Edutopia Podcasts

I listened to "The Edible Schoolyard" and "A Night in the Global Village" on the Edutopia iTunes site. They were both extremely interesting and very insightful. The first podcast I watched was "The Edible Schoolyard". It was about sixth grade students at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California. These students have an edible schoolyard where they spend a hour each morning planting, harvesting and eating their organic delights. They have a garden and kitchen classroom where they use recipes for math lessons and outdoor activities for hands-on science lessons. The students used a pumpkin they grew to make pumpkin pies. Their teachers are trained for specifically for this particular class. The Founding Director, Fritjof Capra explains that the students are very excited and this program has taught the students to do projects together, cooperate with each other and it builds community. I enjoyed watching this podcast.

The second podcast was "A Night in the Global Village". This podcast was about Heifer Ranch in Arkansas. Several children from the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning attended this ranch as a valuable lesson taught by the instructors. The main objectives of this camp were hunger and poverty in other areas of the world through educational programs. The students, combined with an adult, drew numbers(which represented a country) and each group was given a bucket of resources. The refugee group received nothing. Some of the countries represented were Thailand, Zimbabwe, and Guatemala. During the night, conflicts arose and alliances were formed. The students said it was hard, but it made them think about how harsh some of the living conditions are for these people.

Both of these podcasts were probably the most interesting video podcasts so far this semester. I wish I would have had time to watch more of them. In the event I start teaching , I will definitely look through the various video podcasts available to teachers and students. It is a great teaching tool to be able to show students what other children are learning and experiencing across the globe. I am not sure that a teacher can pull up the website at school, because the Board of Education blocks many sites from our classroom computers. I wish we could grow an edible schoolyard at my school.

Incorporating some of these ideas into lesson plans would keep excitement in the curriculum. Sometimes children learn more from hands-on experiences and both of the pocasts proved that to be true. Sometimes textbooks aren't always the answer to learning. All teachers need to keep up with the various podcasts available to them and their students.