2nd Graders' Weather Podcasts

A team of second grade teachers from Commerce Elementary School, one of the 14 elementary schools in my district recently met with me during a district professional development day.  They were searching for ideas of ways to incorporate technology into their curriculum and differentiate instruction.  After discussing many possibilities, we landed on using podcasting as a way for students to demonstrate their learning about science, publish to an audience larger than their classmates and teacher, and develop communication and literacy skills.  I did a quick demonstration of Audacity, a free program for recording audio, and showed them where to find my video tutorials on the district technology integration website.  They were surprised at how easy Audacity is to use.

The teachers were anxious to get started.  In fact, the following week, I received an email from one of the teachers, Jennifer Farough.  She told me that the previous week her students created a "feature article" about the weather.  Articles were about  hurricanes, snowstorms, thunderstorms, and tornadoes.   She then had all the students who wrote their article on the same topic work together to plan the script for a podcast.  The students quickly became engaged in the process, anxious to share their learning and use technology in a new way.  The podcasts they recorded are terrific;  if I didn't know what grade the students were in, I would have guessed them to be older, perhaps 3rd or 4th graders!  Click here for links to their weather podcasts.

So here is an example of how technology can enrich learning.  Technology is used to allow and encourage application of knowlege, creativity, collaboration, present to a wide audience, and make decisions about the most important  information to be used in their final product.   Teachers do not have to be "techies" to facilitate projects like this; they just need to be open to possibilities, and be willing to give it a try.   The students deepen their understanding as they create their project and teach others, and are so proud of their accomplishments!