RSS Reflection

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This blog posting is a reflection on creating and following my own RSS Reader page and should include a screen dump of my RSS Reader page. (However, I am currently having technical difficulties..I downloaded Jing, took a screen shot of my RSS Reader page, saved it, and when I go to post it, the above shows up. I have tried several different things, and feel that I am lost in a sea of technology, paddling against big waves, trying not to be swamped.SO, there will be a Part 2 of my RSS Reflection that will include a screen dump once I overcome the technical barriers that are blocking me.)

I created my soon to be revealed RSS Reader page through Google reader since I also have a Google calendar and use Google documents, I like to stick with Google. I chose reader subscriptions to sites that I thought could be used in my professional growth and that would provide me with ideas that I can use in the classroom.

From tracking pages routinely, I discovered subscriptions that don't have frequent updates such as PBS org teachers and Reading Apprenticeship. Bummer! There was not any recent activity since I started following both of those. Other sites such as Free Technology for Teachers and the Cool Cat Teacher blog have frequent, often daily updates.

I have learned useful information from the contents of newsfeeds I have been tracking that apply to my own professional growth as well as tips that I can use in the classroom. For example, from the NPR Topics: Education, it was interesting to read about happenings in education around the country. It was informative to read about how Mayor Bloomberg in New York City is appointing Cathie Blak as Chancellor for the school system. Also from the NPR site, I was able to listen to Talk of the Nation and hear Neal Conan host a discussion on schools finding the achievement gap tough to close between black boys and their white peers. This was informative to listen to, especially since the population of students I teach are predominantly African American.

I found that the ideas that I was most interested in for using in my classroom came from the Free Technology for Teachers feed. I got ideas from postings such as '7 Ways to Build Your Own Educational Games', 'An Easy Way to Make Online Booklets', and 'Educational Games and Toys for Your Holiday Lists'.

How I might apply content on my RSS Reader page in my own setting is to share information with other teachers in my building. Through a posting on Free Technology for Teachers (I really love this site!), I learned that there was a free scientific calculator for websites. I can share information about Web2.0calc.com with the math teachers. We frequently have shortages of calculators and this could be a helpful tool to provide students with calculators.

Trying to reflect on how I might apply the capabilities of RSS Reader pages in my classroom gave me a couple of ideas. I could create a class RSS Reader page to expose my students to it, and maybe we could find a 6th grade middle school orientated language arts feed and subscribe to it. Or, if we are studying a novel from a specific author, we could search to see if that author has a blog and include that on a RSS Reader page. When searching through Google blogs, there were several blogs, such as '6th Grade Language Arts by Mrs. Helm' in which the teacher used the blog to post reminders about classroom assignments. That could be useful if it is updated frequently, and if a student was absent from class they could be kept abreast of assignments.

One thing that I am discovering about some blogs, such as 'Ms. Teacher', is that they are not frequently updated. Or, that people take breaks from blogging. A fellow educator from 'Teacher Man/Teacher Ms.' even made the posting that since he took a hiatus from his blog, he has had more traffic on it then he had when he was frequently updating it. I posted to a blog of another student in CEP 810 to comment on her social networking post, as well as posting to a blog on MACAUL. My experience with commenting to a blog post is that the person has to approve the blog before it is posted for all to see. I think that is a good safeguard to prevent unwanted comments.

Before enrolling in CEP 810, I was unfamiliar with the term RSS and did not know that there was an organized way that I could subscribe to feeds on a reader page to keep updated on issues in education and technology, as well as ideas for the classroom. Furthermore, I had never read a blog posting. I have found the course tasks with the RSS reader page informative and helpful. I forsee that I will continue to follow feeds on my Google reader.