I found that the tutorial was very helpful and watched it twice. Once before I did my search and then again afterwards.  It was short and to the point which I appreciated.

I  did a search on Garrett Mason who has posted a bunch of signs that I pass on the way to work.  He is running for a position in the state senate I think.   So I learned  quite a bit about doing a search.  First I had to put his name in quotes to keep from getting articles with  references to  either just  Garrett or just  Mason.  Then I went back and said I only wanted  articles, features or front page news.  Otherwise I was getting too many letters to the editor.  I found it is really helped to be very specific with your searches otherwise you end up sifting through hundreds of articles.  I spent some time researching in the obituaries.

I was unable to create an alert though I tried several times and on different days.  I finally created an account and did save my search, but still was unable to create an alert.

I'm finding it fun to look at some of the other blogs.

I didn't show anyone anything about Marvel yet, but I have talked about it quite a bit.  The Maine Newsstand is something lot of teachers have said they will use because many of the newspapers will not let you search their site unless you are a subscriber.