PortablePD.ca

Woooooooweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

I’m now totally in the throw of the podcasting thrill / extravaganza / craze.  It REALLY is FUN – FUN – FUN!!!  I’m completely hooked!

Alright… so I started a guided reading book with a bunch of really smart grade 2 readers.  We extended by making travel brochures.  Yet again, taking it to another level and the best level of all… PODCASTING!!!  Each student in the group will make their own travel commercial podcast for the country they researched and made a brochure for.

I’ve been taking it slowly, learning as I go.  I get it now… and LOVE it!  I’ve recorded all the voices, downloaded them, I take each kid out of class individually so they can pick their sounds, and we build their sound effects and background music together.  I will have a total of 14 once I’m finished with this group of fine readers and podcasters from our 3 gr.2 classes.

I proposed that we show these country commercials off on our school web page.  They are 30 second podcasts at most.  I’ve been saving as wav and mp3 files.

My next cautious step is getting them on the website.  How the heck do I do this???  No idea where to start.  Help!!!

Thanks!

-sonia
… from jack donohue

Here’s a message from OCDSB teacher, Lorraine Montgomery:

Hi all,

Please do visit our classroom podcast site:

We recorded our presentation from Tuesday and also now have our first Point of View podcast uploaded for listening.  My students would love to have comments posted for them to read on Monday when we go to lab.

Cheers!

Lorraine Montgomery
Dunlop PS 5/6

Hi Jane and Nathan,

More success from WEJ! We are loving the equipment and PD we have received as it is paying dividends!

Recently, my grade 3 class had a parent volunteer into present about her grandfather – a veteran of WW1 – Vimy Ridge.

To keep the students involved and active in the presentation (which was easy she is a great presenter) I borrowed a 5W’s and H graphic organizer to help the students write down information they heard during the presentation.

After the presentation was done, in small groups of 4 or 5 I had them share their organizers with each other to add to what they had written down. We then took up up together on the Smartboard. Next, I assigned one aspect (Who, what , where..) to each small group for them to convert the jots into a paragraph or two. Then, they decided who would say what and we recorded the tracks. I did most of the editing this time in Audacity and layed the music bed, but I modelled it for them on the Smartboard with hopes that after a few tries they will be able to do the majority of the editing. Roughly 200 minutes from start to finish, with a little extra time for me to polish.

Overall, this was a fun, fast and fruitful activity. The kids (and parents) really do love to hear the finished product, Check it out! As Jane mentioned it is on our school website’s parent page at

http://wej4.blogspot.com/

The other brief clip “The Call” was recorded using the DVR [digital voice recorder] we got in the package as well. Although the quality wasn’t very good because of all the excitement, etc. going on in the background the content is truely Canadian! This was an enrichment project for a student to gather some audio (interviews and play by play) from our ministick league final game. “The Call” is the winning goal from the overtime shootout!:-)

Thanks again Nathan and Jane! Podcasting rocks!

Jamie Barteux

W. Erskine Johnston Public School