Blog Assignment #4

Langwitches, is such an inspiring blog! It's so amazing to see that such young children know how to podcast and blog. It's just incredible how our education is evolving from when I was in Elementary School.

1st Graders Create Their Own Read-Along Audiobook

The first post I read was, 1st Graders Create Their Own Read-Along Audiobook. I thought the concept of this post was a really neat idea. Ms. Tolisano used a book called, Dinosaurs Before Dark, from the series, The Magic Treehouse, and turned it into an ebook so student could read along. This is such a fun way for students to learn how to read. It's also extremely helpful for students to continue learning at home. By creating the ebook, it makes it easy for parents to download it onto an IPod, IPad, IPhone, or computer at home. Doing this makes the students excited to learn how to read. I think it helps them pay attention, and gives them a better understanding of what they're reading. It's a great tool to help them correlate the words they hear with the spelling. This is something I really want to do with my class one day.

Podcasting With First Grade

The second post of Mr. Tolisano’s that I read was called, ”Podcasting with First Grade.” In this podcast, the students were to “interview” the main character of the story, Vacation Under the Volcano, by Mary Pope Osbourne. The main characters of the story that the students were interviewing were Jack and Annie. The story was about their adventure to Pompeii. While reading the post, I was shocked at how comfortable the children seemed to be podcasting. I remember when I was in elementary school I was terrified to do the morning announcements. It was so cute how excited the children were to podcast. Ms. Tolisano had the students create the "script" based of the questions and answers they came up with. Then they got to play the role of either Jack or Annie. Ms. Tolisano said the students loved hearing their voices being recorded. I thought this was such a fun and creative way to get kids involved in learning, while still be educational.

Flat Stanley Podcast
Ms. Tolisano had her students read, "Flat Stanley," by Jim Brown. In the story, Stanley gets squished by a bulletin board. Since he is flat, Stanley can now go anywhere in the world through the mail. Ms. Tolisano had her students pretend that they flattened Stanley with a Smartboard. She then had her students make their own Flat Stanleys to send around the world. The students got to choose wherever they wanted, and then they would tell all about their adventure in a podcast. After the student chose a location, they had to rent a book from the library, and learn about that place. Just like the students in the above posts, they were extremely excited to hear their own voices. This is such a great learning tool that incorporates so many different skills.