The RSS lab was very educational to me because I had never used the RSS feeds before. Since my sister recommended it, I set up by feed using Google Reader. It seemed simple enough to follow different feeds. I set up the Google Reader, and then I did my best to check them every few days. I noticed that feeds from National Public Radio, or NPR, were extremely plentiful every day. One of the feeds that I had chosen to follow was CNN. CNN also had many stories per day. I followed a few different blogs, including Roger Ebert’s blog and one called the Edublogger. Both blogs had some new stories, but not as many as the others.
I decided to follow websites that would cover the things that would interest me the most. The Edublogger explains a step by step process for using student blogs in the classroom. Each post explained the next step for teaching students to establish blogs of their own. TeachHub is a great website done by teachers for teachers, and it has anything and everything relating to teaching. I’ve gotten many good ideas from TeachHub to use in my classroom. One thing I learned from TeachHub was a Healthy Living Activity and creating a "Go Green" song. They were great lesson plans! Roger Ebert, though film is his background, gives updates about news, technology, and science. Although he may have seemed like an odd choice, he writes blogs about many important topics in our society and directs his followers where to get more information about certain topics. CNN is an excellent news source, and I use CNN Student News in my classroom quite regularly. Scientific American is a website which has a daily segment called, “60 Second Science,” that I use as my bell ringer assignment nearly every day. I also read a great idea from SA called "Bring Science Home" where students and parents do little science projects together at home. NSF Discoveries from the National Science Foundation gives updates on NSF funded projects, which I sometimes use to show the real world applications of science. NSF gave some great innovative projects that I could use in the classroom to inspire!
When I first became a teacher, I was told to “beg, borrow, or steal” any good lessons that I may see. The TeachHub website allows me access to many different ideas for my classroom. Using inspirational quotes, doing fun differentiated instruction, and giving ideas for classroom management are just some of the ideas that I have read about on TeachHub. Every day, Scientific American has a new podcast that covers a scientific topic in 60 seconds or less. It’s a great way to get my students thinking about science immediately when class begins. CNN Breaking News covers any major topic that is happening during the day, and many times, education or science may be a part of that. I like to have my students watch the CNN Student News videos to help them be aware of the world around them.
After completing this lab, I realized that I am not a fan of RSS feeds. I much prefer a service like Twitter to have short bursts of news, and when one catches my eye, I can investigate it further. There were too many times when I would view my Google Reader, and there would be many new stories, but they were only coming from one or two sources. Then I’d have to sort through all of them to see if there was any information that could interest me. Perhaps using an RSS feed for different students would be beneficial because it would allow them to build up some credible sources to use for research. I think I may try that out in my class, and see if they have better success with the RSS feeds than I did. RSS feeds in the classroom may help students recognize the difference between primary sources and secondary sources.
I found it interesting that you use Twitter for. let's say, all your news. I think I am just the opposite. When I find one interesting update on my feeds, I tend to look for more from the same source. I get great tidbits from Twitter from folks who just like to share stuff. I guess it's just a matter of personal taste.
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