Week 4

Thing # 8

I am feeling more comfortable surfing the net. I did not know what an RSS and a news reader is. Now I am certain that I had been searching for information the old-fashioned way. I surfed most of the cites and opened an "account" or registered with Bloglines and Google Reader. Personally, I liked Google Reader much better. I found it to be "friendlier" than Bloglines. As I visited the sites, I wondered if this could be useful for my target language classes. I knew that if I could use them in the classroom with the students we could access the cites and be able to read and talk about current events in the target language. I continued to surf, visit and play with the cites and was able to access feeds in the target languages I needed. Without a doubt, I will incorporate this to my teaching next year. I am teaching summer school and plan to do a test run during this time. Come next school year, I will be ready...REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS.



Thing #9

I "checked-out" all the sites that could help me find feeds. The one where it was simpler and less complex to find new feeds is by using Google Blog Search. All the other sites where helpful and provided plenty of information and feeds. For the type of learner that I am, the Google Blog Search was the one I liked most. This site also is the one where I could find feeds in other languages much easier. I could not figure out how to do it with Topix. I am eager to see how it will work with my summer class. I just used it in class. I still had questions about RSS. I needed to bounce certain ideas with someone. I talked it over with a friend and figured it out completely. I also added additional feeds to Google Reader such asEL Norte de Monterrey, El Sol de Mexico, and Le Monde.

I used it with my French II class. It will without a doubt be a excellent tool to used in the classroom. We also tried to view some videos but were unable to do so due to restrictions our school computers have. As I surfed the feeds I learned that in Spanish and in French RSS is also available. I finally feel I have accomplished something that will better benefit the new teaching strategies I will be able to incorporate. Once I got home, I was able to access the video websites. Loved them!!!