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Public Radio at International School of Beijing

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Public Radio at International School of Beijing

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Inspired by organizations like National Public Radio in the United States, Futures Public Radio provides an authentic community voice for all International School of Beijing students, empowering them through creativity, literacy skills, and real-world, local and global investigations. We embrace our roles as truth seekers and engaged, civic journalists who work to best serve and inform our community.

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Grade 8--This I Believe Essays from Bahrain

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Grade 8--This I Believe Essays from Bahrain

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RVIS Students with William Yung
former SIS Teacher/Librarian

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Curated by Keri-Lee Beasley

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It is not uncommon to see Middle Schoolers with earbuds in their ears, but how many of them have been encouraged to explore the podcasting genre?

For the past few years, teachers Ceci Gomez-Galvez and Nathan Lill at Shekou International School in China, have implemented a podcast project with their Grade 8 students based on the popular NPR podcast series " This I Believe. "

Students listen and respond to a range of "This I believe" examples - both from the original podcast and samples from previous students - and then undertake the process of creating their own.

Attending a workshop with the pair last year, I couldn't help but feed off their passion and excitement for the project. Listening to some of the finished student samples gave me chills. What phenomenal work students produce when given a platform to (literally!) share their own voice with the world.

Ceci and Nathan have shared all of their resources ( linked here with permission), so I encourage you to check out the vast array of material they have shared and get this project started in your school community.

In addition, why not incorporate podcasts into your regular literacy programme? Below are a few of my favourites, which I hope you will explore with your Middle Schoolers.

"This I Believe engaged listeners in a discussion of the core beliefs that guide their daily lives. We heard from people of all walks of life - the very young and the very old, the famous and the previously unknown." When you get a collection of stories about powerful beliefs from a diverse group of people, you can't help but create amazing content.

Youth Radio is a commentary on present-day issues, presented by student journalists. What I like about this podcast is you get view points from students, for students. The content varies broadly. Student journalists are never going to shy away from controversial topics - it's part of what makes it real to it its listeners. Generally, episodes are short and cover a range of perspectives. There is bound to be one about a topical issue you are exploring in class.

If language is your area of expertise, look no further than The Allusionist. Featuring language experts, listener questions and words of the day, this podcast by Helen Zaltzman is a deep dive into the wonders and mysteries of language. This podcast would certainly enhance lessons on grammar.

In its own words: "99% Invisible is about all the thought that goes into the things we don't think about - the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world. " Fascinating stuff, huh? Digging around in the archives will be sure to uncover an episode or two to engage every learner.

Billing itself as a podcast for eaters, not foodies, The Sporkful is chocka-block with fascinating gastronomic content. As my son is essentially a stomach on legs, I figure this will be a great podcast for him to check out...

The Guardian describes Reply All as, "A podcast about the internet' that is actually an unfailingly original exploration of modern life and how to survive it." The subject matter is near and dear to many teen hearts, and the quirky anecdotes about the vast reaches of the internet keep the audience wanting more.

Ok, this one is weird! Finally, a work of fiction for the teenage mind to uncover. Each episode of Welcome to Night Vale appears as a series of regular reports from a local community news broadcast. Sounds fairly benign, right? But there are some major clues that things are not exactly what you'd call "normal" in the town of Night Vale. Aliens, the attention given to helicopter paint and a floating cat is only the beginning...
Cross-posted at Digital GEMS blog

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It is not uncommon to see Middle Schoolers with earbuds in their ears, but how many of them have been encouraged to explore the podcasting genre? For the past few years, teachers Ceci Gomez-Galvez and Nathan Lill at Shekou International School in China, have implemented a podcast project with their Grade 8 students based on...

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Strengthening Listening Skills w Podcasts

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Strengthening Listening Skills w Podcasts

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Great tips via @ClassTechTips

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Podcasts are a great way to help strengthen student listening skills. Podcasts are audio (and sometimes video) recordings similar to a radio program or television episode. A wide range of organizations and individuals host podcasts and share their thinking around a topic through this medium. You can access podcasts through iTunes and the Podcast app on iOS devices or through web-based tools. Most individual podcasts have their own site where you can stream each episode directly from their webpage.

There are a wide range of podcasts to choose from and I share some of my favorite kid-friendly podcasts in this post. If you are teaching a specific subject area, like American History or Ocean Ecosystems, you can search for a related podcast to find a clip to share with your students. The search feature in iTunes lets you find episodes as well as podcasts that focus on a topic related to the keyword you enter.

Teachers can use podcasts to help students build listening skills. By listening to a narrator tell a story or an expert discuss a topic, podcasts can help students strengthen their ability to gather information through multimedia.

Student Listening Skills

Help strengthen student listening skills with podcasts

Listening in partners gives students another person to share a story with. Just like students might sit and read side-by-side, children can listen to an audio podcast in pairs to gather information or experience a new story.

Talking about topics helps students set a purpose for listening. In the same way you'd expect students to share their thinking about a text, students can respond to the information or story presented in a podcast.

Teaching students to replay is a strategy similar to rereading. Students are using a wide range of media to learn new information. It's important to help students understand how pressing rewind can boost their comprehension.

Using podcasts at home is a great way to extend a learning activity. Pick a few kid-friendly podcasts or episodes to share with families in a class newsletter to help connect learning in the classroom to activities at home.
Do you have a favorite podcast or classroom activity? Share it in the comments below!

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How-To Strengthen Student Listening Skills with Podcasts - Class Tech Tips

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Podcasts are a great way to help strengthen student listening skills. Podcasts are audio (and sometimes video) recordings similar to a radio program or television episode. A wide range of organizations and individuals host podcasts and share their thinking around a topic through this medium.

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Searchable on the iTunes store, there are over 30 'This I Believe' podcasts available for free download!

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https://www.speakpipe.com/voice-recorder

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Eugene Leonard from SWIS shared this guide that he uses to guide Ss into podcasting

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Home of the best mixes on planet Earth - DJs, performing artists, educators, and more. Create a free podcast and share your favorites only on PodOmatic.

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'This I Believe' Podcasts in Chinese Program @ #SISrocks

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'This I Believe' Podcasts in Chinese Program @ #SISrocks

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Doris King is a Chinese teacher at #sisrocks. She specifically teaches students from grades one to five who come from a household where Chinese is the first language. Typically, the traditional approach to learning the Chinese language is to memorize characters. This is especially true when it comes to learning how to write each character stroke correctly. Doris realized that there was a disconnect between how students were learning in their English-speaking homerooms and how she had been teaching Chinese to her native speaking students.

Doris wanted to transform her Chinese heritage class to make the language more accessible by creating more personal and deeper connections within the class, at home, and far away from her classroom. For Chinese heritage students, the goals are to instill the value of learning Chinese and also to illustrate progression. With that in mind, Doris began by encouraging her students to write and share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences through their personal blogs. Their first blogging task was to write about a time they experienced a challenge with a positive mindset. Once these pieces were posted to their blogs, students were asked to send their URL to a parent and a friend to receive feedback. The responses from their parents and peers were astounding. Parents told their children that they never knew they could express themselves that way. They were so proud of their child's writing and were excited for them to share more.

Doris was pleased with the results but wanted her students to dig deeper. She took inspiration from colleagues at SIS, Ceci Gomez-Galvez and Nathan Lill. Doris used the mentor text that both Ceci and Nathan used for their Big DEAL event that has happened for four years now, based on "This I Believe," from CBS's Radio Network program, journalist Edward R. Murrow. In this instance, students had to scribe their works all in Chinese then use their speaking skills to showcase their deeper inner thoughts about what they believe.

The Chinese language program is still striving to have students digging deeper in their understanding and use of the Chinese language. Cross-campus connections, such as the "This I Believe" podcasts, are a great way for colleagues to encourage and challenge one another to try new strategies in their classrooms, often with incredible results.

For all resources check out the links below:

Doris King's Chinese Heritage Students Links
http://share.sis.org.cn/dorisking/chinese-this-i-believe-2017/

Ceci Gomez-Galvez & Nathan Lill's Podcasts
share.sis.org.cn/podcasts
http://thisibelieve.org/
http://www.npr.org/series/4538138/this-i-believe

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Doris King is a Chinese teacher at #sisrocks. She specifically teaches students from grades one to five who come from a household where Chinese is the first language. Typically, the traditional approach to learning the Chinese language is to memorize characters. This is especially true when it comes to learning how to write each character stroke correctly.

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GDoc Template ~ Project Co-Planning Calendar

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GDoc Template ~ Project Co-Planning Calendar

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This is a copy of the calendar we used to plan out the project. Feel free to copy this template, edit and use it to use to plan out your own podcasting project!

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2nd Semester Calendar 8HUM (16-17) | Template for Powerful Podcasts #rethinkinglit

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots and learn more about Voice Record Pro. Download Voice Record Pro and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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"Saying Thanks to my Ghosts"

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I didn't used to believe in ghosts, but I was trained to talk to them. My mother reminded me many times that I had the gift. It all stemmed from a lie I told when I was 4. The way my mother remembered it, I refused to get ready for bed one night, claiming there was a ghost in the bathroom. She was delighted to learn I was a spirit medium.

Thereafter, she questioned anything unusual - a sudden gust of wind, a vase that fell and shattered. She would ask me, "She here?" She meant my grandmother.

When I was a child, my mother told me that my grandmother died in great agony after she accidentally ate too much opium. My mother was 9 years old when she watched this happen.

When I was 14, my older brother was stricken with a brain tumor. My mother begged me to ask my grandmother to save him. When he died, she asked me to talk to him as well. "I don't know how," I protested. When my father died of a brain tumor six months after my brother, she made me use a Ouija board. She wanted to know if they still loved her. I spelled out the answer I knew she wanted to hear: Yes. Always.

When I became a fiction writer in my 30s, I wrote a story about a woman who killed herself eating too much opium. After my mother read a draft of that story, she had tears in her eyes. Now she had proof: My grandmother had talked to me and told me her true story. How else could I have known my grandmother had not died by accident but with the fury of suicide? She asked me, "She here now?" I answered honestly, "I don't know."

Over the years, I have included other details in my writing I could not possibly have known on my own: a place, a character, a song. I have come to feel differently about my ghostwriters. Sometimes their clues have come so plentifully, they've made me laugh like a child who can't open birthday presents fast enough. I must say thanks, not to blind luck but to my ghosts.

Ten years ago, I clearly saw a ghost, and she talked to me. It was my mother. She had died just 24 hours before. Her face was 10 times larger than life, in the form of a moving, pulsing hologram of sparkling lights. My mother was laughing at my surprise. She drew closer, and when she reached me, I felt as if I had been physically punched in the chest. It took my breath away and filled me with something absolute: love, but also joy and peace - and with that, understanding that love and joy and peace are all the same thing. Joy comes from love. Peace comes from love. "Now you know," my mother said.

I believe in ghosts. Whenever I want, they will always be there: my mother, my grandmother, my ghosts.

Independently produced for Weekend Edition Sunday by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick.

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Novelist Amy Tan hasn't always believed in ghosts, but as a writer she's had too many inspirations that she can't fully explain. Now, Tan embraces her belief in ghosts and the messages of joy, love and peace they bring her.

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Writer reflects on process and feedback

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Radio/TV Personality, who created "This I Believe..."

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Edward R. Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 - April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist. He was generally referred to as Ed Murrow. He first came to prominence with a series of radio broadcasts for the news division of the Columbia Broadcasting System during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States.

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Josh Ritter--Tomorrow will be a better day...

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https://thisibelieve.org/audio/TIB_Rittenberg.mp3

I'm 16. On a recent night, while I was busy thinking about important social issues, like what to do over the weekend and who to do it with, I overheard my parents talking about my future. My dad was upset - not the usual stuff that he and Mom and, I guess, a lot of parents worry about like which college I'm going to, how far away it is from home and how much it's going to cost. Instead, he was upset about the world his generation is turning over to mine, a world he fears has a dark and difficult future - if it has a future at all. He sounded like this:

"There will be a pandemic that kills millions, a devastating energy crisis, a horrible worldwide depression and a nuclear explosion set off in anger."

As I lay on the living room couch, eavesdropping on their conversation, starting to worry about the future my father was describing, I found myself looking at some old family photos. There was a picture of my grandfather in his Citadel uniform. He was a member of the class of 1942, the war class. Next to his picture were photos of my great-grandparents, Ellis Island immigrants. Seeing those pictures made feel a lot better. I believe tomorrow will be better than today - that the world my generation grows into is going to get better, not worse. Those pictures helped me understand why.

I considered some of the awful things my grandparents and great-grandparents had seen in their lifetimes: two world wars, killer flu, segregation, a nuclear bomb. But they saw other things, too, better things: the end of two world wars, the polio vaccine, passage of the civil rights laws. They even saw the Red Sox win the World Series - twice.

I believe that my generation will see better things, too - that we will witness the time when AIDS is cured and cancer is defeated; when the Middle East will find peace and Africa grain, and the Cubs win the World Series - probably, only once. I will see things as inconceivable to me today as a moon shot was to my grandfather when he was 16, or the Internet to my father when he was 16.

Ever since I was a little kid, whenever I've had a lousy day, my dad would put his arm around me and promise me that "tomorrow will be a better day." I challenged my father once, "How do you know that?" He said, "I just do." I believed him. My great-grandparents believed that, and my grandparents, and so do I.

As I listened to my Dad talking that night, so worried about what the future holds for me and my generation, I wanted to put my arm around him, and tell him what he always told me, "Don't worry Dad, tomorrow will be a better day." This, I believe.

Josh Rittenberg is a junior at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in Manhattan where he plays baseball and guitar, and sings tenor in an a cappella group. Inspired by "Law and Order," Rittenberg co-founded his school's Mock Trial Club. Newsday recently published an essay he wrote about excessive homework.

Independently produced for NPR by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick.

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https://thisibelieve.org/audio/TIB_Rittenberg.mp3 I'm 16. On a recent night, while I was busy thinking about important social issues, like what to do over the weekend and who to do it with, I overheard my parents talking about my future.

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Here's a sampling of the work we'll be showcasing and modeling the process of creation.  Feel free to use this trailer as provocation for your podcasters

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Join Nathan (@NathanLill1) and I (@cecigomez_g) in our Powerful Podcast Session. We will take attendees on a journey through the creation of authentic personal narratives, written and shared with a global audience in mind. Participants will walk through the constructivist approach to writing, accessing mentor texts, modeling and digitally publishing podcasts.

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Radio Show website...

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Beginning in 1951, radio pioneer Edward R. Murrow asked Americans from all walks of life to write essays about their most fundamental and closely held beliefs. Half a century later, NPR, Atlantic Public Media and This I Believe, Inc. are partnering to recreate 'This I Believe' on the air and online.

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My Two Great Architects by Sujin S. The End of The World by Leanne T. Music Is a Cure by Alisa K. My Big Fat Indian Family by Aditi R. Be Alive by Brian K. Magical Medicine by Brendan H. A Step Forward by Boey T. Out Of Nowhere by Isiah P.

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The celebration of quinceañera is a tradition among people of Latin American heritage that marks a 15-year-old girl's transition from childhood to womanhood. The festivities can include a religious ceremony, elaborate gowns and tuxedoes, a lavish party, and a special dance of the quinceañera and her court. Such a major turning-point in a young girl's life can evoke a range of emotions and inspire a number of beliefs. Click here to read what these essayists feel about this important rite of passage.

It's amazing the effect that one simple act of kindness can have both on the giver and the receiver. Greeting a stranger with "hello" or letting a fellow driver merge ahead of you may not change the world, but it can make living in that particular moment more pleasant. Click here to read some meditations on kindness.

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A public dialogue about belief - one essay at a time

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The celebration of quinceañera is a tradition among people of Latin American heritage that marks a 15-year-old girl's transition from childhood to womanhood. The festivities can include a religious ceremony, elaborate gowns and tuxedoes, a lavish party, and a special dance of the quinceañera and her court.