Enhancing

. Creative Classroom Podcasts | April 1st - Present

 Description of Project as a Wholemedia type="custom" key="6190361" align="right"

The Creative Classroom Podcasts are a project that developed after speaking with fellow first year teachers. Many of us have had wonderful ideas for games, room organization, and classroom preparation handed down to us, or we have come up with them on our own. Although the ideas are undoubtedly great, we have typically been given vague instructions to provide students, and little to no instruction for how to set the ideas up. Knowing how to set up games and procedures can save a tremendous amount of time for a teacher, freeing up extra minutes to place focus on differentiating for students and even a little stress relief for ourselves. In short, this podcast is a series focused on making life easier for the first year teacher, as well as injecting new life into any classroom. The podcast was put together by myself, but support was provided by my fellow first year teachers and my colleagues at William Hall Academy.  Reflection of Podcast Experience

After feeling as though the work done with students on the initial podcast was perhaps not the most effective use of time, I thought long and hard about how I could affect the learning of students in and outside of my class. Upon discussing the issue with a few of my sixth graders, a key issue was raised: classes are typically boring, but mine is not. I asked them, “why?”, and their answers were quite clear. The response was consistent: the games that we play, and the attention that I place on the things that they like. This really got me to think about how I could help other teachers--who maybe aren't as technologically savvy, or as willing to try new things to venture out into an endless realm of creativity, without getting scared by computers and such. I then decided that I would make a podcast that would show other teachers how they could use different technologies to make activity preparation more efficient and effective, while not forcing them to facilitate the use of technology among thirty students for the sake of a new activity. As you will see, the three things I have created podcasts for so far are pretty 'old school.' However, I make my life easier with technology and set myself up with electronic documents that are ready to print in a pinch.

Making each one of the podcasts with video was a lot harder than I had expected, because of the time that it took to edit both the video and the sound. Despite the minor setbacks that I had with each, I feel like I caught on quickly and started to develop a good structure for my video podcasts. In many ways, it was much more enjoyable to add the visuals, as it is easier to walk others through specific steps and it communicates to a different community of learners. On the other hand, it made life pretty tough, as I often found myself perplexed when it came time to decide where to put which picture or video. All in all, I had a lot of fun putting together my video podcasts (except for the time when my computer froze up and I lost half of one that I had used four planning times to put together!!!), and hope that I can continue to podcast for the sake of other teachers.

 Technology Standards Addressed __[|**Standard II: Communication**]__

A. Use technology effectively and appropriately to interact electronically. B. Use technology to communicate information in a variety of formats.


 * S__[|tandard VII: Professional Growth]__**

Develop professional practices that support continual learning and professional growth in technology.