Tech Task #7: Pod Casts

    After scrolling through a few different lists of great podcasts for the classroom I have selected the podcast, "But Why?" This podcast would be a great resource to use in the classroom as a way to supplement the lessons that have already been planned. I can see this podcast being a great option to have on sick days when a substitute teacher has to be called into class. 


    This podcast focusses on answering all of the "but why?" questions that students have, "But why do cactuses have spikes? Do animals get married? Are unicorns real?" These are just a few of the questions that this podcast answers. The nature of this podcast encourages students to explore the world around them and ask those hard to answer questions. This podcast is teaching students that all questions have answers, some may be harder to find than others. 

    If anyone has ever worked with or babysat a toddler then they know the importance of those, "but why?" questions. This stage usually occurs in children around age 2, they know how to communicate with you and they become interested in the world around them. It is almost like they got caught in a loop of repeatedly asking "why?" Many people get frustrated with children at this stage and tell them "because I said so!" then walk away without answering the questions. We teach our children not to ask these types of questions, to not question their world and just accept it the way it is. 

    As someone who has spent many years working in childcare I know how exhausting the "why?" question is. It seems that no matter how many answers you come up with there is always another question, you wonder if they are even still listening to you after about the sixth or seventh why and it is hard not to get frustrated. However, if we successfully taught every child to stop asking why we would no longer have scientists, historians, mathematicians and all the different people who help us understand our world, our future and our past. 

    This podcast
encourages students to send in their "but why?" questions so that they can be considered for future episodes. It also includes free resources with every episode. The resources range from work sheets to experiments to coloring pages or recipes, just different ways to help encourage deeper thinking about the topic and promote more curiosity in young students. 

    This podcast is available through Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music and NPR one. All of the free resources can be found online at VPR. 

https://www.vpr.org/programs/why-podcast-curious-kids 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #7: Make learning Joyful

     This week we had the opportunity to listen to Dean Shareski's presentation about making learning a joyful experience.  He spoke about incorporating surprise and delight into our lesson plans to help make learning a more joyful and memorable experience. As Dean said towards the end of his presentation, "Don't postpone Joy."      While in my first placement I was chatting with the divisional numeracy coach about her youngest son. Laughing she told me "yeah my son has reached that age where school isn't fun anymore." At the time I had laughed even though it had made me sad. Her son is in grade two, he is seven years old and already there is a lack of joy in his daily life. Having worked in a few different day cares I have always loved seeing how completely excited the kids are to start kindergarten. "Dad says this many more sleeps until I go to school Katrina!" is what one student said to me holding up 7 little finger covered in dirt from the...
Read more

Blog #4: Electronic waste

Image
       It is not uncommon to run recycling programs in schools, encouraging students to collect plastic bags, bottles or cans. We spend a lot of time talking about the environmental impact of garbage and discussing with students how they can lessen their footprint on the world. We encourage students to be good citizens and be respectful to each other and their environment, but do we ever talk to them about the environmental impact of their technology use?      I remember in my first few years of school doing basic research projects using dictionaries and encyclopedias. By grade three my school list included floppy disks and I could tell my teachers were uncomfortable with using the computers. Often times they would save our projects for us rather than show us how. I remember being taken out of class in groups and sat in front of computers while the TA read from a script, "click this icon 2 times to open up the internet." By the time I was in 6th grade ...
Read more

Blog #2: Digital Inequities

Image
          The Q&A discussion that followed the presentation given by Kristen Thompson started a conversation about digital divides among students. The majority of the families in Mb who live in rural communities or in northern communities often struggle to access adequate internet connections or on occasion any connection at all. This is not a new issue but due to the current pandemic caused by Covid-19 this issue has become much more visible.       In 2016 The United Nations declared access to the internet a basic human right. For comparison other basic human rights include a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of the person or family. This right specifically references food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services. Access to the internet is comparable to access to these things. Karl Bode quotes the United Nations in his article The case for internet access as a human right saying th...
Read more