Google Reader

Google Reader
This semester has been a very eye opening experience. To be quite honest I really did not know that much about education technology and I really did not care to. But after going through this semester I have found that there is a lot of technology that can be useful in the classroom and that teachers should use more technology. I have found many tools that can be used in a classroom and be used for us teachers. But I have found one that I did not even know about before and I know that I will continue to use it when I start teaching.
The tool that was the most interesting to me was Google Reader. As a future Special Ed teacher I did not find many tools that I could actually use with my Special needs students just because the way that I will be teaching them is so much different than teaching regular Ed students. But Google Reader could help me tremendously as a Special Ed teacher. As I am finding out, teaching Special needs students can be very challenging and as a teacher, you need some special tricks that you can use because every kid is different and not everything you try will work. And nothing is worse than not knowing how to teach a student. With Google Reader you can search for blogs, articles and websites (ones that actually are credible) and you can save them to your own list. And through these blogs, websites, and articles one could find some tips and tricks from other Special Ed teachers that are out there. You can also follow specific authors and people that you like and can keep following them for as long as you want. This can be very useful for teachers in general, but this can and would be very helpful for any students going into Special Ed.
I am truly grateful that I found this tool because as everyone knows that I am going into Special Ed. And I really do not know a lot of tricks that I can use in teaching Special Needs kids. I probably would have just looked tricks up on the internet and who knows what kinds of things I would have found. But with Google Reader I can actually look through what I found and even research the author to make sure that what I found is a credible source. Throughout this semester I did find some interesting tools that I might use when I start teaching, but Google Reader was the one that I found to be the most helpful for going into Special Education.