Leadership Notebooks

I LOVE use data notebooks in my classroom for so many reasons. It allows my students and me to see their growth over the year. The students love showing them to parents at conferences, and the parents are ALWAYS impressed. Who knew 6 and 7 year olds could track their own data? I did!  

We start the year like most schools- we test our students to see what reading or math group they should be in. A lot of schools might stop there, until the next round of testing. 

But why aren't more people using this data WITH the students? My team and I progress monitor every student, every week, for reading and math. Yes, you read that correctly- we progress monitor EVERY student. Why? More like, why not? Each student is worth of improving, regardless of their level. My tier 3 students do get more interventions, but I want to see growth in ALL my students. 

How do I do it? I made it a non-negotiable for myself. I set up every student on progress monitoring, and discussed their goals for the year. Then, every week we review their data, and set new goals as needed. 

The biggest difference I saw was my student's confidence. When they met a goal, you could see the pride they had in themselves grow exponentially. When they got to move on to the next skill, they quite literally wanted to tell everyone- they would go to their kindergarten teacher, or even our principal! 

How can you do this in your classroom? You have to make time for it. Don't see it as one more thing you HAVE to do, think of it as something you GET to do. You GET to see your students grow week by week. You GET to share that information at conferences. 

If you have pushback from your administrators, ask them to let you try it for one quarter, and then show them the results. You will see a difference in your student's work ethic, motivation, and confidence. 

Please reach out to me at primary.pickles@gmail.com if you need help getting started- this is truly one of my passions and I'm happy to help where I can. 

Using the leadership/data notebooks will revolutionize your classroom! I made them available for Pre-K through 5th grade (yes, I have seen Pre-K students use these notebooks!!).  Click here to see them in my TPT store!