BROWNSTOWN
Four fourth-graders sat in chairs and huddled around a vintage-looking microphone.
Their teacher, Hannah Tanksley, gave a few instructions before she clicked the record button on a laptop.
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Then they spent about 12 minutes discussing a chapter of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
The Brownstown Elementary School class started reading the 17-chapter book earlier this month, and ever since then, students have taken turns being a part of the Flourish in Fourth podcast.
While they read the book, the episodes are called “Into the Wardrobe.” After that, the title will change depending upon what the students are doing in class.
Through a DonorsChoose fundraiser, Tanksley collected $250 and was able to buy four Neat vintage-style microphones and a USB port to use for the podcast.
DonorsChoose is a nonprofit organization that allows people to donate directly to public school classroom projects. It partners with a variety of businesses from which teachers can order. Tanksley searched for podcast microphones through Amazon Business and found the ones she liked.
Then she set up a fundraising page and shared it on social media so people could donate.
“They are cool and retro-looking,” she said of the microphones. “I thought the kids would think that they are cool, too, and I think that they want to do the podcast more because the microphone is so neat looking. I just like the positive feedback I’m getting for being able to do something like this and all of the support that I’ve gotten just for doing a podcast.”
Last school year, Tanksley said she taught fifth grade at a school in Bedford and wanted to start a podcast.
“I was like, ‘I really want to try a podcast’ because it was a new, trendy thing that people listened to,” she said. “Then I kind of dabbled with it but just couldn’t really find the right project to do it with.”
Last fall during her first year at Brownstown Elementary School, Tanksley decided to give it another try, and it worked out.
When school resumed from Christmas break Jan. 6, two groups of four fourth-graders were the first ones to use a microphone to record a podcast. They talked about different chapters of the book.
The next day, four more students recorded. Then Jan. 8, four more students took their turn.
“It rotates every time so they won’t be in the same group with the same people,” Tanksley said.
Late last week, five students recorded chapters 14 and 15.
“I think that’s it’s going really well,” Tanksley said. “I think the kids are having a lot of fun with it. It’s like a new thing for them. … It gives kids that don’t like participating in a whole group the opportunity to share something because it’s in a different setting and it’s on a different platform.”
After recording, Tanksley posts the podcast through the website anchor.fm, and it goes onto her Flourish in Fourth Spotify account. Spotify is a {span class=”ILfuVd”}{span class=”e24Kjd”}digital music streaming service that gives people access to songs, podcasts and videos.{/span}{/span}
{span class=”ILfuVd”}{span class=”e24Kjd”}”I can do sponsored ads and things like that on the podcast, too,” she said. “I can actually get money for as many times as people listen to the podcast and hear the ad. If I ever get enough money, I’m planning on using that for my classroom.”{/span}{/span}
Fourth-graders Jaysen Cobb, Kayleigh Jernigan, Charlie Blair and Devin Deckard were part of the podcast Jan. 8.
“I was excited because I thought it was going to be really fun,” Cobb said.
After recording with the other students, Cobb said he had a good time talking about the third chapter of the book. He also said he was going to go home and tell his family and friends about it and encourage them to look up the podcast on Spotify.
Cobb said he also has been on his church’s podcast, and he looks forward to being a part of future podcasts with his class.
“Maybe I’ll get famous doing this. Maybe I’ll get money,” he said, smiling.
Tanksley also is excited to see where her students go with the podcast.
“Once our book is over, I’m actually going to keep doing the podcast and have one episode a week that the kids can come on and talk about what we’re doing in our classroom because we do a lot of project-based learning stuff, so I want them to have opportunities to share that,” she said. “It’s something I want to continue.”
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To listen to the Flourish in Fourth podcast or make a donation, visit anchor.fm/flourish-in-fourth.
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