What programs do
you use to create digital notebooks?
Watching the
PPT to Slides video helped me
figure out how to take use existing PPTs to help me merge into
the digital lane. I love that I can
incorporate my tried and true class
notes/resources from PPT. Another great
features is having all
the slides automatically saved into one folder for you - makes it
easy to find the slides you need from Google
Slides to add as background images. A
great example of this strategy is the
Sandwich Science unit.
The Teacher Master has the presentation in
PPT with all the slides, while the Student Master is a Slides
version.
Also
available ...
Digital
ISN Resources
- A listing of tips, tutorials, and
other tools that helped me in the digital
transition.
What slide size
do you prefer?
I like using the custom size
settings of 11x8.5, which is like a standard
page in landscape view. It displays
well on a computer monitor as well as the
SmartBoard. If I need to print a copy,
it is already formatted to do so - just send
it to the printer. I set up each
slide to be equal to one page in a regular
notebook.
How do you assign
these to your students? How often?
I will
assign the digital notebooks through
Google Classroom as an assignment (with the
"make a copy for each student option) How
often they are assigned will depend on the
unit or assignment. The
Science
Starters notebooks will be assigned weekly.
The unit notebooks (see the samples on the
ISN main page) will be assigned at the
start of a unit and be due final test day
for that unit. Some may cover a couple
weeks, while others will be six weeks or
more.
How will you
grade the notebooks?
I plan to grade
many times throughout a unit
as well as at the end. One of the
perks of GC is I can see the student
notebooks without them having to submit
them. I may have students send
screenshots of completed activities to be
graded individually. Other times I
will have them bring up a specific slide on
their screen so I can check for completion
before we review the activity in class.
Students will be able to use the digital
notebooks on note quizzes (just like the
paper ones), which has always been a big
incentive for my students to keep notebooks
up-to-date and completed. At the end of the
unit, I will have a list of slides to check
for points as well as overall effort,
organization, etc.
How will you add
pages to student notebooks?
I know
from past experience that I won't have every
unit notebook finished until after I get
done teaching a unit (just like the
non-digital times!)
I plan to
post slide updates as materials on Google
Classroom. Rather than sharing the
entire Master Copy, I will create a file
with just the slides students need to add
(much more manageable for all the kids.)
The title of the file will include the ISN
it goes with and the date it should be
added. I plan to use notes in the gray
areas to indicate the correct slide # in the
full ISN.
How do you use
existing PPTs to develop student notebooks?
Watching
the
PPT to Slides
video was a game
changer for me! I was spending a lot
of time trying to recreate everything on
Slides. What an exciting moment to
figure out how to take my tried and true
class notes/resources to help me merge into
the digital lane. I love that PPT saves all
the slides into a folder for you - makes it
easy to find the slides you need from Google
Slides to add as background images. A
great example of this strategy is the
Sandwich Science unit
I recently added a digital notebook version
for one of my favorite lessons. Would
have taken twice as long to build it all on
Slides!
What slide size
do you prefer?
I like using the custom size
settings of 11x8.5, which is like a standard
page in landscape view. It displays
well on a computer monitor as well as the
SmartBoard. If I need to print a copy,
it is already formatted to do so - just send
it to the printer. I set up each
slide to be equal to one page in a regular
notebook.
Will I still
have students complete hand-drawn projects,
graphs, and written responses?
Yes, but they will
have ways to share those efforts with me in
their digital notebooks - especially any
"Doodle Notes" they create (see below.)
I think students learn best by being able to
express what they learn in different ways
whether it be writing, drawing, discussing,
creating, etc. I know I'll have students
(like myself) who
prefer to hand draw a mnemonic or graph or use pen
and paper to write notes and summaries. Thankfully,
tech makes it easier for them to share those
artifacts digitally by inserting them into
their ISNs. This was one of the big
takeaways for me from remote learning last
spring - students found many ways to share
what they learned in ways I didn't expect.
Doodle Notes
(my version - not
the premade graphic version) as an option
for student notes! In my version,
students "doodle" to create their own notes
from a textbook passage, video, or
demonstration.
Watch my video on
Educreations that was created to introduce my
students to Doodle Notes!
Why switch now?
Good
question ... Only four years until
retirement, am I crazy for making this big
change? I think it's a perfect time with the
challenges we face in education today.
I have used the spiral notebook version for
almost 10 years and cannot imagine teaching
without this tool. However, the main
issues I've had with them is the time it
takes to use them - the time spent
formatting worksheets to fit in the spiral
notebooks and then copying worksheets. Add
in the class time spent cutting, gluing, and
organizing and it adds up to lost planning
and instructional time. I also dreaded
the pages that were glued together or lost
pages (or the whole notebook.) I
believe the digital versions will help avoid
those negative issues and allow me to
still incorporate my favorite ISN strategies
into the new format. Plus it
will be a great tool for the next science
teacher who takes over my classroom!
