Postcasting has been a lot of fun. My advocacy group finished our 3 podcasts last week in class. I must admit I was a little nervous about creating a podcast. I have listened to a few podcasts on the web and I felt a little intimidated because they sounded very professional; just like a professional CD recording would sound. So, I had this vision of my podcast sounding completely horrible. Overall, I feel the our group did a good job on our podcasts. Our group even managed to include a music section. This is definitively a project I would like to use with my classes. I think this is a project that most students have never had a opportunity to complete. Also, I think it gives the student more ownership of the completed product. There is more effort required to produce a podcast, so now the student must really think and plan what information should be include. This process is different from writing an essay. When I try this with my class, I think my idea is to have them create podcasts about their element. This year my classes created brochures about an element but next time I would like for students to create a pod cast.

I am enjoying reading all of the blogs. I am getting a lot of great ideas about how to use blogs/wikis in the classroom. I think I would like to try using a blog. I recently assigned an extra credit project about African American Scientists and Women Scientists, in honor of Black History month and Women’s History month. I had only a few students turn in a project. So I’ve been thinking, in order to get all students to focus on the importance of these early scientist, I could start a blog and post a few names to start the discussion. I would have my entire class make comments about these scientists. I could also allow students to post other names and discuss the lives of these scientists. As I stated in an earlier blog, I think the possibilities are endless.

I have gotten a little behind on my “posting” since my first entry. After my first posting Dawn H. asked a couple of questions, so I will now respond to these questions. The first question was “How does it feel to entry into the world of my students? I actually think it is a fun experience. Image, I get to say things and other people actually read what I have posted. The second question was “How might I incorporate blogs into my class”? I thing this could be a great tool to bring into my classroom. I would post a question or a problem and let my students comment the solution. Sometimes students do not want to speak-up in class and voice an answer or an option, so I think this would be a way for those students to be heard. It could also be incorporated into a project and each group/member would post the progress of a project. These are just a couple of quick ideas I have but the possibilities are endless!

This is my first blog and it is truly a s-t-r-a-n-g-e experience for me. As I read the book Blog, Wikis, and Podcasts by Will Richardson, I am discovering the many wonderful things that can be done. I hear my students talking about their blogs and have never fully understood what they were talking about, so needless to say I am very excited to be learning about blogs.