Blog Post #4

Podcasting with First Graders

This post was about a first grade classroom making a podcast on the book they were reading. All of the studenst would take turns recording their voices reading a story,and help the teacher edit their readings afterwards. The children really began to come out of their shells by acting out the book

and adding expression to their voices. After all the students recorded their voices, they were very eager to hear the whole podcast put together. I think this was a fantastic idea by this amazing teacher. This allowed the students to gain listening and speech skills as well as social skills and boosting their self esteem. I would have never guessed that a first grade classroom would cooperate so much, and this definitely proved me wrong. This is something I am now considering doing in my future classroom.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom

In this video,we learned about some ways that podcasting could benefit your classroom. One of the examples was a teacher posting his lectures on iTunes. They used a little girl at home sick for an example.

The little girl tells her mother that she has an important test the next day, and does not want to miss the review, but the mother insists she stay home. Luckily, the girl was able to listen to her teachers' podcast and hear everything her classmates heard to be prepared for the test. Another way podcasting is benefical is by integrating it in your lessons. We are shown a video where a teacher is giving his normal lecture about a slave when all of a sudden a voice of an older lady surrounds the classroom and the students were able to fell her emotion. At the end of the video, students talked about podcasting in a very positive way, saying they like it and it keeps them interested. The principal of the school then mentions that it is wonderful for "project-based learning", and I agree.

Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting

In this post, students work together to make a podcast for the story of Purim. A Jewish teacher helped the students write their own parts in Hebrew to create a script. After recording individual parts, the students worked together to put the lines in the correct order to complete the story. Not only did they learn how to make an edit a podcast, they learned several personal skills as well. Such as, Listening, comprehension, speaking, and critical thinking, which is what this assignment was about. By having the students make and edit the podcast, they were using their brains to learn something they have never done before. This showed me that not only are podcasts useful in the classroom, they also help the children learn.