Summary Post C4T Teacher #4

First Comment
Beth Knittle was a middle school science teacher for 19 years. She is now a K-12 Technology Integration Specialist for a big school district in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Her blog, Beth's Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom, focuses on education, technology and learning.

On October 29, 2012, her blog post was entitled, Note Taking a Personal Choice. At some point, everyone has had a teacher that required you to write your notes a certain way. Beth stated that note taking should be a personal choice. There are several different strategies that can be used for taking notes, organizing and maximizing workflow. How you take notes should ultimately be your choice. As a teacher, it is important to discuss study skills and different note taking strategies with your students and review some of the tools that can be used to help. Encourage your students to try different methods before settling on one. If one doesn't work, try another. Learning is something that is very personal and how we keep track and organize that learning should be personal too.

In my comment, I of course introduced myself explaining who I was. I told Ms. Knittle that after reading her blog post, I completely agreed with her on the topic. Note taking should be a personal choice. Teachers should inform their students about the different strategies they can use to help them take notes and organize their work. As to which method they decide to use, it should definitely be the student's choice. Every student is different and they all learn in different ways. Therefore, one particular method for taking notes is not going to work for all of your students. Each student should be able to choose the strategy that works best for them to maximize their study skills. By allowing your students to do this, you are giving them the opportunity to make the best grade that they can possibly make. I never thought something so small as requiring your students to take notes a certain way could actually hinder their performance in class. I thanked her for her advice and told her that her blog post was very helpful.

Comment #2
On November 12, 2012, Ms. Knittle's blog post was entitled Tech Integration and Classroom Instruction. After reading a blog post by Andrew Vicars and an article written by Jeff Utecht about technology in classrooms, Ms. Knittle felt inspired to write a blog post about her own thoughts on the matter. She stated that as an educator, she has always thought of her role as to teach the underlying skills necessary for learning. Teachers do this through their content areas, but she feels that the following underlying skills are their most important goals:
*Research: Question, Search, Analyze, Evaluate
*Manage: Organize, Relate, Categorize, Sequence
*Collaborate: Communicate (written oral), Critique, Analyze, Evaluate, Advocate
*Create: Reflect, Organize, Write
*Share: Communicate, Publish

These skills can be accomplished by low tech means such as pencil, paper, note cards, files and folders. When mobile devices, the internet, cameras and youtube are being used, that is called high tech. Beth talked about a favorite memory she had of when she was in school in the third grade. Her class spent almost a week creating and decorating a diorama for a book report. They stopped learning the core content to learn the essential skills which was communicating their understanding through visual means. Technology gets in the way of that process and has become an obstacle instead of a tool to assist. She stated that standardize and state testing force a focus on specific content standards and teachers don't want to take time away from addressing them. That is why most teachers expect their students to already know how to use the internet, email and communicate properly online. That is also why many schools create classes for students to learn the skills needed so that they can use technology more efficiently.

Beth Knittle's ultimate goal is that students and teachers will learn and use the skills naturally occur using the learning process. The computer will be a tool to assist with learning, communicating, creating and sharing, and not be an obstacle.

I commented and told Ms. Knittle that after reading her blog post, there was a lot that we both agreed on. Even though technology is used everywhere and it helps us in our everyday day to day lives, it can sometimes be an obstacle and get in the way of how we want things to work. There are some skills that technology just can't teach and I think that's important that we remember that. Teachers should balance how much technology is used in their class with their everyday activities and assignments. I think that in order for a person to be the best teacher they could possibly be, every mean possible should be used in their teachings. I told Beth Knittle that I loved her blog post and thanked her for her thoughts on the subject.