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....

Technology Students Survey

I recently had the opportunity to survey my students on their access to technology both in and outside of school. I was only going to survey one or two of my classes, but when I saw how different the data was after the first two, I decided to survey all my students.

About five years ago, I did a similar survey with many of the same students when I was their elementary teacher. I was curious to see what had changed. Much has changed in that small amount of time. A link is provided to my brief podcast on YouTube.com about my findings. You may also watch the video via this blog.

Technology changes our world almost daily, yet our schools struggle to keep up. It is difficult to say just exactly what it will take to get our students using 21st century tools in the classroom. I guess if I had that answer, I wouldn't be a middle school music teacher. I just hope I can do my small part to provide my students access to these tools.


Survey Podcast listed on YouTube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbaHpipYFH4


Watch Survey Podcast here:

Podcast idea...hmmm.....

I know this really has nothing to do with our next assignment...at least I don't think it does. But it was an idea and I wanted to share.

I had a thought this weekend about a way I can get technology into the hands of my students beyond the blog. Later on in this course, we will have to create a podcast. The recording part is the least of my concerns. It is the converting to MP3 and uploading I'm not so sure about. I'm sure I will learn more as I move through the class. But all our recent discussion about technology in the classroom and its importance got me thinking. How do I actually put it in the hands of my students? A podcast is what I came up with, for now.

I am going to have all my students create a podcast. Their assignment will be to research their favorite music artist. We just finished a similar assignment in choir, but my students were assigned a specific person to research. This time, they'll get to choose.

1. Research their artist.
2. Create a written report/speech that presents all the details
3. Record
4. Upload

Now all I have to figure out is how to get it uploaded to the internet and post it on my school blog.

I'm very excited about this. In reality, it has nothing to do with what we are studying next in music, but it gives my students a chance to share who they like and why and then share it with world via our blog.

What do you think?

Kerry


Hey, maybe when I get smarter about Wikis, they could upload their written detail there...