Return of the revamped Podcast idea! The end results.

OK...so I have lots of great ideas and can dream big. My father taught me that. But what I struggle with is finding a little reality, time and resources to make it happen. Here's how it turned out.

My original idea:
"So, here is my idea. I think it would be a great idea to have my students interview their "Great Aunt Susie" about songs their parents used to sing to them or the music of their childhood. From there, interviews could be developed into podcasts and so on.

The best part, their podcasts can be incorporated into the final concert performance. You know, along the lines of any Ken Burns documentary; commentary from real people intermixed with music and facts."

Well, my students did interview their family members and friends. I was hoping for more music related answers but somewhere that point got lost along the way. I was REALLY wanting to hear things like the songs family and friends learned in school, not their favorite band being AC/DC. But none the less, my three classes (110 students worth...) turned in their interviews and many were quite good. I think my students were surprised by how little they actually knew about their family and friends and most enjoyed the opportunity to learn more.

So, now off to the recording stage. I didn't think this part through very well. When I realized I had nearly 100 stories to record, I freaked out a little. My intent was just to use a few in the performance, you know, the ones that said all the right things. Well, none said all the right things. So, now what? Well, I sent most of my students to record their story with my digital recorder. I have chosen a few to use in the performance and now I'm just figuring out how to incorporate them. All that is left now is to "podcast" them. I'm looking at uploading them to gcast.com. I'll post a link as soon as I get it done.

Our big performance is this Thursday. The band and choir have worked hard and have learned some challenging music. Singing with a live band is difficult for anyone but they are pulling it off. I didn't get to spend as much time with the history of folk music as I would have liked. But we did get the histories done and some of them will play in the concert.

So I guess I have reached most of my goal. Now, I just need to get them on the net and it will be done. I better hurry, school is out in three weeks....