April 7, 2025
Interactive Notebooks in Middle School Education
Ever wondered how to help students keep track of their learning throughout the school year? Two innovative educators from Hamilton County Schools have the answer: interactive notebooks. Katie Mara and Maureen Bergren joined us at the Tennessee Council of Social Studies conference in Gatlinburg to share their expertise on implementing interactive notebooks in middle school classrooms. What started as a presentation they were "bullied into" by their director has become a passion project that's transforming how students engage with social studies content.
Website: Spotlight 4 Success
00:00 - Welcome to TCSS in Gatlinburg
01:12 - Interactive Notebooks Presentation Overview
03:11 - Teaching Journeys and Middle School Experience
04:55 - American Book Company Resources Introduction
05:42 - Social Studies Teaching Community Benefits
07:55 - Seeking Resources and Future Plans
WEBVTT
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company.
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We are here at the Tennessee Council of Social Studies in wonderful Gatlinburg, Tennessee, speaking with two special guests.
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Today we have Katie Mara and Maureen Berggren from Hamilton County Schools.
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Hello, hello, welcome Thank you All right, katie, tell us what brings you to TCSS.
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So we are actually here to present a session on interactive notebooks in a middle school classroom.
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We were bullied into it by our middle school director and I'm actually very happy that she did that to us.
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That's great, and how was the experience for you, maureen?
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It was great we had the opportunity to present the same presentation to our county first before coming here, so we were able to look at it, make a little bit of improvement and how we could make it better for all of Tennessee and just not our county.
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Oh, wonderful, and so what brought up this idea?
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We were able to look at it, make a little bit of improvement and how we could make it better for all of Tennessee and just not our county.
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Oh, wonderful.
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And so what brought up this idea to do this presentation?
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So both of us use interactive notebooks in our classrooms and it's something that I think has gone to the wayside recently.
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I'm trying to bring it back, so it's just good practice for students to see tangible evidence of what they've learned for the entire year.
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Oh, fantastic.
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And you, Maureen, what have you found?
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Same thing.
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When I started, we used comp books to try to gather information, because when I looked at lessons where there was worksheets or handouts or maps, then you wonder where they all go and the kids can't refer back to them.
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So we started putting them in one central location, and so today, when we did our session, we talked about that.
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There was four different ways to gather that information from our experience, and so Katie talked about using the interactive comp book, which is literally a comp book and then a three-ring binder and then the third one was Pre-made workbooks using comb binding and a book binder to actually make workbooks for those kids.
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Oh, wonderful.
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And then the last one was once COVID hit and all the kids were at school and at home and split and everywhere.
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We had to figure out a way that all children could get the same content, and so we created an interactive notebook which is basically just using Google Slides to gather the information.
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It's completely electronic.
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All they need is their Chromebook.
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Oh, that makes it so convenient.
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So let me know.
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Do you know if TCSS is going to be publishing a place where you can see your presentation?
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That is a great question.
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I don't know we shared it with everyone that was in our session, so we did have a qr code where they could do that and could reach out to us, ask questions.
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We also shared a google drive folder of all the shared things that we were willing to share.
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So, um, we'd be willing to, but I don't know if they have that oh okay, all right, well interesting.
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So, uh.
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So, katie, uh, starting with you, can you explain some things of uh, what brought you into the teaching profession, what you're doing in the school you're in now?
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So I knew I wanted to be a teacher when I was very little, so it's been a whirlwind to get there.
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I knew I loved social studies I think it was in 10th grade and then I went to school to be a history teacher and then I just ended up being.
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I am now a middle school teacher.
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I love learning, and so one way to learn every day is to teach every day, and so that's what I do.
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I currently teach sixth grade at Red Bank Middle School.
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I'm also a multi-classroom lead, so I am the instructional coach for the social studies department at my school, so instructional coach for the social studies department at my school, so I get to have a classroom of my own and impact all of the social studies teaching in my building, and so it's a really, it's a really great job.
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Oh, that's wonderful.
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Katie and you, Maureen.
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My story's a little different when I was in college I was going to get a degree in social work.
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So when I looked at all my teacher friends, I'm like you're just making games, what are you doing?
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And then so when I looked at all my teacher friends, I'm like you're just making games, what are you doing?
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And then so I was in public service law enforcement and then, after I had my children and it was time to go back to work, I decided that I wanted to have an impact on children rather than the community at large, which is I was doing previously.
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And so that's when I went into teaching and I taught fifth grade and I've taught sixth grade and seventh grade.
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I have to say, the seventh grader, the middle schoolers a lot of people give you a crazy look when you say you teach middle school, but I absolutely love those children.
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They're crazy, they have no self-control and between teaching content and teaching manners and it's just.
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It's an amazing amazing experience.
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Yeah, I have to agree, I did high school before middle school and I'm shocked at how much I love middle schoolers.
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Oh, that is just wonderful.
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And let me ask you have you all had any experience using ABC materials?
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At American Book Company in Woodstock, Georgia, we are committed to your students' success.
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As you can see behind me, we have our workbooks and we have online testing and e-books that go on fancy iPads over here, for instance.
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They're all designed to help your students succeed and have higher test scores on their high-stakes assessments.
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Give us a call 888-264-5877, or find us on the web, ab abck12.com, and you can receive a free trial or a free preview book of your choice.
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Hope to hear from you soon.
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bye-bye we have not, um, I have never used them before.
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I know two people who have and have recommended them.
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Uh, I am interested to see.
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I know we got a lot of books from jenny over there, so I'm interested to see.
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I know we got a lot of books from Jenny over there, so I'm interested to see how they can apply to my content for sure.
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Wonderful yeah, and.
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Katie, because Katie has met before, and so she made sure to bring me to meet these guys today.
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Okay, fantastic.
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So I'm excited to look through the information, see how I can apply it in my classroom.
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Oh, fantastic, and if there's anything special you'd like to share with the TCS community, this is a wonderful time to do so.
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I think I would have to say that we're very lucky in that every social studies teacher and I'm going to leave it to social studies every social studies teacher I've met has just been so kind and friendly and willing to do whatever they can do to make the other person's life easier.
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It's an amazing community.
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Katie and I actually met because we're on Hamilton County Social Studies Leadership Council, so we're at different schools and we met on the council, that's where we became friends and even then we started sharing information and planning lessons together Different schools, but our content's the same and so we formed a friendship.
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Doing that, we've been on the Leadership Council for several years.
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This is the first time I've been to the Tennessee one.
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Katie again kind of convinced us.
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Well, our department head lead convinced us and it's been an amazing experience and you can see where everybody's just willing to share and open up and be supportive and to be helpful.
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And being able to come here and see teachers from across the state, it's just been amazing.
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That's great.
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So you're on the leadership council with Hamilton.
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County yes, oh fantastic, and so what kind of things are you hoping to take back to Hamilton from what you're learning here?
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I know that we are headed to adoption soon for textbooks, so we've been talking to a bunch of different people for textbooks to bring back what we would want in our classrooms.
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We also are looking at any resources we can gather it's so hard to find primary resources, as we can gather it's so hard to find primary resources and so that's really the one thing that I've been talking to everybody in the exhibit hall and then trying to go to the sessions that have primary sources that are accessible to kids, because that's the part that they don't understand, and so bringing it to them in a more compartmentalized way would be really helpful.
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Wonderful and Maureen.
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Yeah, along the same lines as Katie.
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It's really interesting to not only see the different teachers and to share information in the sessions.
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Like when we finished our session, we had several people come up to us and say hey, do you mind looking at this for me or sharing this?
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I'm like, whatever you need, just give me your email and.
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I'm there to help.
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And so not only helping individual teachers, but looking around and talking to the different vendors, and what the vendors are willing to do to make our job easier is amazing.
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It's absolutely amazing.
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Oh, that's so great to hear.
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We're so happy that you were able to come here to TCSS and be part of our podcast as well.
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Thank you so much for participating with us today.
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Again, this is Katie Mara and Maureen Berggren with Hamilton County Schools and with the Leadership Council.
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Thank you so much for joining us today.
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Thank you.
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