Reflection of Dan Meyer and Our First Day

  I agreed with many things that Dan Meyer was saying about perplexity. I find many students have become "bored" with school by fourth grade because we, as teachers, have inadvertently taken away students' thirst for knowledge, creativity, and inquisitive nature.  This comes in part from pressures to do well because of "No Child Left Behind", standardized testing, state standards, and local initiatives.   This directly relates to the 100 voices of children.  Slowly over time we take away the joy of learning.  So how do we keep that inquisitive nature alive in them?  I think pushing students' thinking with perplexity or as Adam said "hard learning" raises the bar and keeps students invested in their own learning. I really like the idea of students creating their own meaning from their learning and expressing it through multiple outlets or voices.
Already after the first day of class I am thinking more about how I can support kindergartners natural inquisitive nature and make it thrive.  As I am building lessons for the fall I want to add perplexing questions to the units.  We are starting with a unit on push and pull.  I hope to find some great pictures for students to think, explore, discuss, and then resolve what would be the best way to move those objects.
I had never used Twitter before today.  It seems easier than I thought it would be.  I hope to use it as a tool to stay current with best educational practices.
One question I have from Dan Meyer's talk is what is a rss reader?  I googled it and learned it is like a  DVR for your favorite websites. I had never heard of that tool before.  It sounds like an interesting tool, especially for time management. What do people currently use if you have one?