PortablePD.ca

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.

Wish me luck. (I’ll need it).

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

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!

By the way…please consider voting for Portable Pd in the Edublog Best Group Blog award category. Click on this link to cast your vote.

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.

….continuing the conversation.

A primary teacher who is involved in our TLLP podcasting workshop was sharing with me today about how she was starting to get her students into recording audio.

I teach junior, grade 5/6 students and I have little experience with the grade 1 and 2 set but I can see that it would be a challenge to get some kids recording while others were working. Donna (the primary teacher) solved the problem by having her grade 6 lunch monitors record her primary students during the lunch hour. The grade 6s felt important using the voice recorder and being the “big kids” and the younger students each got a chance to have their say. The topic was the weather. A simple start but it involved many students at their own levels. Big kids and little kids working together and it didn’t become an add on for the teacher.

Terrific!!!