Blog Post 5

 It's Story Time With Mrs. Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's Podcast

Grab a teddy bear and get tucked into bed because this time Mrs. Tolisano's first grade class class will be concluding our evening with bedtime stories! This storytime is brought to you by Langwitches, a very creative blog centered around global learning, twenty-first century technology, literature, and digital storytelling.

Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley's story? It starts with Stanley walking down a school hallway before he is suddenly flattened by a falling bulletin board. Ouch! That's hurts! As a result, he was flat enough to fit inside of an envelope and ship where ever he wanted to explore.
Wait...Stanley was able to go anywhere after his sender paid a couple of dollars? I'm jealous! I have to pay several dollars just to put gas in my car, and he gets to explore the world for five dollars?!

Okay, so I'm probably telling this Flat Stanley story very badly, but Mrs. Tolisano's first grade class told it better in Langwitches's Flat Stanley Podcast. All of the students were flattened by their classroom's Smartboard like the way Stanley was flattened by the bulletin board. Mrs. Tolisano used sound effects to insinuate shrinking her students to be flat like Stanley. She sent her students away, asking them to describe their location. They used their senses and each student described their location. Storytime has gotten so much more fun because I heard stories about London, Antarctica, Alabama, space, Israel, Tokyo, and other places without even leaving my bed sheets.

Morale of the Story Number 1) I listened a podcast about English rules once and I must admit, sound matters. Sound effects like those in a movie or in a play create a mood. I should incorporate them into my podcast.

Now the next story for bedtime might put you to sleep because it wasn't in English.

In Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting, her second grade students learned Purim with their Jewish studies teacher and recorded it speaking Hebrew. The students performed skilfully, joyfully, and rhythmically. It kind of reminded me why I prefer to watch my anime in Japanese. Mrs. Tolisano emphasized that her projects are not centered around using Garageband, a recording tool. Her lesson was about writing a script, listening, comprehension, collaboration, and fluency in learning a new language. Her goal was to motivate students to create and be creative. By the way, you won't fall asleep because the way the young students performed was miraculous!

Morale of the Story Number 2) Music should be in every podcast. Without music, it's just bland voices and a  message to get across. Like sound effects, music sets a mood and a tone.

In our last story, my personal favorite, Mrs.Tolisano's first grade class found out about another second grade class that recorded a story to create a podcast that went worldwide. Mrs. Tolisano allowed them to each take turns recording Vacation Under the Volcano (a Magic Tree House book). All of the students were enthusiastic in describing Pompeii and their story went worldwide!

Morale of the Story Number 3)
I need energetic seven-year-olds in my podcast. I'm just kidding.

No...I'm actually not kidding. I think those kids would blow my performance away.

In that case, I need an energetic, positive attitude for my podcast that matches my music and sound effects. Lastly and most importantly, I have to compose a valuable story that I have a passion for telling. That's what making podcast is all about!