Essential Questions, "I Can" Statements, and Words Worth Knowing...Oh My!

So the other day I bought this baby:

It's a laminator...It's AMAAAAZZZING!

I have spent the last week laminating everything for my classroom - whiteboard signs, door signs, exit slip signs...everything!  I also have all my CCSS Standards, Essential Questions, "I Can" Statements, and Word Worth Knowing laminated, too!  I don't know why I didn't think of it before...this way I can post them on my board and have them already up in case of observations.  Also, I won't have to worry about kids "accidentally" erasing them when they walk by (a big pet peeve of mine!) and needing to rewrite them everyday.

The laminator is so easy to use, and the laminating pouches are so much thicker than our laminating machine at school.  

So, here's some pics:

Some of my whiteboard signs!

8th Grade CCSS 

Words Worth Knowing...aka VOCAB!

Essential Questions!

"I Can" Statements :)

I'm pretty excited!  Tomorrow, I'll be going up to the school to work registration, and I'll get to get a better look at how all my stuff will fit in my new classroom!

Section Overview

Since I've decided to go "all in" with interactive notebooks this year, I have really been trying really hard to plan out how I will introduce each unit.  Again, Jessie Hester from Mrs. Hester's Classroom is my inspiration...she begins each unit with a unit overview, which maps out the essential questions and vocabulary.  Here's what I have so far:

Instead of essential questions, I've decided to use "I can" statements.  This way, students know EXACTLY what they are supposed to learn during the course of our unit, and they can check off the statements they are now able to do!  (I'm not doing away with essential questions - my principal requires them - but I plan on using them in student reflection questions at the end of certain lessons.) 

I have a "Words Worth Knowing" section (aka vocabulary), and I've added a section where students can write down the dates form quizzes, homework checks, INB checks, unit and district tests, and a project.  That's all for now...it's still a work in progress :)