I’ve officially survived my first full week of school.  I am not sure if other teachers enjoy this portion of the school year, but I really do.  Most of my students are eager to learn, try new things, and impress their new teacher.  What’s even crazier is that I *kinda* enjoy teaching and practicing routines.  I love watching my students evolve into these independent little creatures!  I’m also very particular and they seem to love to strive to meet my expectations at this point of the school year.

Last week we practiced taking video notes for our Flipped Classroom.  I’ll be honest, last year I did not do this.  Since I am receiving each group of students with experience watching videos for homework, I honestly assumed that they were used to watching videos and taking notes.  Over the summer, my husband [who teaches fourth grade, also flips, and trains my upcoming students very well :)] and I were discussing various things about how we structure our videos and notes.  He shared that he begins the school year with a video about how to watch a video!  
So last Friday, that’s exactly what we did.  I created a video for taking math notes.  We watched it together as a class and recorded notes together.  
Since this was their first video, it was also the first page in their math notebooks.  I stressed to them that it is important that each and every page of their notebook look similar to this.  Last year, I would have students who didn’t record the title or the date.  It drove me NUTS but I also didn’t feel that I had the right to “punish” them because I didn’t provide them with the tools or resources to remind them to do so.  This year, they don’t have an excuse! 🙂

I have a freebie in my TeachersPayTeachers store if you are interested in flipping your classroom and creating your own videos.  Just click on the image above to find them! 🙂