KleinPod: Podcasting in Klein ISD

Still haven’t heard anything from IT about software, but after the excitement of yesterday’s recording session, I felt like I needed to use that momentum.

Today, I had them search the one copyright free music site that our IT department allows: www.freeplaymusic.com. It’s good for background music, but it’s not easy to navigate and all of the music is instrumental. I had them find a song for four categories:

1. Vistas
2. Our podcasting class
3. TAKS
4. A song that represents them personally

They are really starting to get into this, and they are wanting to do so much more than I expected – they want to create a school radio show (rather than a school newspaper).

I never really thoght that the learning curve for this would be so… difficult. In most software applications that we use in school, I know the program. I can figure out how to do pretty anything that I need to use in class. PowerPoint, Inspiration, Word, even Publisher – I know. Podcasting, however, is not proving itself to be as easy as learning another Microsoft application. I actually have to ask the students for help.

Now, I’ve never been the “know-it-all teacher” who shies away from assignments that I am not comfortable teaching just so I can keep my “street rep” up with the students, but my lack of expertise with Audacity is really changing my perspective. I think it’s refreshing for the students to be able to teach the teacher. The students watch me learn and they watch the mistakes that I may. They were happy when I told them that I figured the program out last night and I was able to show off my work to them when they got to class. It’s weird, but they are more appreciative of what I am doing than my colleagues, perhaps because they understand how much effort I’m putting into this.

I have always told my students that whatever they do in the classroom, I’ll do the exact same thing. This way, I’ll understand what they are going through. It’s one thing for me to tell the students to find a song that represents them, but since I’ve done it myself, I can commiserate with them and give them real suggestions.

There is so much that I want to do for next year already – I need mics for the students, I need some kind of dedicated machine for podcasting with adequate storage for sound files, I need a product that I sound off a special effect at the push of a button instead of importing, and I have loads of software that the students are asking for (they get the idea of freeware!). I also think that I’ll need some new headphones for next year. I’d like each student to have his or her own personal headphones so that they don’t have to share.

We don’t even have one student podcast created yet and I’m already thinking about next year!

One more bit of good news – IT is going to push through the LAME file update for Audacity so that we don’t have to touch every students’ computer. Hooray!

Now, I know that some will claim that it’s because I’m a Virgo, but I started doing a little more planning today. I think I have the basis for a great rubric for this pilot based on TAKS results.

We’d like to focus our podcasting on specific TAKS objectives that students are having trouble with. This will truly highlight how technology can integrate individualization in a classroom. When discussing TAKS results with Stacey, she mentioned that physics was the objective our students struggle with most on the science TAKS test.

I know very little about physics, but my friend and mentor, Mary Obenauf from Pasadena ISD, is a master physics teacher, especially when dealing with at-risk teenagers. I called her today to tell her how the grant was progressing, and then conversation turned to TAKS (as it always does with teachers). I mentioned what Stacey had said, and Mary made the suggestion that she guest teach for a day. Because of the distance between Pasadena and Klein, and because of the nontraditional schedule that we implemented at Vistas, I did not think that was feasible. Besides, Mary has so many toys and manipulatives for instruction that it would be hard to transport them all.

And then, it hit me.

I guess it takes a while once you get new technology to fully realize its potential, but I think I’m starting to realize it now. Why don’t Stacey and I vodcast Mary and the best practices that she uses successfully? Not only would she be able to share her techniques, she’d be able to share how she does it – projects like her hovercraft and magic circle formula.

I can’t remember the last time I was so excited over science!