except the home mortgage).  This is daunting.  It was something that I was aware of, but since I used credit A LOT, and didn't pay down my balance, it was always there... never a zero balance.  And I didn't ever see one.  So now that the Envelope System is in place, the cards cut up (still working on this one... but most are and I'm not adding to them), and the budget has told every dollar where to go, what's remaining becomes the DEBT SNOWBALL.

The idea of the debt snowball list all debts and organize them from least to greatest balance.  Then, pay minimum balances on all your debts stack all extra money available (after that well organized budget) towards the lowest balance.  Once that debt is paid off, use that amount and put it towards the next lowest balance.  As the smaller debts are paid, the snowball gathers momentum and you FEEL like you are making progress towards tackling your debt.  And you are.  Slowly at first, but eventually, as the snowball gets bigger and bigger, the debt will literally melt away!  

So here is my debt.  YIPES!  $35,000 to start.  That's daunting.  And, sadly that doesn't include college loans, like most folks.  Those were actually the first that were paid off.  My debt is solely car and credit.  But the plan is in place, and I'm chipping away.  $4,200 paid off since February 1.  YAY!  

But the great thing, that I'm super proud of, is that I did purchase a used Truck and Plow in CASH!  A bit of planning, but that's the first major purchase since I started Financial Peace University.  It was due to savings as well as selling a ton of items with my friend Craig (Craigslist and Ebay are awesome for this).  Also hoping to add to the snowball this April with a Tag Sale.  Another thing is to change my tax witholdings to get more in my paycheck throughout the year, and a much smaller rebate next spring.  That extra cash will go towards the snowball, as well as funding sinking funds for budgeted expenses.


So the journey continues.  I hope to finish Baby Step #2 by the summer of 2016.  It's a big challenge, but with extra jobs, extra cash and lots of motivation (and some accountability here on the blog), I will tackle this!

Happy Budgeting!

 

Our Interactive Notebook, part 1

Now that my classes have had several chapters under their belts, I felt it was time to reflect on our most important organizational element in our classroom:   

THE INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOK.  

We've gotten into a fairly good routine both in how our class runs and what the expectation is for the layout of our interactive notebook, or INB, throughout the chapter.  It also has helped me in both communicating to students and parents as well as modeling study strategies that (hopefully) the kids will carry with them into high school.  Of course, many of our topics are of a Pre-Algebra nature, so if they literally carry these notebooks with them into ninth grade it could significantly help them in their Algebra class.  It also was a great piece of evidence for Parent-Teacher Conferences as well as accommodations for IEPs and 504s.  It's a WIN-WIN for everyone!!!

We are using the Big Ideas Math textbook series, a new one for our district this year.   The chapters follow the same type of structure, a student-driven activity day then a more traditional teacher-led lesson to solidify the topic they explored the previous day.  The notebook has become very helpful in grounding both types of instruction, as well as keeping the kid's material in ONE PLACE!

I required a spiral notebook in September.  Most kids brought in one similar to the one I modeled, a one-subject approximately 100 pages of regular ruled paper.  Next year, I think I'll model a 5-subject though, because we found that we ran out of space well before the end of term 2 in the smaller one.  College ruled (which I had some of as well) doesn't work well with most of the kids, as their handwriting is large (and messy...).  But many of the kids didn't realize the size of the paper rule they had.

The Cover Page

The cover page included a sticker of the business cards I had made up this summer.  They had a QR code to the homework web page as well as email contact info and office hours.  I definitely will have more of these next year, but I might just print them out myself rather than purchase them.  You can read that post HERE.  The interior title page was a graphic I found online, with other contact info and a space for the kids to CLEARLY print their name.  Another reason to have a larger spiral is to have only ONE of these... in multiple notebooks, the kids didn't put names on the inside (and then their covers ripped off...)

Inside the front cover (I forgot to circle the Marking Term... oops)

Table of Contents: the TOC

Maintaining a table of contents was stressed, but keeping up with it didn't always happen day to day as I intended.  We did find that we needed to actually assign the TOC to get it updated.  It generally consisted of the lesson topic that was in the book (ex: Activity 3.1 Lines and Angles;  Lesson 3.4 Indirect Measurement)  Each page was also to have a title, the date, and the page number (sometimes in color) in the upper corner of the page.  If this was done each day during class, it was no big-deal.  However, for some reason, the kids don't like not only doing this, but putting their names on tests, last names on ANYTHING... it's very frustrating.  I keep reminding them to autograph their paper... sometimes even HIGHLIGHT their name before turning a paper in...but I still have a pile of anonymous papers that end up ceremonially going into the trash on a regular basis.  (alas, I digress... I think this could be another topic for another day)

   Informational Papers & Flippers

In our first INB was also a prime place to put the informational papers that I usually give out within the first week of school.  These pages were shrank to half-sheets and made into 'flippers', to increase the surface area on each spiral bound page.

















Honestly, this took a while, both to distribute the pages to each group as well as modelling how to attach the papers (using my mantra:  a 'knuckle-size piece of tape')

The 'Knuckle-Size' Piece of Tape

Chapter Title

Each chapter also needed a 'starting point', so I used 4mulaFun's Unit Numbers from TeachersPayTeachers.com.  For my own organization (and sanity) I did write on my master copies, both the chapter numbers as well as the photocopy the pages in the color of the book (Big Idea's grade 8 is BLUE while the Algebra 1 is PURPLE).   Of course, that only worked when the paper was available in the teacher's room.  Something tells me that we're gonna run out soon, but then the kids can color them as they see fit.  This works great for after the chapter test, to keep them busy, quiet, and coloring can be very theraputic for some 'brain rest'.

We also had the left facing page for review material.  The textbook included items called 'What You Should Know' that typically covered standards from previous years.  This was a helpful place for these 8-12 questions.  Quick and painless.

Vocabulary Frodor Model

Yet another TpT idea that I came across last spring was the Frodor Model of vocabulary.  More interactive, and more summative, these models allow for student not only to put the definitions with the terms, but also create examples and non examples, formulas or illustrations to solidify their knowledge.  It was also VERY kinesthetic, which many of my kiddos need!  What I really didn't consider is how much focus they need to get these all cut out, glued in, and completed.


I expected by the 2nd chapter, it'd be easy.  But even now, beginning our 4th chapter, it's a struggle.  But if it's completed correctly, the data is ALL IN ONE PLACE and can be referenced and filled out throughout the chapter.  I have found that filling out some of the information BEFORE I photocopy, including which pages in the INB they go, is very helpful for our organization.




I also color code the chapter, not just the color of the book, but the color of the chapter.  Chapter 2 and 3 I tried to keep items GREEN for our Geometry topics.




Chapter 4, which is more Algebra focused is BLUE.

Chapter 4 Vocabulary - Graphing Linear Equations

In the next post, I'll show off the most functional part of our INBs, the Input/Output and how we've maximized this format for both the Activity and Lesson Days.  And in the future, some of the foldables we've created.