Feed Me Seymour...

I love news. I love all news. I can't get enough. I enjoy news from all areas; social, economic, political, foreign, domestic, entertainment, sports, and I even catch myself reading the sensationalistic headlines while waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store. Not only do I love news, but I enjoy different types of news media. I enjoy my subscriptions to Time and U.S. News and World Report. I watch CNN, MSNBC, and FoxNews in order to get all three sides of the same story, I like local television news, I listen to NPR and AM radio news, and I use the internet to track and stay in touch with news all over the country and the world. However, nothing beats sitting down with a hot cup of coffee in the morning and reading the newspaper. For me, my morning coffee and the newspaper is the perfect way to begin the day. In the perfect world I would start my day with coffee and the newspaper, continue through the day listening to news on the radio, watching it on television and the internet, and then come home to watch it on television. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world and I may get to do one of those activities on a daily basis...maybe. The truth is that I may catch 30-45 minutes of news in a day or read the newspaper in the evening. I just don't have the time and means to collect all of the news from all of the media outlets that I would like. If I did, that is all I would ever do!

Well, that has all changed for me. In my studies for one of my classes at Michigan State University we were introduced to RSS pages and instructed on how to locate these feed connections on our favorite websites and then collect and organize the feeds into one website where we can review them all. In this lesson we were to create an account and set-up our own RSS Reader. Then, we were to locate specific RSS feeds and add them to our page. Through this exercise we learned how the system works and how to expand our page on our own. Let me tell you...for a news junkie, this is awesome! I chose to set-up my account using Netvibes (www.netvibes.com). Through this site, I have set up a page for educational news, sports news, and I have set up one for my class that I will continue to grow and use in my own educational classroom. This is the page that I am focusing most of my attention towards and the one I am finally feeding my passion for news with. So, what is an RSS page? Well, it is basically a one-stop shop for information. As you visit your favorite sites, you simply look for the little RSS feed icon, click it, copy the URL into your RSS page, and subscribe to that feed. Once you have subscribed to the feed, you can check your page whenever you want and browse the latest updates from that page. It is a way to literally put all of the news from all subject areas you are interested in from all media sources you follow into one spot for easy and quick access.

The majority of my feeds fall in to three categories; educational news and information, professional organizations, and general news. I follow several different sources covering education as a means to stay informed on trends, ideas, news, and information that is pertinent to the educational field. It is important to stay ahead of the curve professionally and this helps me to stay informed. The second area that I follow is feeds from professional organizations such as the National Council for the Social Studies, the National Education Association, and the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. Each of these organizations works to promotes ideals that I believe in and I enjoy visiting the sites to find new information and upcoming events. I believe that it is important to join and participate in organizations of this nature for professional development. The third area is by far my largest; general news and blogs. This area of my page is where I find myself spending a lot of time and focusing on how I can use this amazing tool to benefit my instructional practices and my students learning.

I follow several blogs and I have subscribed to feeds from several news outlets, as well as the White House, the State of Michigan, and political parties. Each of these sites provides content that is pertinent to my subject area and provides me with unlimited educational possibilities. I have found myself creating lesson plans that incorporate this RSS page, my blog, WebQuests, and several other instructional styles and tools. From all of these resources and possibilities, I have found one blog that I tend to check over and over and that I have incorporated in several lesson plan ideas. That is the blog from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History entitled “O Say Can You See?” This site is dedicated to bringing its subscribers information and ideas pertaining to the education of American History. One such post that I recently responded to was informing people of an upcoming event to celebrate Black History Month. This event, titled “Bringing Heroes to the Classroom” was a live webcast brining secondary students and Freedom Rides veterans together for an interview session. This is one of many interactive events sponsored by the museums online teams.

RSS feeds and pages are an amazing source if organized and used properly. I invite you to visit my page, explore some of the feeds I subscribe to, and then look at creating a page of your own. You will be amazed at the time it will save you, the benefit you will find from staying informed, and the fun you will have exploring new feeds!