Entering the Blogosphere!

In the fall of 2009, I had just relocated to Johnston and was staying home with kiddos. I missed my friends from Wisconsin and my profession. Lonely and with time on my hands, I turned to the computer-- looking for others like me. I soon discovered blogs, loads and loads of "mommy blogs" -- their rants, humor, advice, and ultimate a community is what I found. Mostly, I lurked on their sites, and I found there were certain blogs I read religiously. Then I discovered the RSS feed on my google page--and WOW, it made all the difference in streamlining all this new information in a quick easy way. I could now get a recipe, a rainy day activity and advice to get out grape juice out of carpets, all in one place!!! Wasn't Google Reader spectacular!

Then in October, I started reading teacher blogs and decided to reach out to an educator here in Des Moines, Angela Maiers. A professor at Viterbo had mentioned that she was friends with her and she was a great resource. I HAD NO IDEA who she was nor how fabulous .... I ignorantly wrote to her and asked her advice for getting a job in the area. She sent me the sweet comment back, encouraging me to keep my passion! Still I just thought, "gee...what a nice lady." Three years later I am amazed that I wrote her and she responded to me! Little ole' me. The woman has 40,000 followers on Twitter! And now it dawns on me how closely we are all connected. The blogosphere is this magical place where we can share ideas, passions, ideas and keep sharing, and re-sharing (are those words???) and tweet and retweet and we can talk with one another in ways we never imagined before. Voices are heard-- and there is a place for all of them!

 Just think, even ten years ago, you never had the chance to read other students' papers! You never got to take a glimpse into their thinking-- especially those quiet types in class who never raised their hands! Now, with an assignment like "blogging" we can see that someone is an avid traveler, cook, seamstress, ipad lover, mother...etc. This way of communication IS changing how we live, connect, see the world, sort out what is important, and streamline the information that we want. And I believe it will change how we teach! I am writing this post because I was given this assignment in my Master's class:
  Review the names of the blogs you have been reading. Explain what each of them discuss? Have you found them to be as interesting as you expected? Why? Have you found a common theme between them? Is there a general reason why you selected them? What makes a blog posting interesting and useful?

Well, I am not sure I answered those questions-- what makes a blog interesting and useful??
For me, is if it gives me a new perspective, or a new idea to try, or just the pleasure of reading a well written thought. I have read different blogs for different times in my life, but here is what I have been reading this week:

Not sure what I will add next, but I sure have enjoyed this week! What are you connecting with out there?