Audible in Elementary

Do you remember listening to books on tape when you were younger? My classrooms never had listening centers but I found an old listening center complete with gigantic blue headphones for my first classroom. The center was well loved but being tethered to the center made it tough for all the listeners to read along with the book.

Now, that my students are older I've found Audible.com to be a great resource. One of the best parts of Audible is the availability of chapter books. The class has read along to Junie B., Jack and Annie, and many other famous titles. They improve fluency and can move about the room with their own headphones and an ipod or mp3 player. Audible is a great 21st century update to the cassette tape listening centers. 

Adapter:A media conversion review

One warm Colorado day this past summer, I recorded over two hours worth of audio for my classroom. I was so proud. It would save precious instructional time by allowing my 3's to listen to their assignment freeing me up for small group instruction with the 1's or 2's. My dreams were crushed when multiple audio hosting sites didn't work out. I eventually ended up burning the audio to a cd. It worked but the skipping ahead and going back options were less than optimal. And then I met Adapter.

Adapter converts audio files quickly. All I had to do was drag and drop my files. I converted my wma files into mp3 and then dropped the files into my class iPods. Now the 3's are all set to complete their dictation assignments independently. 

What Ramona Quimby can teach us about VoiceThread

Our class has been reading about Henry Huggins and his pesky neighbor Ramona Quimby. In the latest chapter, Ramona's tv idol, Sheriff Bud, said her name on air and told her to stop pestering Henry. The class was as shocked as Ramona. Sheriff Bud said her name! So what does that have to do with VoiceThread? VoiceThread is a site that allows users to post a file and comment on it. Comments can be audio or video. The file can then be shared and those users can also comment on it. While sharing this site with my PLC someone made the recommendation for book reports to be done this way. When kids need to find a new book, they can look and listen through the Voice Threads and hear recommendations, plus add their own comments. Sheriff Bud endorsed products every day on his program and Ramona told her mom to purchase those products. Voice Thread book reports would make great recommendations too.