Podcast

         During the last couple of weeks, I have been listening to the podcast titled, Math Dude: Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easy. The narrator, Jason Marshall, explains math issues and problems in a way that is fun and entertaining not just for kids, but adults too. Most of his podcast are between 5 and 8 minutes. This is a great length so that people do not loose interest during one podcast, but can still grasp a good amount of information. He will do his lessons in a series. For example, a series that really stood out to me was one on “How to Memorize Numbers.” This section was divided into 3 parts. Each part of the section helps you understand and implement techniques a little further. 

In this section he makes the task of memorizing numbers exciting because he uses a real life analogy to help you understand. He has the listener understand the importance of memorization by having them imagine that they are a “secret math agent” who is able to save the world by deactivating a bomb, the only problem is they have to memorize a ten digit number code to do so. This fun aspect of the podcast is what makes it exciting to listen to with each episode.

He introduced the Mnemonic Major System in this series. To the right is a picture 

with how this system is supposed to work. Although there is a lot of aspects to it, he describes it in a way that makes sense. In order to memorize numbers, you are turning digits into consonant sounds. Websites such as PhoneticMnemonic and Rememberg are great resources to help understand this as well. You learn the basics of this process in Part 1.To the right is a chart of what the numbers typically represent, although it is just as beneficial to make up your own system. Once you begin listening to Part 2 and 3, it becomes more clear how to put the technique into action. He begins to give example and sample problems to the listener. He then shows how vowels can be integrated to help make a word. An example he uses is the number 123. The number 123 would equal to d-n-m. If you add the vowels i and e to this, you could make the word d-e-n-i-m. 

I have also been listening to the podcast titled Science: New Teacher Survival Guide. The narrator, Christie Bohman is from the Ohio Resource Center and her podcast is directed towards all teachers, not just first year teachers. She only has a total  of 7 episodes but they are very informative and specific. Most of her episodes are fairly long, the longest being 25 minutes. Initially, it sounds as though her podcast was strictly for teachers in the state of Ohio because it discusses the Ohio state assessments in particular for quite some time. However, in the end they are still very beneficial for getting teaching tips. 

There is a lot of tips on how to help students prepare for assessments in general even though they are using sample questions from the Ohio state tests. For example, she discusses that it would be a good idea to give students a problem that may come up in science, then give them the answer. Once you give them the answer, they need to reflect, analyze, and write in their science journals why that answer is correct and why the other answers are wrong. This is changing the cognitive demand of the questions they will be getting on the test helping them to think cognitively and grasp concepts better. She gives a lot of other great examples as well in Episode 1. 

In further episodes, she even goes into more specifics. For example, she discusses doing science in a lab. She talks about where to get data sheets and materials necessary to run a successful lab experiment with students. The most specific podcast I listened to was about Plants and Animals. She gives tips on how to incorporate real plants and animals into your classroom. She mentions that the standards say that hands-on learning is a necessity, but also mentions how to do this safely and appropriately.