Interactive Notebooks: Day 10

Interactive Notebooks: Day 10

I had the kids start the day with review and another creative activity today. It hasn't gone very well. I'm starting to wonder if my idea for interactive notebooks isn't really working.

My original hypothesis was that by keeping all of their materials together and forcing the students to look back at them by building on skills progressively in the notebooks that the students would - through creativity and repetition - retain the material better.

However, there was a serious flaw in my plan. Some of my students are not invested enough in the notebooks to do the activities. There is a lack of desire to do the little creative projects that I think up.

Also, there is a lot of confusion because my students don't review the material or do homework. This can hurt a lot when you need to remember a lot of complicated materials. The kids need to practice or they will not remember the material. However, they don't. Most of my students tell me that they haven't done homework in years - and they are in the 9th grade!

I don't know. I think I was perhaps a little overly optimistic about my students' desire to get good grades/learn/or otherwise be invested in school.

I'm glad it's a Friday.