How the Bad Blood Started- The Structure of a Podcast

In "How the Bad Blood Started" the podcasters take on the roles of storyteller, journalist, historian, composer and producer.

The podcast began with a story of Uncle Ed. This was intended to serve as the narrative hook to introduce the theme of the podcast.

This was followed by the introduction/ theme song of the podcast.

The podcast continued with journalistic and historical content.

The Power of Music

While this was happening, the podcasters wove in media from speeches, and news clips.

All throughout the podcast there was music. Music served many roles as well. In some cases the music was in the form of instrumental tracks, sound effects or singing. In many cases the music underlaid the words that were spoken throughout the podcast and served to capture the mood of the text. Music also served to draw attention to parts of what was being said, by building suspense between moments of narrative silence. In addition the music enabled the podcaster and interviewer to bridge or transition between ideas.

There was also an interviewer that played the role of providing structure that would facilitate further narration and to provide checkpoints for the listeners.

Podcast Blueprint Worksheet

Podcasts as an Educational Tool

Podcasts are a powerful tool in the classroom. I believe that students could use a podcast to show what they know by articulating an overview of the material that they have learned. I am interested to see how I could incorporate podcasting into my classroom, by allowing students to demonstrate how the are "experts" on a particular topic. In secondary classroom, there may be more available podcasting material for students to consume!

Disney

What is your relationship to Disney culture? 

How does Christiansen validate or challenge your views?

My Childhood Era Princesses

During my childhood I strived to go to Disney. I never had the opportunity as a child, but felt envious whenever a friend or classmate would come to school with their souvenir ears and t-shirts. When I would visit the Disney store was at the Swansea Mall, my eyes would light up at the walls lined with gowns, tiaras, stuffed animals and other Disney paraphernalia. My primary Disney influences were the princesses that I watched in the movies, though I had seen most every other Disney movie also and knew their soundtracks by heart. My favorite princess was Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, though I admit that I loved all of the Disney princesses.

As a child and young adult, I was naïve to the problematic nature of the movies that were so deeply engrained in our culture. In my community we did not look at Disney movies through a critical lens, rather we sought to conform to the expectations and subservient nature that the females in these movies represented. As a young child, I accepted the "norms" that were presented to me through the media. From a young age I held myself to unrealistic expectations because of the standards that I consumed regularly through the television screen. Christensen argued that the media that targets a young audience is highly influential, however, "young people, unprotected by any intellectual armor, hear or watch these stories again and again, often from the warmth of their mothers' or fathers' laps...the stories become accepted knowledge." (Christensen, 2016, p176) This statement rings true to my experience as a consumer of Disney media. Not only was I not critiquing the impact that these characters and storylines had on me, but neither were the adults in my family. In Christensen's writing, she mentioned a Junior named Justine who wrote, "True death equals a generation living by rules and attitudes they never questioned and producing more children who do the same." This statement reminds us that each generation has to make an integral effort to make things better for ourselves and for our children. When we neglect to look at issues through a critical lens, we perpetuate the problems.

As an adult, I am glad to see that Disney is finally making efforts to create more diverse characters. However, I think that there still needs to be a lot more integration of varied storylines and characters with more varied identities.

L. Christensen. "Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us: Critiquing fairy tales and cartoons. Rethinking popular culture and media. (2016) Rethinking Schools, Ltd: Second Edition. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/katya/Downloads/RPC&M%20Textbook.pdf

"Digital Natives"?

What do you make of the (divergent) positions of Boyd and Prensky?  

Where do you stand on the “digital native” terminology?

Marc Prensky mission has emerged from his philosophies of "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants". 

Prensky argues that, “Today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.” (Boyd, 2014, pp179)

I agree with some aspects of Prensky's thinking. Below is a table that delineates skills that promote effective thinking, action and relationships. 

In a short video titled: "Unleashing the Power of 21st- Century Kids," Marc Prensky shares his ideas that, "An academic education is no longer enough for these kids. They need to accomplish in the world. That's something that they want to do and what they are doing. " He continues to share that this is "the new paradigm that is emerging in the world". There are aspects of this that I also agree with. I agree that students learning should be rooted in real-world opportunities to engage in their learning through a variety of modalities. 

Conversely I also agree with Danah Boyd in the one size does not fit all mentality. I often reflect on the teaching that I observe of others and struggle to believe that age equates wisdom or tenure equates with stronger teaching. I agree with Danah Boyd that young people (digital natives) do not necessarily know how to consume, navigate or siphon through media. She stated that, "Being exposed to information or imagery through the internet and engaging with social media do not make someone a savvy interpreter of the meaning behind these artifacts...perspective. Neither teens nor adults are monolithic, and there is no magical relation between skills and age." (Boyd, 2014, p.177)

And likewise older people (digital immigrants) are not necessarily inept in their abilities to utilize technology. She states that, "It behooves all of us to move past assumptions about today’s youth. Both adults and youth need to develop media literacy and technological skills to be active participants in our information society. Learning is a lifelong process." (Boyd, 2014, p.198)

Boyd also mentioned the notion about how students often have different opportunities to engage in technology consumption and learning depending on their privilege. (Boyd, 2014, p.180) In the community that I teach, students have more limited access to technological tools at home. As such we are often teaching our students how to navigate their Chromebooks versus the appropriate ways to consume media.

My overall stance, is more aligned with Danah Boyd on the basis that Marc Prensky is leaning to heavily on assumptions of age, and is neglecting to recognize the variants in expertise and access. 

D. Boyd. (2014). It's complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press. Retrieved from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZxLwG7Lw1-w9OvjpbyUSspSofpp6699/view 

Meet Me!

Hi! My name is Katy Carvalho. 

I am beginning next year as a second grade ESL teacher at Kevin K. Coleman Elementary in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. I was previously a first grade ESL teacher in Woonsocket, Rhode Island for two years. Prior to coming to Woonsocket I was a literacy coach for 1 year and a second grade teacher for 4 years a public charter school in Providence. 

My summer has been going very well, though we are only 5 days in! My time has been spent playing with my children Jackson (4+ months) and Riley (3 years old). Already this summer we have appealed to the playfulness and need for constant stimulation of my 3 year old. We wake up to Paw Patrol each morning and then venture for an activity of the day. Just this weekend we spent the rainy Saturday morning at the Providence Children's Museum. We also celebrated Riley's 3rd Birthday with family and friends at Riley's "Castle"/ tree fort. 

RILEY'S 3rd BIRTHDAY PARTY 🎈

RILEY'S "CASTLE"