Podcasts

A few years ago I came across a podcast about the human body that was created by a high school class. I found it on you tube as I was searching for a video to use in my lesson. I was so impressed with the organization, expression in the student's voices and general demonstration of their overall learning that I started researching like crazy to learn how to make one of my own. I played around a lot over the summer on my home computer and watched a lot of video tutorials on how to use garage band, the editing software that I use to edit my students podcasts. After much trial and error, I figured it out. There are so many different ways that you can create a podcast, you just have to find something to record your kids with and then you can upload the audio as is, or you can enhance it with music and photos. Here is the process I used to teach my kids about podcasting.

I started by having my class listen to some student made podcasts and then we made a list of the things we noticed about them all such as they start with an introduction, the topic is clear, some have music, some have photos, kids use expression, kids practice before taping, they end with a conclusion. Based off of our notes, I created a planning sheet for our class to use (see bottom of page). I have my kids create podcasts when we end major units of study. This year my class has created one on the human body, alliteration poems they were proud of, immigration, types of communities, and amazing state facts.  Here is a screenshot of my classroom site where I upload the podcasts. This is just one way to make them available to the public, but you can also use sites such as podOmatic or podbean to host your audio files. I haven't tried it, but since blogspot allows you to upload videos, I'm sure there is a way to upload audio files as well.

If you want to hear a sample of our podcasts, click here and take your pick.

This is the planning sheet I created. It is basic so that I can reuse the same template throughout the year. Once I model how to use the form, the kids pick it up pretty quickly. I usually break kids into small groups to write, practice and record their podcasts and I try to give each group a slightly different, yet related topic. For example, when we did our human body podcasts I had four groups. One group talked about the skeletal system, one talked about the muscular system, one talked about types of joints, and one talked about coordination and staying healthy. I worked with each group to help them fill in the bullets so they knew what the focus of their podcast would be.

Next year I would like to try making a class video. Has anybody tried this yet? If so, I would love to hear about it.