My thoughts on Podcasts

These are the 6 podcasts I listened to:

SMART board
Stuff You Should Know: 3 Innovations we need right now
Grammar Girls Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing:181GG Spacing Out, and Capitalization
The Art of Storytelling with Children: teaching children forgiveness in storytelling
Think Like A Leader: Dr. Larry S. Anderson
The Tenacious Teachers- Teaching Strategies for the Everyday Teachers

When I first started looking for podcasts, I was really unsure of what they actually were. I had never listened to a podcast before and was clueless about them. The first podcast I listened to was the SMART board podcast. It was awful. It was like I was listening to a morning show on the radio. I tried to skip around and listen to different SMART board podcasts thinking they would get better. I listened to a few minutes of about three different ones. They were all the same to me, horrible! I then began searching for an educational podcast that would interest me. I found one about 3 Innovations we need right now. It was extremely interesting. One of the innovations was a teleportation portal that could teleport us places quickly. Like they said, we are too complicated beings, but an interesting thought. There were many fascinating podcasts under this one.

I then continued to look around under the educational podcasts, and I found one called Grammar Girl. I struggle a little with grammar, so this peaked my interest immediately. Grammar Girl's voice was easy to listen to. I realized that it matters what someones voice sounds like during a podcast. Sometimes their voice is pleasant to listen to, while other voices are annoying. I really learned so much while listening to Grammar Girl's podcast. She makes new podcasts frequently, and they are all something to do with grammar, such as when to capitalize and where commas go. Another thing I liked about this podcast was the introduction was only about 35 seconds. Some podcast that I have listened to were a few minutes long, which is horrible. My attention needs to be grabbed at the beginning of a podcast or I am a lost cause!

I love books, so I got really excited when I found a podcast about storytelling. The introduction was only about a minute long, which caught my attention right away, then they went on to talk about how children love stories and it is a great way to teach them things like forgiveness for example. I learned so much while listening just to a short segment of this podcast. They also told a great story, and I love stories! I then found a podcast about being a leader. I think being a leader is so important, especially as a teacher. They made many good points about how a leader is suppose to act and treat others. I found the mans voice in this podcast to be awful, but the two guest speakers were nice to listen to.

The very last podcast I listened to was about being a tenacious teacher. The teacher that was interviewed during this podcast happened to be Vikki Davis, the teacher with the Digiteam Dream Team, who was on the video we watched last week! I think she is an amazing teacher. I absolutely loved that fact that she was on the podcast and I was unaware of it when I first began listening to it. I learned so much while listening to segments of all of these podcasts. In my opinion, there are a few things that make a podcast good or bad. The persons voice, whether it is pleasant not, the length of the introduction, and the material itself. These are all important things to think about when making a podcast.

My Reaction to "The Importance of Creativity"

Wow! Ken Robinson is amazing! His points with education and use of humor kept my attention throughout the entire 20 minute video. At first I was dreading watching it, but as soon as it started, I became captivated. When he said he was from Stratford upon Avon, I loved it! I have spent a weekend there before, and it is amazing! It was very interesting when he said said, "that children who are starting school this year, will be retiring in 2065." We do not know what the world will be like then, so we are educating children for world that we know nothing of. This is one of many extremely fascinating things he spoke about.

Ken said he believes that, "Creativity is as important as literacy in education." He really opened up my eyes as to truly how important it is to encourage creativity in children. I really struggle with creativity, such as painting. Painting is something that I have recently become really interested in, but I am not very good at it, actually I'm horrible. I still love it though, and hopefully one day the creative juices will begin flowing. While watching this video I realized why I am like I am. My family has joked for years about how much of a neat freak my mom use to be. When I was little and I would color a picture for her, as I was giving it to her I would say, "do you want me to just throw it away mom?" We laugh about it now, but I really think that it has effected my creativity in a bad way throughout the years. I really want to be the best possible teacher I can be, and encouraging the children to be creative is an important aspect of being a good teacher.

What I Think About "Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts"

Teacher Vikki Davis from Georgia is an incredible teacher! Her video has totally inspired me. It is evident that she absolutely loves what she does. She knows how to teach the students' in such a way that they learn and enjoy learning. The fact that Vikki won a prestigious award for her blog, really says something about her. I love how she allows the kids' to not only teach her new things, but also help their peers. She cares so much about her students' and it is evident watching her in the classroom.

I feel very encouraged after watching this video about an amazing teacher who puts her heart into her work. I love how she said that, "empowering the students' is so important". That is definitely true and it is shown true by watching her in the classroom. The students' appear to enjoy learning and helping their fellow peers. I would love to have as much passion as Vikki does. She is very inspiring!

My Reaction to "Mr Winkle Wakes"

Mr. Winkle Wakes was interesting at the beginning of this short video. It is definitely true how much times have changed over the last 100 years. The technology in offices and hospitals has increased much over the years to say the least. There are computers and machines everywhere today. As the video progressed to Mr. Winkle going into a school and being comfortable because it was the same as it was 100 years ago, I thought what was being said was simply not completely true.

Schools today are steadily increasing the amount of technology they use with the children. When I went to LSU, I tutored at a local public school, and it was full of computers for the teachers and children to use, as well as SMART Boards for the teachers to use to teach the children. Schools are realizing that students' need much more stimulation that a chalkboard to get and keep their attention. In my opinion and many others, kids' brains today are programed differently than they were years ago before TV and video games. Children require much more stimulation or they get bored. I know more schools would use technology if they had the funding, but I believe slowly they will all get the technology they need to teach the kids' productively. So overall, I was not thrilled with the video Mr. Winkle Wakes.

My thoughts on "Did You know?"

To start off, I absolutely love random facts. This video was right up my alley. It captured my undivided attention after the first 30 seconds. I had no idea that "China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world." As fact after fact came across my computer screen, I became more interested in what would be coming up next. At first I had problems keeping up with all the facts. Truthfully, I had to watch the video twice and I still do not remember many of the facts.

This video was incredibly fascinating. It made me think back to when my family first got a cell phone, computer, and when the Internet became a staple in my home. After each random fact I would think about how it related to me. For example, the facts about the Google search engine, and how many search are done on it monthly. In 2006 I was in my first year of college, going into second year, and that was the time when I really began using Google, and now I use Google many times a day. I see how there could be 31 billion searches in a month on Google today, as opposed to the 2.27 billion in 2006. This was an extremely informative video that I feel I could watch many times before I finally grasp all the information.

All about me!

My name is Staci, and I am 21 years old. I am from Baton Rouge, LA. I attended LSU for 4 years, during which I met my best friend, who is the most amazing man in the world. We got married in May of 2008. He graduated from LSU this past may and we moved to Mobile for his job. I transferred to South Alabama to finish my schooling in elementary education. I have an amazing family back in Baton Rouge that I miss dearly, but I am very happy here in Alabama. I have 2 nieces (20 months old and 8 months old), and 2 identical twin nephews that are just 3 weeks old (they were born at just 28 weeks as opposed to the normal 40; they are tiny but doing well). All of these babies have my heart and are a huge part of my life. I am truly an extremely happy person, and I simply love life!