Thing 3--RSS Feeds

I am glad that I waited several days before I responded to using RSS, because I find that my reaction has changed. The process of working my way through setting up the reader and figuring out how to include blogs and feeds in the reader, and then trying to post some of them as listings on my own blog proved confusing and difficult. But now that I have waited, I have become more of a believer.

I now have figured out how to list Google reader as one of my shortcuts, and then I can just pop in and read anything new that looks interesting. This morning, I found my son's new posting from Greece (how much travel is he planning while he is there?!), some new 23 things listings in blogs, and an item in the School Library Media that related to curriculum at MY school that I could pass along to the appropriate teachers. And all of this before my first cup of tea at work!

I think that as I know what teachers are planning in their curriculum, I can pick up feeds on appropriate sites to help them find more material. Or, perhaps even better, I can teach THEM how to set up their own feeds so that they can be kept up to date on the material that they are trying to work with in their classes. We are a small school, and collaboration is very much a reality, so I think this idea could be very beneficial.

I am not sure any of the tools or feeds are particularly easy to use, but I did eventually figure them out. I am currently sticking with Google Reader, because that was the one I had the most material in by the time I worked out what I was doing.

The feeds I have found outside of the places the program suggested tend to be related to the specialized needs of my school (or its librarian!): one on Jewish Day Schools and my son's blog from Greece. I am glad that we are able to see each other's blogs--it helps me know where I am in the process. I have listed most of my finds in the folder called 23 Things to the right.