Tag: notes

Colonial America, Colonization & Settlement, Colonization to Civil War

Free Columbus and New World Doodle Notes

I thought I’d give you something that might help you along your way as you start the new semester. I hope to eventually have instructional videos that go along with these notes, but you can still use these in the meantime. These are doodle notes that cover the basics of the New World, Christopher Columbus, and the Columbian Exchange. I’ve also included an optional assignment idea on the last page of the notes.

If you don’t know what doodle notes are, they are awesome! While you cover the material, students call fill in and decorate the notes. This visual note-taking activates both hemispheres of the brain at the same time. Research shows that connecting images with information enables many students to remember more of the material covered than by using traditional notes. I’ve included tips and links to a couple of helpful resources in the files, so you’ll have all the info you need to implement them.

Would you like more doodle notes on other subjects? What subjects do you struggle with the most and need more resources for? Use the contact form to let me know! I plan on creating more doodle notes this year, as well as other resources. I hope to give away lots of freebies this year (along with posting resources from other sites), so be sure to check back often to see what I’ve posted.

Click here to download my Columbus Doodle Notes!

Also, FYI, I have LOTS of doodle notes available for Economics in my TPT store.

Assignment Ideas, Help for New Teacher, Teaching Tips

Visual Syllabus – A Fun Way to Deliver the Boring Stuff…and More!

While prepping for my American Inventors class (I’m teaching one for my local homeschool co-op), I decided that I wanted to spice up my syllabus.  I stumbled across this simple but neat looking visual syllabus.  It’s only $1.75 on TPT. I’ve never used one before, but I decided to try it.  It was very easy to edit, and it looked pretty cool afterwards.  I did make a few changes and tweaks to fit my needs.  It’s much more visually appealing than a regular old syllabus.  I will say, however, that while you can give the basics on this syllabus, you STILL need to make sure you give out a copy of your procedures (which definitely won’t fit on this).

You could also use this syllabus for notes.  Change out some of the clip art and you can add note content instead of syllabus content.  It wouldn’t need to be anything fancy, but sometimes delivering content in a different manner helps break the monotony.  You could use it to create a broad overview of a war.  Have the dates in one box, the good and bad guys in another, important battles in another, and important people in another.  Oooooh, even better, give the blank template to your students and (as a review) have THEM create a “cheat-sheet” about the war!  That would be a great way to review the basics about a war or other large topic.

Here’s my syllabus that I created for my class.  I blacked out some top secret stuff that I didn’t think you needed to know…stuff I could let you read, but then I’d have to kill you!  This syllabus is doesn’t include all of the stuff that I would put in if I were teaching a large class full of 30 students, but it still has the basics.  Oh, and by the way, I wasn’t paid or anything like that to write about that syllabus product.  I just like sharing neat and useful things I find!