....but only temporarily, I hope. I announced to them today that we were going to start a unit on notetaking, as part of a yearlong emphasis on geography required by their curriculum. "Who likes to take notes?--raise your hand." None went up, which is what I expected. "Notice that my hand isn't raised either," I pointed out. "I hate notetaking. I'll tell you why. Until I was in my 30s"--requisite interruption--'how old are you, Mrs.?' 'Older than you.'--"As I was saying, until I was in my 30s I didn't know how to take notes either. Not when I was in fifth grade. Not when I was in high school. Not in college. And then I had a job where I had to take notes every day. I was a reporter." (I explain what reporter is). I still didn't know the right way to do it. Then I got very lucky--I went to school to learn how to be a librarian, and miracle of miracles---they taught me that there are ways to take notes the right way, and it made my life so much easier." I drop to a conspiratorial tone. "And now I get to pass on this special knowledge to you."
They looked doubtful. I didn't blame them. Because I came late to education, I still struggle with graphic organizers even though they ought to be a no-brainer. "Look," I continued. "I'm not going to promise you you'll come to love notetaking even after I teach ya how to do it. But I can tell you that next year when you're in middle school and you get a big project and all the other kids are going "Duh" (I made a stupid face for emphasis, YOU are going to come out on top because YOU are going to know what to do." Their faces brightened. "And I promise, promise you that I won't use boring textbooks (muted cheering from the peanut gallery) for you to take notes from." Yeah. I'll start with using the book "It's Disgusting and We Ate It: Strange Food Facts from Around the World." Hey, that's geography too.
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Teach me! Teach me! My note-taking always sucked. I got through college because, despite my, ...er... recreational activities, I had a memory like a steel trap. All I had to do was attend lectures, read the books and I aced tests.
Somehow it just ain't the same now that I'm forty-(mumble).
Believe me, I'm only one step ahead of the kids. We were led to believe in library school that there were only two Information Search Processes (which includes notetaking, of course)--the Good One, which naturally was developed by my professor, and the Mediocre one, a rival. Then, to my surprise, it turned out that there are about eight different ISPs--I prefer Julie Tallman's I-Search. I'll keep you posted. This still doesn't come naturally to me.
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