This is just a silly little thing, but maybe it's not really. I learned early in my school career (around 3rd grade) that the margins on either side of a piece of paper are not to be written in. I've been very surprised to find out how many of my students, and how many adults never learned this when they were in school. Or maybe they just don't do it?
So, this week I told my students that the one-inch spaces on the left and right sides of our journals were the margins and that we were not to write there. I told them, "This is No No Land." Usually we just take a red pencil and make the red line that is already there (for exactly this purpose) darker. Often I will have my students draw squiggly lines down the sides just because it is fun and helps us to remember not to write there, but this week, when I called it "No No Land," my students thought it was funny, and funny is a good thing because it helps us all to remember stuff way better and longer than we normally would. So, we also wrote "No No Land" on our papers, just to help us remember.
