Organizing blogs/news feeds

This is really helpful, especially if you have your students create their own blogs that you would like to monitor and view conveniently and quickly. You can set up your own RSS feed. RSS stands for "Really Simply Syndication", and it basically involves you creating your own news feed of your favorite websites and blogs. Blogs easily work into the RSS feed, but any website that has an "RSS" button on the page can be incorporated into your feed as well. (To see an example of what the button would look like, go to this site for the New Yorker. The main page has a link on the right-hand column for "RSS feeds" and then after clicking on that link, you simply select which articles you'd like to include in your feed and what service you use.)

If you have your own blog through Gmail's Blogger , you can create your own newsfeed right on the Dashboard or main page of your account. Otherwise, here are some free options that you have for creating an RSS feed:
Google Reader
BlogLines
NewsGator

Teachers have enough going on, anything that can save some time is worth it! This can definitely save you time in viewing your students' blogs, or even just keeping yourself up-to-date with news.

Blogs

Blogs can be used in a variety of ways in the English classroom. For starters, they can replace the traditional journals that many teachers require their students to keep. Blogs not only are more "fun" for many students than keeping a journal, they also save paper and avoid the excuse of "I forgot my journal!"

There are several sites you can choose from when creating a blog; I set mine up through http://www.blogger.com/. To use this website, you need to also have or create a gmail account. Just follow the on-screen directions and you will have a basic blog in minutes.

There are also multiple features that can be used beyond the basic blog as well. Many third-party websites have created FREE tools that you can place into your blog.

http://www.tag-board.com/ Lets you create a "message board" on your blog where readers can post general comments on the main page of your blog, without having to comment on a specific post.

http://www.dreambook.com/ Is one of several sites that lets you create a guest book for your blog. This is very similar to the message board except it is on a seperate page from your blog's main page. There is also the option of public and private messages, which could be advantageous for when a teacher would like to comment on a student's blog or a posting.

You can also add "widgets" to your blog. These come from third-party sites as well. Some examples of widgets you could add to your blog are:

• real time price of gas in your area
• current time in different parts of the world
• a running count of the number of visitors to your page

Two of my favorite widgets to add come from http://www.polldaddy.com/, which lets you create a poll that you add to your blog page and your readers vote on, and http://www.librarything.com/ which lets you create a library of your favorite books and post on your page. I have added a widget of my book library as an example of a widget.

These widgets are also very easy to install- you simply go to the third party website, set up an account through them, and select the preferences you'd like for the particular widget. Then, the website will give you an HTML code that you copy. Back on the blogger site, when you are in "edit mode", you will click on the Layout tab, then Add Gadget, then scroll down until you find the option that says HTML. Once on this page, it will provide a place for you to paste the HTML you copied and your widget will be installed!

Your students can set up the blogger account so that it emails up to 10 email addresses each time the blog is updated. In addition, the blogs can be made private by giving up to 100 readers permission to read a private blog.

Using blogs as journals is only one example of many different ways blogs can be used in the English classroom. You as a teacher could also create a blog as a simple website for parents and students to refer to, where you can add class announcements, book reviews, or any other important information. It's up to you!