Podcast - Grace Corrigan, Mother of Christa McAuliffe, at 2008 International Teachers Space Camp

Hello. Today's podcast is a presentation from the 2008 International Teacher Space Camp by Grace Corrigan (mother of Astronaut Christa McAuliffe). It is great presentation about the life of Christa and what it meant for her to represent teachers in space. I was not aware until listening to Grace that Christa was a history teacher and had a very interesting approach to how she taught history to her students.

Grace also gave us a copy of her book - A Journal for Christa. I have started it and highly recommend it to all teachers.

Direct link to Podcast #155 - Grace Corrigan, Mother of Christa McAuliffe at 2008 International Teachers Space Camp - MP3 Audio File

Zune in My Classroom Presentation at National Education Computing Conference in San Antonio

Microsoft's Kathy Richardson and myself at the Zune section of the Microsoft booth at NECC.

Hello. Today's podcast is the audio from my presentation last week in San Antonio at NECC. I gave my presentation on the second day of the conference at the Microsoft booth and described the Zune pilot I completed with my 8th grade American history students. It was a busy exhibit floor at the time of the presentation and there is a lot of background noise but I think it is still audible.

The Zune pilot I completed at South Valley Junior High School - along with the pilot which took place at Fort Sumner High School in New Mexico - has been featured in an AP story which was picked up by various media outlets including CNN.

Direct link to Speaking of History Podcast #153 - Zune In My Classroom Presentation at 2008 NECC in San Antonio - MP3 Audio - 23:25 Minutes

The presentation is also available in video format thanks to Texas teacher Kyle Stevens of the Final Curve blog who recorded it and posted it to YouTube as two videos. Thanks Kyle for taping and posting the videos. I have embedded the videos below.

Presentation on eLECTIONS at San Antonio - National Education Computing Conference

Hello. Today's podcast is the audio from our eLECTIONS presentation last week at NECC in San Antonio. I co-presented this session with Frank Gallagher of Cable in the Classroom. eLECTIONS is a free online simulation in which students can play against each other or the computer and run a presidential campaign. If you teach the 2008 election you need to check out this game for use in your classroom.

The session was well attended - a full house with people standing in the back. Of course it is only the audio so there are some limitations without the visuals but I think it has value if you are interested in using the resource.

If you have any comments please feel free to leave a comment on this blog post or you can e-mail me directly at speakingofhistory@gmail.com Thanks.

Direct link to Speaking of History Podcast #152 - eLECTIONS Presentation at 2008 NECC in San Antonio - MP3 Audio - 60 Minutes

Throwing Out The First Pitch at Royals - Cardinals Game in St. Louis

This past week I was able to fulfill a lifetime dream - throwing out the first pitch at a major league game. As the 2007/2008 Missouri Teacher of the Year I was asked to throw out the first pitch at the June 18th Kansas City Royals - St. Louis Cardinals game at Busch Stadium.

Boeing - the primary sponsor for the Missouri Teacher of the Year Program - made the event possible. It was an incredible experience that I was able to share with my dad and my brother. My dad actually caught the first pitch with the Bob Feller glove he had as a child in the late 1940's.

In the podcast I describe the event - which also included a TV interview on the pre-game show, a radio interview in the 4th inning on the Cardinals radio network, a tour of the video control center for Busch Stadium and watching the game from the Best Buy suite. I have included video of the first pitch - which has been posted on You Tube and a goofy pregame interview my brother did with my dad and I.

Direct link to Speaking of History #148 - Throwing Out the First Pitch at the Royals / Cardinals Game - MP3 Audio File - 10:05 Minutes

Visit to Mr. Chamberlain's 5th Grade Classroom in Noel, Missouri

Hello. Today I have a very special podcast. I have been following the activities of William Chamberlain's 5th grade science classroom in Noel, Missouri for months on the web. Mr. C's class is an excellent example of a web 2.0 classroom using blogs, Twitter, uStream, YouTube, VoiceThread, etc. I was given the opportunity to visit a classroom as the Missouri Teacher of the Year and jumped at the chance to travel about 3 hours south to spend a morning in their class.

The podcast features a short interview with the students. The audio doesn't do justice to the energy and excitement in this classroom. I applaud Mr. Chamberlain for all his efforts in using technology the right way. Several times today while visiting with him about using technology in the classroom he stressed the point that he only chooses to implement technology in his classroom if it has a purpose in meeting his primary goal of reaching his students. Please check out Mr. C's class here.

Special thanks to Mr. C and all of this students that I met today. I hope they finish out the school year with the same energy and that they continue to use these tools in future years. I have a deep respect for Mr. C and I would love to have him teach science to my daughters. Thanks for allowing me to visit your school.

Direct link to Podcast #142 - A Visit to William Chamberlain's 5th Grade Classroom in Noel, Missouri - MP3 Audio - 17:20 Minutes

Activities at the National Teacher of the Year Ceremonies in Washington DC

Note: This entry is also posted at Eric's regular blog - Speaking of History

Hello. Today I review the week my family and I spent in Washington DC last week attending national Teacher of the Year activities. My visit to the White House and meeting President Bush was discussed in the previous podcast (Speaking of History Podcast #140) but this podcast will discuss the events which took place during the remainder of the week. I have also included numerous pictures from the week.

Direct link to Podcast #141 - Teacher of the Year Activities in Washington DC - MP3 Audio File - 16:40 Minutes

Presentation at MASL (Missouri Association of School Librarians) Conference on Our Civil War Book Blog Project

Hello. Today's podcast is the audio from a presentation I gave at the MASL (Missouri Association of School Librarians) Conference at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, Missouri on April 14, 2008. We have recently completed our Guerrilla Season book blog project - our second book blog project with this book by Pat Hughes in the past two years. I feel this project is one of my more sucessful personal applications of Web 2.0 in my own classroom.

The podcast is the audio of the presentation and is about 50 minutes in length. I do mention a wiki that has all the links to articles, sites mentioned, etc. during the presentation and that URL is listed below. I also show a short video describing the book blog project and that is available to view using the link listed below.

If you have any comments or questions about the presentation please feel free to contact me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com

Direct link to Speaking of History Podcast #137 - Hardtack to Hard Drives - The Guerrilla Season Book Blog Project - MASL Presentation - MP3 Audio Format - 56:00 minutes




Podcast #137 Show Notes:

- The Official 2008 Guerrilla Season Book Blog Project

- Wiki with links mentioned in the Hardtack to Hard Drives Presentation

- PowerPoint presentation for Hardtack to Hard Drives available on SlideShare

- Video describing the Guerrilla Season Book Blog Project

Zune MP3 Player Pilot Podcast

Hello. In today's podcast I'll be discussing an exciting new project that will take place in my classroom this semester - a student Zune pilot. Microsoft is providing each of my 25 students in my 3rd period 8th grade American History classroom a 4GB Zune to use during the spring semester. Microsoft donated these Zunes to my school district to test out this program. Our project will start on Tuesday with a parent / student meeting where the students will be given their Zunes.

I have been using different types of digital audio content in my classroom for several years. Three years ago I started to incorporate what I call "StudyCasts" - an audio review that I create and save as an MP3 file that is then posted on the Internet so that students can listen to the review in preparing for an upcoming unit test by listening at home on the Internet, downloading the file to their MP3 player or asking me to burn it to a CD for them. The introduction of the studycast has been successful but I cannot always insure that my students have 100% access to the content. In this Zune project I know that my students will not only have the MP3 device they will also leave my classroom with the content using the Zune social feature which allows me to "beam" content - in the form of audio or pictures - to their players before the leave for the day. The Zune will allow students to listen to content, view images and view video.

Listen to the podcast to learn more about how the pilot will opperate, how we will measure outcomes and how the Zune will be incorporated into the curriculum. I will also be keeping everyone updated on the progress of the Zune pilot throughout the pilot.

Please feel free to leave a comment on the blog post or e-mail directly at speakingofhistory@gmail.com I would be interested in your experiences with a Zune or if you have used the Zune in your classroom with students.

Direct link to Podcast #132 - The Student Zune Pilot at South Valley Jr. High - MP3 audio file - 9:24 minutes

Podcast Interview with MSTA's "The Pulse"

Hello. I was recently interviewed by Todd and Gail on the MSTA (Missouri State Teachers Association) podcast "The Pulse". The orignial plan was for me to drive to Columbia and do the interview live in their studio but a quick winter snow storm forced me to stay at home so we did the interview via Skype.

I am a MSTA member and very proud of what the organization has done with emerging technologies to communicate with its members - podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds and Twitter are just a few examples.

You can find the interview here as a direct link or listen on the embedded player below. If you have any comments please feel free to leave a comment on the blog post or e-mail at speakingofhistory@gmail.com