BP1_Google Reader

To be honest, this is my first time using RSS feeds. Normally, if I find a website I like, I just bookmark it, then have to return to see what’s new. This is going to be a much better way to keep up with all of my favorites. The second thing I found out was that if the Google search engine died tomorrow, I would be completely lost. Most of my ‘favorite’ sites are for entertainment, such as on-line comics, friend’s blogs and places to watch TV shows. Whenever I need something for work, I Google it, then choose the best from the numerous options I am given. Therefore, to complete this assignment, I had to work in reverse. I went under my Internet history and chose sites based on what I had been searching for that I use in my everyday teaching as well as what might be useful for my AR project.

Two of the sites, Apples 4 the teacher and Teacherly, I use for everyday things like worksheets and lesson plan ideas. I use Apples 4 the teacher way more than Teacherly, since it is an older, more established site. However, these classes are really forcing me to expand my horizons, so I will probably give Teacherly a closer look.

(http://www.apples4theteacher.com/ , http://www.teacherly.com/)

In my classes and presentations, sometimes I want to do something on the computer that I have no idea how to do. For that, I just pop my idea into the Google search engine and go from there. In my backwards search for feeds, Engadget and Cnet are two sites that came up frequently. For example, when presenting on a trip to Spain, I ended up at Engadget when I wanted to learn how to create a photo mosaic. Both of these sites focus on all aspects of technology. The part I like the most are their how to sections, which give great step-by-step directions that even the least capable computer person (me) can follow.

(http://www.engadget.com/ , http://www.cnet.com/?tag=hdr )

A fellow teacher introduced this last sight, Waygook.org, to me. For those who do not know, I am currently an ESL teacher in South Korea. In Korean, ‘waygook’ means foreigner. This site is a collection of information from past and present foreign teachers on everything from lesson planning to things to do in your free time. Although it is geared towards teachers in South Korea, I’m sure it could benefit anyone in the teaching profession.

(http://waygook.org/index.php)

I think that these five sites will be useful in my end goal of creating a computer game for my class to help in vocabulary retention, which is my AR project as of now. It has changed a bit over the past three months, but I hope to solidify it by the end of this class.