My Google Reader Experience

                     The seven blogs I subscribed to are:

1. CoolCatTeacher Blog- http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/

2. Will Richardson- http://willrichardson.com/

3. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day- http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

4. Free Technology for Teachers- http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

5. A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet-http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/

6. Teachers Love SMART Boards- http://teacherslovesmartboards.com/

7. Librarian.net: Putting the rarin back in librarian since 1999- http://www.librarian.net/

Until I took this course, I had never read a blog in my life. I can proudly say that I am a blog reader now. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day, Free Technology for Teachers, Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet, Teachers Love SMART Boards, and Librarian.net were my top 5 favorite blogs. All five of these websites offer several technological resources and lesson plans that I can use with my upcoming 5^th grade classes in the library. I have been making a list of all the awesome resources I have gathered from reading these blogs. One thing I have to say about Ferlazzo's blog is that while it is not my overall favorite, he provided a lot of links to resources and videos about animals. I remember watching a very good video about polar bears which my second grade class would love.

           If I had to pick my overall favorite blog, I would pick A Media Specialists Guide to the Internet. As a librarian, I have to say that this is my dream blog. It has technology tools to use with students and websites with lesson plans and activities related to history, science, language arts. A few blogs list wonderful authors and titles for elementary and junior high ages. I have always been worried about using PowerPoint with my students because I am afraid they will may have problems saving it correctly, but this blog introduced me to Slide Rocket. It keeps all the students presentations in a cloud on Slide Rocket’s server so I do not have to worry about them losing them.  

My favorite blog post came from Librarian.net. “The origin story of Mousercise” was posted on June 6, 2012. In this post, Jessamyn West (library technologist) retells her email interview experience with the creator of Mousercise Chris Rippel. I liked this post because I had never heard of Mousercise. After checking it out, I realize that this tutorial will be a great site to use with my fifth graders. It includes typing and mouse tutorials, exercises, and games. At the beginning of the post, I learned that it was originally called Mouserobics until Disney found out about it. At the beginning of the interview, Rippel talks about when he made Mousercise after teaching his first computer basics class in Kansas and how he is currently working for the Central Kansas Library System (CKLS). For the rest of the interview he gives advice for teacher librarians who want to teach computer basics to their students. Since I am that teacher librarian, I found his advice helpful and encouraging.