Skip to main content

Podcasts & Pedometers PD!



In a previous post, I wrote about how our district was trying "choice sessions" for our monthly district-wide PD days. One of the choice sessions we offered was a "Podcast & Pedometers" session. 

 I LOVE listening to podcasts, and I think they are a great way to learn and really push yourself to think deeper, and sometimes differently, about topics that interest you. One of the first podcasts that I started listening to regularly was the Google Teacher (Tribe) Podcast with Matt Miller and Kasey Bell. One of the best things about that podcast was that I always learned something new, and sometimes I even learned about an idea that I could try that same day in class. I thought it would be awesome if our teachers could learn more about a topic related to education, and then they could share out their learning with each other. 

 While I have seen many Twitter posts about districts trying out this type of PD, I got most of the ideas for ours from a blog post written by Merideth Akers (click here to read). I created a Google Site page to house all of the information and resources for this session. The video below was embedded at the top of the page in order to be a guide and to walk teachers through the steps of this session.



Podcast Choice Board


 One of the resources on the page was a Podcast Choice Board created by Meredith Akers. I modified it a little bit in order to include different podcasts and episodes. You can click here to make a copy. 

Teachers could choose any podcast or episode they wanted, even if it wasn't on the choice board. The only real requirement was that their choice had to be something that would benefit their students, staff, or the school as a whole.
Learning Reflection

 In order to get PD credit for this session, they had to complete a Learning Reflection that answered the following four questions:
  1. Which podcast did I listen to?
  2. Why did I choose this podcast?
  3. What were my 5 key takeaways?
  4. How will I use what I have learned?

The Learning Reflection was a Google Slide presentation. Below is an example of one of the templates they could choose to use. (I found this design on the Slides Mania website.) You can make a copy by clicking here. 


I also created a video to walk them through the four questions. 



Submitting the Reflection


 The final step was for teachers to submit their learning reflections in a Google Form embedded on the webpage. Below the form, I embedded the spreadsheet generated by the form so that anyone in the session could access the links and read any of the reflections. I thought this was a good way for teachers to learn more about what different people are interested in, and it could also be a jumping-off point for collaboration if several teachers chose to learn about the same topic. You can view the form by clicking here. 

I really enjoyed reading the learning reflections, and it was awesome to learn more about each teacher's passions and challenges in the classroom! Have you ever tried using podcasts in a PD session? I would love to hear about it?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Create an Instagram Story!

One day on Twitter, I came across a tweet from Ryan O'Donnell ( @creativeedtech ) in which he shared a Facebook template that could be used for students to demonstrate their learning. I clicked on the link to his website , and I was AMAZED at all the cool templates he had created for teachers to use for free!  I decided to try using an Instagram template during a unit on the planets in our solar system. I wanted students to demonstrate what they learned about the different planets, but I wanted them to do it in a creative way.  Here are the directions I gave to my students: Here are some student examples: Student Example #1 Student Example #2 Student Example #3 Student Example #4 I really enjoyed this activity, and I love how students familiar with hashtags were able to create and use them in clever ways! If I was to go back and do this again, I would spend some time working with students less familiar with social media and hashtags and give them some...
2 comments
Read more

First Week of School

We just wrapped up our first week of school! I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know our new 5th grade students! Here are some of the activities we did to start building our classroom culture and learn more about each other: "All About Me" Google Drawing Students learned how to use some of the basic features of Google Drawings by creating a Drawing about themselves. The basic requirements were that they include their name, a picture of themselves, and text/images that describe their personalities or interests. I created an example to give them an idea of what it could look like.  I used this activity last year, and I really enjoyed what my students created. However, I decided this year to give them more time to just play with and explore the tools in Google Drawing. I feel like this really paid off because students were able to discover how to use some of the tools and share with each other instead of just relying on me to show them how to use it.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Don't Use Coaches as "Fixers"

  "It is tempting to ask coaches to work only with teachers who seem to be having difficulties with instruction or classroom management. We discourage this "fixer" approach to coaching for several reasons. First, if coaches are perceived as working only with those who struggle, other teachers may not reach out to coaches for support. Second, the coaching relationship becomes less about providing support for all teachers and more about remediation, in which only "struggling" teachers are assigned to the coach." - Jacy Ippolito and Rita M. Bean Based on the conversations I've had with coaches, this seems to be a common challenge. Coaches often struggle to get teachers to volunteer for coaching cycles because teachers don't want to be viewed as someone who needs coaching - like it's a negative thing. However, the truth is that ALL educators can benefit from good coaching. I think this is why it is important to try to c reate a diverse coaching ros...
1 comment
Read more