RSS Feed Page

Above is the screen shot I took of my RSS feed site. (I did not receive the email about taking a before and after shot, until I had already added my additional feeds.) Immediately, I noticed that some sites update so quickly and I began feeling a bit overwhelmed. I decided to focus on the activity in 2-3 feeds per day. After a few days, I also noticed that two of my sites did not add any new content or updates. I’m wondering if they only update weekly or periodically. I’ll have to keep monitoring them to make sure they are active.

I began by exploring and commenting on the above Guided Math Blog. I selected this blog because this is something that my district is working towards this year. The blog was full of games and center ideas to use in a math workshop setting. I already used one of the ideas I read about from the blog about using a 100’s chart 25 different ways in my classroom. I posted a comment wondering if any of the games could be used with the Promethean board or if similar games exist that would be compatible. I also asked how different teachers envision incorporating the interactive board into the math workshop setting. (My comment and the response are shown below.) I am getting a Promethean board installed next month and I have been researching information on it. Any information that I learn from the feeds about interactive white boards will be applied directly into my classroom. This is in addition to incorporating the math games and management skills I read about in the Guided Math blog.

The Guided Reading blog was about ways to keep students engaged. One of the ideas was involving students in role playing. This was something I’ve been using in my classroom and it was interesting to see how others are using it in similar and different ways. Many of the ways discussed on the blog were a bit advanced for 1^st grade, but might be useful in the future. In one of my feeds I learned about a program called “Guess the Word.” It was designed by a teacher for teachers. It is similar to hangman, but uses trees and leaves as opposed to body parts. Basically teachers can type in words and then have students use the program to guess words and/or math equations. Some of the teachers discussed using this during word work or incorporating it into the Reading Workshop. Additionally I browsed the Promethean Planet’s many blogs. I was able to gather ideas, see what other teachers are using the boards for, and gain some more background knowledge about the boards. On Weblogg, I read an interesting article about creating “entirely different learning environments” to meet the needs of the children today. I agreed with the point that schools don’t always link student learning to their personal lives and experiences. Many of the blog posts debated whether each student should have their own computer within the classroom or share computers to encourage cooperative learning. I believe that both points are valid and that there is a time and a place for both strategies.

I believe a RSS page would work well when trying to manage all the various blogs I follow or have created. For example, I have a personal blog, a classroom blog, and now my graduate class blog. Being able to follow all the updates in one place will be a huge time saver and allow me to keep up on the blogs daily.