Thing #23--Ning & Other Social Networking Sites

Ning seems like it may be the new My Space or Facebook for adults who want to limit their network to their specific interest(s) and group, but still have a greater chance of expanding their group. I would think there would be a greater opportunity for the latter within a larger, well-known network such as Ning than a website, blog or wiki that is just "out there" by itself. I'm wondering whether this would be the place to consider setting up a classroom social network because of it's easy set-up & customization features, the moderate feature which allows you to review BEFORE anything is added and the apparent ease with which other web 2.0 tools and features can be added (linked, embedded, etc.). I like that individual members can still personalize & revise their own personal profile pages withing the social network--another benefit for classroom use. The fact that it can be translated in to other languages would be an excellent feature for foreign language classes.

I am definitely going to join the Classroom 2.0 and probably the Teacher 2.0 so that I can continue to refine and add to my new knowledge and skills. I've learned a lot, but I still feel there is so much more. I've already seen several groups that I would like to join and thought of one I could start--MISD Middle School B. Reading teachers. I found several new tools just from browsing through various categories on the right side bar (tools, subjects, area) in Classroom 2.0--Classmarker Online Quiz Maker for Online Testing, Contentgenerator, Popfly, Classtools, Vizu polls

One of the interesting groups I found on Classroom 2.0 was one formed to promote Literacy in a Digital Classroom while integrating technology. I also found a group for parents of special needs students that provides information on specific needs, legislative and other legal updates, and support and learning resources called eSpecialMatch. This might be something that SPED teachers, counselors or administrators could pass on to their parents.

Although I did send a message to Mary about a difficulty adding the badge to my blog, I did join and uploaded a video to the 23 Thingsters. It is waiting for approval to be viewable.

Thing #22--My Space & Facebook

I joined both My Space & Facebook. I thought both were easy to sign up for and add information to profiles. The search for friends included a couple of people from this class and I invited them as friends. The Facebook page gave me a list of possible friends that went to my college and I added one. I didn't see a whole lot of difference in using them thus far, but I do like the look of the My Space Profile page better. That system also let me pick my URL, which will make it much easier to remember and share.

I think it's important to be aware of at least these two social networking sights simply so we have some clue of what our students (and kids) are doing and talking about. For me, I could see using it to re-connect with some old high school, college or work friends, and former students, as well as keeping in closer contact and sharing photos, etc. with family. I don't see spending a lot of time there simply because I just don't have much to spare. I can definitely see the attraction though.

Thing--THE END ! (aka Summary)

I think the most important benefit for me having taken this class is that I am much more confident and willing to take a chance exploring and trying new things with technology. I will continue to enthusiastically recommend this class to colleagues and hopefully encourage those with "techno-phobia" that they too CAN DO IT ! For those considering the Intel course, I highly recommend this class be completed first, unless their computer & 2.0 skills are already well developed.

I have always enjoyed learning new things and improving my skills--this will just serve to provide a whole new (very large) frontier in which to continue. The only thing that immediately comes to mind in order to improve the course is for the district to find a way to "un-block" those parts of the program which are not accessible from within MISD OR to make the computer lab or laptops from the PDC available for use. I think a course specifically to help teachers set up their class e-learning website would be well received.

Whether through on-line research, interactive learning or collaboration tools, I have definitely come away with a greater understanding of how technology & web 2.0 internet tools can be utilized to improve student interest, motivation, learning & independence/initiative. I now also have a greater understanding of how to incorporate learning through projects involving technology in order to help students develop those 21st century skills that will be required. I look forward to finding new resources and learning even more--keeping up with new information and tools through my RSS, Delicious, etc. I'm looking forward to setting up my classroom web/blog/wiki (?). I can't wait to put my new skills into practical use !

Thing #7b---Interesting RSS Feed

From the Free Technology for Teacher feed was a link for The World Images Kiosk which is a site entirely made up of free Creative Commons Pictures which can be utilized in projects and which automatically requires the user to give proper attribution when necessary. There was also an announcement by Google about a new filter which allows a search for images by category of usage (copyright restrictions) so that, if preferred, only those images which are available on an unrestricted basis are included. Instructions were included in the announcement.

Thing #21--Other Google Tools

I set up an igoogle account and while I can't "share" that, I tried to share one of the neat gadgets that I added to it. It's a picture a day of cool things & places you should see. I did have a link to share the pictures from this gadget, but it brought up access to my gmail (in addition to the pictures), so I had to delete it. Some other neat gadgets I added include several for word of the day (one in spanish !), joke & puzzle of the day, and an on-line dictionary. Since I teach reading, the dictionary and word of the day would be (somewhat obviously) very useful. I also added a language translator which I'll test when I get back to school for possible parent communication. I also checked out Google Books and found a preview for a play for THE OUTSIDERS. After finishing the novel, this might be great practice for fluency ultimately resulting in a series of podcasts.

Thing #20--Google Docs

I enjoyed creating a vocabulary quiz for Chapter 1 of THE OUTSIDERS using Google Docs. I included several different formats for the questions--matching, multiple choice, check the box and short answer. The quiz is embedded below and the spreadsheet for those answering the quiz is saved in my "account". The only problem is that I've been unable to find the quiz and save that on my account, although obviously it exists. When e-mailing/sharing, I first e-mailed the quiz itself (and a revised version), but it would not accept the address for debbie. Then I shared/invited on the spreadsheet (I think) so I apologize for multiple possibly unnecessary copies.

This type of a quiz could be used as a pre-test, as well as a quiz to evaluate current knowledge and then determine overall student improvement. Students could also collaborate by adding new questions/vocabulary to the original quiz if needed.

Note to Self: I definitely need to go back and get more information on some of the resources on Mrs. Peek's site, including Brainpop and some of the Language Arts sections.


Please take the short vocabulary quiz (below) from chapter one of THE OUTSIDERS. Answer some questions incorrectly if you don't mind (just so the data sheets have some variety) and provide any feedback or suggestions that come to mind.

Thing #19--Voice Threads

I'm going to have to go back and watch the Web 2.0 Promises & Potential at least once more. There is so much information, it was not possible to absorb it all at once. I really like the idea of having voice narrated power point presentations--both teacher & student created. I'm assuming this idea could be expanded to brochures, newsletters, slide shows, etc. For planned absences, I like the idea of verbal instructions embedded into an accessible class website or blog. Since reading with fluency & expression is often a weakness for many students, I'm wondering whether it would be possible to post a short text and then have the students use the audio comments to read the text. Then they could listen to themselves and others, including the teacher, to evaluate and improve in this area. Finally, I'd like to investigate a classroom created narrated, interactive such as the Venn Diagram to post. I think the novelty and public nature of posting a class creation (i.e. bragging rights) would really help to increase interest, motivation, both work ethic and quality for reluctant students.

Thing #18--You Tube

I found two videos from 20/20 about discrimination entitled What Would You Do ?. The first related to muslims (see video) and the second with non-English speaking hispanics being refused service in different stores. I think both of these are relevant to students today and could be used to generate discussion about the causes of discrimination and each individual's personal responsibility--not only to stand against it, but to avoid adding to the negative stereotypes of others through our own actions. At the end of last year, my classes read THE OUTSIDERS which is a novel with the theme of discrimination based on class/income. I could easily see using these two videos to connect the novel's theme to real world experiences and to discuss how we can better understand our world (society, people, etc.) through books. I also found the movie, broken into short segments (less than 10 minutes), so that we could compare the book vs. the movie and still remain district & copyright compliant. I could not find a way to embed the video and wasn't sure about copyright violations, so I linked it instead. On Teacher tube, I found several reviews for THE OUTSIDERS, a song and a link for an entire set of resources (puzzles, worksheets) on edhelper.com.

I also found a really cool "How to Make Eclairs" video. If they turn out well when I go back to try it, I am going to be in heaven. Unfortunately, I will probably also gain another few pounds. I also found a bunch of really neat videos on dog agility training. This is something I've wanted to do with one of my dogs for quite some time. Now all I have to do is find a location nearby.

Thing #17--Podcasting in the Classroom

I added several podcasts from both PBS (personal interest primarily, nature & science podcasts). I thought this was the best site I looked at--there was no "guesswork" about the subject area or the source. I also added quite a few from the Education Podcast Network, but I actually had to go through the second time and really look for them. Although they were organized by general category, only the name & author of the podcasts were given which left the specific content unknown in many cases. Many of those chosen here related to vocabulary and poetry, but there was also one about myths and Literacy on the Go. The Learn Out Loud site, which is primarily a classic literature site, had too many possibilities to subscribe so I'm going to bookmark the entire site for later. I listened to a few when I reviewed it the first time, but didn't find those I sampled very engaging.

I may have students listen to a "word for the day" podcast as part of their warm-up routine and several of the topics listed from the PBS sites match those in my Voyager class (hurricanes/tornadoes). These podcasts could be utilized by those students who wish to know more or as a research source for other classwork. I think the best use of podcasting for my students may be to create our own. I could use it to model fluent, expressive reading of our current novel (would this be OK or would this be a copyright issue ?) and they could create their own to encourage practice & improvement (before "publishing").

Thing #16--Library Thing

I may need some input from my classmates on this one as to what I am missing or failed to do. I entered several popular books and authors (Harry Potter, Twilight books, Eragon books), but never really got anywhere other than a really long list of the same books apparently in several languages. I clicked on several of those listed, but nothing much really seemed to change. I was really excited about the link that gives you a list of similar books to one you really enjoy, but when I tried the Suggester link, all I got was the other books in that series/by that author. Suggestions ?

I SERIOUSLY wish I'd had this available when my kids were younger and I was buying so many books for them to read at home that I often couldn't remember whether we had a particular one or not. My kid's teachers and the librarian loved me--more than likely, Scholastic did too ! I love the feature where you can check your inventory from your cell phone if you're at a bookstore--no more duplications ! It'll be interesting to see how long it takes to put them all in and get them categorized & organized by tags, etc.

Thing #15--Sandbox Wiki

This Thing was somewhat frustrating. Although I figured out the set up, formatting & editing fairly quickly, I COULD NOT get my images transferred to the wiki--the external loading link kept telling me that the image could not be found. I read and re-read the steps and tried accessing the images from my blog, as well as directly from the original source. I was having so much trouble with access at school, I decided to commandeer my son's computer at home. While I was able to finish & fix almost all previous missing parts, I did leave my flashdrive at school. I guess I'll try and see if I can up load the picture from that. I am wondering though--Is it not possible to get the actual images from Flickr embedded ? The links to the Flickr images work fine and I was able to get the video from Animato embedded. This just seems strange. I 'm assuming that I've met the requirements for my sandbox, but I would still be thrilled if anyone can help with the picture "issue". It's the principal of the thing.

Thing #14--Wiki's in the Classroom

I can see using classroom wikis for easy access to work in progress--regardless of time or location--which will help students who have been absent and to help collaborating students work together despite schedules & transportation issues. It would also be a great tool to monitor individual student's participation & contribution and widen the pool of collaborators. Since my classes tend to be small, it would be helpful for students to "work" with others from other class periods. Most importantly, the use of technology (and the tools available) will definitely serve to increase interest, motivation & support to increase both the quality and the quantity of learning.

Parents would also be able to see what their students are working on and provide (hopefully not too much) assistance. This might be a great way to encourage more parent interest & support as well. Their child's work samples would be organized and easily accessible for review at any time.

The first site I visited (Code Blue) was well organized--primarily by category & related sub-topics, clean & uncluttered with an attractive layout and graphics that called attention to the various topics & links. I think that the link to Online Safety is a great idea and should be required on all school generated wikis. I enjoyed playing a couple of the brain games--we probably all need to be reminded that fun/positive learning = more productive enthusiastic learning.

The second site (Discovery Utopias) had an incredible design/information/question template for a Utopian Society--extremely thorough & thought provoking. The side bar listed several links to real life failed utopias and the main section linked to the discussions about the novels studied that related to this topic. I sent an e-mail to the teacher asking for additional information/clarification on this unit.

The only site where I could see an obvious, although minor, improvement was the Thousands Project. I love this site and will probably encourage students to use SSR time to read some of the entries (should be high-interest). The site was organized chronologically by month with the questions serving as the link to those responses. I think the year should probably be added as well.

I looked at several other sites and was almost universally impressed with both content and organization. The thought process & organization/prioritization skills required to accomplish this are impressive. The Math 12V could easily be used as a STRONG argument for technology vs. textbooks.

I'm starting to feel really bad about all the things in my head that my former students will not benefit from. I guess this is a good testament for my students as to the results & advantages of continued life-long learning !

Thing #13--Social Bookmarking & Tagging w/ Delicious

http://delicious.com/kperez523

At school, I ran into another large space where a video was supposed to be, but I was able to access it at home. The link to the In Plain English video website required an override, but then I needed to download Adobe Flash 10 which I was blocked from doing.

My first thought after reading over this section is that it will probably take me awhile to remember how to appropriately put a tag on a URL address. Then it occurred to me that this would probably be done automatically ? I can definitely see the benefit from an organization standpoint. I guess if I had to explain it to someone else, tags (in the URL's) are like subheadings except they not only label the location, they "speed dial" you to the specific place so you don't have to flip through all the pages. In this day and age, nobody has the time to "flip". Although some of the tags sent me to some unexpected places, in most cases tagging seems to help avoiding this. Then using the tags should help narrow the selection when searching for a specific site. I can definitely see how the shared tag could be helpful for a classroom teacher, but I'm not sure how to go about setting this up. Can it be for a website, a blog or a wiki ?

When trying to join delicious at school, I was unable to see the letters that I was supposed to type in the box (to finish the process). I sent a request to support, but rather than wait 24 hours for a response, I did it at home. I'm curious if anyone else has done the majority of this class at school and had similar issues. If so, this is certainly something that should be corrected, if possible. Our family computer is having problems and my son's is not normally available (college kid).

Thing #7A--Another Interesting RSS Item

Very light topic, but . . . . With all the recent Michael Jackson focus, I guess it's not surprising that an article about him made it into the NYT Week in Review. The article was not a recap of his life, but more a speculation as to the probability that there may never be another entertainer with the same world wide popularity & influence (not to mention sales).

The reason ? The radical changes & advancements in technology that limit the size of any one potential audience (for discovery of new artists such as The Ed Sullivan Show for the Beatles). Now there are simply too many choices available to reach such a majority of the population at one time. In addition, the likelihood of similar influence & monetary gain is more limited as a result of this increased competition, as well as the current ease of pirating.

I think they may be right, but I don't think they've considered You Tube's potential for being a modern world wide Ed Sullivan Show.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/weekinreview/28segal.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Thing #12--Exploring Web 2.0 Tools

I LOVE quizlet.com. This site was easy to get around and use and has alot of FUN interactive learning activities/games with immediate feedback. There is a library of already created resources for public use. I will definitely be putting this at the top of my list and talking this up. Vocabulary is such a weak area for many students today. Click the link below to see and play ! (I have NO IDEA why this one worked and others didn't.)

The Outsiders- Week 1

This is the URL for a graphic organizer I (partially) created in gliffy.com. I could see this being an excellent tool for a collaborative class graphic organizer, but using it was a little cumbersome. I'm hoping Inspiration 8 will be more user friendly.
http://www.gliffy.com/gliffy/#d=1754874&t=Character_Analysis_KAP

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong. I wasn't having any trouble getting links to work properly, but now they're not. Could it be because I'm in edit, rather than compose ?

I also started a time line (TimeGlider @ mnemograph.com), hopefully to be used for parents & students to access information about assignments (including date assigned, expected due date, links, etc.) by their specific class. Since many of my students have more than one class with me, I plan on including all class assignments on one timeline so that they can get all information in one place. The "entries" will have the designated class posted. Apparently this is a new site (working out the bugs) and I was unable to change the setting to make my timeline public, but I did leave a feedback message about this as they requested.

Thing #11--On Line Image Generators

I had quite a bit of trouble getting to and then around in using some of the linked sites--mostly because I had to constantly override blocks. With a couple of images, I ended up being timed out of the override and was not able to get back in. I was glad I was able to get a mosaic and a trading card completed. I could see these being posted on a student blog as an alternative to a power point or a slide show.

Although both were through Flickr, the trading card did not have the same mechanism for transferring the links to give credit as the mosaic provided. This may also have been a result of one of the times I got kicked out of the site before finishing. I'm not too sure the trading cards could really be used for trading because we don't have any way to print anything in color on our campus. I don't think black & while would be quite as enticing for my students. The spelling with Flicr was briefly entertaining and could be used for a more visually interesting title or subheadings.


Thanks to: www.CustomSignGenerator.com




http://bighugelabs.com/photos/6eeb1611021df9b3b473320caf10029f/deck3559f972ae4bc1fe670edf97fad014be37702bbc







1. view from outside the sistine chapel, 2. The Last Judgement, 3. Raphael's The Disputation on the Holy Sacrament, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, 4. Sistine Chapel

Thing #10--Embedding Photos as a Slide Show

I could not get into either the rockyou.com or the slide.com from my school computer--even after overriding the block. Everything I clicked just told me there was a page error. On about the 5th time of opening the 10th Thing, the box to click under bubble space showed up--it was just a big blank space before then. The last time, you could see the video box but nothing showed on the screen after clicking play. It did count the invisible slides though. I wonder if I'm missing some key programming on my computer.

The Animoto link worked and the site was easy to use. I couldn't see a way to add text to or under the photos, so I pasted the "credits" from my word document to the box that was supposed to be added at the end of the video. Unfortunately, you can't really see them. Any suggestions on how (or where) to give proper credit ? For now, I just pasted the word document under the video, but it's kind of long and unattractive. Also, although the links worked on the word document, they did not come through properly when transferred. Again, suggestions are welcome.

I also did not find a "thumb tack" icon to embed the video, but there was a place to share and eventually I got to where I could send it to a blog. When the video was finished, I also noticed there was a Video Toolbox (in blue) and it brought up a screen which included an option to embed the video by cutting and pasting the automatically downloaded code. The first option did not work, the second did.

My slideshow is called "The Sistine Chapel--A Study in Awesome Beauty in Art. We went to Rome years ago, but it was closed when we got there. These just made me want to go back some day and see it in person.



The Sistine Chapel—Bigger Picture Chapel Ceiling
darthdowney
http://www.flickr.com/photos/darthdowney/3546358826/sizes/l/

The Sistine Chapel—The Ceiling
vgm8383
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgm8383/1134165951/sizes/l/

The Sistine Chapel—The Interior Floor
Eustaquio Santimano
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eustaquio/3196686286/sizes/o/

The Sistine Chapel—Raphael’s The Disputation on the Holy Sacrament
Eustaquio Santimano
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eustaquio/3196687572/sizes/m/

The Sistine Chapel—Another Ceiling
fizzee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fionamacneil/3233894365/sizes/o/

The Sistine Chapel—Yet Another Ceiling
JoeRuny
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeruny/3526589648/sizes/o/

The Sistine Chapel—A Bigger Picture of Yet Another Ceiling
attack the darkness
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oreocookies/766611983/sizes/l/

The Sistine Chapel—The Hall and Ceiling
www.theopenmind.org_SpreadTheLove-Away_for_a_bit!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/questionyourtruth/266184543/sizes/o/

The Sistine Chapel—Outside View of Dome
Lucychoo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucychoo/362850220/sizes/l/

The Sistine Chapel—Outside View of Front
spikewerx
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spikewerx/2806414292/sizes/l/

Post #9--Using Flickr in the Classroom

I am SO excited about this. I've already seen a couple of things I'm going to borrow (the setting, character analysis, and vocabulary building lesson ideas) and I also thought about using a slide show to generate interest in reading, researching and reporting/presenting on various topics. I saw a really cool slide show on Botswana (mostly a wide variety of animals).

We could watch the slide show as a class, brainstorm questions about what we see, and students would have a large selection of topics as well as specific information to obtain for their presentations. By limiting each subject to only one or two students, neither the students (or myself) would have to listen to 10 presentations about elephants. In addition, the students would be more attentive and could have a little friendly competition for who could be the most interesting/best informed "teacher" on their subject.

Since my students are often VERY reluctant readers and writers, generating interest and motivation is critical. One way to do this would be to help them get the most benefit from their efforts by coordinating with other teachers. As an example, the reading and note taking could be done (at least partially) during SSR time (while I work with other reading students). If they can save their notes/graphic organizers (via Inspiration 8, Google Docs, etc.) to a flash drive or their student blogs, and I coordinate with the English teacher, the writing could be part of their classwork. The finished products (brochures, power points, etc.) would be included as grades in both classes, yet both teachers would be able to focus and assist more on the objectives for their subject. If science and social studies teachers would keep the reading teacher informed, this arrangement could be expanded to assist them as well. Talk about teamwork ! I think this would be a great way to differentiate--whether to provide more support & time for a basic student or to allow a gifted student an independent learning project.

Although the photographs I downloaded were from The Sistine Chapel in Rome (we missed seeing it while there years ago--still bugs me to this day), I am also attaching the link to the Botswana slide show.

With reference to the photo's--where should we store them ? I wasn't sure, because of space issues, if it would be OK to keep in a folder on my school computer so I put them on my flash drive.

The URL for the photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darthdowney/3546358826/sizes/l/

This is from darthdowney on Flickr.

The URL for the slide show :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/botswana/interesting/

This was what I got by clicking on the Most Interesting link of David Jakes Classroom Uses of Flicker link in Part 3 of Thing #9. There were numerous contributors of photographs included in the slide show. I have no idea how (or whether further is necessary ?) to cite this.

Thing #8--Creative Commons

The biggest effect & benefit of the Creative Commons to me would be having a large, ever-growing set of resources that can more easily be utilized without the confusion (and sometimes fear) that often goes along with using materials from other sources. Having the specific limitations readily available should not only help eliminate unintentional copyright infringements, but the worry over doing so. I think the ability to view these restrictions would help students more easily understand the acceptable uses being permitted vs. what would normally NOT be allowed under other circumstances (for resources obtained elsewhere). Because of the increased comfort and ease of using materials from CC, I would also think that this might make it the "go to" place both for producers and consumers--including students.

While I have not noticed the CC previously, I suspect that it is fairly prevalent and that I will now be more aware and see it often. I haven't really used web resources of any kind in my class because of my lack of familiarity and knowledge of those resources and how to access & organize them. I fully expect to be much more proactive in this area and to continue to improve my skills over the next year(s). This is the reason I'm taking this class. At some point, when I have become more proficient, I would love to contribute as well--whether here or elsewhere.

I would also like to bring some students' work to the attention of my kids to let them see that they can push themselves to reach a similar goal and encourage them in their efforts to do so.

Thing #7--Response Comments to Blogs

I've enjoyed reading classmate's blogs and responding to them, but haven't really done so on the blogs that I've downloaded to my reader. I definitely feel that you should have something both worthwhile and somewhat original to say. I usually look at the other comments to make sure I'm not the 5th person saying the same thing (BORING !). I look forward to useful feedback and new or different points of view to my posts, so I can definitely see how it might be disheartening to receive no response at all.

I also think it is important to really think about how others might interpret comments. As in any correspondence, it's very easy for the recipient to read a different tone or attitude that was not intended--particularly if you are asking a question or offering a different point of view.

Thing #6--Cool Blogs from my RSS

Well, color me surprised ! I've already had to delete one of my blog feeds. What was supposed to be a site for free worksheets ended up being a bunch of links to porn sites. I'm guessing THAT would be a violation of the appropriate use policy.

I actually spent alot longer than I probably should have looking for and adding blog sites, but I figured it was time well spent to get some good resources. I also added quite a few websites to my favorites list. The blogs and/or websites I am most excited about are sites that have free resources (worksheets, games, graphic organizers, lesson plans & teaching materials). I often have to find materials on the same subject or story/novel, but at a wide variety of different reading levels. Obviously, a site that can provide "one stop shopping" is a HUGE benefit.

One of the best ways I've found to get my (usually very reluctant) students actively engaged is to utilize a game format of some kind. I found this entry from Jefferson County Schools in Tennesee on a blog called Free Technology for Teachers for free downloads of templates to play various interactive games via Power Point--popular games include Jeopardy, The Wheel of Fortune, Who Wants to be a Millionaire ?, and the $25,000 Pyramid. All can be customized to your uses. Cool, huh ?
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/06/jeopardy-powerpoint-game-template.html

There was another link at this site for free games that can be included on a classroom blog or website.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/04/200-free-games-for-your-class-blog-or.html

Thing #6--Cool Blogs from my Reader