Play and Record - Podcasting in the Classroom

I like to think of myself as an early podcaster. A pioneering podcaster, if you will. In middle school, my two best friends Tal, Lara and I huddled around a top-of-the-line tape recorder in Lara's unfinished basement. Sitting on a concrete floor, amidst boxes of Christmas decorations and old sweaters we became journalists, talk show hosts and traffic reporters - all with distinct accents and personalities - as soon as we simultaneously pressed the magic buttons of "play" and "record". In fact, our show created spin off characters that we explored further through our individual mediums, circulated by email: Tal's Talk Show, Kristin's Kolumn and Lara's Lyrics. Looking back, we were essentially one very nerdy, self-educating team.

It's that kind of enthusiasm, creativity and effort that I believe podcasts can bring to a classroom. Many schools are doing very similar things with great success (see what Southfield Christian Middle School is doing for a great example of this). Schools are using podcasts as a way of teaching new technology and conveying announcements and information to their middle school.

There are even programs that let you podcast with pictures - such as Voice Thread . I'm already imagining assignments perfect for social sciences and art. Why not have students create their own "museum tour" like one finds in so many museums? Or they could narrate a battle like it was an NHL game.

Apart from all of the creativity it encourages, I think that knowing your voice is being recorded is a great incentive to present your best ideas and reading voice. The ability to re-record encourages students to revise and re-do until they're happy with their complete product (I think Nancie Atwell would approve).

Podcasting also scores big points for flexibility - it's something that can be shared widely and not so widely, and is very controllable unlike some other forms of online communication (blogs, email and social networking). It can be a finished product, or the launching point for a written assignment.

Bringing in podcasts from "experts" is another great use for podcasting in the classroom. Sure, you probably can't bring in Robert Munsch to read his books but you can find a podcast where he reads it and maybe even talks about why he wrote it. For younger kids, you could even simulate it as a phone call to one of their favourite authors. It's a great way to bring expert voices and opinions in to your classroom, and at little to no cost.

Besides overuse, I can't imagine why we wouldn't try to incorporate podcasting in to the middle school. It's a dynamic, 21st century tool that connects to our kids sense of play, curiosity and mastery.

Reality Check.

I've been searching for a good metaphor for BC's curriculum documents,. I think the IRP's are a travel plan: a rough guide that starts with the beginning - Kindergarten - and plots a journey to the end - High School graduation. For those who like to travel with a plan, the IRP's are a great resource. For those who prefer to wander and see what happens next, they are likely a cumbersome travel partner.

For a fledging teacher like myself, the IRP's are an overwhelming but necessary guidebook . The Key Concept’s, PLO’s and Suggested Time Frames will help focus lesson planning for the first year. Once we have a firmer grasp of the realities of our school or classroom, we can adjust accordingly and become increasingly “off-book”. Instead of creating a lesson to meet PLO’s, we’ll be meeting PLO’s simply by creating lessons we know will help our students get to to the next step.

Just who are these students anyway? We’ll be spending the next 7 months talking about them without actually being in front of them. How can we learn about how they learn, think and act in the meantime? Some of them might be like Zenia from Bosnia, as told in Ruth Shagounry’s article - they may have dark, troubled pasts that lie beneath their quiet exteriors. Even a class full of middle-class 12 year olds will have varied histories and experiences to draw upon. And if we tap in to these thoughts and experiences in just the right way, our learners will be transformed in to English Language Artists.

Robert Probst suggests we can do this by summoning our inner Tom Sawyer: we can convince the students to paint the fence instead of telling them how to do it. They’ll easily build their oracy, language, writing and reading skills if we avoid instructing them and instead focus on how fun it is to use. Oracy can mean more than debates - it can be integrated in to every day classroom life through announcements, small group discussions, and interviews. We’ve even had the opportunity to try out some techniques such as a Tea Party, Jigsaw and choral reading to see how it feels. Nancie Atwell persuasively argues that writing workshops are the key to engagement, and that students are engaged in the process of a writer through revisions, feedback, the participation of the teacher and ultimately a piece of work they can be proud of.

Just as I cringe at the size and “dry” nature of the IRP’s, today’s ELA students will also disengage from learning if you present ELA as a static, unchangeable subject. A series of spelling tests, book reports and prescribed topics will shut off their brains pretty quickly. My job is to hide the PLO’s under blankets of creativity, so my English Language Artists don’t even know they are there.

Getting my feet wet.

Here are the facts.

I love reading.
On a beach, in my bed, on the bus, at a coffee shop - doesn't really matter where I am, because if the book is doing its job I am lost somewhere in a suspenseful, funny, exotic or mysterious world. I don't know how it happened, but my parents and teachers were never forcing a book in my hands, they were generally tearing it away from me.

Listening is pretty fun too.
Play me a song, read me a story, spill the beans on your deepest darkest secrets - I'm listening. And recalling the random details many years later.

I (usually) like writing.
For a good while there, essays and silly assignments had my love of writing on life support. Writing was all about word count, referencing styles, dressing up information in fancy academic thought, enduring late nights. Writing was directly linked to that pain in my neck.

Then I re-discovered my diary writing days through emails to friends far and near. I realized how much fun it was to be in charge of writing content for a website - one that people actually look at! And I embraced with enthusiasm the challenge of coming up with pithy comments on the photos I posted online. Ahhh...writing. Glad to have you back.

And I (mostly) like speaking.
If I've got a purpose, a point or a script I'm all over speaking. Heck, I might even sing! However, ask me to engage in small talk and polite conversation and you've just built a mountain in front of my very eyes (or lungs....).

I expect an ELA classroom to be really different than it was when I was in school. Was I engaged in learning? In all of these areas? We did spelling tests (which, by the way, was kind of my thing) and maybe the teacher read us a story and we handed in a book report or two. After 2 weeks in this program, I am beginning to get an idea of what "engaging" really means. I'm excited about the possibilities, and delighted to see that education seems a little more in touch with the world than it used to be.

Here's a few things I know for sure: I don't want to scare anyone off ELA because of a grammar lesson, or beating a dead horse while we analyze the protagonist's thoughts and dreams. I don't want someone faking sick on their presentation day because they are way too terrified to get in front of the class. I really want to figure out a way of being the teacher that has to tear the book out of her student's hands.

These are all pretty grand plans, I know. For now I just hope I can use my ELA skills to learn everything I can from Carol, my fellow students and heck - maybe even the IRP's, bless their heart.