Planning

Excellent Podcast Examples | October 29, 2009

 Description of Project

The podcast planning stage allowed me to examine three different podcasts: a 7th grade Spanish podcast, Lunchtime Leaders, and News in Slow Spanish. While listening to the podcasts I was able to develop a firm understanding of what makes a podcast great.


 * [[image:http://www.inhabitots.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/abc6.jpg width="158" height="120" align="right" caption="el alfabeto"]]Sra. Rivera's 7th Grade Spanish Class Podcast** was interesting, because there was only one podcast made. The episode, El Alfabeto, used a lot of music and provided students with an opportunity to discuss the Spanish alphabet. The only problem with the podcast, in my opinion, was it's largest. I couldn't fully understand the purpose of the podcast, as the structure wasn't set up in a way that made it easier for somebody outside of the class to understand what was being done and why.


 * Lunchtime Leaders** was, in my opinion, the best podcast that I could find where middle schoolers had planned and created the entire product. It is a tremendous example of teamwork, thoughtful planning, and solid preparation. Students were able to interview leaders and business people from throughout the community, asking them questions about what it takes to get to where they are. The students seemed to have a firm grasp on how to conduct and interview, and were, at times very colorful. I do feel, however, that they could have prepared even more, in order to ask more in-depth questions. I also would have loved to see connections being made between different podcast episodes. In all, the podcast was tremendous, and something I feel would be a great idea for any middle school to take on.


 * [[image:http://www.trumix.com/graphics/podcast/web/108241.gif width="90" height="90" align="left" caption="Slooow Spanish"]]News in Slow Spanish** is a long-running series that provides weekly news in super-slow Spanish. The series is unique in that it isn't set up in a teacher-student manner, but rather the news is delivered in Spanish that is slow enough for the listener--an intermediate Spanish student, for example--to hear and comprehend every word. It would be, and is great to use in almost any Spanish classroom, as it is current news, and easy enough for students to comprehend. The music is used well throughout the podcast, and the hosts are very entertaining.

Reflection on Project Experience
 * The planning process was, in some ways, the most enlightening aspect of the podcast-making process. Although I have subscribed to multiple podcasts, and listen to a handful of them regularly, I had never listened to them with a critical ear. Furthermore, I had little to no experience with educational podcasts, nor had I realized that podcasting could actually be a good reinforcement for classroom instruction. With regards to planning, I was able to develop a better understanding of what it took to create a good podcast, because I was able to grasp how to structure a solid podcast, while also ensuring that I didn't add too much information, nor too little. Each of the podcasts that I reviewed provided me with great ideas for what to do, and what not to do when creating my own, as well as provided the seeds for numerous show ideas--two of which I took on, and one of which I was unable to successfully implement (I'll blame it on overloading my plate as a first year teacher). **

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