Blogs I'm Following

Looking for blogs to follow was a great experience. I found two that I really like. I chose to follow four, but I'm not quite sure that two of the blogs are ones that I will continue reading. I want to spend some time reading the posts and getting a feel for the author before I get rid of them. I really like School Library Journal: Never Ending Search. The author has great resources for Web 2.0 tools and her post are easy reading. The Librarian is also another blog that I found interesting. When I was looking for blogs, one problem I found was that I spent way too much time reading the posts. I decided that if I enjoy a few of the posts to just set it up on my Google Reader page. If I continue to enjoy it, I'll keep it. If not, it's history. I've set up my Google Reader page for RSS and I enjoy getting on my page in the morning and read the new posts. It is so nice not to have to go to each blog and find out if there was a new post.

Using Blogs as a Resource

I used a blog for a communication with parents of my first grade students last year. I posted information about upcoming and current events, current areas of study, vocabulary words, and videos of students doing author's chair. I had about 30% of parents check the blog on a regular basis and only 3 parents would make comments. I felt like this was a good way to use a blog in a 1st grade classroom because the students would not be able to read it and make comments on the posts on their own. I would take time every other Friday to view the blog on the projector and read it together with the class. The students and parents really enjoyed it, but it was more of an online newsletter.
When I move into a library, I would like to use a blog for book clubs where I have the students make comments on posts about books that they are reading. I would also like to show students how to search for blogs that interest them, how to follow a blog, and how to set up a Google Reader page so they can bring all their blogs to one place. I believe that students can gain a lot from blogs that are interactive.

Reflection of Creating/Using Blog

Creating this blog for reflection in this class is a great way to learn how to use this Web2.0 tool. I enjoy playing with all the gadgets and moving things around to get a good flow. I have a classroom blog that I used last year. I set up the blog and posted to it, but I didn't spend any time putting in gadgets. This time, I am learning how I can set up a blog to be more interactive and how to utilize more of the tools for it. I look forward to spending more time reflecting on this process and figuring out how to make it most effective for use by my classroom students and their families.

It's Done!

Well, it's finally set up. My little girl is napping and my little boy is reminding me that I haven't eaten breakfast or lunch. It's probably time to stop adding and take a little break. I am finding so much information already. I just need to figure out how to get it all linked here. I am not new to this blog thing. I had a class blog this past year. The students really enjoyed it. I never did do enough with it. I am hoping to learn how to make a blog more interactive with more links in this class.