KleinPod: Podcasting in Klein ISD

The second term (first semester!) has ended! This means tomorrow, we all get a new start. Plans for the podcasting class include creating TAKS review sessions for students at our school and at Krimmel Intermediate! Our Gramma Snob podcast last semester didn’t go over so well, mainly because we needed a visual aspect. Try explaining the differences between your and you’rewithout any visual elements. Yeah. like, I said, this year is a learning process. I had been planning on using the camcorder to help out with vodcasts, but I think that what I really need to do is use the Starboard Screen Capture software on the computers for now.

I am so angry with myself – I signed up for a MovieMaker class on Friday and totally forgot all about it on Saturday until I got the e-mail that I “failed” the course. I thought it was NEXT week. I really needed this for using the movies that we would make in class with Starboard and the Audacity files that we would record to explain the material. Grr. I guess I can try to figure it out myself – it seems pretty easy. I bet I could do it with our AL subscription.

One of my new students is ESL, so I’m *really* excited about having her in class. This could start to be that element that Aspiazu was hoping for – the ESL element. We can have bilingual podcasts now!

I was up at school for a few hours today, trying to work out the Audacity/Mbox issue with Derek, but it looks like this is going to take a little more research.  I’m just happy that we are finding this out now, and not when we have students in the classroom. We are also frustrated in our attempts to troubleshoot because we don’t have a microphone that is compatible with our technoogy. We have lots and lots of USB microphones, but there isn’t a single USB port on the mixer. Yes, it is high tech and professional (which was the goal), but is very limiting. At this point, I am very glad that we bought an extra mic. Note to self: Buy more mics.

Dr. A, the ESL and bilingual director for the district, was on campus today. I explained to him what it was we were doing on campus and invited him to have a look at the technology which led to a discussion of podcasting/vodcasting in the ESL classroom. Just by brainstorming with Dr. A today, I can see KleinPod becoming an intregral part of the ESL class. All four langauge arts skills are used in podcasting: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. How neat would it be for an ESL class to podcast their respective journeys? How powerful would it be for these podcasts to actually be used in English classes overseas?

Stacey, Peggy (my principal), and I brainstormed ideas for the pilot implementation today as well. I think I am really starting to see just how innovative this project is.