Google Reader

The week 6 blog requires us to respond to our Google Reader Project that we have been doing all semester.

The blogs I followed:

A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/

Free Technology for Teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org

Will Richardson http://willrichardson.com

CoolCat Teacher Blog http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com

The Reading Workshop http://thereadingworkshop.com

Twenty-first Century Collaborative http://www.21stcenturycollaborative.com

My favorite blog was Will Richardson’s Blog. This blog taught me a lot about what is going on in government in relation to schools, education, testing, and learning. I discovered that other educators felt the same way that I do about high-stakes testing, and how our jobs should depend not on how students do on one test on one day of the year, but on their continued performance and growth over the entire year. Will Richardson’s blog is putting a voice to the frustration felt by many teachers across the United States today. Through his blog, Will is encouraging educators to take a stand and move the emphasis in schools back to the students and their learning instead of the tests. Will is focused on the students and providing the students with the best education that teachers can give them. Through his blog, he has made me rethink the daily actions that I do as a teacher and make sure that I am doing them for the students, not for their performance on standardized tests.

My favorite blog post was from the blog entitled “A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet.” The post was called “When Your School Library Budget is Slashed.” In this post, Julie talked about how her library budget had again been cut. She listed several free resources that she was suggesting to her students and teachers. She also had created pathfinder websites based on information and other websites that she had already viewed for students. In this post, she also suggested alternatives to magazine subscriptions. In her research, she found that many of the magazines that she subscribed to were available from EBSCO. This would provide students and teachers with those magazine resources and allow them to be able to conduct their research. She also made two suggestions to raise money. The first was through Amazon School Rewards, and the other an old-fashioned raffle. The Amazon School Rewards program allowed parents to log in to Amazon.com through the school’s website. The school would then receive money from the advertisements that showed up on the Amazon website as the parents were logged in. It seemed to be an easy way to make money in these hard times. The raffle Julie mentioned would take place later in the year. They were currently surveying students, parents, and the community to see which would be a better raffle item, an Xbox 360 or an iPad. She mentioned that they had a raffle last year that made a lot of money for the library.

I enjoyed this blog post because, as I am sure you all can relate, budgets are being cut more and more each year. The government is asking us to do more teaching with less funding. In these difficult economic times, it is hard for both parents and teachers to reach into their own personal pockets and provide money for the items that the students need in the classroom. Julie offered many ways that she was saving money for her library and still being able to provide resources for her students and colleagues. Several of these suggestions she made will be able to crossover and adapt themselves to many schools. Already this year, we have had many fundraisers and are continuing to have fundraisers throughout the year. Those mentioned by Julie are just a few that schools across the country can use to help get through these difficult times.