Blog B

This series of podcasts is called Driving Questions in Education by Kevin Honeycutt.

The podcast that I chose was Why Should We Use New Tools? In these series of podcasts Kevin Honeycutt drives around talking with educators and finds out the questions that they currently have. In this podcast he interviews Cindi Danner-Kuhn who, at the time of his visit, was doing podcasts with her class. When she was first introduced to podcasts, she was not really interested in them, but now they have grown on her. She can always find ways to use them in her class. She points out that not all of her students have a decent computer, which is why she can not use podcasts more. Overall, like most of us, she finds it very important to integrate new tools into her classroom; she says that it will at least get students hooked.

I think that using podcasts in the classroom is an amazing idea. As time goes on, and students grow, technology advances. As a teacher, it is very important to teach students the new kind of technology that is transforming every day. Plus, teachers are always looking for new activities to do in the classroom. I know that I will be using podcasts or a technology similar to podcasts when I teach. Technology is so versatile, and so as a teacher, it is really important to embrace that. I feel that by embracing technology, you are embracing the learning capacity of your students. You are finding yet another way to keep them on task and engaged with what you are teaching. You are letting the students connect with each other as you have them listen to what the class has recorded, and you are enhancing their communication with the rest of the world.

One of the main ways that podcasts will enhance literary instruction is being able to download books. A lot of students are auditory learners, so it is much easier for them to hear a lesson or a book being read then to only read it. Obviously, as a teacher, one would not want to discourage reading, but podcasts can always be a reading aid. As I have listed below, podcasts can be used to receive and give book reviews and book reports. The possibilities are endless with this form of technology, which is one of the best things about it!


Ways to Use Podcasts In A 4th Grade Classroom:
1) After researching about the human body, each student is assigned a body part. They post a podcast on what their body part does.
2) Podcasts can be used by the classroom as a whole to post what recent activities they are doing.
3) A podcast can be used to do book reviews after the students have completed a novel or short story.
4) Podcasts can be used to teach a foreign language (good for pronunciation practice).
5) Podcasts can be used to explore and share the findings of a science project.

My Top Five Unit Choices

Option 1: My first choice would to focus my unit on the Culture of Spain. During these lessons, the students would not only learn about the typical dances and types of food that people eat, but they would also use the internet to have a pen pal with another student (of the same age) from Spain. If we could not find an English speaking class to be pen pals with, the students from both classes would still have to convey ideas through the use of digital pictures and simple vocabulary. The pen pals would focus on the “every-day” things in their life. This unit would focus on grades 5 to 6.

Option 2: This unit will focus on fourth grade language arts. The students will each pick a famous poet and learn a piece of that poet’s work. They will use IMovie to produce a 3-5 minute video. This video will include a vast number of possibilities. They will not only be required to memorize and “perform” a poem by their chosen author, but they will be graded on creativity of performance and clarity of speech. They will also be required to give the viewer background information on their poet. This information will also be turned in as a hard copy.

Option 3: In my third option, I would make use of Blogs. This unit would focus on second graders and learning basic graphs. The students would design their own simple surveys (Ex: who has a younger brother?) and then graph the answers from the class. The students will establish a class Blog to explain their surveys or experiments. Each student will post an explanation of their survey and then attach a picture of their graphed results. The site will be accessible to parents and others who want to see the student’s work.

Option 4: My fourth option will also focus on fourth grade. In this unit the students will be learning about the Incan culture. They will each find a part of the culture that they want to specifically focus on, and then they will establish a collaborative podcast about that culture. They will not only be graded on their information presented, but they will also be graded on the collaborative efforts in the project. They will all be expected to produce a podcast that flows nicely between topics, is coherent and sensible.

Option 5: My last option, also for fourth grade, is to concentrate on science inventions. The students will have to research current inventions, and create one of their own. The invention must be plausible and equipped with full explanations. They will create a powerpoint to show their process of “building” their invention. This could be as simple as a catapult for marshmallow throwing. In the powerpoint they must include the sites and areas that they pulled information off of for their invention.