Podcasts

This term the students have learnt about the Stolen Generation during their studies in History. In order to present our newly learned information we created podcasts. By creating podcasts we were able to show what we had learnt and also practice our formal speaking skills – we also had some fun too.

In order to make the podcasts a little more interesting we first created our own theme tunes on Garage Band, before recording ourselves speaking and putting the finished product together on Audacity. This was the first attempt for most of the students, but they managed to create a great finished product. Check out Lily’s and Chloe’s podcast below.

 

Interview With A Teacher II

It’s been a few weeks since Rii Rii’s last podcast (her amazing interview with Ms Sveinbjornsson), but she’s back with her second episode and it’s equally as interesting. This time Rii Rii interviewed our incredibly talented music teacher, Mr Millar and found out some information we never knew about him. Once again, Rii Rii proves what a wonderful interviewer she is and also how our podcasts can be both educational and fun. Podcasts are a great way of allowing students to demonstrate their language skills in a way that doesn’t usually get heard and Rii Rii certainly does that.

 

 

Interview With A Teacher

This week our incredible Art specialist, Ms Sveinbjornsson, gave an in-depth interview to our very own budding reporter Ritihia (aka Rii Rii). The finished product, which can be heard below, is the culmination of a process of trial and error which occurred over the last couple of years. If you’re interested in the techie bits of that process and how we came to this final, quality product check out the previous post, The Podcast’s Evolved, below. The great thing about this (apart from Rii Rii’s awesome interview skills and Ms Sveinbjornsson’s openness) is that I had no part in the process – Rii Rii did it all herself, from start to finish. Have a listen to what I hope is the first in a series of Chatting With Rii Rii interviews.

 

The Podcast’s Evolved!

Anyone who happens to be a regular visitor to this blog will know that we’ve been podcasting for some time now. Over that time we’ve experimented with various ideas in order to produce a finished product, but at last I think we’ve finally found the best way.

We originally started by doing the whole lot on the iPads using Garage Band. Whilst this was totally adequate for us at the start we found that as our skills developed we needed a better platform that would allow us to be a little more creative. The iPad’s inbuilt microphone proved inadequate when working with large groups and younger students with quiet voices. To compensate for this I purchased the RM Easi-Speak Pro microphone and what a great tool it is (check it out on their site).

Having sorted the microphone out we returned to the iPad and Garage Band to create the theme music with each student producing their own original track. To edit them and put them together I tried Audacity and it worked perfectly (another great integrated learning opportunity for the students). To gauge the final product for yourself check out Rii-Rii’s podcast below. Bear in mind this was a casual, fun first trial!

 

Year 1 Podcasts

Towards the end of last term, LA19 buddied up with the year 1 students to create a series of podcasts. The benefits of this collaboration were extensive. The senior students had to develop their interpersonal skills, planning questions and adjusting their tone of voice to suit the younger students. They also had to be very patient and use their listening skills to ensure they allowed the younger students to have their say. Also, they had to monitor the conversation and try to ensure it continued to flow without any long, empty spaces. All in all it was a very difficult task for the students, but they managed it very well. Check out the two examples below from Georgia and Abbey.

   

 

Blast From The Past

This week I’m going to take a leaf out of the book that the major television networks seem to operate from and show a repeat post. This isn’t because the news from our classroom is a bit thin on the ground (NAPLAN…), it’s actually a perfect opportunity to show the students in my current class how to produce a clear, interesting and entertaining podcast. It will also give me an opportunity to demonstrate a few of the uses for podcasts in the classroom. Also, a few of the schools in our local area are interested in producing podcasts and this will give a bit of an explanation as to why I use them.

The first one was made by Holly and shows how podcasting can be introduced to the Pre-Primaries. It was a simple example of students presenting their news in a format that their parents can listen to on the blog. Also, it gave Holly an opportunity to demonstrate her great interpersonal skills. The second shows how podcasts can be used to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of a topic, in this case post traumatic stress disorder (a topic from or studies of the Vietnam War). The final one is a discussion where students chat informally about their opinions on a quite personal topic (this was a deep topic but it tied in with a learning programme we were doing). This type of podcast still relies on the formalities of turn taking and expression, rather than just playground type speech.

     

Geography Podcasts

One way we’ve been able to integrate speaking into our English work is by creating podcasts. We’ve created several informal ones this term already, but this new one was a more formal podcast to explain our recent investigations in Geography. The students went on a walk around the area (see previous post) and completed several surveys. They then used this information to judge the livability of three of the streets. They have already completed a complex project on the topic, but the podcast was another way of presenting the work to a wider audience.

   

Podcasts

This year’s students have finally got their podcasts up and running. It’s surprising just how easy it is to create the podcasts and just how enthusiastic the students are to do them. To get warmed up our first podcast was a very informal one, with the students talking about themselves (something of a natural talent with this group). The two I’ve included here are fun and easy to listen to and have such a relaxed style. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did and perhaps learn a thing or two about the students.

   

Tech Across The Years

This week we’ve had a concerted push to try and spread a little of the technology we use at school further across the age ranges. On Thursday we had a PD afternoon where four of the students from LA19 helped show the staff how to create podcasts. Following this, some of the students went across the school on Friday to help tutor other students in the skills of producing podcasts with the iPads. Below are a selection of these fabulous efforts. These are just the first few and will be added to shortly. I hope you enjoy them.

   

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

This latest podcast was on an extremely difficult topic. As part of our My Place studies and our investigations into Australia’s role in the Vietnam War we looked into the subject of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The students completed a note taking session on the subject, wrote up their information, organised their speaking roles and had a brief time to rehearse. This was very much the students’ own work, on a very complex topic and all completed in a short time frame. This makes this podcast even more impressive.