RSS Lab

This was my RSS feed at the beginning

These are pictures of my RSS 2 weeks later

After adding multiple feeds to my RSS page, I found myself checking my feeds quite frequently. Some more then others depending on how quick they were updated and what information I was particularly looking for throughout the day. I check my feeds at home and at school because many of my feeds I added helped me during my school day (I will go into more detail later in my blog post).

I started following the blog, a math teacher's life. They talked about the Pytheogrean Theorem Football activity. I thought it was a really unique activity so I commented on it that I like their idea. Later, I found the blog, "The Love of Learning. In this blog they share ideas about different ways of teaching kids new concepts. There was an idea about giving showing students a glossary of math terms online. I commented that I really liked this idea.

I placed my own classroom blog on my RSS page. I did this to help me track the changes that my teaching partner has made to my blog. It is a quick and easy way for me to check to see what he adds on it when I get home and reminds me of things that I might have to add to the blog that night or the following day.

A couple days later I found on the love of learning blog a book that was listed called "The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics". The blog suggested this book and I commented on this on how this is a great book and it sparked my interest.

I also noticed that the Love of Learning blog and the Math Teacher Life isn't changing frequently I checked this twice the week of the 31st and there hasn't been a new posts. During the week of the 7th, I also noticed that the posts did not change. Therefore, I did not end up following these feeds that much.

I added the population time clock feed because I am teaching my students about population and the effects it has on the environment so by placing it on my RSS feed, I can check up frequently. I was also able to tell my students about the changes I see in population easily. My students keep asking me to check this. This feed changes hourly! It is so interesting to them to see the change in population so quickly.

-Mrs. Nikash's blog changes daily. I really like looking at her blog because she teaches 7th grade social studies at the middle school and many of my 6th graders will have her next year. She is a fantastic teacher and it is always so nice picking up new ideas I can use in my classroom by looking at her blog. By looking at her posts, it gives me an idea of what she is teaching her students. I noticed that on her last vocab quiz, she had one of the same vocabulary words that I quizzed my students on. I was able to tell my students this which I feel made them have a different attitude when learning the word. Her posts change everyday so there are always updates that I have found every time I checked the feed.

I do a Newsday Tuesday in my classroom where I have students share a current event article. I added this feed to my page because it is super convenient to show my kids. For example on Nov 1st, 1987 - 22,000 run in NYC Marathon (won by Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya 2:11:01) This was just fun information I got to share with my students. Also, on Nov. 7th, 1914 there was the first Vogue fashion show. Many of my girls in my class were interested in this! I show my students this website almost daily.

One blog that really stood out to me was Will Richardson's blog. After I added his blog to my feeds,it seemed like he didn't update it quickly because after I I added it to my feed, a week later, it didn't change. I did find a pattern though that his blog gets updated about once a week. What did stand out to me is when he wrote about "Is it better for our kids to be grouped by chronological age, or is it just easier for us?" Its interesting because my school is already trying to change this pattern in schools. For example, I have a 5th grader in my 6th grade class. Also, on Nov. 3rd, Will wrote, "Technology will soon provide a better “learning” experience to kids needing to pass the test than a classroom teacher with 30 (or 50) kids." I think this is very interesting to think about and its crazy to think what technology is doing in the classroom. Also he stated that "There is an urgency now to redefine our value. We cannot be about passing the test." I posted that I completely agreed and that testing should not be controlling a teacher in a classroom! Later on the 7th, I read a post by Will about the Khan academy. It is interesting because my superintendent sent me a link to this earlier in the year. What stood out to me about this post is how Will is still talking about teaching toward test taking. Its interesting because I never looked at the Khan academy as doing that at first, but know I see this point of view clearly.


I then added Teacher Lingo there was a post about Cyber Hero: Technology Tidbits
I found a link about the site. Worddynomo which helps kids make flash cards online. This is perfect to use for my Social Studies lessons because we always go over vocabulary words. I posted that I thought it was a great tool to use. Also, on the 7th, I noticed that on the blog they posted about a resource called Technology 4 Classrooms. I looked into it and I saw that it is a good resource to use in my classroom. I commented on their post that it was a good tool for teachers.I noticed that this feed updates quite frequently because there are many teachers that post on this site. This is definitely a feed that is worth checking daily!

I added that MACUL blog and I noticed that there was a SMART creation seminar on Nov. 12th. I actually told my sister about this because she lives near the area they are having it. She wants to get more comfortable using a Smartboard.

I had my students create a Wordle on the 4th. It was interesting because when I projected this site for my students to see on my projector, I noticed the RSS feed and added it right away to my page. I showed my students how I could go on and look at pre-made wordles by using this feed.

Because I am a Social Studies teacher, I already know how I am going to use it in my classroom and I have already started! I show them the population clock, and Today in History Feed daily. I also plan on using this when we have our research project on Canada and Latin America. I am going to research to see if there are some feeds that pertain to these areas and post them on a new Netvibe page for my students to view and reference.

Also, at parent-teacher conferences this week, I am going to mention to my parents who are more tech-savy how to place my blog on an RSS feed so that they can assess it easier and see the updates quickly.

Finally, I am going to continue to use my feeds to check in on my blog and the other blogs that are on my feed to get ideas to enhance the learning in my classrooms. This experience showed me the impact of the information you can find when reading people's blogs and how using and RSS feed is a great way to stay connected in our society, This is especially important for educators.