Thing 11 - Finding Good Feeds

For this blog post I went about using different methods and tools in order to find some feeds to subscribe to on my reader.  I found a few feeds on Edublog Award Winners.  It was pretty easy to find feeds at this site.  I just looked for feeds that dealt with language arts and/or education.  I was also able to find some good ones using Google Blog Search.  I just entered the term “language arts” and a list of related blogs appeared for me to view. 

I was also able to find some great blogs using the Google Reader search tool.  I entered “language arts” into the search field and blogs relating to that topic popped up.

I also tried to find some feeds using Topix.net and Technorati.  I wasn’t very successful at finding feeds through these two tools, however.  I am guessing it is because they deal more with news feeds than with blogs.  Another issue that I had dealt with blogs posted using Wordpress.  When I found a good blog that used Wordpress the RSS link didn’t add it to my reader. Instead, the site wanted me to subscribe via e-mail.  I had to copy and paste the URL into the reader in order to subscribe to it on my reader. 

Some useful feeds that I discovered during my search are Teaching English Language Arts and Teaching Using Web 2.0.  The Teaching English Language Arts contains a great deal of information.  Not only is there information regarding teaching English, but also a section with advice for new teachers and professional development.  Teaching Using Web 2.0 has some great blogs to include writing an introduction and teaching short stories.  One of the more unusual blogs that I found is Learning.now.  It contains posts on school reform, current court cases involving teachers, and new legislation regarding Education.