Laying the Foundation

Of course, for this podcasting project to be successful, the cooperation of many different people is required. During the month of September, I visited the school several times, making the connections which will be necessary for success.

My first visit to South Philadelphia High School was on Thursday, September 18. It almost seemed like a mini-homecoming, because many of the staff members where I used to teach (W.S. Peirce Middle School) are now at Southern. It was a joy to see so many familiar faces!

On September 18, I met with the principal, Alice Heller, and two technology teachers, Valerie Howard and Audrey Nock. We discussed our goals and objectives for the program, so everyone had a voice in what we should expect. I'm happy to say that there's a real spirit of cooperation, which is really essential for making this work. We also discussed other staff members who might be interested in working with us as the program expands.

One focus of this podcast will be on the transformations that occur at SPHS as they become part of the Classrooms for the Future (CFF) grant, which is a state-wide initiative to bring technology into all high schools in Pennsylvania. I'll be talking more about this aspect in future posts.

On September 23, I met the class of students who will work on the podcast. We started by listening to some podcasts, and I showed them a little about how to use GarageBand. The students were asked to think about possible topics for their podcast segments. In addition, they were informed that parental permission is required for their participation, so we gave them the forms for their parents to sign.

So now, we have to build upon this foundation. We'll soon be ready to actually start writing scripts and recording segments. It was apparent to me that these students are interested and motivated. It'll be interesting to see how our first episode comes out!