I have chosen 5 RSS feeds to follow that I observe as blogs that will keep me current on news that connects me to grow as a professional educator and furthers my education to become more aware of resources that I can use and adapt to my classroom. Here is a brief description and a link associated with my 5.
1) My first blog that I chose to follow is a teacher made blog that is dedicated to keeping teachers up to date on current practices that integrate technology into the classroom. Not only does this fit my interests, but the blog was created by a group of teachers that collaborate together on what is successful and then share their findings with the feed. A great blog to stay connected with for the techy teacher.
The Tech Savvy Educator
feed://www.techsavvyed.net/?feed=rss2
2) Apple Hot News is another feed that I keep a close eye on. I am a huge Mac user, but work in a PC district. Therefore I am forced to crossover and use as much as I can for the benefit of my students with both machines. At any rate, I feel that the Apple Hot News feed enable me to keep up on not only the latest Apple products, but also keep me connected to how to integrate the use of Mac programs similar to what PC can offer.
Apple Hot News
feed://images.apple.com/main/rss/hotnews/hotnews.rss
3) The Quick and the Ed is an up to date news feed on the hot topics regarding education reform in California. California is where I currently live and teach and I am impacted everyday with what happens in Sacramento as budgets are cut, laws are handed down to district level, and more standardized ways of teaching is more and more expected. Anyways, this blog give me the more current events as to what is happening where and why up and down the golden state.
The Quick and the Ed
feed://feeds.feedburner.com/TheQuickAndTheEd
4) Free Technology for Teachers feed is a great blog that keeps me current for fresh ideas in using technology in the classroom for free. As any educator will tell you, a teacher does not go into the field for the money. So when a teacher can utilize powerful technological resources for free, it is that much more valuable! I enjoy reading up on these posts because they are well written and use many forms of media that include videos to podcasts.
Free Technology for Teachers
feed://www.freetech4teachers.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
5) Finally, Teacher Lingo is a terrific news feed that connects teachers in the elementary levels. This suits my needs since I teach 5th and 6th grade and this blog connects teachers from around the world. It is a great feed for teachers to share ideas, collaborate, and discuss the commonality of being a teacher. A fantastic place to connect.
Teacher Lingo
feed://teacherlingo.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx
So those are my 5 RSS feeds that I have chosen for my professional purposes and to keep me current when utilizing the web.
Image above used under a Creative Commons 2.0 License credited to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abletoven/
My first screenshot is of my Home page tab on iGoogle. I created this tab about a year ago and it contains anything from personal gadgets to professional. It has changed over the year, but contains useful gadgets such as Google Docs, my YouTube channel, ToDoList, Facebook, and Twitter.
The second screenshot displays my FSO tab on iGoogle. This particular tab contains a Box of Links that conveniently takes me to the Full Sail Online homepage, my Full Sail Email inbox, and the Wimba classroom sign in page. I also included a LinkedIn gadget that will connect me with peers and colleagues around the world for business and education networking. Finally, I included a My Listy gadget to keep myself on pace with assignments related to long term projects.
My third tab on iGoogle is the AR/CBL tab. I have included a box of links that link me to my AR iWeb site, Dr. Bedard's sample page, the EMDT AR examples website, Purdue Online, APAstyle.org, and APA Style Guide website. I have also added the Diigo gadget and a My Listy gadget to organize my deadlines for action research assignments.
Finally, my last tab I created on iGoogle is my ETC tab. This tab includes a Blogger gadget, a box of links that link me to Go2Web20, Most Useful Web Tools, ETC Wiki, ETC Viddler Account, ETC Flickr account, and FSO Online websites. I have also added the gadgets of My Listy, Google Reader to follow my feeds, Flickr, and Google Docs. All of these will be useful in making me successful in this course.
