This was an exciting one!
Caoimhe and I first started talking about recording podcasts as a project idea back in the fall. With her Grade 7 class starting their unit on Ancient Rome, now was the time to put our planning into action. Caoimhe wanted a fun way for her students to report on the different aspects of life, and the impacts Rome has had on our understanding of the modern world. She kept the content criteria loose — the students would record a podcast as Romans on a topic that most piqued their interest: Roman architecture, daily life in Ancient Rome, the culture of food, etc.
How Now Brown Cow? 🤪
Whenever we start a podcast lesson with students, we make sure to everyone to loosen up a bit. I find that tongue twisters are a great way to wake the class up, get them laughing, and prepare their lips for expert articulation! Especially after a post-lunch haze.
Caoimhe, who is Irish, had a clear advantage with one of the deceptively difficult tongue twisters: I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch. The rest of the class (and I) struggled mightily. 😂
Anatomy of a Podcast 🩻
After our lips were loosey-goosey, we listened to a few of our favourite podcasts, during which the class listened as a group for answers to our anatomy of a podcast handout. Check our favourite podcasts for the classroom in Vol. 23. When Silent Reading Becomes Active Listening 🎧.
As we debriefed, I had a handful of students share their observations. One student noticed that some of the podcasts had sponsors and asked if it would make sense for their podcasts to have sponsors. Ancient Rome podcast sponsors? The beauty of this project is that it’s all hypothetical! Podcasts didn’t exist in ancient Rome, so why couldn’t they include sponsors too?! I encouraged them to be as creative as they can, just making sure that the context and facts of life were true to the era.
Later in the lesson, I overheard a group recording their podcast on food and dining,
“Today's podcast is sponsored by Yello Fresh. Try our new Julius Caesar salad!"
Incredible! 🤩
Recording 🎙️
Next, we discussed what makes a good recording. The class brought up a few things to be mindful of.
- Speak at a consistent volume
- Speak clearly
- Practice a few times to get the right pace with your partner
To actually do the recording, we chose Twisted Wave. There are plenty of apps available to record audio. We like Twisted Wave because it’s quick, convenient, and can be used in-browser. It doesn’t require anything to be installed, nor does it require students to log-in! If you’re going to use Twisted Wave in your class, we recommend getting your students to save their files to Google Drive after every recording session.
Are you ready to record? Tell your an educator you know by sharing this post with them! 🙌
One group realized the in-line mic on their headphones produced noisy recordings as it lay on their desk. Microphones are super sensitive and can pick up even the smallest movements, like moving the cable closer or further from one’s face or slight even vibrations through the desk. One group asked for some masking tape, and next thing I knew, they had MacGyvered a mic stand out of a water bottle! After a few iterations, they discovered the quality of the recording sounded better when the mic was taped to the side, as opposed to the top. The idea spread quickly through the class
Makeshift Mic Stands
You don’t always need the perfect equipment set up or work environments. Students are adaptable and are quite good at working with what they’ve got!
Podcast Artwork 🖼️
The last step of this project came a couple weeks later. A podcast isn’t complete without artwork to catch a prospective listener's eye! We love to complete this step in Canva, plus there’s a huge collection of templates to choose from.
The class put their podcast covers together and added music into their projects pretty quickly. Their topics ranged from food and delicacies, money and currency, and the Gods and Goddesses of Beverly Hills err… Ancient Rome.
After only 45 minutes, most of the class had some pretty solid looking Podcast Covers to go along with their recordings. Lots of creative use of different fonts and images. Sponsors were era appropriate, hilarious and imaginative! Think about what this class could produce if they had even more time!
Next Time 🔄
Caoimhe has plans for the students to swap projects and collect feedback and ideas, before making iterations and improvements. We’d love to see what the class could do if they were asked to follow this episode up with another in the same style. Perhaps the podcast series could stretch the entire school year? Maybe even extend into the library or be made available for families to download. If this inspires you to create podcasts in your class, think about who the audience might be for your students. 💫
Chill Beats to Study To 📚
Back when we were hosting virtual happy hours for teachers, we put together a pretty great playlist of music to play as people trickled into the meet. The summer weather in Vancouver has us revisiting the playlist! Play it while your students come in after lunch or quietly during working blocks.
It slaps! 🎸