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21S In Action

Terrytown Elementary ESL Teacher Engages Students and Their Families Using Podcasts

Terrytown Elementary English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher Teresita Diaz is getting her fourth and fifth grade students excited about reading, research, writing and speaking using podcasts.

During the summer of 2007, Teresita attended a technology training workshop offered by the Jefferson Parish Public School System, where she learned to create Power Point presentations and podcasts. "It was just a little workshop that we did over the summer and I was so excited to learn about all of this information, I wanted to use it in my classroom.", said Ms Diaz.

Ms. Diaz's beginning, intermediate and advanced ESL students are using their writing and social studies assignments to create podcasts, which are published on the school's eBoard site, where teachers, school administrators and family members can listen to the students speaking English and send "iNotes" back to the students.

"To our surprise we got a lot of response from families out of the country who hadn't seen their grandchildren, or great-grandchildren for a long time. It was very emotional because it wasn't just a typical picture or a letter, they got to hear their grandchild speaking, and speaking English and how well they were progressing with the language. We had a great success. We had administrators write back, we had the ESL department, teachers from other schools wanted to know how can we do this.", said Ms Diaz.

The students are excited and engaged in the project. Ms. Diaz said, "This is something new, its something that the students like to do. They feel like celebrities. At first they are shy and they think 'oh my goodness, I'm so embarrassed'. Then they started telling everyone that they are on eBoard and all over the world. Its definitely affirmation because during our snack break they say 'can you see if we've gotten any iMessages?', 'Can we listen to our podcasts' and they get so excited when somebody sends them an iNote saying 'oh I heard your podcast, how wonderful' ".

The students are also getting their families engaged and excited. For those who don't have computers at home, the students are taking their parents to the library, a coffee house, a neighbor's house, or to a friend with a business, to listen to their podcasts.

The administration asked Ms. Diaz to make a presentation to other ESL teachers, so that they can incorporate podcasting into their lessons. Ms. Diaz would like to get students involved as early as kindergarten, working on letter sounds. Ms. Diaz would also like to incorporate vodcasting and is also planning to purchase an iPod so that she and her students can create recordings and podcasts on their field trips.

To get a copy of her Podcasting tutorial click here.

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