What's New in Your Reader?

            Google Reader allows users to subscribe and manage all the blogs you like to follow in one easy-to-use (after getting some pointers from one of the technology coaches in my district) space.  The five blogs I’m following post frequently and Reader allows me to see all the updates at once, making it easy to glance at new posts and choose what is worth reading.  Setup was easy, but I’m not sure I love the overall appearance of my Reader page.  I wish it looked more inviting like the blogs themselves with colorful backgrounds and interesting fonts.  In the end, creating and using a Google Reader page has made me so excited to start reading blogs again, that I wrote a short Acrostic poem for the occasion.

Reading the blogs I love has become

Even easier

After discovering Google Reader!!  How

Did I never

Ever hear about this before?

Rarely before, has reading blogs been so accessible!

               How could this help me in my teaching?  Reader allows me to keep up with my blogs so that I can occasionally share posts about I read with my students -  like when a blogger raves about a book she recently read or a good book trailer surfaces.  I’ve even shared the links to a few blogs I subscribe to, like the “YA Love Blog.”  This has given my students one more resource to use when looking for the next “book they can’t put down.”  However, I’m yet to share Google Reader with my students.  I think they need to be taught more about blogs before this tool can really be of use to them.  Once they do know the value of blogs and RSS feeds, I think Reader could help them become more digitally literate people.   Having a one place to help you keep up with all the information technology helps people find is something Discover would probably call “priceless.”