We have had requests for a copy of the permission letter that we send home to parents at the start of the year explaining what podcasting is. Nathan and I created our own letter to meet this purpose. Our school has the parents sign a media release document and computer use document as well but we wanted something specific to podcasting. I understand that some families and school administrators are leery about posting student work on the Internet. This is something that Nathan and I have had a lot of concerns about too. Initially we never identified students by name either on the class blogs or the podcasts. In the beginning, we used nicknames or numbers but as time has gone on we have relaxed a bit, and now, with permission, we use student first names (sometimes the kids prefer to make up names. Billy Bob is a very popular name with our students).
When addressing concerns about maintaining student privacy and security I would point parents and school administrators to the community newspapers that we have. If you look at local papers you will see that in almost every edition there are pictures published of children involved in sporting events, community events, school events. These pictures often contain captions identifying the children with both first and last names and often the schools that they attend. It’s exciting for the kids and parents to see their pictures in our local paper. It is funny to me how many people are not concerned at all about this sort of coverage but have fears about predators finding kids on the internet. I guess it is all about what we read in the paper?
Anyway…here is what we send home in September to our families. I post it here as an example.
September, 2008
Dear Parents/Guardians
Our classes maintain class websites (5nt.ca and 56js.ca) and a podcast (portableradio.ca). These sites are used to share information about what is going on in class and provide an opportunity for continued discussion outside of class. Students will use the sites as areas to explain their work and interests to a larger audience. We teach our students lessons of safe internet use through the experiences that we offer on the websites and podcasts. All work is moderated by Mr. Toft or Mrs.Smith before it is posted or uploaded.
Please read the attached permission form and return it to Mr. Toft or Mrs. Smith.
Sincerely,
Jane Smith and Nathan Toft
I consent to allow my child’s school work (text, audio, video, art,…etc) and first name to be used on the class websites and podcasts.
My grade 6 students studied explorers of North America this past term. One of their assignments was to do a talk show with an explorer to give us an idea of the explorer’s life and accomplishments. The students researched an explorer of their choice as an independent project. Then they worked with other students to do the talk shows. The students quite enjoyed working in pairs or small groups, one person as the interviewer and another as the explorer.
Adrianna started working with a partner but her partner was ill or away on a trip during a large part of the assignment so Adrianna did the project herself. Using Audacity, she recorded herself asking all the questions. Then she recorded herself as Sir John Franklin and answered the questions. Using the Change Pitch effect in Audacity she altered her voice for the Sir John Franklin part. In editing she went from the question track to the answer track. She added a little ghostly music and I think that she has put together a very strong project.
Audacity is a powerful tool and motivator for the students in my class.
Here’s our latest Green Team Here’s our latest Green Team announcement promoting Earth Hour at WEJ! It’s been airing all week over the morning announcements and is posted on our school blog site (www.wej1.blogspot.com)
Elementary teachers do it all. We teach math, science, social studies, music, phys ed…. you name it, we teach it. Music is one subject that many of my colleagues feel a little uncomfortable teaching. I am extremely fortunate to work with Nathan whose background is in music. He has created a webpage that we use to teach our classes to play the recorder. I know that Nathan wants to fix the page up but it is working now and our students really benefit from it.
We follow a Recorder Karate program. In addition to teaching the class in the fundamentals of playing the recorder, the students work at their own rate to earn “karate belts”. The belts are pieces of embroidery floss tied onto the ends of the recorders. The students really like to collect as many belts as they can. Nathan has set up the site with the requirements for each belt. The students need to identify notes by name, clap a rhythm and play a song. There is sheet music available on the site for each song and a play along, karaoke mp3. When the student is ready, they come to one of us to do their belt test.
One plan that Nathan has for the site is to replace the canned recorder music with recordings of our students playing the songs. What a great way to motivate the kids and to put those digital voice recorders to work. The students can master a piece or two of music and become the “play along” for everyone else.
This wasn’t Nathan’s original idea, but he has done a fair bit of work on it. Portable PD is a place to share ideas about using podcasting and audio recording. This is one idea that I have found invaluable and I know that others will too.
We finally have our “How to” science podcasts posted on our classroom blogsite (http://www.wej33.blogspot.com/)! This project was a procedural writing/reflection piece created from knowledge we gained during our trip to the Museum of Science and Technology. We attended workshops on stability and forces. The bed tracks used for the podcasts were developed as a class on a SMART board using Acid Express (thanks for that latest TLLP workshop session!). A great shared lesson integrating technology and music!
Thanks again for the PLC, my students are truly benefiting from the PD provided by you!
I know – another strange name. It conjures up images of manic bus drivers armed to the hilt with paint brushes, easels and pastels just waiting to pounce on the first person who dares to criticise their art.
But it is not.
Art Rage is a painting software. It allows you to mix paints, work with palette knives, pencil, marker and more. The free version offers quite a bit of scope and allows one to save their work without any watermark or limitation.
This is a fabulous tool for serious artists and those of us (like me) who just like to doodle.
Nathan introduced me to the Common Craft videos a few years ago. Lee and Sachi Lefever create short and elegantly simple videos on tech and other subjects. The videos are all done with paper cut outs and voice overs. Well worth a visit.
We Make Videos
Our videos are short, simple and focused on making complex ideas easy to understand. We use a whiteboard-and-paper format we call Paperworks that is designed to cut out the noise and stick to what matters.
We are dedicated to building a library of videos that are focused on helping influencers and educators create change through better explanations.
Holidays seem to be the time for me to get new ideas for how I am going to approach my classroom when I get back. I tend to get these seemingly brilliant ideas and jump in feet first, learning from my mistakes the hard way as I go along. I have a feeling that I am about to do it again. (Nathan is now rolling his eyes and cringing but in fairness – he does exactly the same thing!)
I have this amazing idea to put together a little reading group with some of my students in the new year, a la literature circle idea. I don’t think that I will do it with the entire class to begin with…I have been burned before. As a little incentive to keep them going and on topic I will have them record their discussions about the novel. Ah! What would be even smarter would be to start with short stories, then if things bog down with the group we won’t be trudging through some lengthy tome. My plan is to then take the recorded discussions, and use them as series on the class podcast. I think to get it up and running I will start working directly with the during some of the independent reading time when the rest of the class is doing their silent reading. This is the time that I have been using for guided reading anyway but I haven’t recorded the discussions. I would love to see groups work independently on this but we have to start somewhere.
I will keep you posted as to how things are going. Hopefully the results will be up on Portable Radio at some point and my guided reading lessons will have a little more life to them.
So here we are in the week before Christmas break. Nathan and I are trying really hard to keep the lid on things in the portapac. Believe me…the creatures are stirring. We were looking for some quick and easy activities this week to keep our students writing and somewhat engaged. Poetry fit the bill.
Nathan found a website that gives a framework to write an “instant I can’t write a poem” poem. It was great and got all of the students working on coming up with excuses as to why they couldn’t write. They quite enjoyed it and everyone was able to produce their own poem. Some sutdents changed the idea around a bit and did “Why I Can’t Walk the Dog” or Why I Can’t do My Homework”. Having the digital recorders available in our classrooms meant that we were able to record the students reading their creations and we will use the recordings on future PortableRadio.ca podcasts. Click here to visit the site “I Can’t Write a Poem” site.
Mary Jane Johnson, a special education teacher at our school, gave us the idea for the “I come from …” poem. This poem follows a formula. The first line is a favourite food. The second line is a place you pass by every day. The third line is a family saying. The fourth line is a treasured item and the fifth line is the place where you keep the item. Again my students really enjoyed the activity. Everyone of them wanted to have their poem published on our class blog, 56js.ca Here are some of the results:
I am from…
by Remi
Hot dogs
My brother’s bedroom
Get off the computer
Rock from Dallas, Texas
In a key-coded, locked safe
I am from….
by Taylor
Chicken alfredo pasta Circle J RanchWake up or you’re walking!Family portrait of Treasure Hunt
Downstairs hallway
I am from…
by Megan
Leg of lamb and Yorkshire pudding Park You can’t get married till you’re 30Princess music box
On my dresser
These little poems allowed everyone to be successful and have something to record or publish in a short period of time. The students enjoyed the activity and we had a great discussion about what a poem is and how you often have to think carefully about poetry to get the entire picture of what the author is trying to say.
Podcasting and blogging without a big song and dance!
We have been learning about procedural writing in my grade 5/6 class. We have read a number of “How tos” and looked at the characteristics of this form of writing. As a culminating task for this work, the students wrote their own directions on how to do something. I am always surprised by the ideas that they come up with. We learned “How to Get Grounded”, “How to Give a Perfect Manicure”, “How to Check for Monsters Under the Bed”, to name a few. These short pieces of writing lend themselves really well to being included on a podcast. They are short, entertaining and offer the students another way of sharing their work without making podcasting an add on activity.
The real teachable moment in all of this came when, during our writing period, a glazier arrived in our portable to fix our broken window. One of my students immediately came up with the idea to interview our visitor about his job and how he does his work. Having the digital recorder in the classroom meant that we were able to take advantage of this opportunity. We learned about all the steps involved in taking the glass out, cutting glass, replacing the glass and sealing the window. Along with my class I learned about the glazier’s job and the students taught him a bit about podcasting. You can hear the results of this encounter at our student produced podcast PortableRadio.ca – Episode 3 Season 3.
Another window of opportunity for Nathan and me has come with the “Edublog Best Group Blog” nomination. We are both very pleased (and a bit surprised) to get this honour. This nomination has given PortablePd.ca a little more “press”. Our goal with this site has been to get the word out and to provide support for teachers who are interested in podcasting without having to reinvent the wheel. We would appreciate your support in this. You can vote by clicking here.
