KleinPod: Podcasting in Klein ISD

I was on my way to the TAAE conference in Austin, when D. Wayland asked me if I was attending the TCEA conference. I was not, but P. Ekster was able to provide a sub for me since I already had a hotel room.

I originally was going for podcasting information, but a session over a multi-media class grabbed my attention. It was presented by two teachers from Bridgeport High School. These teachers had started a bi-weekly tv show with their students, Focus. Oh my gosh! I was so excited leaving this session. This was exactly what I had envisioned as the end goal for my podcasting class. In fact, I was so excited that I started looking up video equipment as soon as I got home. I know, cart before the horse, but I was really excited!

The podcasting itself is still murky. We are still deciding whether or not to use iTunes, but I don’t know where the ideas are coming from. Last I heard, one person was unsure of using iTunes because he thought that would make the files only usable by people with iPods. In any case, we have another meeting. Keep your fingers crossed for a solution!

After the TCEA conference, I attended the TAAE conference and was surpised by recieving the TAAE’s Alternative Educator of the Year award! I was so exited and grateful. Of course, I was able to share lots of technology tips with other people. I love being able to share all the neat tricks and tips that I know. Know what I love even more? Getting new tricks and tips!

Well, yesterday, I forced my podcasting students to listen to a short “State of the School” podcast. We listened and we completed an evaluation rubric that I borrowed from Region IV’s podcasting in-service for teachers.

One thing that I learned from teaching writing is this: students love to find fault with other people’s products, and giving them a rubric gives them a chance to exercise this to the fullest. They weren’t overly mean, just creative in some of their responses.

They all decided that we could create a much more professional podcast that the one that we listened to. I think they saw it as a challenge. Hooray! The motivation is there!

A teachable moment today: The Klein ISD wikipedia page was edited with derogatory comments (with an especially stinging comment about Vistas) that was quickly changed back, but not before they were seen. I decided to use this to our advantage and pressed the idea that all of the materials that come out of our school need to be professional and appropriate so that we could shake the negative stereotypes that harangue our school (Wikipedia users are still debating on whether or not we are *actually* a school – The word “Program” throws them off.). This too, they took as a challenge and are eager to dispel any myths about the intelligence level on our campus.

The problem that I am now facing is the filter – nearly every page we try to access for example podcasts is categorized as “audio-visual” and is blocked. Podcasting is a pretty “audio-visual” field, so we are trying to figure out a way to allow access to appropriate sites. Copyright-free music and other sound files that we want to use are blocked, and it’s a pain to save on my home computer and transfer the files over to my school computer. It’s very hard to get the students to listen to podcasts that they aren’t interested in, and I can see why. It’s hard work.

We made it through Hurricane Ike with little damage other than the eight days of school that we lost. For a school on an accelerated schedule, that much time lost is devastating. We finally went back to work last Wednesday and we have been playing catch up the entire time.

My original plan was to publish the podcasts on the district’s LMS site because they have an RSS feed, but we were having serious problems with LMS and Lightspeed the week before the hurricane, so I was never really able to post an RSS feed and see how the students responded to it. Luckily, any problems we had this past week have been short-lived and are usually solved if we restart Internet Explorer.

The best news is that I have created two podcasts for my students! One was going over the answers on a quiz that they took and the second was a test review! I’m so excited! I really hope it works, because at this point, it really saved me a lot of time in the classroom. This way, I also made sure that each class got the same material.

The problem that I’m facing now is publishing these RSS feeds. We are using LMS right now, but I can’t publish them to iTunesor Podcast Alley because I need a public forum to post on. I’m going to poke around on Edublogs and see what options are available. I am a little concerned about this, because Klein’s system does not seem to be very compatible with Edublogs. No one can get an e-mail from Edublogs! I’ll look into that, because I find this to be a very user-friendly site.

Looking back at previous posts today, I already feel months behind. I had wanted podcasts ready to go for the first day of school. Here it is, almost the end of our grading period, and I’m just starting to identify the kinks rather than solving the kinks.

At least my group of students is excited about the process. Right now, I feel like I’m leading them on because I haven’t really given them much podcasting. I’m working on the curriculum as we speak, but for now, I feel like I’m dragging the process out. The great news is that they all seem to be on board and eager. I think they feel special because they know they are involved in the pilot project for a grant. I won’t say that they are looking froward to TAKS testing reviews, because they aren’t, but when I explained my TAKS plan to them, they were agreeable. The students who still need to take TAKS are going to create specific tutorials for middle school students. Each student will create tutorials for the objective that she/he needs to pass.

I passed out the TAKS study guides yesterday. As I expected, they groaned and all told me to keep the book. I agreed to do so, but had them look at their TAKS objectives and pointed out to them what we’d be podcasting later on. I didn’t hear a single groan – in fact, they were asking me questions. I’mnot going to go so far and say they were excited about TAKS tutorials, but I think they are now looking at it in a new way. It was really what I needed to keep my head afloat after the past few weeks.