Week 9

When I was first introduced to Podcasts, the first thing I thought of was having my student's actually create their own Podcasts. Although last week we did our own personal searches for Podcasts to be used in the classroom, I still feel that students creating Podcasts of their own would be more beneficial to them.  After creating my own Podcast using Audacity in my other EDT class, I quickly started thinking of how I could implement this into my own classroom. In third grade, poetry is a key factor in a child's success when passing the STAAR exam at the end of the year. Because we are covering poetry on a daily basis, I thought an engaging activity for my students could be to have them recite their own poems on a Podcast. This is a great strategy to get my students practicing their fluency because it is not easy to read with expression. I would have my students recite different forms of poetry such as humorous, narrative, and lyrical. Having them recite the poem with expression will help them understand the tone of the poem. Students could also practice pausing after line breaks and stanzas. Once the Podcast was created the Podcast could then be shared with teachers, parents, and other students.  Most teachers in my district have their own personal website for students and parents to access. With this tool, the student's work could be posted on the website for them to listen to and for their parents to hear, as well.

            Another way to use Podcasts in the classroom would be as a listening center in the classroom. I would save different genres of Podcasts, depending on the content being covered that week. The students would then choose which Podcast to listen to during a math or reading center. One podcast they could listen to would be a collection of past students' recited poems.

Week 8: Podcasts

One of the things that make podcasts engaging to students is the accessibility. Many students are fascinated when they get to use technology in the classroom. I have many students who instead of reading their books from the library prefer to read their eBooks from home, which similar to podcasts are read to them. As Hew (2009) states, auditory learning is the most portable form of learning.  This allows students to access their learning not only at school, but at home.  This article finds that podcast actually increases the learning of lectures covered in class. Podcasts do not necessarily have to be the only form of learning, but instead be the extra emphasis that some kids need. Although, the studies do not validly confirm that students who do not learn from podcasts perform lower, podcasts are without a doubt a create resources for students and teachers. One cannot argue that students enjoy using podcasts in the classroom and at home. Eventually, teachers can gradually move into having their students create their own compilation of podcast throughout the year.

 Hew, K. F. (2009). Use of Audio Podcast in K-12 and Higher Education: Review of Research Topics and Methodologies. Educational Technology Research and Development, 57(3), 333-357

Wiki Classroom Dictionary

One way I would use wikis in my elementary classroom would be to bring an emphasis on students’ academic language. The grade level could be for any grade, but since I am a third grade teacher, I would do this with my third grade class for all academic areas. At this age, third graders are already skilled on using the internet. I would more than likely have to help them set up their accounts to help them get started on how to use wikis. As we know it, teachers are accustomed to teaching vocabulary words the same traditional way. Students receive a group of words from a list and finally instructed to find the words in a dictionary to later be copied onto paper. However, wikis can change the old way of learning vocabulary words. Students in the classroom would create their very own Academic Language Wikis. I would have a wiki glossary for each subject, such as for reading, math, science and social studies. I would assign the students to groups where each group would take on the vocabulary words for one particular subject for that week. Whatever vocabulary words for that subject were taught, the group would be responsible for adding the definitions to the class created wiki dictionary. The vocabulary words would need a definition, illustration from uploaded photos or Google images. The students could also add links such as videos to give more description on the vocabulary words. Richardson (2010) suggests that wikis also allow for PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, and audio files where students pronounce the word. Every week the students would rotate subjects so they always get a chance to explore vocabulary terms from all subjects. Not only are the students creating their own resource guide, but also have access to their vocabulary words in school or at home. In addition, not only can this wiki be a resource for my classroom, but “for anyone in the world to view” (Richardson, 2010, p. 63).