Edudemic

Topics: podcasts, teachers, top 10

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By Sarah Stegner. Sarah researches and writes about online degrees from accredited colleges for Guide to Online Schools. She is also a writer for My Dog Ate My Blog.

Podcasts are a fantastic way to gain new information from the Internet quickly and efficiently.  With a huge variety of topics available, podcasts offer something for everybody. We’ve scoured the Internet and picked out the ten best podcasts specifically for teachers.

Each podcast features  teachers and other educators presenting information about research or their own personal experiences. Take a moment to read through these and then start listening! You may be surprised by how much excellent information they offer.

The Education Podcast Network: This site attempts to bring together a wide variety of podcasts helpful to teachers—including podcasts by students and classes as well as subject-specific podcasts in such diverse areas as mathematics, music education, English language arts, dance education, and computer/technology skills.  A huge amount of information is contained on the site, making it sometimes difficult to sort through, but the categories are clearly delineated and the site easy to maneuver.

Learning Matters: This podcast, hosted by John Merrow, includes episodes that are generally 5 to 10 minutes long and address current events in education.  Evaluating teachers, challenges in New Orleans, Race to the Top funds, and global competence among American teachers and students are regular topics of discussion.

New Teacher Hotline: Presented by Dr. Glen Moulton and Michael Kelley, this podcast is designed to help new teachers learn from the experiences of others.  Typically 20 to 30 minutes long, the episodes address questions sent in by teachers as well as more general topics.  Past episodes have included discussions of teacher evaluations, maternity leave, and new technology.

NPR Education: NPR podcasts on education provide information on current events in education around the world.  Casts often include reporting on computer literacy, grants, school district budget issues, and legislation that affects schools.

Speaking of History: Eric Langhorst, an 8th grade history teacher in Missouri, maintains this podcast (interspersed with written blog posts) to describe the activities undertaken by his students and to discuss which projects work well and which might need adjustment.  Also included in the episodes are book reviews, suggestions on incorporating technology into the classroom, and postings of opportunities for teachers, such as conferences and events.

Teacher Created Materials: Teacher Created Materials exists to create research and standards-based resources for K-12 classrooms.  Their podcasts address topics such as building vocabulary, applying differentiation strategies, and fluency comprehension.  The site also includes webinars, sample handouts, and other resources.

Teachers Network – Podcasts on Education: This podcast focuses mostly on posting recordings of keynote speeches on education.  It includes speeches from curriculum conferences and others, with topics such as incorporating business strategies into teaching and presentations of research regarding students in the first year of high school.

The Teachers’ Podcast: Dr. Kathy King and Mark Gura host The Teachers’ Podcast, addressing such issues as technology, multimedia presentations, testing, e-books, and including interviews with authors.  Each entry includes a discussion with links to articles and products mentioned in the episode.

Teaching With Technology Podcast: The Teaching With Technology Podcast features an easy to use format hosting episodes on topics like “Google for Educators” and “Blogs in the Classroom.”  The site also includes a user-friendly “categories” section that makes finding episodes regarding a particular topic (such as: foreign language, curriculum, or middle school) easy.

The Tech Teachers: Hosted by Ray (a physics teacher) and Hollye (a Spanish teacher), this podcast focuses mostly on technology issues—including evaluations of the iPad, google docs, twitter lists, etc. Below each episode is included a list of links to products mentioned in the episode for easy reference.

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Sarah Stegner researches and writes about online degrees from accredited colleges for Guide to Online Schools. She is also a writer for My Dog Ate My Blog.