South's Class Podcast

The first podcast I listened to was about the last lecture of Randy Pausch who was a college professor who lost the battle to pancreatic cancer and passed away at the age of only 47 years old. You can see an interview with him and read more on ABC's website. In this podcast, the students were talking about the contents of his last lecture. They talked about how he discussed child hood dreams such as working for Disney, which he did get the offer to do but turned down, playing in the NFL, etc. They talked about how they could incorporate ideas from his lecture into ideas for their classroom. These were ideas such as teaching kids that obstacles are meant to be overcome, not to stop us. The students had a lot of very interesting comments to make on Mr. Pausch and his last lecture.

The one thing that I did not like was that you could tell everyone was just reading something that they had written prior to the podcast. I think that if I would have listened to this before listening to the other 6 for the last assignment, it wouldn't have sounded so awkward. But the others that we listened to sounded more like the participants had learned everything they needed to before the podcast and were so knowledgeable about whatever it was they were discussing, that they just went in for their podcast and talked freely. When I do my podcast, I hope that I can make it sound less like a book report and more like a discussion that I am well prepared for.



My second podcast I listened to was about Blogging and Teaching. This was WONDERFUL!!!! These students did not sound rehearsed in the slightest. These students talked about how they had used blogging in their class with Dr. Strange as an assignment just like we are doing. They also talked about how they planned on using blogging in their classrooms when they are teaching. They said how they would use it to post assignments, projects, etc. One idea I heard for using the blog in a classroom was a reason I hadn't even thought about...Not every parent can go on every field trip offered to their child. You could use this site to post pictures of the kids enjoying themselves so that the parents can still see what their child was experiencing.

The students participating in this podcast did an awesome job. There were a few times that they kind of got stuck and seemed to be at a loss for words. That may be where Dr. Strange could have jumped in with a question or two to kind of keep them rolling. I really hope that the group I am put into to do my podcast with sounds like this when people listen to us. They sounded very prepared. It was like the ones we listened to in our last assignment, it was a discussion. Nothing was being read off of a piece of paper.

One thing I really liked was that there was a picture of each group on the main site doing their podcast. This actually made me a lot less nervous about our upcoming assignment. You could see in the pictures that it is just the students sitting at the round tables together and talking about their subject. My main goal for my podcast is to be prepared and sound knowledgeable about my subject.

Again, I do not want to sound like I am reading a book report. I think the biggest obstacle for me is going to be not sounding nervous. I am hoping that because it is just a few students sitting around a table with me participating in a discussion, that I will feel okay. The idea of having other people in other classes listen to MY MOUTH in a few semesters to follow can be very nerve racking, though. I really hope that I sound relaxed!