C4T #2 Summary

         For my second "comments for teachers" teacher, I was given Mr. David Truss and his blog "Pair-a-dimes for your thoughts". He is an educator and vice principal in Canada which I thought was pretty cool! The initial post that I commented on that he blogged about discussed how technology should be invisible in our school settings. Not to say that it shouldn't be used but that it should be a tool like anything else. Similar to how pencil and paper are used in the classroom, computers and technology should be called upon just as easily. His post really gave me a lot of insight as to how I would approach using technology in my classroom. I was having some difficulty in thinking about how to use all the available resources to teach my students. It became very overwhelming at times. Then, upon reading Mr. Truss' blog I learned that by the time students reach the secondary level that I hope to teach, they will have mastered almost more than I have! Instead of focusing on teaching the technology, I just need to use it as a tool to keep students learning.
 

     The next blog posting that I commented on by Mr. Truss was his "4 Notes on taking notes". His thoughts for this post were derived from a viewing of a picture that he had seen. In the picture was of a classroom full of students taking notes, however, instead of the traditional note taking using pencil and paper, the students took a picture of the board with their camera phones. As Mr. Truss started to elaborate more he feels that this method is not an ideal way to take notes in order for students to retain what they should be learning. I absolutely agree with his thoughts on this too. I feel that if students are given the option to just take a picture of a board after the instructor has finished his or her lesson then they wont even bother to listen. As Mr. Truss goes on he says that there are better ways to utilize technology in the note taking process. Different types of documents can be used by students while they are in the process of taking notes. Similarly, teachers have the option to use different resources as well to make the sharing of their notes easier too.