Blog Post Assignment #4

Podcasting With the First Grade
First I read Podcasting with First Grade. This post was about a teacher that took a step ahead in reading and writing scrips. She teachers her students how to make a read-along audiobooks. Her first example was about Vacation Under the Volcano, a book by Mary Pope Osborn from The Magic Treehouse series. She began to read the short story to the class, and right after every chapter was finished the class wrote a few script about the chapter. The teacher helped her students record the script from the book, and they post it to their class blog and also iTunes. I really found this idea very brilliant, because of instead of having the same boring person speak they were actually apart of the story. As a teacher she observed the student experience with pitch, enthusiasm, speed, emotions,and fluency.

I really believe this has a giant leap forward on student engaging in interaction within the story. As a elementary education major this is something I would love trying with my students. My favorite thing about this blog was hearing the excitement in the children's voice, I really thing this would help children interact more with their classmates and not being afraid to speak out. I would be very interested to use this helpful skill in my classroom one day.

The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom
This video posted by Joe Dale, The Benefits of Podcasting in the Classroom. Students are allowed to become the teacher and they can decide what is important and what exactly needs to be taught. I really enjoy how podcasting brings the story to life. Podcasting can be used for many different things but one that I really enjoyed hearing about was the project based learning approach. I have to agree with Mr. Dales approach on how it demonstrates higher thinking skills. I also love the fact that the parents can have a better view on what is been taught inside the classroom. This is a excellent way to expand our knowledge as a teacher or a student, and its a great way to keep the classroom filled with motivation to succeed.

Podcast Collection
Another resouce I read was, Podcast Collection; by Judy Scharf. Her site consist on how to podcast, and benefits on podcasting. She gives visual direction step by step how to podcast and she also has printable handouts that are used in the classroom. She has taught be many things about podcasting since I am very new at this. A great tip from her website is to get to learn the software and began to become comfortable with it. I believe every educator should take advantage of the new technology so everyone would be more involved.

I think overall podcasting is a amazing tool to use in classroom's, and I would strongly encourage new student's learning about podcasting to check out her website. Podcasting is a great way to learn, and I agree on how it can make the class more active while learning at the same time. This just shows on how much technology can help students expand their way of thinking.