As the school year is coming to a close, I am thinking of ways to improve the next school year, and how to spice things up in the classroom! I like to have a to do list of things I want to work on over the summer (that I never finish!).
This summer, I am going to be updating my big book.
In college, I had to create an autobiographical big book in one of my courses. It was assigned by one of my favorite professors, and she promised we would be SO glad we had it once we finished. Boy, was she right!! I treasure this book! And so do my students!
I read it on the first day of school each year to introduce myself to my kids. The kids are SO engaged!
After that, it goes in my book center and the kids are always DYING to take a closer look at all of the pictures. They read it over and over. In fact, the whole back page has fallen off - that's going to need to be repaired this summer as well!
It has all kinds of information about me that lets them into my world outside of the classroom so they can start feeling a connection to me.
It often takes a while to read it because they ALL want to tell me about their similarities to me. I love it because it breaks the ice and gives me insight into their worlds as well.
Since creating my big book, I have had my twins and been on lots of adventures that I'd like to add to my big book.
I assembled it by punching holes in the side and using 1" binder rings to bind it.
It is a huge book. I created it on full size poster-board. I bought a pack of cute scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby that I thought looked bright and cheery that could go with anything I might want to add to my book.
I really recommend making your OWN big book for back to school! It was super fun going down memory-lane looking back through all of my childhood pictures!
I even included a page with my school picture from each year - Kindergarten through my Senior year in high school! No matter what grade I teach, the kids can see what I looked like when I was their age....and make fun of my awful hair!
The last page has reflective paper so they can see a picture of themselves in my book and know that THEY are the reasons I do what I do!
You could easily use half sheets of poster-board instead of full sheets. I just wanted my pictures to be nice and large to share with a class whole-group. When writing my book, I decided to write about my life from when I was a baby until I finished college. I just highlighted some events - obviously a whole autobiography would be too long. Also, I'm not that interesting!
What to include in YOUR big book!:
- Pictures of your hometown
- Pictures of your college
- Favorite foods/drinks/candy
- Favorite vacations
- Your family members
- Your pets
- Hobbies
- Future dreams
- Special occasions
- Accomplishments
- Holidays
- Traditions
- Pictures of yourself as a child
- Pictures of yourself when you first started teaching
- Favorite books
- ANYTHING!
The sky is the limit with this book. Feel free to leave comments or questions!
It is such a good idea. It is a book of your life and every page is like a day of your memories. I don't have it but I want to do it, too. It will be with yellow color and memories and stories from my happiest days of life will be collected there. The one of this day was my enrollment in college. It was a long day before I got the answer. I am worried because of my introductory essay. I didn't wrote it myself because I was so nervous that I couldn't do it on my own. So I ordered it at UK professional essay writing service. I read a lot of reviews about their work before teh order and all customers was satisfied by their work. So when I got a higher mark and was enrolled in college I was happy more than ever. So I think I will necessary paste this essay in this book.
ReplyDeleteI wantch photos and want to tell your book is so wonderful! You have a big talent! Nowadays to buy essays online became very popular in the world. I think it's not bad. Because it happens, we can't write a good work on some topic.
ReplyDeleteHey There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article. I’ll be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info. Thanks for the post. I’ll definitely return.
ReplyDeleteHyperthymesia Causes