My final podcast for this class….weird to think that we have made it thus far. In this podcast I will be discussing how I am going to take these new found skills of blogging and podcasting into the classroom setting. I have really enjoyed doing the podcasts and blogs with this class and have learned so much in such a short amount of time. When I began this class, I had heard of blogs, but I had no idea what it was or how to use one. Then the podcasting came along and that was totally forgien to me. Now that the class is completed, I can say that not only to I have a stronger understanding about blogging and podcasting, but I also understand and have knowledge of how to use, create and listen to one.

How will I use it in the class??? Well I will use it to help students with information that is in an audio file. For instance, if they need help with homework and forget how to do the assignment, they can go to my podcast and listen to today’s notes on the lesson. This will help them to understand a step of part of the lesson that they may have been confused about.

Click here to listen (1.19 MB)

For this review, I wanted to post this all for you because child obesity is very important and has become a very big problem to deal with.  There are more and more students every year that have serious health problems because they are over weight. Studies have shown that child today are having adult like symptoms of over weight. Such as type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and asthma.

In my class, I make sure that they are active each day. We do an activity that is called the 100 mile club where each day we run laps around the field. Every day we add on a lap- for example- on Mondays they run 1 lap, Tuesday they run 2 laps etc. Then by Friday, they are running a full mile of 5 laps. Every set of five goes toward miles for the goal of reaching 100 miles. Children need to learn nutrition, exercises, why and how to take better care of their bodies, and about self image. Why wait until they are in High School to discuss this with them. By then, many of them are over weight, have these related problems, or better yet…in serious trouble.

Next year, the state is banning all candy and sodas in the schools. Not saying that this is going to cure the problem, but for the 6 hours or so that they are with us, they can certainly be eating better. For my class, to get a  piece of candy is a big deal. If the kids are hungry and need something to snack on, I have a fruit basket in my class so my students can go over and have a fruit instead of junk.

Listen to the podcast from parents magazine.com and here what they have to say about how to help, control, and prevent child obesity.

Overweight children

I wanted to dedicate this podcast to how to use technology in the classroom to better reach my students. I use a great deal of technology and media in my class to help reach all my students (ELL’s, GATE, and the lower achieving students). The types of technology that I use on a daily basis is of course the computers, LCD projectors, TV, grade cam, cameras, and laptops. I am apart of the Fifth Grade team this year which is an accumulation of techy’s. We all have LCD projectors, laptops, 3-4 computers in the class for student use, and a grade cam. We all attend conferences and work on purchasing more technology for our school.

In my podcast, I also talk about how I am a DEN member for Discovery. DEN stands for Discovery Education Network teacher. Discovery selects several teachers a year (through an interviewed process) to represent Discovery and use their technology for the students.

Listen and enjoy… and use technology in your class. Don’t be afraid to teach your students as well.

Click Here to Listen (1.61 MB)

The podcast that I felt was very good and very educational was put out by Discovery Channel. As an Discovery Educator (DEN) I love using discovery as a means to teach my students. I find some of the most fascinating lessons, footage’s, and information off their sites.

The podcast series that I chose was one that I showed to my students about Sharks. This is an ongoing series that Discovery covers; discussing all aspects of sharks, their environments, habits, meths and legends, and what scientist have learned over the years about these animals.

The podcast that I posted for you to listen to was an episode within the series about how sharks are attracted to blood. Many people know that sharks have a unique sense of smell and blood is one thing that shark are very quin on. The podcast discusses that a shark will have to smell the blood before it knows that there is blood. Which means, the thought that a shark can smell a drop a blood a mile away is just a myth. The scientists go on to demonstrate how they test this method. You will find this podcast to be very interesting and educational.

For some reason, I am not able to attach the iTunes file onto this page for you to listen to. You can go to iTunes podcast and search for Discovery Channel. Click on Shark Week and the file is “A single drop of blood.” Sorry for the inconvenience.

I am interviewing Robert Johnson the IST for the Kroger Company in Riverside. He has been an Network Administrator now for several years and has worked with many systems, servers and different types of technology. He graduated from ITT with a degree in Computer Networking and went on to work as an IT manager. He manages his corporation computers, security systems, networking systems as well as working on upcoming projects to better increase the productivity for the business.

Click here to listen (2.39 MB)

Podcast Research

Test PodCast

When I was starting this assignment, I wanted to listen to podcasts that were interesting and entertaining to me as well as to my listener. I started with some educational podcasts where they would dicuss issues such as behavior problems, positive reinforcement… but to be honest… they were boring. Thats when I changed my idea to find something that you (my listener) would enjoy.

My first interview podcast is an interview that was conducted on a radio station. The DJ, Andrew Z from the morning show, interviews Michael Malone from Extreme Home Makeover. The interview was conducted over the phone which at times made it hard to understand what was being said, but nevertheless, it was entertaining. The DJ asked questions about the show, such as its inspriation, feelings and emotions that happen during the show, the actors and actress on the show and then the nterview became more personal. The DJ began to ask questions that pertained only to Michael. He touched on his furniture buisness that he owns and at times runs, where he lives and what his house looks like. I found this part to be very interesting because you always think that these movie stars or people from this show would have the most beautiful house because of what they do for others. In fact he said that his house is normal, nothing too fancy. Which just goes to show that they are normal people.

The discussion was easy to follow and questions were quick and to the point- which kept my attention. I thought that this interview podcast was overall a success.

Michael Malone Interview (2.12MB)

My Second podcast interview was through the Disney Channel. This interview was much different from a normal interview would be like. This interview was about taking a closer look at Disney Channel shows and media from the upcoming movie “Read it and Weep.” I like the fact that the interview had some movie footage to go along with, which kept my attention and made it more interesting. However, the interview was all one sided. Which means, the actresses and actors were being asked questions that you didn’t hear, so all they podcast would show was their answers. This at times was very hard to follow, because I wanted to know what question they were answering.

I later realized that this interview was more like a movie trailer and was more about what the movie is about than the actors. There were no personal questions asked to the actors, which would have made it more interesting for me. Plus, I would have preferred it to be a little longer.

Overall, I felt that the podcast in its self was a success, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

Disney Interview

My third podcast was very interesting and educational at the same time. After listening to this podcast, it opened my eyes to some issues that I hadn’t thought of before. Especially in dealing with how you look vs. the positon to get in your career.

This podcast was conducted through the Science Channel hosted by Discovery Channel networks. It focused on cadets from West Point University and how they way that they look, lands the the higher or lower positions in the military. For me, I would never think of the military as even caring about the way one looks- as long as they were completing the task. However, this is not always the case, but what this podcasts points out is that it does occur more often than not.

The narrator of the podcast is talking with some experts on the subject and she discusses that people who are to be consider good looking will often be your leaders (espeically in the government agencys). In that respect, they look at facial feature (high cheek bones, hair line, eye shape etc), height (taller people are typically to be consider the more attractive), body image (thinner people are consider more than those that are heavier), and social status ( ones with money or have stronger ties). Unfortually as unfair as it is, this is true for leaders of the military. The expert points out that the average american is more likely to vote for an attractive President that one that is not so much. He also states that people are more likely to take someone that is attractive more serious over someone that is not.

Overall, I found this interview to be a success and it defiently entertain me, because I had no idea that people actually take time out to think about those things. Then  people wonder why so many people in this world have self-esteem issues.

Discovery Interview (1.13MB)

Just for extra fun, I wanted to let you in on a fourth interview that I reviewed. This was another radio station interview that was conducted over the phone. The Morning Rush station interviewed one of my favorite people- Will Smith. I knew for sure that just because of who they were interviewing that this was going to be funny. The DJ starts by asking him questions about his new CD that is coming our soon- Will replys with how this CD is more expressive than any of his other CD’s and also refers to another rapper on the CD- Switch. Switch is an upcoming rapper that has paired up with Will and together they are working on this CD.

The DJ then talks about his marriage to Jada Pinkett-Smith and about some rumors that they heard of. Of course Will Smith is very earger to hear what they wrote about him this time. He is asked about a time where he said that if you are going to cheat- tell your wife. Well comes to fins out that what he was trying to get across is if some is going to cheat then your not being honest to your wife… if you can’t be honest than the relationship is going to fail.

This podcast was broken into two separate podcasts. The second half talked about Will’s childhood and his long time friend DJ Jazzy Jeff. Will then talked about working as an actor and as a music entertainer. He likes doing both and feels successful with each. The DJ asked if Will would ever run for Governer of Philadephia, he laughed and said no, but he would think about it (in a joking manner).

Overall, I thought that the interview was very funny, and easy to follow. Very successful and worth listening to.

Will Smith Interview Part 1 (1MB)

Will Smith Interview Part 2 (1MB)

Team Building PodCast