Blog Post #4

I found in the Langwitches blog post, 1st graders create their Own Read-Along audio book, very interesting. I think that the idea of the students recording their own voices to create an audio book for them to use in class is a great idea! It allows something new for students to engage in. It gives a whole new perspective to reading for students, especially first graders. I think that letting students experiment with this kind of technology is very rewarding. Not only are the students doing something new and interesting to them, they are learning how to use technology, and learning how to read all at them same time. I think that using podcasts in the classroom is a great way to make reading more fun and interesting for students!

Langwitches blog post, Podcasting with First Graders, made me want to do a podcast myself. Just the way they students were described in how they acted when doing this project made things seem like so much fun. In my High School drama class, I was able to work with a group do something like this, except we used tape recorders. We had to incorporate music, and script into ours as well, but we did not have the technology the students have today. We had to pause the tape player get our music ready, press record and then inject our dialogue. You had to be really good to not have any paused in your tape. These students can actually take clips and piece them together and make their podcast sound a whole lot better. I noticed in the section of the post titled "recording" that it is made mention that students confidence levels rose. I think this kind of project is a good way to get students who are shy to interact more. In listening to their podcast, I can tell they enjoyed doing this project. They done a very good job!

I really enjoyed Langwitches blog post on,
Listening- Comprehension-Podcasting. It shows how a tool such as "Garageband" and/or the SMARTboard can be used to help students learn but have fun at the same time. The project they did with the story Purim, was a very good example of how to get students involved and allowing them the opportunity to learn. This project turned something that would normally be boring into something that was intriguing to the students. They not only were able to create a podcast, or use the SMARTboard, but they were able to manipulate sounds, they were able to develop listening skills to they could listen and comprehend just what was being spoken. They worked on their writing skills because they had to write a script.
In listening to the students podcast that they done for the project, I was very much impressed. These second graders spoke with such clarity, and excitement. I could really tell that they enjoyed this project. Even though I was not there when they were able to manipulate the sounds on the SMARTboards, or for the script writing, I think the students favorite part was probably speaking in Hebrew and doing this podcast! It sounds like they had a lot of fun! Queen Esther is one of my favorite women from the Bible, and hearing the story of her done in a short podcast in Hebrew was very exciting!