I always take my class notes with pear note, but for blogging/journaling I've been using programs that have full screen capabilities (MacJournal, WriteRoom, OmmWriter -- which is absolutely beautiful for a beta, but needs more capabilities)
Anyways, I think this may be a useful tool for taking notes in a classroom environment, with just the text to keep the student company rather than all the windows, backgrounds, etc.
Thanks for reading!