Finding, Keeping and Sharing Internet Resources

Back in the Stone Ages of the early 1980's, when I was an Elementary Education major in college, one of things we had to do was assemble and maintain a "teaching file".  We began this file in our first education class our sophomore year and it was graded both then and before we began our student teaching at the end of our senior year.  We sent off for materials companies offered to teachers, we made folders for projects we did in various classes and copied or clipped articles from teaching magazines.  All of these things were kept in what I could now call a file box.

I don't know if my university still requires "teacher files" but I'll bet if they do, many of the contents today's students collect are digital, not paper.  I'll also bet that like Girl Scout leaders, teachers find many of their resources online.  This article is to give you some ideas/techniques for finding, keeping and sharing resources on the internet.

As GSUSAs resources are covered elsewhere on this blog, this article will focus on other resources.

Facebook Groups

One place to which many leaders turn when looking for ideas or to gain sympathy from other leaders is facebook.  In fact, my guess is that most of you came here via facebook-and thank you for that!

In case you didn't come here from facebook, if you go up to facebook's search bar and enter "girl scouts" you will find enough groups to keep your feed full of Girl Scout stuff all day every day.  Pick one or two and watch the posts for a while (or jump right in).  Most groups have a "vibe" of one sort or another and you'll find some groups that are right for you.  

Ok, so you are following all these facebook feeds and someone just showed the greatest activity for the badge you are doing next week.  How do you save it?  Or, someone asked a question and you'd really like to know the answer too.  How do you make sure it shows up in your feed?  The answer to both questions is those three little dots in the top right corner of every post.  If you click those dots, the first option is to save the post.  If this is something you want to keep forever, click it.  The bottom option is "turn on notification for this post".  If you just want to keep the post in your feed as long as it lasts, and to be notified of new comments, this is the button for you.  You do not have to comment "f" or anything like that.

Your saved facebook posts can be organized into collections, and they can be searched.  

Finally, facebook groups can be searched via the search box on the left hand side of the group home page.

Blogs and Feed Readers

This is a blog.  To put it simply, a blog is a website which is designed to have pages added on an ongoing basis.  I publish a new article 5-6 times per month.  While more static websites delete old information as new is added, blogs simply move old articles off the front page. 

The blog in general has one URL (in this case https://leaderofbrownies.blogspot.com/ ) which takes you to the front page, and each article has its own URL, as a page on the site.  The URL of this article is https://leaderofbrownies.blogspot.com/2018/12/finding-keeping-and-sharing-internet.html .  

You can find blogs and blog articles in a lot of different ways.  First, you can follow a direct link to a page of interest.  If you came here because of my facebook posting,  you followed a direct link to this article.  Second, you can use some sort of search engine, such as Google, to find a page of interest.  Third, you can follow this blog and others on feed readers or via email.

My favorite feed reader is Bloglovin.  From their website you can search for blogs on any topic of interest and subscribe to those that interest you.  Many bloggers (like me) have gadgets on their sidebar allowing you to follow via Bloglovin or other feed readers.  Every day Bloglovin sends me an email that shows me the title and first few lines of every new post on every blog I follow.  If I want to read the post, all I do is click.  I have a Bloglovin app on my phone that updates as new articles are posted, and I can also go to Bloglovin's website for the same thing.

The advantage of a feed reader is that you can keep up with many blogs without having to actually go to the website.  If the headline interests you, click.  If not, scroll.  Got some time to kill?  Go to the Bloglovin app instead of Candy Crush.  Bloglovin allows you to save posts that interest you and to organize them into collections.  If you are using the app or checking the Bloglovin website, it is easy to share a post via email or social media.

Another popular feed reader is Feedly, which allows you to categorize your feeds, and exclude certain key words from posts you read.  For example, you may want to read posts on Brownies, which refer to Girl Scouts but not posts about those diet busters, so you exclude the word "chocolate" and no more temptation (ok not a realistic example, but maybe one day...)  In general, I think either is fine if you follow just a few blogs.  If you are a casual reader or want to use your feed reader to discovery new blogs, I like Bloglovin.  If you follow a huge number of blogs being able to categorize them and arrange to only get a subset of posts makes Feedly more powerful. 

Most blogs also offer you the opportunity to sign up for a mailing list, which the owner may or may not use to promote posts or products, or to subscribe via email.  I offer both (and at least at this time I'm not promoting products).

Pinterest

For anyone who has been under a rock the last few years, Pinterest is a service that allows you to bookmark or "pin" images and to organize them into "boards" which others can subscribe to or find via search.  Visual thinkers love it; those of us attached to words aren't quite as excited.

If you want to save this post to Pinterest, first you need an account.  Once you have one of those you can simply enter the URL of any website that includes an image into Pinteresr, follow the directions and create a pin.  You can also use the handy buttons that people add to posts like those under this post.

If you are looking for crafts and activities, Pinterest is great because it gives you a visual first--is this doable?

Teachers Pay Teachers

I know, you are a leader, not a teacher but Teachers Pay Teachers or similar sites like makingfriends.com can have things for you too.  These sites allow you to search collections of worksheets and actvities that others have developed and to download them for your own use.  Some are free, some require you to pay.  In my opinion, paying a couple of dollars for the privilege of copying a good activitiy that I did not have to develop is worth it.  

Note Taking Apps

Have you tried note-taking apps like Evernote or OneNote?  These can become personal databases of saved websites, photos, things you thought of when stading in line and more.  They can hold to-do lists, screen shots, pins, and more.  If it can be found on a computer you can attach it to a note and keep it in these apps, which synch between devices.  

Old Fashioned Bookmarks

Remember clicking the heart on the top right corner of your AOL screen?  Ok, maybe I'm older than most of my readers but with the ease of finding things on Google and Pinterest, I know I don't use bookmarks nearly as often as I once did.  However, modern browsers continue to offer the function and if you aren't a huge collector of links, just using bookmarks could be enough for you.  

How do you find and keep up with internet resources?  Please comment.