Module 3: Feeding on Blogs

Information constantly bombards me from a thousand sources, and I often catch too much of one thing, less of another, and leave some topics by the wayside when in fact they should remain front and center.  I'd used an RSS feed about 4 years ago, but gradually moved away from using it.  However, I'm in major information collection mode right now and using an RSS feed may be just what I need.

I selected five blogs to follow and made comments on three of them.

1. Markey's Musings-  Jason Markey is a principal in Franklin Park, IL.  I met him when I attended two of his learning sessions at the GAFE Summit in Montreal this past weekend and was very impressed with his thoughts on the role of principals.
• Comment: "As the observation unfolds it is the role of the anthropologist to look without seeing anything other than what is happening and not be swayed to believe they are seeing something based on previous experiences or assumptions." - Jason Markey. What an immensely valuable notion to embrace in the school setting: "As the observation unfolds it is the role of the anthropologist to look without seeing anything other than what is happening and not be swayed to believe they are seeing something based on previous experiences or assumptions."  Applicable to so many scenarios, but what first comes to mind is that often, teachers, schools, and/or school districts who have cruised along in a top bracket for quite some time would benefit from this lens to avoid assuming that students are being provided with the best experiences possible.  A newly-hired secretary has filled this role for one of our elementary schools this year.  Old habits die hard, but she's determined to be the honest eye we've needed!
2. The Making of an Elementary School MakerSpace- I used to teach at Dyer Elementary from whence this blog originates, and am completely excited to keep track of their work in building and running their new MakerSpace since I'm currently helping to do the same at my schools.

• Comment: “Staff meeting time is dedicated to tinkering and collaborative making experiences.”  What a valuable part of building whole-school buy-in!”

1. SketchPad- This is the blog of the Tinkering Studio located at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA.  
2.  EdTechTeam- I love everything this team embraces.  They're the planners behind the Future Ready Summits.
• Comment: Sylvia, Thank you for the suggestion to create a folder and drop in the links to areas where I'm least confident.  I definitely see that I'll be filling that folder faster than I expected!  Good tip.
• This comment was a learning moment- I got a message back saying that only members of the EdTechTeam can comment on the blog, so my comment was never posted.
3. Reflections of a Lifelong Learner-   Kim Meldrum writes this blog with a keen eye toward the integration of technology

 

My New RSS Feed, with blogs followed on the left

I have started following a few more blogs recently, but wasn't thrilled that the notifications of their publication were cluttering my Gmail's inbox.  I had put filters on my mail to mark such notifications as unread, but then I was doing the opposite and forgetting to read the blogs altogether.

It would be great if Feedly could change the way readers can view blogs.   I feel like if I click on the group of 5 that I'm following, I can either see a list of the most recently published posts, or a scroll of thumbnails to recently published.  I would like Feedly to allow for a way to view about 6 different blog thumbnails at one time, along with a little number by each one for the number of posts the author has written that I haven't read.  That would be the visual reminder I need about which blogs I'm actually following.  There are certainly other RSS feeds, and I'll be looking forward to reading the posts of my fellow classmates in EDU568 to find out what other feeds they liked.

I DO appreciate the fact that I can group feeds into "Collections," since there are so many topics I often read about.  The current 5 I'm following aren't really of the same category, but it looks like I can move them around.

As I read the blog posts of others, I'm seeing that even blogs associated with a school or someone's job tend to have a higher amount of information about the author than I would think to include.  However, after reading in Enhancing the Art & Science of Teaching with Technology about how "Mr. Flannery uses social media to support interactive engagement among his students," I may be seeing more value in creating those connections.  He starts the year by posting questions that get students to start talking about themselves, therefore helping them build connections with both he and their peers.  He responds to the inquiries as well so that students get a better feelings for who he is.  Another suggestion was to use positive emoticons to "demonstrate respect and value" to students (Element 39).  Using Bitmojis would be my go-to choice in such situations, since many of them are funny but still appropriate.  Students would probably LOVE to have a teacher who made personal connections with fun emojis and bitmojis.  That would be akin to a teacher drawing a distinctive happy face with flair on one of my papers when I was in school.  I thought it was fantastic!

There are definitely so many positives about blogging, both from the teacher and student standpoints.  I'm looking forward to feeling that incoming information is more organized as I set about to learn from other people. 

Source:  Magana, Sonny and Robert Marzano:  Enhancing the Art and Science of Teaching with Technology.  Marzano Research Laboratory:  2014.