Blog 6

    Ahh notetaking.  For as long as I can remember I have been taking notes.  Taking notes because I was freaked out about the test, taking them because I need a way to make myself stay awake in class, and taking them because I was sincerely interested in what I was learning.  I am a definate notetaker and I found Chapter 7 to extremely interesting.  I found myself as I was reading deciding on how I would present the idea of notetaking to my classroom one day.  I find that it is extremely helpful to take notes and therefore I will more than likely suggest it in my classroom.  I love how in the chapter it gave different ways to take notes for different subjects.  Personally speaking, I always struggled taking notes in math (possibly why I always did awful) because there was no set way of doing it.  All it was a bunch of numbers that I could make look presentable on my paper.  I know that for students like myself notetaking is a must, however, not all students are like me.  I know some people that can pretty much write down random words on their paper and when it comes time to study they know exactly what was meant by those words.  I enjoyed how in the book it talked about setting a specific way of notetaking for your class.  This seems that it would be super helpful, especially when you have those students that deny you ever taught something that was on the test. 
    In one of my classes our teacher had a set way of notetaking and it made the class instructional time seem to run so much more smoothly.  When she got up to teach you know exactly what to write down because she told you.  You knew what was very important because she would say, "Get out your purple marker and make 10 exclamation marks after that sentence."  This made it extremely easy to organize and study my notes.  Throughout the week our teacher would also take notes and when it came time to reveiw for the test she would go over her notes with the class. 
  I beleive that note taking and note making are very important.  Obviously, you need to take notes because that is what you will be tested on.  Note making is just as important though because the way you make your notes is directly related to how easy you will be able to prepare for the test.
  Although I think it is a great idea to set a systematic way to take notes for your classroom what would you do if you had a student who just didn't understand the notes that way?  How would you choose the format for your class notes in the first place?  Classroom Vote?