'Reach for the Stars' Students at P.E.T.E.S. Learn How to Make a Podcast
by Chloë Ranaldi
Some students at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School (P.E.T.E.S.) have learned how to make a podcast in the ‘Reach for the Stars’ program with Mrs. Cathy.
The Grade 5 and 6 students were chatting about the design of their logos for their new podcasts.
Grade 6 Student Elyana spoke about the podcast she’s been working on with her two classmates.
“Our podcast is about traveling around the world and exploring our backgrounds. So I’m from Trinidad and Tobago, which is the Caribbean islands, and [another friend] is gonna be talking about Ukraine and some of the cultures and traditions that she does. And then Emma’s gonna be talking about Italy, but she’s actually from different countries that are a part of Europe.”
Elyana says her group had a lot of ideas at first, but they wanted to learn more about where they come from and their families’ backgrounds.
“It just seemed really cool to us and we feel like it would be cool if we could share that,” she said.
Nolan, a Grade 6 student at P.E.T.E.S. says his groups’ podcast called BSL, which stands for Big Sports Leagues covers all things sports related.
“We’re gonna be talking a lot about sports, about the players and [our opinions] on our players who we think are gonna win the Stanley Cup, the Super Bowl or the NBA championships.”
Mrs. Cathy, Art Educator at P.E.T.E.S. says she chose to have students create a podcast because she saw it as a way for students to learn real life skills and learn more about something they are interested in.
She says each group either conducts an interview or speaks in groups about their particular topic, which they selected themselves.
“They really enjoyed doing it in the end, they learned so many things from making their logos to producing to coming up with interesting questions.”
She says it taught students to plan, to delegate tasks, ask thoughtful meaningful questions, and be able to brand their podcasts.
The students also received guidance and technical support from LBPSB Educational Consultant for Arts Education Programs, Frank Caracciolo.
He helped guide students in the process, and helped with the technical aspects of mixing the recording all together so their families can tune in afterwards.
“They have all these different skill sets that you’re watching play out: how they organize their thoughts, how they execute, how they assign different tasks, and then the kids come together. And I think that as they move forward with the project, you see them develop into different kinds of learners,” said Frank.
“They did a really great job and the way they spoke, how they worked together, and these are the kind of skills that we’re really promoting at LBPSB,” he said.
“We really want students to be engaged with what they’re doing and we want them to become self learners and able to critically think about problem solving.”
