Blog B

From the Mayflower to Thanksgiving

This podcast is posted by a teacher whose fifth grade student wrote a presentation about her Great-to-the-eighteenth-power grandfather who was on the Mayflower. She talks about some of his experiences and a few facts about the trip and settling of America.

The Photosynthesis Song

Here is a song written by a teacher to teach his class about photosynthesis without using a boring lecture. The song has a bluegrass background beat and is very catchy without being overly repetitive. He gives a lot of kid-friendly facts that are not too technical while making photosynthesis seem like a lot of fun.

Ecological Footprint

In this podcast a few students from Mrs. Clancy's class as well as her student teacher talk about what an ecological footprint is and ways we can reduce our footprint on the earth. The students did research on ecological footprints and, with the help of their teacher, created a presentation to post online for other students to listen to and learn from.

A Tale of Mrs. Olson

Here a class is learning about the subject and predicate of a sentence. They are using Mrs. Olson as their subject, creating a sentence where she is doing something, and then stating what the predicate of the sentence was.


I think using podcasts in the classroom could be a lot of fun for both myself and the students. While browsing I found podcasts on different subjects that are usually covered in late elementary and early middle school that would be very useful in the classroom. For example, there were podcasts of famous speeches that would allow the students to hear from first hand from people like Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. There were also podcasts of individual lessons and tips for teachers that might be useful for me when planning lessons.
I really liked how the teachers in the podcasts posted above involved their students. They created something that could be viewed by their friends and family and would make them feel accomplished. If the students have a final product to show for all their work that they can go back and look at or show to other people they feel good about themselves and their work. I also enjoyed the songs that were written by Mr. Rojas for his class on various topics. When students get to listen to songs about what they are learning they get a new perspective on the subject. I am not personally musically inclined so having songs like these available to me that I can play for the students is a great idea.
Using podcasts could support literacy in the classroom because students can get more involved with the topic. If they are able to integrate technology and what they know about computers with what they are doing in school it becomes more meaningful for them. In elementary and middle school kids are excited about using computers, so involving them with the curriculum has the potential to get kids excited about their work as well. For students who have more trouble reading on their own you can find podcasts of what they are reading (or make one of your own) and let them listen to that while reading along. If you create podcasts of homework instructions or whatever material the class is working on they can listen to it at home and it is also available to the parents who might be able to help the students understand it better. Podcasts would also provide a way to improve students ability to read out loud by allowing me to listen to them on my own time as well as letting the student listen to themselves.

5 ways I might use podcasting in my classroom

1. Find songs to get students interesting in a subjects and provide an alternative learning strategy for diverse learning. They could listen to the song anytime at home either just for fun or to help them study.
   
   
2. Posting students reading their own reports so that they can listen to each other and share their work with their parents and family at home.
   
   
3. Post collections of short stories written by the students or have them each read a chapter of a book created by the class.
   
   
4. Post verbal instructions for projects and updates on what the class is doing for students and parents to listen to at home.
   
   
5. Have the students read the reviews they write of books they are reading so other students can access them easily at home.
   

Curriculum Integration

1. Reader's Journal:
For this unit you would have students choose a number of books, varying by age and/or reading level. The books could be from different genres or variations of the same genre, or relating to a reading chosen by the teacher and done by the class. They would read the books they chose on their own and had approved by the teacher, then write a short summary and an opinionated response that would help other readers decide whether or not they would want to read this book as well. The journals would be posted on a blog that could be viewed by other classmates and family members. Students would then be asked to look at some of their peers' reviews and pick another book or series of books based on the summaries and reviews of books that sounded interesting to them. The final journal on this would also include an evaluation of their peer's reviews and explain why it was helpful or not.

2. Writers in Training:
This activity would involve group work or the entire class creating a book of their own. The book would be based on a recent or current topic so that the students had relative knowledge to help with the writing. The work could be split up with one or more page per person or per group, depending on the method chosen for the class. The book would be entirely written and illustrated by the class. The illustrations could be done by chosen students or students could illustrate their own pages, or be given a classmates page to illustrate. They could integrate various types of illustrations and color choices. To integrate technology, the teacher would help the students create a website based on the book with short author biographies and the book scanned onto the computer, or even have the illustrations done on the computer.

3. WikiJunior:
Fifth graders spend a large amount of time on the colonization of America and the lives of the first settlers. After working on the unit for sometime and having a good understanding of how they lived then, the students could write journals from the perspective of a settler. The teacher could assign different time periods for the students to work on, or let them sign up for different areas of settler life to write about. The students could also do individual research on their specific period. After all this the students should have an extensive knowledge of this area and, to share with the rest of the class, they could create an entry for WikiJunior that would be approved by the teacher and submitted. This could then be shared by the class and with their families.

4. Peer Helpers:
For this unit the students would be reading informational books on a topic such as the solar system. The students would each find a book to bring into the class and they could swap books as a way of teaching each other with guidance from the teacher. This would require much discussion in class and and in groups so that students are helping each other learn and become aware of other students learning needs. After this first part of the unit, students would be asked to design a website layout (either on a computer or not) for the unit that would be geared towards younger children and helping them understand the unit. The class would have to discuss the different accommodations they made when teaching each other, and what types of accommodations that would need to be made for even younger students. When the website is complete, the students could then go into a lower grade level class and present their website and ask the younger students to tell them what they learned and if they liked the site and found it fun and useful.

5. A Tall Tale
This unit would involve students reading fairy tales or some myths that can then be acted out. The students would each have a part in the creation of a play, whether it be an actual part, backstage work, or writing lines. The distribution of these parts would allow the teacher to provide different children with various learning styles a new way to learn about the unit. The students could vote on their favorite story to act out and then be given a specific amount of time to create the play itself. The teacher would film the students working on as well as performing the play. The videos would be made into podcasts or an online video with a behind the scenes segment that would show the-making-of for parents to watch.