Rowe's Rewind

Rowe's Rewind Podcast

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The World of Podcasts

My previous experience with podcasts has always either been related to interviews with authors that I am reading a novel by or an author that I am teaching to my students. The other way that I have used podcasts is for workouts (both video and audio). I used a running podcast that helps train you for a half-marathon through verbal commands and music that quickens and slows your running pace using music tracks with various bpm's.

For my class, I looked at the podcast Grammar Girl who provides a fun and easy way to remember grammar rules and also clears up common grammar mistakes. Grammar can be a pretty dry topic to teach to students and I think that students would enjoy changing up the mode of direct instruction when working with grammar.

The second podcast that I subscribed to I found under iTunesU under Language Arts. "Paradise Valley USD: Language Arts" podcast provides several video lessons over common concepts such as MLA headings and short story elements. I like the videos because they teach commonly taught language arts concepts and can easily be utilized in the classroom as a means of direct instruction or to reinforce direct instruction. I think the podcasts are pretty cool and utimately the type of podcast I plan to make for classroom use.

Podcast Proposal

Purpose of your Podcast
The purpose of this podcast is to inform my students and the parents/guardians of my students of the course content material being covered in class lectures (example symbolism, motif, short story elements, writing skills, MLA formatting).

Podcast Description
The intended audience for my podcast will be my students as well as their parents/guardians. My podcast will air at least bi-weekly and will be posted at the beginning and the middle of the week so that students and parents will be able to access the information to assist with assignments for the course. I will host my podcast as it will present information relating to English skills and concepts. For items that may need a visual demonstrations such as speaking skills and literature circles I will utilize students to demonstrate the concept(s). The length of my podcast will be approximately 7 minutes in length. The format of my podcast will cover lecture materials for English skills and concepts (make-up lectures).

Detailed Description
For the first podcast, I will cover the literary element of symbolism for my senior English Kite Runner unit. Students will be provided with direct instruction of the definition of symbolism as well as guided examples. Students will then be reminded of the assignment that accompanies the lecture. Students will be able to utilize the podcast as a method to make-up missed lessons as well as a way to review concepts they may not have understood fully.

State/local objectives this podcast will address
LA 12.1.6.c Analyze the function and critique the effects of the author’s use of stylistic and literary devices (e.g. allusion, symbolism, irony, foreshadowing, flashback, metaphor, personification, epiphany, oxymoron, dialect, tone, mood, transitional devices)
LA 12.3.1.c Utilize available media to enhance communication.
LA 12.3.2.a Apply listening skills needed to summarize and evaluate information given in multiple situations and modalities (e.g. video, audio, distance, one-to-one, group)

Working with Animoto, Picknik, and Freeplay

This week's assignment was so much fun to complete. I had never worked with Animoto and was a bit unsure of what the program would have in store for me (I am not the most technologically savvy individual). In my classes, I asked my senior students if they had heard of the program and they had not so I gathered that this may be an untapped resource. I created a video for the novel The Kite Runner which is an amazing story exploring the topic of human fallibility. If you have not read this modern classic yet you should. The video I created would be used to introduce the novel to my students as well as to introduce students to their task of analyzing the symbols used throughout the novel.

All three resources were easy and fun to use. I was a bit upset that some of the cooler features on Picknik were not available unless I was willing to pay. Using Picknik I was able to take the cover of The Kite Runner, crop it, frame it, and make both a pencil sketch and a matte finish to create an opener and closer for my video with a bit more punch. I also took the Wordle that was originally white and change background to blue and create a bolder look for the image. In the future, I would like to play around with personal images to create some awesome images. My only frustration with Amimoto was that I wish I could rearrange some images without deleting pictures and then reorganizing. The music I found really really captures the tone of the novel so I was pleased that found compatible music so easily on Free play. Overall, I though the resources were user-friendly and just plain neat.

I will be including Animoto in my class more often and am in the process of trying to put together a project for students to use Animoto. I am grateful that we were able to create a project using such cool resources.

Kite Runner Animoto Video

Article PhotoStory

Please excuse the quality of my voice for this assignment. I had a sore throat and a nasty cough when I narrated my Photostory.

Same Blog Location...New Class : )

Hello-

My name is Melissa Rowe and I have decided to use the same blog URL as I did for EDUC 553 and adapt it for the purposes of EDUC 552. I am from Alabama where I graduated with a degree in English from The University of Alabama. I have lived in Nebraska for the past three years and also finished a second degree program at Peru State College to earn a teaching endorsement for high school English. Besides the cold weather and lack of tall pine trees, Nebraska is a great place to live and teach. I am looking forward to the warm weather so that I can start running outdoors again. Currently, I am a first-year teacher with Omaha Public Schools. Each day, I lead two sections of ninth grade English and four sections of twelfth grade English. My first year has been quite challenging as I have also decided to tackle graduate school through Peru's cohort program. My first semester was extremely tough but I have found a better balance among work, graduate school and a personal life this semester.

My experience with technology has been quite varied. As a student teacher, I worked at a school that placed a strong emphasis on technology use as each student is assigned a Mac computer. During my experience as a student teacher, I become fairly proficient using a Mac in a school setting. At first, I was quite resistant to using a Mac and adjusting to Mac features, but found that using a Mac was quite user friendly. At home, I have a PC and enjoy using it as well. I currently use Office 2007 and find it is fairly easy to work with for personal and professional use. At my current setting, access to technology is rather limited. In each classroom, there is one desktop on each teacher's desk and a projector. A few classrooms have Smartboards but not many. Integrating technology this past year has been quite a challenge.

I was inspired to come to Peru State College for graduate studies for several reasons. First, I enjoyed my experience as an undergraduate student at Peru. The online format provides the flexibility to work on classwork on the weekend when I have the most time to dedicate to my studies. Peru State College is also very affordable which helps in tougher economic times. Finally, I feel that faculty and staff at Peru are very knowledgeable and personable. I enjoy my experience so much that I recommended it to a colleague who plans to start this summer. I am looking forward to learning new information in EDUC 552!