social networking

I was asked to tell you a little bit about stumbleupon, which is something I use that could be a form of social networking.

StumbleUpon is basically a tool for you to find websites that interest you. You sign up for an account and it offers you a list of interests you can select. I'm not sure how many options there are for other disciplines, but I know for English you can choose things like British or American literature, poetry, linguistics, writing, etc. Then you download a toolbar that has a "Stumble!" button. When you push that button it takes to to a website that is categorized under one of your interests.
The websites are found by actual people. When I find a website that I think is interesting and that other people with similar interests will enjoy I can push a button that says "I like it!" on my toolbar. Then I categorize the website under one of the categories and it will come up when someone who has selected that website stumbles. It's nice because it's an easy way to find interesting websites without having to sift through everything on the internet yourself.
You also can use StumbleUpon as a social network where you can find friends with similar interests to you and send them messages. When you visit websites through StumbleUpon you can tell it whether you liked them or not to help it 'learn' your preferences. All the websites you have said you've liked are stored on a page under your account, which makes it easy to see the kinds of things other people like as well as offering a convenient place for you to find all of the websites you liked without having to clog up your bookmarks.

As a disclaimer, I tend to waste a LOT of time stumbling, so don't get it if you're prone to get distracted by pages and pages of craft projects or recipes or movie trailers or short stories like I am.

I also have a goodreads account, which I think is another good social networking tool for English teachers. It allows you to select books you like, books you want to read, and to make lists of books. You can connect to other people through the site and share recommendations with them. I think it's a really good resource to learn more about books and get suggestions for new books to read, as well as organize all of the books you like. I often have a hard time remembering everything I've read and enjoyed, but organizing it all on goodreads makes it easy for me to look it up.

personal learning network

Google reader kind of overwhelmed me before, but I think I actually can use it now. That is excellent.


I subscribed to a couple of English teaching blogs that offer ideas about how to teach English at a secondary level. I also subscribed to two library blogs, one of which offers information specifically about new young adult literature. As an English teacher, that's something I really want to stay on top of so that I can offer suggestions to my students. I know a lot of classic literature, but I think that contemporary YA books are often excellent as well and especially useful in helping reluctant readers.