3 Series on Podcasting: Some Groovy Resources and Where to Find More

With this post I simply want to share with you some places where you can go to get started with podcasting. Firstly, I’ve got a few good podcasting sites saved in my deli.icio.us account. There are just so many sites out there with the answers for just about any question you have. Seach the podcast section in iTunes for language learning podcasts and for educational technology podcasts – there are heaps of episodes out there on how and why to use podcasts – and I’ll be adding my own soon.

Here’s a quick Podcasting How To powerpoint shared on Slideshare by Helena Butterfield of the Langwitch podcast. Her podcast is a great podcast to have a listen to to get some ideas for how to use podcasting in the language classroom.

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I found the above link on Joe Dale’s Integrating ICT into the MFL Classroom blog. Joe writes an incredible amount about how and why to integrate ICT into the LOTE classroom. He has a lot of great posts that take you through lots of different things in a step-by-step way. Definitely worth checking out.

Chris Betcher of Betchablog and the Virtual Staffroom podcast wrote about how he puts podcasts together.

If you would like to look in to creating some enhanced podcasts from PowerPoints check out Web Podderator. There is a really easy way to play PowerPoints on your iPod/mp3 player or mobile phone. Joe Dale explains how to do that right here.

Of course, don’t forget to check out Podomatic where you can upload your audio files and get an RSS2 feed – which is what you need if you want people to be able to subscribe to your podcast.

Good luck and Happy Podcasting!

For more posts on podcasting and how to create your own podcast check out these posts: DIY Podcasting!, Making Teaching More Human, Podcasting: Just Try It

Talking it Through

I’ve started the technoLOTE email discussion group. I’ve used googlegroups to subscribe everyone to one email address. My aims for this discussion list are

for us all to share resources, activities,and ideas for our LOTE classrooms
to share with you some web based technology things and show you how to use them
for everyone to ask for help and ideas when we need it
for everyone to get feedback on ideas etc

Everyone should feel free to start discussions at any time and if you would like to be part of this email group you can either visit the home page here if you already have a gmail account or email me and I will add you directly.

I send out a ‘Weekly Website Watch’ email (the first one went out today) as well as a crash course (of sorts!) in Web 2.0 technologies.

Looking forward to the discussion!

For a brief intro to Web 2.0 read this post: Introducing the Web 2.0 World

Yesterday I Ate Cake

Today I walked on the beach,

Yesterday I ate cake.

Today I felt the sand under my feet,

Yesterday I laughed with a friend.

Today I ignored the housework,

And sat and read a book instead.

Today I slept in until lunchtime,

Yesterday I drank wine.

Today I had lunch with the one I love,

Yesterday I enjoyed the sun.

Today I remembered the simple pleasures of life,

Tomorrow I will walk on the beach.

I have written about wanting to live a slower life at this post: Slowing Down in a World Built For Speed.

Reading the Ri Bao (newspaper)

I get two copies of the People’s Daily Overseas edition (all in Chinese) delivered to me a week from the Chinese Consulate free of charge. I don’t spend time reading the newspaper as it would take me hours to do so, but I have kept collecting it as I thought it was a great authentic resource. But, how would I use it with the kids? It’s way too hard for them to read, so what to do with it?

Well, this term we are focussing our study on making Chinese characters less confusing. I’m teaching the kids in all year levels certain groups of characters and teaching them how to put two characters together to make one character (eg: 女 + 子 = 好 or 田 + 力 = 男), and how to put two characters side by side to make a new word (eg: 火 + 车 = 火车). They are all getting it really well, and can now see that Chinese characters don’t have to be so confusing and they are more than just a bunch of random black lines. They have been getting really excited about how many character they know and how many more they’ve got to learn before they finish the grid I’ve given them. Over the past couple of days I have given most classes a page of the newspaper to give their character identification skills a good test.

As you can see in this picture, each student had a page layed out in front of them, and, armed with a texta, they had to look through and highlight all the characters they could recognise. They seemed to have a great time and were surprised at how many they could pick out! The best thing about it was that lots of students were asking me what new characters meant and then going and highlighting what they had just learned which was great. One Year 8 boy must have felt that he achieved a lot that particular lesson because he said something along the lines of learning not being so hard when you make an effort. Hmm, who have I heard say that before I wonder?…

My Grade P/1 and Grade 2 class are full of particularly clever little munchkins who have taken on lots of new characters really really well this term. Theyloved finding characters in the paper and I’ve sent them home with the challenge of teaching Mum and or Dad what the word for China looks like in Chinese.

Some ideas for how to use a target language newspaper (or magazine) in your LOTE classroom

simply get the students to locate the words they know. This is great activity for character recognition if that is the sort of language you are teaching or a a great activity for quick reading and recognising new words
give students a particular list of words/characters they have to find and time them – it’s a race! The list of words could be given in English and found in a text in the LOTE or they could be given in a LOTE and found in an English newspaper or text.
Depending on their language level, you could get them to find the words they know and then make silly sentences out of those words

Newspapers and magazines are a great authentic resources for your classroom and can be used in many ways. The kids get a real buzz out of the fact they are looking at something ‘real’ and can understand words on it!

For other non-ICT lesson ideas check out these posts: Off To Market We Go! and Teaching Down the Line and Lightening the Load.

Off To Market We Go!

I had spoken many times to my Grade 3/4 class about their behaviour and the need for them to listen to me when I speak. I had pulled aside a particularly disruptive group of young gentlemen and asked them to improve classroom behaviour on several occasions. Nothing really seemed to be working and so I thought of another way to get them to be a bit better. I told them they could earn 元 yuan (Chinese currency) over a certain period of time and then we would have a market day where they could purchase a reward from me. I thought of this back in Term 2 and kept putting off Market Day – until yesterday. You can see in the picture at the top how I set up the stall. I sat at the front of the classroom and asked the kids to come to the front on small groups, say ‘Can I please have…’ in Chinese and then I would ’sell’ them the item. Just before the stall opened I gave each student some 元 yuan (laminated photocopies of a template from a games book) and they had to choose an item they could afford.

All the items on the stall were purchased from a ‘2 元 yuan’ shop in Shanghai.

The actual lesson that involved the Market Stall worked very very well – they were as good as gold. The lead up to the Market was not so great and there are a few reasons for this.

Good Bits:

Earning 元 yuan did improve behaviour during a lesson where they knew there was some yuan up for grabs.
The kids really loved shopping at the market stall
The kids knew why I was doing it – they knew I wasn’t too happy with how they had been behaving

Not So Good Bits

Kids asked me during or after almost every class whether they were going to earn 元 yuan and this drove me a bit nutty
If there were no 元 yuan up for grabs that day, there was no improved behaviour

Things I Would Do Better Next Time

This being the first time I had done something like this, I was a bit skeptical and unsure if it would work properly. I think I could have done a much better job of it, and so here are some of my thoughts:

I kept records of how many 元 yuan each kid earned, but I kept the book at my desk which is not in the classroom. I really needed to have a book in the classroom so I could write in it straight away rather than making notes on bits of paper. This would have led to a more accurate 元 yuan count I think. Some of the kids told me after the market that they actually had earned more 元 yuan than they were given.
I needed to have some sort of constant reminder for myself (and the kids) that we had this system going as I often forgot about it and was reminded by the kids after class and by then it was really too late to award any 元 yuan.
I needed to run it over a shorter period of time. As it was, it ran for two terms and I think this was too long for me (because I was often forgetting, annoyed at myself for forgetting, and did not enjoy being constantly asked for 元 yuan) and it was too long to be really effective for the kids. Perhaps if I had some sort of constant display of what they could eventually purchase at the market they would have been more motivated to behave better more often.
I really should have outlined much more clearly exactly what 元 yuan could be awarded for and how much. I only awarded one at a time but could have had a system in place for awarding more for exceptional work or behaviour.

Overall I think it is a good idea and I will try it again, but with improvements in place. Mostly it is up to me to be better at remembering and keeping accurate records and setting firmer guidelines at the start.

If any of you have every done something similar or have a whizz bang idea for classroom management for a group of 8 and 9 year olds I’d love to hear about it!