Podcasting

Audio ideas:
1) Record audio books. This works well with short buddy-type children's books, but it can also be done with chapter books if you have a l-o-n-g time for extended projects. (We never finished a whole chapter book.) Be careful posting copyrighted material; don't post your feed on iTunes or make it easily accessible to the public unless you have all of your bases covered. Get written permission in the form of a signed media release from parents for any feeds you provide of student broadcasts.

2) Have students work in pairs or threes to arrange and record a series of "choral reading of the day-" poems, speeches, etc. (Some of my kids just memorized and presented their own arrangements of MLK's "I Have a Dream." I would like to revisit this and record them for podcasts if we can find the time.)

3) Do what many schools are beginningto do and have your kids prepare and deliver school news reports. This can include the lunch menu for the next day, student council reports and other announcements, interviews, etc.

Video Podcast ideas:
1) Have students do your teaching for you. (video posted with parent permission)

P.S.
My school is low-socioecomic. Most of the kids don't own iPods. It is nice, of course, if they have access to a computer at home and can watch or listen to themselves on iTunes outside of the classroom.

Also, making a podcast is very easy if you have a newer Mac. We have PCs at school, so to record podcasts I bring in my personal Mac from home. I set it up in the front of the room, and have one pair or trio at a time come up to record what they have practiced (for audio podcasts). Record the audio straight into GarageBand (it's best if you can use a plug-in mic vs. the internal one), add a couple of prerecorded sound effects, and save it as a podcast. That's all. Instead of recording straight to the Mac, you can also record on any recorder and then run the audio into the Mac later. Upload the file to your server.

If you have Keynote (a Mac program similar to PowerPoint), you can also add a slide show to your narration, and save it as a video podast. It would be cool to have enough Macs at school to have the kids create reports in Keynote, add their own narration, and save their projects as podcasts. But with 31 kids and one Mac, that's impossible.

For regular video podcasts, simply film the kids as you normally would, then run the video into iMovie, edit if necessary, add titles and transitions, and save as m4v. You can also run the video into GarageBand if youi need to add more sound tracks.

Good luck!

You need:
- computer (of course)
- microphone (I got a cheap one at Target - about $10, but like anything the better your materials, the better the finished product)
- a recording program (I downloaded audacity for free - I think it is audacity.cOm, but if you google it, it will pop up)
- a LOT of patience and time

Learning to set all of the controls for the actual recording is a bit tricky, but once that is done every time you open audacity they will be there.
The actual recording part is easy - clicking a few buttons - and the kids LOVE it. Editing the recording in audacity is fairly smooth as well.
After you have the recording you will need to decide if you want to just have the audio portion on the web site or if you want to attach a video - that will determine how you save it for the web. When I was using the podcast as a narration of student writing, with illustrations, or video, I put it all into Windows Movie Maker (free on most computers - look under programs / accessories to see if you have it.)

You can also google "podcasting" or "podcast" and a lot of tutorial sites with tips will pop up.

GOOD LUCK :s)

Karyn,

Last year I made a podcast of my first graders reading poems they wrote. I took pictures of their poems and put it together in a moviemaker movie.

I bought a cheap microphone from Radio Shack for about $13. I used a free software called Audacity to record.

I want to podcast more this year in second grade. I have a few ideas:

-record them reading stories they have written
-oral reports
-'how to' directions
-make 'commercials' on how we treat our friends or what to do when you're angry

I'd love to hear what other people plan to do!

Beth/OK

I write a weekly newsletter but I'm considering having one version of the newsletter in podcast form once a month or maybe doing a once a month recap and having the children read different sections.

When we started planning our podcast, I gave my kids a chance to brainstorm ideas. They came up with a couple ideas I probably would have never thought of. We ended up going with a name that used our school mascot (and I allowed my kids to make the final vote on the name). So maybe something like that might work?

I have used it to record stories - My 8,9 and 10 year olds and made listening post stories for our buddy class - 6 year olds. You could also use it to record a 'radio station' about what your class has been doing.

I have used both audacity and garageband.

I use these in my own class. My fifth graders began podcasting on their own this year! They learned everything from the writing process(writing the show) to recording to editing and adding music. We are the first in our district and county to do this. The learning that takes place is phenominal! Thereare some very good educational and elementary podcasts for students to listen to. We subscribe to those so we can get ideas and helps us to evaluate our own work.

As far as what to podcast you can do it on pretty much everything. We were doing a How to Unit so we recorded one of our shared writings of how to. You could use this as one of your final publications. Once they have finished up a unit you could have each of them record their final draft. You could also use it with your RW having the students podcast anchor charts (if you are doing reviewing right after the break). You could have guided reading groups or lit groups discuss books. If you are starting a new math unit you might want to have them podcast how to do ____ (measuring for example). Have your class discuss science or social studies units.

Really the list could go on and on you just need to decide what areas you want to start with - maybe areas that have gotten a little stale to get you and the kids interested again. Have fun and good luck!