Let me begin by telling you how INTIMIDATED I was to start the sandbox this week!  In the end it was fun and not half as bad as I imagined!

I first reviewed a podcast titled “Why are Whales so Big”.  The podcast began and ended with music that sounded very adventurous which went with the theme of the curious kids podcast. The Author Jane Lindholm is a marine biologist who interviewed a paleontologist Nick Pyenson.  Very informative and even I honestly learned a lot.  Whales are very closely related to hoofed mammals.  From fossils it is believed that whales lived on land with 4 legs.  Received several enlightening and some very cute questions for the paleontologist from different young children listeners.  

Then I jumped into all of the suggested sites:  

Vocaroo-I recorded a short intro when beginning my journey this week.

https://voca.ro/1c0Hd4AG9qwY.  I liked Vocaroo because it was the only thing on the page and required you to start whether you were ready or not.  I also explored the website online voice recorder which was basically the exact same thing as Vocaroo.    

Voki

https://tinyurl.com/2bwn9jr5

This tool was awesome and my FAVORITE  tool this week.  I customized the character in this to be a horse.  I chose a horse because they are my daughters favorite.  I changed her eye color to green, and mouth to pink.  I changed the background so that it looked like she was in a field with other horses standing out.  You can also change the character’s voice.This could be such a cute tool for reading.  Reading requires us to use our imagination and this could really tell a book report from a students perspective.  I can also see my high school boys having a ball with this in class just for fun. My only drawback from this one was that it makes you pay for a subscription.  Certain characters are not allowed unless paid for, I originally chose a unicorn and she was not allowed unless I was a premium member.

Audiopal confused me because it took me directly to envato which required a login for a free trial.  I downloaded one of the songs but was afraid to use it due to copyright.  It would be a cute song for an intro for a podcast.

I liked speakpipe because it immediately showed me how it was used from listening to my podcast about whales in the beginning.  Several listeners were featured by asking the paleontologist questions.  All the listeners had to do would be click onto speakpipe and upload their audio question and it could be immediately used in the podcast..   

I didn’t try clyp because it required a paid subscription.

As far as music for podcasts.  It looks like we are doing images all over again, which I like!  It listed creative commons and pixabay as having free music to use for a podcast.  I also looked into chrome music lab which allows you to create your own music and that was intimidating for me and I honestly didn’t even know where to start.

A Podcast could be used in a station rotation for small groups in math.  Students could listen to the podcast while I am helping other students.  This podcast could give step by step instructions.  It could also be used in a flipped classroom as homework for students to listen to outside of the classroom.  Podcasts in the library could be extremely beneficial.  A school librarian could do podcasts for books.  This would be super helpful for students as they are trying to decide which book to read.  School librarians could also post podcasts from authors to give reinforcement for book choices.  The podcasts suggested from book riot would be funny for some but also very informative when choosing books as a librarian.  

Reference

Lindholm, J. (Host).  (2020, October 23).  Why are whales so gig? [Audio Podcast Episode].  In But Why:  A podcast for curious kids.  Listen Notes.  https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/but-why-a-podcast/why-are-whales-so-big-Co52aiGdVEI/