Say Aloha to Our City Podcast
I've posted the newest episode of Our City Podcast! Sheltered Bay is by third graders at St. Andrew's Priory School in Honolulu, Hawaii. Students from the all-girls school did an outstanding job. I've already listened to the episode twice and I know I will give it a listen again soon. Why? It it one of the best I've heard! It is extremely informative while also entertaining. The girls' voices sound loud and clear. The music and sound effects compliment what's being presented. At 12 minutes, it ends before my attention begins to wander. Bravo, I say!
With 19 Our City Podcast episodes currently online, we're building quite a library of audio by kids from cities all over. I encourage elementary and middle school teachers to use Our City Podcast in their classrooms. I've got ideas for using Our City Podcast in the classroom:
- Groups of students listen and discuss different episodes. Have the groups report back to the class what they learned.
- Set up a listening center with a different episode each week. The center could be a computer, iPod, handheld, MP3 player, or a CD player (burn the podcast to CD using iTunes).
- Play an episode for the class while they work on an art project.
- Write feedback about the episode and email it (the page for each podcast lists an email address for the teacher).
- Listen to two episodes and compare and contrast the cities in those episodes.
- Listen to decide which city you would want to visit. Tell why.
- Which city would make a good home for you? Tell why.
- Which podcaster do you think would make a good friend for you. Tell why.
- Compare the information given in the podcast with the city's Wikipedia entry.
- Find landmarks mentioned in an episode in Google Maps or Google Earth.
- What information or segment would you add to one of the episodes?
- Produce your own Our City Podcast episode. Resources are available.
- Offer some of above as extra credit opportunities.