Schools
Local Elementary Teacher Hailey Bazan Has Students Podcast their Learning
Technology for third graders helps parents keep up with classroom work.
Hailey Bazan is a teacher who loves technology. She is now using podcasting as a way to tell the parents of her Jones Elementary students about what her class is reading. is in Minooka Community Consolidated District 201.
She has been getting her students into podcasting, too. So far, one group of students has made a podcast, telling about the book that they are currently reading. The next podcast is in the works, and should be on the web soon.
Bazan, who has been teaching for four years, said her third grade students are very excited to have the chance to be part of a podcast.
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The process works like this. Bazan reviews with the students what they have learned as part of their reading. Afterwards, the a small group discussion takes place with Bazan in the lead.
“They decide who will say what, and in what order to say it in. When they finish creating their script, they rehearse together. When they are ready, I record them.”
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She then posts the podcast to the web, along with her commentary about the reading lesson.
When Patch observed Bazan's class, a group of five students worked with Bazan while the rest of the class was working independently on other reading activities. The group working with Bazan then decided what their podcast would sound like, and in what order they would speak. When several children wanted the same speaking part, one of the boys suggested that the three do ‘rock, paper, scissors’ in order to decide which would speak first. Each child wrote his/her own sentence for the script, and then they conferred and practiced their parts.
One of the reasons for Bazan’s podcast is to keep parents informed about what the students are learning in class. The reading series the class is using does not have individual readers that the students can take home.
Eventually, Bazan is planning to have her students create a PowerPoint that will go on the web as well.
“Having this will help the parents at home, while the kids are working on reading,” she said.
Her enthusiasm for the technology of teaching is driving her next study; she is getting a master’s degree in technology.
You can find Bazan’s Web page here.
