Recently, I have had another revelation. I can use podcasts with my middle school students! I have been listening to TED talks, grammar girl, and Barnes and Noble Meet the Writer. Since the implementation of the Common Core standards, Language Arts focuses on four domains reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Now that I listen to these podcasts, I realize that I do not do enough to help my students enhance their listening skills. I am thinking about having them develop their note taking skills and listening skills by having them listen to an engaging podcast, taking notes, and then writing a short response. All of this can be done on our social learning network, Edmodo.
I can also use podcasts that I make to help extend and remediate learning. By creating these podcasts, students can have access to my lessons anywhere! Most of my students have devices, so they can access wherever they go! I am not naive enough to believe they want to listen to me on the way to lacrosse practice, but it leaves me with documentation of how I am offering support to my students.
Podcasts also could be a great lesson plan to leave when I am out of school, but still need to teach the students that day. If the podcast is uploaded to our class Edmodo group, the students can listen to the lesson at their own pace. This would be a great differentiation strategy, and it would reach students whose learning style is auditory and linguistic learning styles.
Students can also be empowered by creating their own podcasts for the classroom. They can use this to create interviews, commercials, create their own virtual field trip, and listen to their own writing to self-edit. It is great for the teachers to know how to use these tech tools; however, it is far more engaging if the students learn how to use these tools on their own.
To begin my podcast journey, I chose to create an account on audioBoom, but I ended up having some issues with my computer's microphone and the program. Because of this, I went over Vocaroo. I love Vocaroo because it is free to set up an account and intuitive. However, unlike audioBoom, it does not let you store your podcasts. Although I do believe site like audioBoom are better for teachers, I would be more inclined to use Vocaroo with my students. Once I accessed Vocaroo, all I had to do was start recording. I was not required to set up an account. I think this would be less of a hassle and get the project done faster than ever. Below, you can listen to my first time experimenting with Vocaroo.
The first video I selected is entitled "The Future of Learning" by 2 Revolutions. This video hypothesizes what the future of education will look like. Since I have 28 years left to teach, I am especially interested in what will be happening throughout my career, and I aspire to be a trailblazer of this movement.
The next two videos in my scavenger hunt originate from TED. I am a huge fan of TED and often find myself listening to them in the morning while I am getting ready for the work. I love how TED makes knowledge easily accessible for anyone with internet access. You listen to a talk about virtually any topic from highly qualified speakers. The first video is by Daphne Koller and is entitled "What We're Learning from Online Education." Daphne mentions Coursera, an online website that allows the best universities to create courses for students. This is important to me because I am currently taking two courses via Coursera. One is through Kennesaw State University and the other is through the University of Oregon. Both of these courses are free to me, and I get to explore topics of personal interest for me.
My "how to" is also from TED talks. Sir Ken Robinson is the speaker of this TED Talk "How to Escape Education's Death Valley." In this video Robinson criticizes America's education styles and gives ideas on how we can reach and inspire our students. I love how he does not only criticize current routines that are in place in education, but offers practical solutions. My favorite section of the video is when he talks about children being naturally curious creatures; we just have to light the spark.