Interactive Notebook Progress So Far

As I said in an earlier post, I'm incorporating interactive notebooks this year.  Last year, my students had such a difficult time taking notes.  They lack the skills to determine what information is important, and I gave too many notes, and maybe even too many examples.  I'm looking forward to using interactive notebooks because it will force me to really think about what information needs to be included in student notes.

As I go through the process of creating interactive notebooks with my Geometry classes, I'll post what I've done on my blog.  (There aren't too many resources for Geometry notebooks yet.)  If I find success with interactive notebooks this year in Geometry, I'll incorporate them into Contemporary Math next year.

At this time, I wanted to share what I've planned so far.

• I have my own notebook to use as the master notebook as advised by EVERYONE. 
• I planned for the topics I need to cover using these pages, and I'll have enough pages for sure.  I found my favorite page organizer here.
• I checked out a Dinah Zike book from our library to research foldables.  (We have the greatest school librarian.)
• I purchased a foldable pack from TPT.  This looks so great, I cannot wait to use it.
• I am not giving my students time in class to decorate their covers.  Maybe I'll assign it for homework.
• I have not decided if I want students to take their notebooks back and forth (and introduce a much greater probability that they will lose the notebook) or if I want students to keep their notebooks in my classroom (and quite nearly defeat the purpose of having notebooks in the first place).  Guess what I'm already leaning toward.
• If I let students take their notebooks home, when will I grade them?  I cannot grade them during the test.  Cheating runs rampant in my school, and I have to circulate the entire time.  The thought of grading them the night that students take the test is enough to start me hyperventilating.  Need to figure this out ASAP.
• I want to put the notebook rubric on the front cover, but I like the idea of a learner profile like this one on the front cover so much more.  Also, to not waste page space in the notebook, I can glue this on as a pocket and keep the actual surveys inside.
• If I put the learner profile on the front cover, where I will I put the rubric?  Back cover?  That's actually a good possibility.
• I want the first page of the notebook to be a key of symbols used in Geometry.  I am absolutely, definitely without a shadow of a doubt doing this.
• I planned a table of contents for the first several pages, but I'm replacing that with unit tables of contents like the one from this blog post.  (I seriously hate the thought of using up 10 pages right off the bat.)
• I want each unit to start with a pocket page.  On the pocket page I want to have a tab so the units are easy to find.  I want to put the unit table of contents on the back of or opposite the pocket page.  Some better planning needs to happen here, but I like the overall idea.
• For a glossary of terms, I want to use the Frayer model foldables from here.  (See the picture at the top?  I want to use that, but a whole page of them.)  However, I don't want to put the glossary at the end of the notebook.  This will take too much planning, and too many pages from the notebook at the very beginning (which for no good reason, I just hate).  Instead, I want to put the terms used in each unit right after the unit pocket page.

This what I have so far.  I need to remember that even though I don't have specific pages planned, or a full perfect list of topics of the pages I need filled out, I do at least have this general guide of how I will set up my notebook, and that this is essential for getting my interactive notebooks started this year.  (So in short, I need to stop panicking already.)