Podcasts!

I am coming to realize that before being in this class, I was using my laptop to about 20% of its capabilities. I have never actually used iTunes before! That seems ridiculous to me now, because I have an iPod that I use on a regular basis, but I have always just gotten other people to add music to it for me! I am so glad that  Mike got us to look into podcasts as a resource for our classrooms. Once I figured out how to use the iTunes Store, I spent almost an hour looking through podcasts and educational materials. I just couldn't seem to stop! It blows my mind the amount of resources that are available to us as teachers.

I ended up settling on a few different podcasts to download in my subject area. I love Global 3000: The Globalization Project. There are fifteen episodes that you can download about globalization and world issues. It would be excellent reference material for both teachers and students on a unit about globalization, environmental issues, and social justice. I also found some professional development resources. In particular, one I think that will be very useful is Teaching with SmartBoard. It is a series of tutorials about how you can use the SmartBoard to enhance your lessons.

I also found a few podcasts that were student created! I thought that was amazing. The ones I looked into were about history because that's my passion. Students could create a podcast as a final project to complete a unit. They could make a dialogue between historical characters, or dictate a paper or essay. This could be very useful for review purposes but also for assessment AS learning.

Podcasts are another solid resource that I look forward to incorporating into my classroom!