Thing 19

Which podcasts did you find interesting? Identify one or two podcasts and describe how you would use them in your teaching. (Be sure to include links in your blog entry to the podcasts mentioned.)


I spent quite a lot of time exploring the pod casts you listed.

Since I am an English teacher, I liked the Grammar Girl Podcasts. These entertaining podcasts are informative and they're about practical grammatical issues in a very comfortable, unstuffy format. I can see that my next "Thing" is to subscribe to podcasts. This is one I know I'll add. I just listened to her podcast on whether or not to use prepositions at the end of sentences. I thought her advice was clear, useful and practical. She mentioned that some people are sticklers about not ending a sentence with a preposition, so it's wise on a cover letter for a job application to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition to enrage one of the "purists". Good advice! I'd play some of these in the classroom. I think it would be interesting to have students make their own podcasts about various issues in grammar and usage modeling them after these presentations.

Of course, if I'm going to tell students to make podcasts, I'm going to have to learn how to make them. That's why I listened to quite a few of the podcasts by the Lower Merian District in Pennsylvania. What a great resource for the teachers in that district! One that was quite pertinent to my situation is the podcast titled "The Fear Factor". The interviewer talked to seven teachers who had faced their fear and introduced some technlogy application into their classrooms. I loved hearing how all these teachers faced problems, but let the solving of the technology problems be part of the lesson. I also was encouraged by their testimonies that the use of technology enlivened their classroom and increased the interest and productivity of the students. I want to go back to this podcast site and add it to my Delicious account because I need to listen to its three part series about podcasting. You can find these podcasts here.
Note: I will try to fix the URL's listed above so that they are actually links. As you see, these are the little things that I struggle with that make me lack confidence. I'd be open to any tips you have if you read this before I add the link.