RSS Reflection

I love my Net Vibes RSS page! I can spend hours reading interesting blogs and commenting on others' blogs as well as writing on my own blog. This is the best thing ever. I can easily check 2 email accounts and know when to check them as they are tagged with the number of emails that need to be read. Links to local weather, facebook, twitter, a link to my school portal page, a calendar, a calculator, a link to local news, national news, and a feed strait to the Food Network site, so while I am on-line, I can easily get ideas and recipes on what to make for dinner. Personally, I can do so many things so quickly. I no longer need to close things and go to my favorites or bookmark tabs to get to the sites that I am always going to. These sites are all coming to me now. Before this class, CEP 810, I did not know how to do all this. I did not know that any of this existed. My life is getting easier and although I am learning so much and reading so much more than before, this RSS page I have created is making my life less complicated.

I chose to use Netvibes to create my RSS page. I found it visually appealing and easy to figure out and work with. My dash board is very cute. The colors in the background change throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky. It has a friendly and youthful look to it, which I like probably since I teach Kindergarten. I make minor adjustments to it almost daily, as I find new widgets to add, or I delete ones that I don't find as useful. I have added the 4 required feeds from the RSS lab. Npr.org, the radio page is a favorite of my husbands and has daily posts. TechLearning is a great site, as it has new articles and posts daily and also filters to find grade level ideas and more. Weblogg-ed.com seems very official and professional . The other required feed, ncteblog, has not been updated for a few years from what I can tell. Subscribing to the required feeds was easy and left me browsing the Netvibes familiar widgets and searching for topics of interest to me, professionally and personally.

I chose to add several blogs relating to the technology and the profession of teaching. I have added MACUL space which seems to have posts and updates throughout each day and this site has helped me in several ways. I have been reading tips and tricks, I was guided to other sites such as Facebook Wall de Technology, which in turn has led me to even more great resources and sites.I feel like I am in a wheel when I am on this site and the spokes are the links that I am learning about leading me to all kinds of new places to learn valuable things.

Another I blog that I find very useful is Edutopia. Within the site you can also browse by core concepts and by grade level. So I can read blogs and articles that pertain to the same age group that I teach. Edutopia has a summer professional development blog series and each week new tools and tips are added to the site. I have made a comment on this site. I noticed an entry on the drop down arrow called  the "30 goals blog" and #16 goal is to "change your environment". This caught my attention, as this class and my new blog and RSS reader page are all responsible for changing my environment for the better. I was intrigued so I read this post. The message was about the importance of getting students out of the classroom and taking field trips. Even if it is a walk through the neighborhood to a local business, the blogger discussed her experiences on the enthusiasm and new life that these experiences bring to any student, no matter what the socio-economic group, as she gave examples. I commented on how simple field trips for my students served as wonderful bonding experiences and brought fresh perspectives on even the simple and little things.This site also posted a very useful article on the technical skills elementary students should be able to handle at which grade level. There was a great spreadsheet listing the particular skills and then for each grade level noted if this was an introductory skill, developing skill or a skill that could be applied by the student. I saved this for my SIG to reflect on. Edutopia seem to have new posts very often throughout any given day.

A wonderful feed I have added is the PBS Teachers blog site. This RSS appeared to be changing on a weekly schedule,  and also allows you to search blogs and information by subject and grade level. Some recent posts gave me great ideas that I will definitely use, such as using gratitude prompts to blog with children. I also found some great links to sites my students can use at our touch screen computers in my classroom. I found an interactive online sticker book and this is a link I booked mark on my diigo to use later in my classroom. After trying it out, I know my students will have fun with this. I also found  great teaching resources in the Facebook Wall de Technology,  such as a cool way to create 3-d digital pop-up books, and another site that lets you write and draw, and  a professional development page with some golden rules for me on how to use technology.

I am also following and enjoying  the CoolCatTeacher.blogspot. I commented on her article on how "Fast Food Thinking Harms Life". I shared how her post inspired me and supports how many of  us feel about living in a fast, furious, "me-first" and sometimes very rude society. Her post tied in a video clip of an incredible  light show technology and when it started out very slowing, audience members could be heard making rude comments. Once the show progressed the audience was in awe.  It was very thought provoking. Her blog is posted to very often and is followed by many thus bringing many interesting comments. I highly suggest following her blog.

I read quite a few blogs and read some very thought provoking discussions over the past week, but the most memorable message that I came away with was simple. Somewhere I read that without professional development technology is worthless. I have to say that I now understand this statement completely. This message gives me the motivation to continue to stay connected with the organizations, the people and the places that I am finding  through this RSS feed. Without the knowledge of what is out there and without the skills of how to use the technology  of the web, the Internet (besides using it for communication with parents and faculty)  in my classroom is almost useless for my young students. Knowing what I know now, it would be a shame not to introduce the children I teach to the world that they will have to learn and survive in. If I did not know about the new and updated ways of communicating and connecting with the people who are at the forefront and so willing to share their wisdom with me, through networking, I would continue to have my students play the software games that are installed on the computer and call that "using technology". But now I am easily able to research new and exciting ways to incorporate technology  in more advanced ways and share my own ideas with others around the world thanks to my RSS reader page. How exciting! I will use my Netvibes page to help me continue to grow and develop as an educator and also to bring in opportunities for my students to learn  and progress. It is my responsibility to equip them with the attitudes, skills and knowledge to become good technical citizens and lifelong learners.