Nowa Techie

At the beginning of this school year, I had GRAND plans for sketchnoting. And I failed. My plan was to have 49 Mystery Hangouts where students would learn about the states and keep a journal where they sketchnoted their information. Yeah, that didn’t go as planned.

But sketchnoting is still on my mind. As the year ends it’s a great time to try new things. Experiment. We all do it. That’s when I decided to introduce my students to podcasts. I have a plan to have my students podcast next year, but in order to do that, they have to know what a podcast is. While they won’t get to start a podcast this year, it will help me work out some of the kinks for next year.

I went on a search for an engaging podcast: something fun. After listening to Check This Out podcast with Brian Briggs and Ryan O’Donnell talk about podcasts for kids and tweens, I ‘checked out’ (see what I did there?) Kids Listen. Kids Listen lists great podcasts for kids. The subjects include science, history, stories, and creativity. I settled on The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel. This podcast is an adventure story about Mars Patel and his friends, some of whom mysteriously go missing and the adults don’t seem to be worried. After listening to one episode, the students were hooked!

This is where I brought in sketchnoting. One complaint I hear over and over from teachers in my school/district is that the kids just don’t listen. I agree. The CELDT scores would also concur. By drawing the story, what they envision, they are forced to use different parts of their brain and listen. At first, a few students liked it but wanted to watch the episode. I explained that there wasn’t anything TO watch. They were not fans of this. However, by the end of the second episode, I didn’t hear any complaints. Some students had no problem drawing. Others listed the events in a note-taking style without any drawings. Others listed events and placed the notes in bubbles.

This has been a great activity. They come in each day asking if we are going to listen to Mars Patel. I have to beg them not to listen on their own and go ahead. Others have settled on finding other podcasts they can listen to. I am thrilled, and excited, by their response and the possibilities. Next year, I plan to incorporate podcasts into my lessons more often.