RSSblogsfurling

USD4RSSblogsfurl

For an aggregator, I used the suggested www.blogline.com. I assembled the following 24 sites. As you can see, I am a news junkie, but I did allow myself a joke of the day. I deserve it!

Process: I just followed the instructions and went through 1000 listed sites and chose 24. I also furled them so I can access them remotely.

Describe an interesting blog or bit of news you read.

Critical thinking is a skill lost on most teenagers. The book Freakonomics is a delightful and revealing re-examination of how we misinterpret events and data. The site for Freakonomics had a great example about the increase in major league ballpark ticket sales. One economist said tickets sales were up in spite of the recession. But another economist said that is wrong: ticket sales are up at ballparks because of the recession.

How could your apply blogs/RSS feeds to your curriculum. How can they be used in your classroom?

In a summer session history course I taught, each student had to do a five-page research paper. One chose the history of shoes, another the history of football. Each such student could aggregate sites that could yield information for a paper.

A government or history course could compare how American sites versus British cover stories differently. That’s why I have The Economist, Reuters, and BBC News. My subscription to the magazine recently expired, so I am delighted to have the e-magazine version of this great British weekly.

Another site I pulled up was on trendsetting. Teenagers are hot on trends, or the victims of them, if you prefer. Aggregating information of trends and fashion could produce some discussion.
· BBC News News Front Page World Edition (0) (0)
· Bloglines News (0) (0)
· BusinessWeek Online -- Technology (10) (0)
· CNN.com (10) (0)
· Dictionary.com Word of the Day (0) (0)
· Economist.com News analysis and views (10) (0)
· Freakonomics (10) (0)
· FreelanceSwitch - The Freelance Blog (10) (0)
· Joke of the Day (10) (0)
· National Geographic News: Animals & Nature (0) (0)
· Opinion: 10 unread, 0 kept new" href="http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display?sub=68392999&site=295494" target=basefrm>NYT > Opinion (10) (0)
· U.S.: 10 unread, 0 kept new" href="http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display?sub=68393192&site=295281" target=basefrm>NYT > U.S. (10) (0)
· NYT Book Review (10) (0)
· Online Marketing Blog (10) (0)
· Quotes of the Day (0) (0)
· Reuters: Science News (10) (0)
· Reuters: Top News (10) (0)
· Salon (10) (0)
· ScienceDaily: Latest Science News (10) (0)
· Slate Magazine (11) (0)
· trendwatching.com (10) (0)
· USATODAY.com Books - Top Stories (10) (0)
· Washington Post Book reviews (10) (0)
· WSJ.com: Markets (10) (0)

Furls
Learn about http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm for geography games
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson109.shtml

Avoid bad business English

I coach business people to be better writers and users of English. I teach classes for companies whose managers need writing assistance. I also collect examples of bad English. My main sources are politicians, lawyers, business people and, sadly, the media. I welcome any example of pet peeves you have in English, and welcome examples of terrible writing.

Roger S. Peterson
peterson@sacramentowriters.com
916-624-1894