Listening to Yourself

As a final project for my technology class, we had to create a personal website and then create and post a podcast of our teaching philosophy to it. Creating a website is not that difficult, actually, especially not with the free creation sites available. I chose webs.com for mine, and the interface was super easy. Uploading my enhanced podcast was a little more difficult, as they are having difficulties with direct uploads of videos, but it was entirely doable after I checked the help link.

I used PhotoStory to create my enhanced podcast. I had worked with the software once before, but never created a full story, so this was a learning experience. I don't know why, but I thought the program was compatible with PowerPoint, and originally created my slides there. Then I found out that I couldn't transfer them. Instead, I had to recreate the storyboard directly into PhotoStory, which is very simple. It is a matter of uploading photos, typing in captions, and organizing them in an order which makes sense.

The difficulty for me came in recording my voice. I don't know how many times I had to erase and restart because I didn't like hearing my own voice on the program. It was so easy to hear the flaws and pauses and gaps in speech. I remember when I was doing my National Boards entries; everyone kept saying that I would hate watching myself on video. This was simply not the case, as there were so many other things that I focused on besides myself. I was watching how the lesson went, what the students were doing, behaviors I wasn't aware of in me and the students; there was so much going on in the video that I wasn't worried about just watching myself. On an audio recording, however, there is nothing more than the sound of your voice. It is quite nerve-wracking, although I did finally master those feelings and, I hope, create an easily understandable philosophy of teaching and life.

I do wonder, though, if this isn't how many foreign language students feel when they begin to practice speaking in class. I know that I was at one time a novice students of Spanish, but I had such a desire to learn and speak the language that I ignored the awkwardness. I also wonder if giving students the opportunity to practice hearing themselves speak the language with a program like this, knowing there is a delete button, will help that close that affective gap.

I am really thankful for having taken this technology class because it has pushed me to rethink how I use technology in my classroom and the opportunities I am sharing with my students. I would have probably never used half of these resources personally, let alone with students, had I not taken this class because of the excuse that there is no time to learn them. At some point we have to stop making excuses for not changing with the times, and transform ourselves into 21st Century teachers. Having said that, here is my philosophy that I call "Transformation":