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Georgia Educators Workshop How to Use Podcasts for School

A two-day workshop in Northern Georgia brought dozens of teachers together for tutorials on the potential of podcasts as educational tools, including how to create them and incorporate them into lessons.

photo of microphone and desk for podcast recording
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(TNS) — Students "are always looking for more engaging ways to learn, and we're always looking for more engaging ways to present" content, said Kate Orr, a math teacher at Dalton Junior High School. Podcasts are an ideal means for curriculum instruction and engagement, and "I'll never ask my kids to do something I won't do myself."

That's why Orr was one of roughly 40 Dalton Public Schools and Whitfield County Schools teachers who attended a two-day podcasting workshop at the Mack Gaston Community Center earlier this month. And, in a twist on the typical school format, students had a major hand in teaching the course.

"They've done a phenomenal job," said Alli Wagner, an eighth-grade language arts teacher at the junior high. "They catch onto technology so quickly, and they show me" how to do it.

It's a valuable lesson for teachers to be willing to learn from students, too, Wagner said.

"It shows them we're still learning — still willing to learn — as adults."

"I had minimal experience" with podcasting prior to this workshop, but thanks to the tips from students as well as instruction from her children, Stephannie Bramlett is rapidly becoming more comfortable with podcasts, said the biology, anatomy and physiology instructor at The Dalton Academy. Her children "enjoy teaching mom, and this was a really beneficial workshop for me."

Wagner listens to plenty of podcasts, and she knows how enthusiastic many Dalton Public Schools students are about them, she said.

"They all talk about the podcasts Amanda Triplett does with her students."

The 40 teachers learned how to create their own podcasts, help students build their podcasts, and incorporate podcasts into their curriculum, said Triplett, the audio, visual, technology and film instructor, school publicist and webmaster at Dalton Junior High School who led the workshop.

"Podcasting can connect to every content area, (if) they choose to do it."

Bramlett led her students in a letter-writing campaign steeped in research this school year regarding various ethical concerns in biology, and she hopes to turn that endeavor into podcasts by her students next school year, she said.

"It gives them a voice, and I want to incorporate more technology in class so they can explore science in an engaging way."

Wagner believes her students will be "more engaged" in class if she incorporates podcasting, so "I really want to bring it into my classroom," she said. Next school year she plans to turn her informational unit into a podcast opportunity so "students will pick a topic they're interested in, then share it with classmates."

And she appreciates podcasts because students still have to write in order to complete a podcast, she said.

"They're writing, and they can be creative, so (podcasting) lets you work on a lot of tools."

Doing her own podcast illustrated for Orr "how many skills you have to have," she said. "It's not just reading and editing, but writing and listening. Does it flow? Does it keep people engaged?"

Wagner and a couple of other teachers grouped together to create their own podcast during the workshop, and they focused on the power of words in communication, she said.

"Words can have such an impact on you, and on those around you."

Orr acknowledged "math is one of the most difficult content areas to create a podcast for," but her group constructed a podcast highlighting the applications of math in real life, she said.

"Math is included everyday in our lives."

She fully supports Speak Up Whitfield, the effort to involve students and schools in podcasting, including a county-wide competition, she said.

"It really gets our community involved."

More than 100 students from Dalton Middle School, as well as students from Whitfield County Schools' Eastbrook Middle School, North Whitfield Middle School and Westside Middle School, produced 42 podcasts that made the final round of Speak Up Whitfield for 2020-21.

Community judges — Lynsey Bethel, president of the Dalton Education Foundation; Amanda Brown, executive director of the Creative Arts Guild; Curtis Callaway, communications director for Shaw Industries; Shaka Cobb, a parent of a student in Dalton Public Schools who has journalism experience; and Will Davis, an instructor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he directs the PodLab — listened to the podcasts and scored them, with winners announced during a ceremony at the Creative Arts Guild last spring.

Teachers who learned from the workshop will share their knowledge with other teachers at their schools, Bramlett said.

"We'll talk with our colleagues and urge them to try this, too."

©2022 The Daily Citizen (Dalton, Ga.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.