Contact information:

Amy Meyer

E-mail: ameyer@alta-aurelia.k12.ia.us

Email Policy: Student emails will be answered within 24 hours Monday-Friday and within 48 hours Saturdays & Sundays

Parent emails will be answered within 48 hours Monday-Friday and within 72 hours on Saturdays & Sundays

Phone: (school) (712) 434-5595

Best time to reach me by email: At your convenience. Student emails will be answered within 24 hours Monday-Friday and within 48 hours Saturdays & Sundays; Parent emails will be answered within 48 hours Monday-Friday and within 72 hours on Saturdays & Sundays

Best time to reach me by phone: 7:45–8:20; 10:18-11:00; 3:25–3:45 (Monday – Friday)

Alta-Aurelia 6th Grade Science Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Alta-Aurelia-6th-grade-Science-422520074613815/

My name is Amy Meyer and I will be your child’s seventh and eighth grade teacher for science. I also teach 8th Grade Health. This is my 20^thyear of teaching, I previously taught at Albert City-Truesdale CSD, the Youth Detention Center in Cherokee for 7 years and in Alta-Aurelia High School Secondary Special Education for 4 years but I LOVE teaching science!

My husband, Jim and I live north of Alta where we farm and raise sheep. Our oldest daughter, Amanda is married to Jeremy and they live in Aurelia with their children, Brody, Greyson, and Millie. Our youngest daughter, Shelby is married to Roman, they live in Aurelia with their daughter Remi. We love to attend baseball games, county fairs and the Iowa State Fair together. I also have a very spoiled Corgi named Rooster Cogburn.

Mrs. Meyer's Schedule:

1st (8:20-9:02) - 7A Science

2nd (9:05-9:47) - 8th Health

3rd (9:50-10:32) - 7B Science

4th (10:35-11:17)- 8A Science

5th (11:20-12:02) - 7C Science

Lunch (12:05-12:35)

6th (12:38-1:20) - Prep

7th (1:23-2:05) - 8B Science

8th (2:08-2:50)- 8C Science

Interventions (2:53-3:10)

I use Interactive Science Notebooks in my classroom and wanted to explain what they are and why I choose to use them.

A little bit about Interactive Notebooks: I’ve been working with science interactive notebooks for a year in my classroom and the question that I see come up over and over is, “How do you use them effectively in your class?”

The initial mindset I was met with was that students would be wasting valuable time cutting and gluing rather than learning. I respected that opinion, but wholeheartedly disagreed with the conclusion. I have personally seen tremendous growth from a wide-variety of students in my classroom and would never consider teaching without them. The short answer is that interactive notebooks are a fun and engaging way to get students interested in the content they are learning about. Interactive notebooks allow for the information being discussed to be compartmentalized into chunks of information. I have found when information is broken down into smaller bits that students retain the information at a much higher level. When you throw in an interactive element into the graphic organizer the retention is that much more effective.

Interactive notebooking is not simply a student copying notes from the board into a cute template. That can certainly be one aspect of it. The true interactive part of the notebooks are when students use the information provided to elicit their own responses in the journal. This requires higher level thinking and ultimately allows the students to make a deeper connection to their learning.

Another huge advantage to interactive notebooks is that it allows students to be totally creative with their notebooks. Creativty is often pushed out of our classes in exchange for more inputs. Knowledge is great, but looking back at my own schooling I wish I had been given the time to cultivate my own creativity. I didn’t learn the creative process until I was an adult and feel I may have been somewhat cheated in school. Creativity and innovation are at the forefront of the skills that many employers seek. We should certainly be valuing them in the education system.

The last piece of why I believe in interactive notebooks is that they become an all encompassing resource for the students. If the student’s learning is the number one concern in the classroom then I fully believe interactive notebooks will allow them to grow with your content. They are highly versatile and can be used in elementary all the way through high school.