Unit 4: Podcast

Note: Note: you can’t do things like 15+6 = 21. You have to use the four operations as ‘binary’ operations: ((1+5)*6)7.

Hey everyone! So this unit focused on podcasts as an instructional tool. I'll be very honest-- I was not super excited about this. I actually felt kind of nervous making the podcast and it took my a little bit of time to research how I could use this in my own classroom. Those of you who know me know that I love to talk about everything, so it should have been right up my alley but I wanted the podcast to be math focused. After some digging around, I decided on using the podcast as a supplement to instruction rather than a main focus in the form of a weekly math riddle. My idea is that this can be incorporated into my classes digital "presence" and can encourage students to participate digitally in discussions and such.

AFTER making the podcast (which was super easy by the way), now I'm excited to try this in real life :) Obviously this project is teacher-centered-- I made the podcast for the students, but I can see it being used as another way for students to communicate their ideas and contribute to classroom discussions. That being said, using Audacity to make the podcast took some Googling skills to figure out how to add an audio track, how to turn the music volume down and amplify the speech, but honestly it wasn't anything that your average 9th grader couldn't also google and figure out. I like the idea of NOT giving them a lot of instruction on how to use Audacity or PodOMatic, just directing them to those sources and letting them explore. I sometimes tend to over-direct when it comes to these sort of things, especially if I'm worried about time constraints; but there is definitely value in just setting the students loose and letting them figure it out on their own.

I also like this idea because it didn't take long for me to make. It means I'll be more likely to maintain use throughout the year if its not a huge burden to make and publish, so that's awesome.

Let's hear your thoughts on classroom pod-casting!! How could you use it in your classroom? Have you done something like this before? Did you figure out the answer to the riddle?