My Podcasts

I started to search for Podcasts that related to education. I decided to start with The Education Podcast Network because we talked about this site during class. I was not thrilled with using this site to find podcasts related to the elementary grades. It was very difficult to find a podcast that interested me and not all the links had a podcast with it, but I did come across one. It was a video podcast titled Penn Manor School District News: Middle School Gifted Program. To watch this podcast go to http://epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=345&openpod=16#anchor16 and go to the POD labeled Middle School Gifted Program. This podcast provided a detailed description of the gifted program in the Penn Manor School District. I thought this was a great idea for students leaving the elementary gifted program and entering middle school program. This would provide them with a great tutorial of what projects are available in gifted, how to handle your schedule, and what classes to take. By watching this podcast I thought of different ideas I could do use when I implement podcasts into my classroom. I subscribed to several other podcasts but this one provided me with the most ideas.

Another podcast that I subscribed to was called Kid Cast. These podcasts were posted by Dan Schmit and my favorite one was called Kidcast #56 – Questions Make the World Go Round at http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/?p=133. While listening to his podcast I was able to get great ideas on how to form questions for my students. He broke down Blooms Taxonomy and built questions around the different levels. This podcast will help teachers to understand how to use a podcast to ask high level questions. I was able to take many ideas from listening to this podcast. The one idea that stuck out was the “question game.” This game was used to keep students asking questions, by forming their answer into another question. This is made to help students brainstorm and move toward the big question of evaluation. All of these ideas were formed around using podcasts in the classroom to expand students’ ability levels and challenge them to think outside of the box.

While searching for student made podcasts I found this wonderful podcast at http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio/shows/Willowcast31.html. This website related to grades K-5 and I chose to focus around fifth grade because that is the level I am currently teaching. While searching for a podcast I found one relating to social studies which is a subject that I teach. I listened to a podcast that focused around the 2008 election. This podcast gave great details on how to become president with Fast Facts, Vocabulary Theater, Terrific Trivia, and many other great details relating to the office of President of the United States and our election process. This podcast was well organized and allowed the students to be engaged in social studies without making it boring. The students seemed well prepared and sounded excited about providing the information for the listeners.

After subscribing and listening to a number of podcasts I found them to be very beneficial. I can think of many ways podcasts can be effective, but the most important of them all is it engages the students into the curriculum. By having them create a podcast they are using their knowledge and understanding to apply and analyze the information to evaluate their find product the podcast. I plan on using the ideas that I listened to from all the different podcasts and start integrating them into my classroom.