Save Your Time...Stop Wasting it!

How many times have you looked at the clock and realized you just spent an hour on your computer when you meant to go check one thing?  How long is the list of bookmarks that you have on your web browser?  Do you have a regular routine of the daily websites that you check?

The reason for the above questions is because I think most people have a small handful of websites that they check daily and then others that they visit less frequently.  Instead of checking these websites to see if they have new content (or missing good content because you didn't check) - you can easily subscribe to these websites to all be delivered to you in one place (amazing right?...I know).

This concept is referred to as RSS (really simple syndication), and as it states - it is really simple to use.  Most people see the icons everywhere they go online, but probably never realized what they meant.  Well, anytime you see an orange RSS icon, it simply means that you can subscribe to that website's content.

All you need is to sign up with an RSS reader in order to collect the content of all your favorite websites.  This is the scary part that no one wants to commit to.  But believe me when I say, there is no need to be afraid.  In fact, anyone who already has a Google account, already has a reader, they just don't use it.  Next time you sign into Google, click on the more button at the top right of your screen.  When the menu drops down there will be a Reader link.  Click on it, and you are in your RSS reader.  All you need to do is tell it what websites you want it to collect content from.  In order to do this, click on the big red SUBCRIBE button at the top left of the screen and type or paste the url address of a website you want to follow into the field and click ADD.

You will soon see that your Google Reader fills up with all the content from your favorite websites.  Once you have done this - you will realize how much time this saves you.  I have seriously tried to tell people about this for awhile now.  I hope you take my advice.  I think you will appreciate it.

If you own a smartphone or tablet, there are plenty of free rss readers available as apps that make it easy to keep up with your content on the go (I use feedler for my iPad and I would definitely recommend it).

I'm still alive

Unfortunately, I have not been able to pay any attention to my poor blog so far this school year.  That is going to change.  As this is an easy way to share resources to the teachers I work with - I am not going to let this fade away.  I know that consistency is the only way that a blog survives, and in that regard I hope that anyone who has regularly visited in the past will continue to do so.  I would encourage you to share this link with other teachers in your building, and give me feedback if there are specific things that you would like to know more about.  Most importantly, I would love to be able to better help visualize these technology tools in the classroom.  If you would like to share what has worked, or what has failed - I would love to help to foster a conversation that revolves around practical classroom teaching with technology.  Thanks for visiting,

Sean