Febuary 17th, 2012

What We Did Today

Today, we talked about what we did on Wednesday since there was a substitute on that day. We weren't supposed to do what we did (which was taking notes), but Ms. Lees didn't really complain because I suppose it was more or less what she wanted us to do. Also, note-taking was something that we were going to do soon anyway (future research/role-playing project). Then, Ms. Lees took some people's notes and critiqued them. We drew a T chart with the "do's" and "don't's" for note taking.

Some important things to remember when making notes:

• when taking notes, use outlining or concept mapping. Decide what method to use first.
• take BRIEF, non-full sentence notes
• you may want to read/listen to the whole section, THEN divide them into categories.
• only write main ideas, avoid useless words/details
• USE YOUR OWN WORDS!

I suppose we worked well, and did our homework, the review from the substitute teacher was good, etc... because Ms. Lees decided to give us a break (yay!). There was no homework for the weekend, and we were going to spend the rest of the day watching funny videos and songs about the middle ages called, "Horrible Histories" . (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fadCAHjN-s). They were humorous, but I understand that there were also facts in the humor, and that seemed like a very interesting way to learn. I actually learned some stuff from it!

Why We Did It

We confirmed what we did on Wednesday because we had a substitute teacher filling in, and Ms. Lees had to check if what we did was correct... apparently not. But it was okay :). We reviewed note-taking because we are going to have a research project that requires note-taking. We wanted to critique the students' note-taking because we wanted to learn what people do wrong in note-taking, and what people do right. The do's and don'ts. Also, some people didn't follow the criterea and made pretty bad notes, so that has to be fixed. We watched those videos to learn about some major events and people from the middle ages. It was a funny way to learn some pretty interesting stuff.

Connections/ reflections

The note-taking can always help us if we want to take notes in... other classes... say, science or math. Maybe even in future careers you need to take some notes (eg. notes of ideas for a company). The youtube videos can help... somehow... it'll help to have that knowledge... maybe in a job?

I really don't enjoy note-taking. I realize that it's an important thing to do for knowledge, reviews, things like that, but I guess I'm too lazy. I hate when I have to take notes because... I have to read.. gather info... write... BLECH. NOT a big fan of note-taking.

Homework and Tips

We don't have any homework for the weekends, but I suggest you start reading chapter nine of "There Will be Wolves," since that will probably be due on Tuesday or Wednesday. Flex is on Tuesday (I think), and that's all! Pce.