Last week Portable Radio was ranked #8 in the Education/K12 category of iTunes podcasts!
Portable Radio has been online for six seasons and over 250 grade 4, 5 and 6 students have participated in creating the shows. Check out the statistics that have been collected since then:
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The most popular download was our POV from June 2008. It was about the Hockey Night in Canada theme song. To date, it has been played 1182 times. You can find it here.
We have had visits from 106 different countries! The top ten countries with the most visits were:
- Canada
- United States
- Philippines
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Singapore
- Ukraine
- Brazil
- Russia
I know I say this often, but kids do have a voice and people, many people, are listening!
This week neurologist Dr. Kale recommended the National Hockey League ban fighting and intentional hits to the head to prevent brain injury. Should fighting be banned in the NHL?
Thanks to CBC radio’s Ottawa Morning for airing this December 21!
This year our school has three portables. Two of them are used for classrooms and one of them for storage. My students came up with many suggestions for others uses for this portable.
Listen
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Photo of proposed portable design by Jarod.
Happy November. In our part of the world, the leaves have pretty much finished changing colour and have fallen to the ground
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Here’s what we have prepared for our second episode of the season:
- The Say It Game
- Ghoulish adjectives
- Three times tables – as recorded by our quadblog buddies in Wales
- Four clocks: Zamin. Rhys, Rohan
- Cube Puzzle by David, Ali, Jack
- Animal Stories by Morgan and Sierra
- Cross Country and Soccer by Mykenna and Madison
- Freaky Friday by Sameer, Kevin and Ryan
Music used in this episode:
Our theme song is WW by Greenroom (Music Alley)
The following is from Purple Planet Royalty Free Music:
- Turning the Screw
- Robotik
The Royal Canadian Mint released a $100 000 coin last Friday. It weighs 10 kilograms and is 18 cm in diameter. That’s the size of a dessert plate! The students behind Portable Radio wondered what they would do if they had one of these coins.
Thanks to CBC radio’s Ottawa Morning for playing our Point of View last Tuesday!
Canada is going to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015. Should Ottawa be one of the six Canadian cities involved? Here are our opinions.
Thanks to CBC radio’s Ottawa Morning for airing this on Tuesday, October 4.
Portable Radio is back. Mr. Toft finds it hard to believe this is Portable Radio’s 6th season.
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This year’s “Portable Kids” were in Kindergarten when this podcast first started!
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In this episode we have:
- writing tips from students in Wexham,Wales,
- Melanie and Eshum tell us about Cloud 9, a class in New Zealand. We share some of the audio message we sent to their class,
- Jarod and Sarah tell us about the Global Children’s Challenge,
- Leila talks about lunches,
- we do our best to read limericks Heron Primary’s blog. Heron Primary is a class in England,
- similes made by our class and kids in Barnsley, England,
- and the “Don’t Say It Game”.
Websites mentioned in this podcast:
Members of our Quad Blog:
Music used in this episode:
Our theme song is WW by Greenroom (Music Alley)
The following is from Purple Planet Royalty Free Music:
- Girl on a Scooter
- The Music Box
- Masala Madness
- Swaying Daisies
- Funk City
Portable Radio is back for its 6th season!
Here is our first “Portable Radio Point of View”:
Who should decide where to sit in class: the student or the teacher?
In this episode the grade 6 students from Mrs. Smith’s class take us on a tour of the solar system. You will be visiting the planets in order from Mercury, closest to the sun, all the way to Neptune.
Credits
Our theme song is WW by Greenroom (Music Alley)
This week the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – also known as Will and Kate – will be visiting Ottawa. While they will be busy visiting places like Parliament Hill, Rideau Hall and the War Museum, we’d like to suggest a few other places to visit – if they have any free time.
CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning aired our podcast on June 27, 2011 and a second time on Canada Day, July 1! Congratulations to everyone involved!
Thanks to CBC radio’s Ottawa Morning for playing our Point of View today!
The students who make Portable Radio made this in response to Elections Canada reporting that very few young people participated in the last federal election.
The students you hear have all taken the “Future Voter’s Pledge”. That is to say, they have promised to participate in elections when they are old enough.
We challenge anyone who isn’t old enough to vote to take the same pledge. Just download the certificate and fill it out. This will symbolize the promise you are making to yourself to participate in Canada’s democratic system.
In this episode:
- Mrs. Smith’s class make rain with their hands
- Mr. Toft listens to his voice mail which is filled with messages from upset parents
- Yahya and Naana convince Mr. Toft to let him bring their dangerous pets to school
- Karen tells us about our trip to the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra.
- Awo, Linh, Sehrish and Samantha share commercials for their new snacks and cereals
- Control B, South March’s very own blues band, performs their song, “The S.M.P.S. Blues”
Credits
Our theme song is WW by Greenroom (Music Alley)
The following came from Purple Planet Royalty Free Music:
Filet Mignon
Girl on a Scooter
Heavy Hitter
Mr. Jelly Goes to Town
Rickety Roadster
Many of the students in my class sign O Canada each morning. I’ve been doing my best to learn the signs myself. Thanks to Abinaya, Naana and Sandunya, I can practice at home as well!
Thanks to Mr. Toft for recording our Portable Radio Point of View as it was heard on CBC Ottawa Morning. They had to do a bit of editing so you will notice that some pieces are shorter or missing.
Click here to listen Season 5 POV 6
We were talking about concussions that result from playing hockey. Our class had a number of opinions as to whether or not this is a big deal or something that we should be worried about.
Click here to listen Season 5 P.O.V. #6
The Snow Day Edition – On our second snow day of the 2010/2011 school year, students in grade 5 and 6 in Mrs. Smith’s class and Mrs. Kerkhoff’s class joined together to discuss, write and record their ideas about a variety of topics. In this podcast you will hear:
- Shannon, Kendel and Morgan speaking about Musical Artists
- Steven and Brayden asking “Why are all the fun websites blocked?”
- Jessica, Estella and Mann did a survey about Animals
- Connor and Dylan share their thoughts on the Hockey Trades
- Ilan and friends debate about Laptops in school
- Fatma and Zaynab speak about Perseverance
- Kyle, Tyler and Tariq discuss two popular music Video Games
- Austin and Stefan give their take on Skateboarding
- Nabeeha and Abeer discuss the pros and cons of Snow Days
Click here to listen Season 5 Episode 6
Credits
Our theme song is WW by Greenroom (Music Alley)
All other music is used by permission.
Nick, Rahul, Abdulla, Owen, Philip, Shashaank, Isaiah, Awo, Maisie, Linh, Ayah, Elliott, Hamzah, Kollie, Michael, Shannon, Karen, Sarah and Sehrish share ideas on how to get an annoying sibling off the couch. James and a special guest tell us about Ursula Vernon’s book Dragonbreath.
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Credits
Our theme song is WW by Greenroom (Music Alley)
We used the following from JewelBeat.com:
Funky Moment
Game Adventure
Hyper Groove
Funky Cub Hit
We used the following from Purple Planet Royalty Free Music:
Masala Madness
Above the Clouds
Mr. Jelly Goes to Town
Punching Bag
Rickety Roadster
Robotik
Funk City
Students from Mr. Toft’s 5/6 class at Berrigan Elementary and students from Mrs. Smith’s 5/6 class at South March Public school discuss whether students should give Valentine’s cards to the entire class or only their friends.
Thanks to CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning for airing our Portable Radio Point of View on February 15, 2011.
Berrigan Elementary school students in grades 4, 5 and 6 just finished their fourth trip to Mount Pakenham this past week. Ski and snowboard conditions couldn’t have been better. In this episode of Portable Radio we bring you sound from our final day on the slopes.
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Credits
Our theme song is called WW by Greenroom (Music Alley)
The following tracks are from JewelBeat.com:
- Fun Day Trip
- Happy Jam
- Hyper Groove
- Neon Punk
- Rocking Teenage Years
- Retro Party
Should the NHL continue to have the captains of the All Star teams pick their own players?
The grade 5/6 students at Berrigan Elementary School offer their opinions about this after watching Phil Kessel, a player for the Toronto Maple Leafs, “win” a new car and $20 000 for a charity of his choice when he ended up being picked last in the NHL All Star Fantasy Draft.
Welcome to our December 2010 Portable Radio podcast. This time we have:
- Abinaya’s thoughts about Christmas
- Michael’s explanation why summer is his favourite season
- Recorder Karate performances by Abdulla, Ayah, Zoha, Awo, Naana
- Public Service announcements for healthy eating by Philip, Samantha, Awo and Owen
- James, Ivan , Isaiah and students from Mrs. Braidwood’s 6/7 class on Vancouver Island give their opinion about indoor recess
- Kollie tells a story about NBA superstar Dwyane Wade
- Yahya explains why he hates winter
- Sandunya, Abinaya, Karen, Naana and students from Mrs. Braidwood’s 6/7 class on Vancouver Island give their opinions about snow pants.
Credits
The following were composed by Nathan Toft and are freely available at PortableRecorder.ca:
- White Out performed by Abdulla.
- Sunny’s Yellow performed by Awo and Ayah.
- Blue’s Smile performed by Naana.
- Red Shoe 45 performed by Zoha.
The following are from JewelBeat.com:
- Action Hero
- Everyone in the Club Clap
- Long Time Ahead
- The Sweetest of Dreams
- Trace Underground
Our theme song is called WW by Greenroom (Music Alley)
Our Portable Radio podcast was nominated for one of the best education podcasts for 2010. Click here to see the other nominations and cast your vote!
Great news! Our Portable Radio podcast was nominated for one of the best education podcasts for 2010. Click here to see the other nominations and cast your vote!
Our second show features pieces by both Mrs. Smith’s grade 5/6 class at South March P.S. and Mr. Toft’s grade 5/6 class at Berrigan E.S.
In this episode:
- report about the Clocks in Mr. Toft’s class by Sandunya and Abinaya
- Mann and Naseha interview Mrs. Smith
- a summary of Humpty Dumpty by Abdullah
- Elliott talks about the Bone Tall Tales book
- tips about Halloween from Thomas and Nick
- the importance of Saying thank you by Hamzah
- Will and John debate the value of the penny
- Karen tells us about her Poor Fish
- Nabeha tells about the Character One from the book One
- Linh and Maisie give us their version of Jack and Jill
- Kyle shares the results of his ice cream survey
- a debate about Skateboards versus RipStik between Yayha and Ivan
- Samantha and Linda educate us about the Spirit Bears
- Steven reviews the book Holes by Louis Sachar
- Michael and Owen finish off our show with predictions about the World Cup.
Music used in this episode:
- WW – Greenroom (Music Alley)
- JewelBeat Royalty Free Music – A Tribe Celebration
- JewelBeat Royalty Free Music – Funky Riff
- JewelBeat Royalty Free Music – Don’t Mess With Me
- JewelBeat Royalty Free Music – Exciting Ride
- JewelBeat Royalty Free Music – Curse of the Unforgiven
- JewelBeat Royalty Free Music – Dancing Robot
- Jewelbeat Royalty Free Music – Mysterious Adventure
All music is used by permission
Should Silly Bandz be banned from school?
The grade 5/6 students at Berrigan Elementary School offer their opinions about this after learning the elastic bracelets have been banned in a school in Nova Scotia and another in Iowa.
Note: CBC radio’s Ottawa Morning played our POV on Tuesday, November 9. Congratulations to everyone involved!
San Francisco has passed legislation that will prevent McDonalds from including a toy with its Happy Meals. The new regulation will only allow toys to be included in meals that contain less than 600 calories and 35 % fat.
The grade 5/6 students at South March Public School offer their opinions about this regulation.
Portable Radio episodes are back. This year the show is brought to you by students in Mrs. Smith’s 5/6 class at South March Public School and Mr. Toft’s 5/6 class from Berrigan Elementary. Both schools are located in Ottawa, Canada.
In this episode:
- Asad and Armaan argue about goalies
- James and Isaiah explain the Global Children’s Challenge
- Steven and Tyler talk about mining
- Awo, Kollie and Yahya compete in the “Don’t Say It!” game
- Owen talks about his dog
- R.J. and Tariq talk about a monster survey
- Rahul gives his opinions of the Lightning Thief movie
- Linh and Naana talk about the Vancouver Winter Olympics
- Mrs. Smith’s class perform a rap in French
- Karen and Shannon talk about doing the Cha Cha Slide for Sports Day in Canada
- Sufi, Miikah and Nick talk about the upcoming Ottawa Senators season
- Sehrish and Sarah discuss A Series of Unfortunate Events
Music used in this episode
WW – Greenroom (Music Alley)
Music Box (Purple Planet Music)
Interloper (Kevin MacLeod)
JewelBeat Royalty Free Music – Funky Riff
Portable Radio’s back for a fifth season of Portable Radio Point of Views. This time students working on the podcast are from Mr. Toft’s 5/6 class in Berrigan Elementary School in Barrhaven. Mrs. Smith’s 5/6 class joins us from South March Public School in Kanata. Both schools are part of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board.
In this first “Point of View” of the season, Mr. Toft’s students debate whether McDonald’s should be allowed to sponsor the school board’s annual “Bus Safety Day”.
P.S. CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning aired our podcast on September 16, 2010. Congratulations to everyone involved!
In this episode you will hear the Public Service Announcements Mr. Toft’s Grade 5 students created to remind kids to keep their bones healthy. They first listened to a variety of real public service announcements you hear on the radio. Next they formed groups and created a script copying the style of one of the commercials they heard. They did their best to make sure an important message about healthy bones was included. Finally they recorded, edited and mixed music and sound effects into their radio commercials.
Music used in this episode
WW – Greenroom (Music Alley)
In our latest podcast:
- Mrs. Smith’s students teach us about brain food
- an interview with members of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority
- poems by students in Mr. Toft’s class
- Sydney’s report about her trip to Egypt
- voicemail from Mrs. Smith’s students
- Caitlin’s report about Zhu Zhu pets
Music used in this episode
WW – Greenroom (Music Alley)
First Portable Radio Piano Song – Justin Toft (age 7)
Various musical bumpers created by Nathan Toft and Mrs. Smith using Sony’s Acid XPress
Thanks to Maxim and Katherine’s parents for making this video available. Hopefully, this video will play on school computers as well.
The following is an excerpt from a press release put out by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority:
04.06.2010 – Ottawa – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is pleased to announce that ArtSchoolReviews.ca submitted the winning video in the ShowUsYour.CA contest.
‘ArtSchoolReviews.ca Loves Our .CA’ was chosen by public voting as the favourite video of the contest, and will receive a MacBook Pro and be featured in a future .CA marketing campaign.
The first runner up in the contest is ‘DringDring.ca’. Dringdring is a Montreal company founded by Annie Legroulx that produces and sells original hand-painted metal bicycle bells. Dringdring.ca will receive a 64GB iPod touch.
‘Portable Radio’s .CA Rocks’, a video about a podcast produced by a group of grade five students in Ottawa, was the second runner up and will receive a Flip UltraHD camcorder.
Easter Monday, April 5th, members of the class will join me and Mrs. Smith and members of her class at the A Channel television studio. We are going to be speaking about our Portable Radio Podcasts and Portable Radio Point of View. We need to be at the station by 7:10 and they tell us we will be on the air at 7:40. Tune in if you can.
Mitchell and Ilan explain how to use base ten blocks and an array to multiply 2 digit numbers.
Earth Hour is Saturday, March 27th from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm. This is a time when people are asked to think about how they can conserve the Earth’s natural resources and energy. Our class had a discussion about the value of Earth Hour.
I’m not talking about our NHL Ottawa Senators (although maybe they listen to us as well!) but the senators who work on Parliament Hill.
I received the following email today:
Hi there Mr. Toft,
I thought that you and your students may like to know that Senator Elaine McCoy blogged about Portable Radio last week.
visit Senator Elaine McCoy’s blog
Thanks and look forward to hearing more!
Gwen
Congratulations to all of the students involved. We know we say this a lot but it is true: your opinion matters and people, including senators, are listening to what you have to say!
Should Tofino, British Columbia be able to ban fast-food franchises from setting up in their town? We discussed this issue today and here are some of our opinions.
This afternoon I got a call from someone who worked for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. He told me how much they liked our video and that it made the top 8!
Congratulations everyone! Your hard work creating posters, recording audio, writing on blackboards and falling off of snow boulders paid off!
I hope everyone gets a chance to visit www.ShowUsYour.ca to see the other videos that were shortlisted. They are all really good. Ours is a part of a wide range of videos including a rock group , a news anchor who went to Haiti after the earthquake, and a business that paints bicycle bells.
With your parent’s permission, please vote. You will be asked to give an email address and phone number. The C.I.R.A. promises not to send spam or bug your home with telemarketing.
If you know of any family members and friends who you think would vote for us, please ask them to visit www.ShowUsYour.ca. Just by voting, they will be entered in a draw to win a camcorder. Vote daily to increase your, and our, chances of winning.
Voting closes March 26, 2010.
In this episode Elisabeth, Ryan and Keegan try their luck at the “Don’t Say It!” game, Evan explains how to dive off a cliff and Talia and Katherine tell us about Sens Skills. Dillon, Alex and Cameron tell the Ancient Greek story of Odysseus and the Cyclops. Sydney, Kayla and Lauren perform their version of Echo and Narcissus. Calysta, Greg and Sheridan leave Mr. Toft a voicemail .
All Music and sound effects were either created by us or used with permission:
WW – Greenroom (Music Alley)
Heavy Hitter – PurplePlanet.com
The Music Box (Theme) – PurplePlanet.com
The Transcendence of the Ancient Ones – Joe Mejer (MusicAlley.com)
Various Sound Effects – FTC Publishing
The ancient Greek plays were based on scripts available at MrDonn.org.
Last week Canada’s federal government announced they would be changing our paper money to plastic in 2011. Some students in Mr. Toft’s grade 5 class thought this was a good idea but others did not.
Here is the video we put together for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority’s Show Us Your .CA contest. We created at least fifty posters. The majority of the video was filmed and recorded the week of March 1, 2010.
Credits
The music used is called WW by a band called Greenroom. It is used with a Creative Commons license and can be found at www.MusicAlley.com
The CBC logo, CBC Ottawa Morning and Kathleen Petty’s voice are all used with permission. You can hear the entire Portable Radio Point of View about H1N1 here.
No children were hurt in creating or playing on their giant snow boulder!
