RSS

I found setting up my Bloglines subscription to be a relatively easy task. Within Bloglines, I was given many blogs to subscribe to. I started with the 200 most popular feeds, to get an idea what was out there. After picking a few from searching Bloglines, I moved into finding outside feeds. For some sites I had no problem subscribing, but other sites had problems allowing me to join.

At the end of my first day of using an RSS aggregator, I had 13 feeds to keep up with. They range in subject matter, from local and national news, informational, entertainment to profession-related. I hope to weed out the feeds I don't use and add new subscriptions as I continue to work.

I enjoyed having my favorite blogs and feeds there for me to check on my schedule. I imagine students would like having all their resources organized together. For a student, having to continually search out articles can get in the way of their writing. If they could be notified whenever there new content on their topic, they could keep current with what they are researching. I agree, also, with the idea in the book; the teacher could have a class RSS account to keep all students aware of resources.

My only mishap with using Bloglines occurred the second time I used it. I didn't think to mark or save the posts I had read. I was mildly surprised to find I would need to look up the posts I threw back into the blog. In future visits, I marked the pages I wanted to see again.

Some of the best things I found using my aggregator include:
-Technology and the Scholar-Teacher This is site with advice for teachers integrating technology. I hope to add more to my list.
-Adolescent Literature These are reviews from teachers on current literature. I am a middle school Literature teacher. It is an asset to read other educators reviews of novels I am consider using.
-Only Riddles My students love riddles and jokes. I was able to use this keep them stumped. Even as a sub. it was great to have a resource for riddles to keep the kid's attention.

-Emily