Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

Listening to podcasts is a great way to learn about a topic on the go. You're already listening, and I know I don't need to be telling you that, but instead of having your listening time be a passive activity, let's put your learning into action. In fact, you can also use what you are learning here and get credit for it, which I'll explain in this episode. Today, I'll be sharing with you three ways you can use this podcast, the Elementary STEM Coach, as free PD or professional development for your learning.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:08]:

I've always listened to audiobooks during my college days, especially when I was student teaching with my teacher program. I actually didn't get a choice as to which school I got to student teach at, which is fine. That could actually be really intimidating, actually picking a school, so I was okay with that. But my college had partnerships with local schools in the area and then placed us, which in turn helped me get my first teaching job, which that was pretty cool. I was living at home at the time, and my student teaching school was actually 45 minutes away, so I would be driving 45 minutes there in the morning, really early in the morning, and then 45 minutes, sometimes an hour, back home. I listened to a lot of fiction audiobooks at the time. I was listening to a book series that I really loved. Also, I hate it in book series when you're listening, and then they have different readers for another book in the series, and it totally messes up how you interpret the characters.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:15]:

You get really confused. So that was a fun journey, but at the time, a lot of those were actually on a CD. Later on, the first podcast I actually got into, which is probably like most of you, was the whole series Serial. And it's not like cereal that you eat. It was like a serial, like serial killer. Not that I shouldn't be laughing at that, but sorry. I'm not too surprised I got into that.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:46]:

It's really, really well produced. It's a great podcast. From there, I got more into True Crime, and then I was obsessed with that for a while. I really got into crime junkie when I had my townhome. It was a fixer-upper, so I had a lot of time to listen. And then, during that time, I don't know how it happened, I started getting into more business podcasts and learning while I was doing so, I've had a lot of inspiration for podcasts, and I've always dreamed of having my own. And in fact, this podcast, the Elementary STEM Coach, is actually my second podcast. Some of you here listening, I know, followed the first show that I co-hosted.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:31]:

I believe it started in 2020 with Spencer Sharp, the innovative teacher podcast. And I believe you can actually go back and listen to that one so you can hear early podcasting days, and it is different when you're co-hosting. So I've always really enjoyed this whole platform of podcasting and learning through audio and taking advantage of those moments of time where you don't have to be necessarily so focused. You can free up your brain. Well, you should be focused when you're driving, but you know what I'm saying, you have that time when you can be learning on the go. So how can we maximize this time that you're listening to me each week? I appreciate every single one of you that you are choosing me to listen to, which is so kind, and how can we maximize that time listening to this podcast and actually making meaning of that? So I have three creative ideas on how you can use this podcast for free, meaningful, professional development. So we're taking that time that you're listening and putting it into other ways that you can use all the information. The first way that you can use this podcast as free PD is to take notes as you listen.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:53]:

And this sounds like a simple idea, but I know, again, a lot of you listen on the go, and you're like, oh, I'll do that later. Oh, I'll do that later. And then you forget what you learn. And also, you don't have to do everything that I say you can, but you don't have to. So a big way that you can make meaning after you listen or when you're done with an episode, or let's say you listen halfway before you get out of your car, or once you get home from walking the dog, is think about at least one major takeaway as you listen. If you're on the go, you can actually create a folder on your phone in your Notes app, or if you use a similar platform like Google Keep, Asana, or anything like that, type down one or two major takeaways as you listen. And when you are ready to work on things for your classroom, you can pull out this digital record of those things that you listen to, and then that way you have some inspiration, and then you don't feel like you're scrambling, you have all those ideas. So I like to do this.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:59]:

You can even create a little folder for each podcast that you listen to if you want to keep everything sorted and organized. But that way, you are reflecting on the things that you're learning, like what we do with our students really, we have them write down a major takeaway or the biggest thing that they learn. And so, for you as a podcast listener, this will help you keep track of all of the things that you're learning. Another way that you can use this podcast as free PD is not only to keep the podcast and learning to yourself, but you can share it with your teacher besties. And there are a couple of ways that you can do this, like a book club. So think about like a format of a book club. You can decide together with your group which episodes you're going to either listen at the same time. So you could do this in the same room.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:54]:

So maybe you have a time that you are meeting up together, maybe it's in person, or it even could be virtual. You could have somebody play an episode, one person's in charge of playing it off of their computer, and then you could all listen at the same time. Or let's say okay, this week we are listening to the two newest episodes from this podcast, the elementary STEM Coach. And then we're going to come back and talk about it together. So it is really taking ideas from the first way. I said you could share key ideas and then discuss the topic. This is great for the summertime especially. So let's say you guys listen to the episodes, and then you come together. Maybe you're texting about the episode.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:40]:

But also, if you are needing an idea for a committee to run, this would be a fun twist on a shared book reading. I actually talked to a teacher recently at a conference that I attended here in Colorado, where I'm from in EDCO Innedco, and they actually said this is how they're using my podcast at our school. I felt so honored that there are teachers who are meeting up and then they're talking about the things that they are learning. This is a fun way to not always have to be forced to read a book, especially if you are the only STEM teacher at your school or you feel like you're only doing innovative things that you can choose your own adventure. So learning, of course, isn't just through reading. We know that, and we tell our students that, but then a lot of times, our professional development for teachers isn't that. So it's just a cool twist that you could use this podcast in a creative way. If you're doing this, if you are using this as PD as a group, take a picture and tag me on Instagram.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:46]:

I really want to see @NaomiMeredith_. Show me what you're doing now. Also, on the side, if you do need a book club idea, there's something I am not bashing reading. I love to read, I love to learn. I'm always learning in lots of different ways. But if you do need a book club idea, you can actually check out my STEM teacher bookshelf membership. And there's a new book every month, which is definitely doable, especially with the books that I'm choosing. And every book gets its own guide.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:14]:

So whenever you join, you get access to all of the past guides and all of the content. So if there's something that in my book club, you saw a book, you're like, oh my gosh, that looks really great. It was in May, you could still get all of that stuff as well. So that's another idea. You could do both. You could do the podcast, and then you could do the book and mix it in as your professional development. And the last way that you can use this podcast as free PD is you can pick specific topics that you want to learn. Now, I know when you first go into this podcast, the elementary stuff, because you look at it on your phone, you're like, oh my gosh, that's a lot of episodes. I'm overwhelmed.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:57]:

But you can actually just pick and choose the episodes that you want to learn about. You don't have to listen to them in order. You definitely can. You can even go back to episode one, especially if you're listening here in the summer. If you're new here, I encourage you to actually go back to the beginning because a lot of that content is actually relative for back to school time. Because this podcast came out. If you're listening to this live almost a year ago, July 18, I believe it was 2022. So if you go back to the beginning, you're going to find stuff for back to school anyway.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:31]:

Also, I often record little series throughout, so there are multiple episodes in a row that apply to the same topic. So sometimes, when I'm talking about something, there are a lot of different ways that that conversation can go. So that's why there might be a lot of episodes in a row that will go together. So you could definitely listen to those miniseries. Now, I know this podcast like the back of my hand. I often know what episode numbers are pretty close to. If someone's asking, hey, do you have an episode about blah, blah, blah? I almost always can refer to it, or I can find it really fast. And so, with that in mind, I created a free podcast playlist where I already organized all the episodes for you.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:20]:

This podcast is free. The playlists are free. So this will be linked in the show notes. It's at Naomimeeritis.com podcastplaylist. All one word, no spaces. So what it is, is it's a spreadsheet where I have on the first tab of the spreadsheet all of the links to the playlist. So it's really cool. And I was working with my podcast manager on this the best way to do this.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:45]:

So. Thanks, Andria. It works like the podcast here. So you're going to see all of the categories. So coding and robotics maker space and STEM supplies, community engagement, different main categories that the episodes fall under. Now a lot of them fall under multiple things, but I try to pick the category that best fits. So you will see all of the different playlists, and then you could access all of the playlists. There's no time limit on these as of now, so access the playlist that interests you.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:20]:

You'll click on the link, and then it will prompt you to add the playlist to your podcast player, and it will pop up in your podcast player just like how this one does. So then, any new episodes that I add to the playlist they're not exclusive episodes, by the way, so it's all preexisting episodes. They're just organized into categories. So whenever I am organizing other episodes that are new on this main podcast, they will go into the playlist. So then, you don't have to read down those playlists if that makes sense. So you'll have links to all that. You can add all of them. You can add some of them. So if there's a specific topic that you are wondering about, you can grab that playlist.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:06]:

And then, the other tabs on the spreadsheet have all of the titles of those episodes in the playlist listed in order of when they were released. So you can see what episode number it is from the main podcast and then the title. And then, it also has the length of the episode rounded to the nearest minute. There's also a checkbox you can click if you have listened to that episode. And then you just type in on the side how many minutes you listen to that episode. It could probably be the full thing. And then you'll see that all of those minutes will actually start totaling up the amount of time you spent listening. So you're like, well, why does this even matter? I have teachers all the time talk to me about how can I get credit for the work that I'm doing. I have to turn in these hours for this professional development that I'm doing.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:58]:

Not for college credit, but just recertification hours. You can keep track of all this time you're listening on the podcast as recertification hours. So when you're adding up all those minutes, you'll have the minutes for each podcast for each playlist. Sorry, you'll have the minutes from each playlist, and then you can total those up in a way that works best. Convert them to hours if you need to. And then inside of this whole freebie, there's also a certificate where you can type in the total amount of time you spent listening to this podcast, the Elementary STEM coach, and then turn that in for your free professional development hours. So this is something that you are going to do anyway. But I know for you, sorting my own podcast in categories is going to take you much longer than I can because I'm like, oh yeah, it's blah blah, blah, blah, blah.

Naomi Meredith [00:14:49]:

So I already did that for you. It will be updated every so often with the new episodes when they come out. So I will say when you make a copy of it, it obviously doesn't update with the new episodes, but you can always type it in, too, if you see it pop up in your podcast player. You could just type in those minutes as well. So this is just a fun, creative way to earn those hours. And as I said, podcast listening is one of them. Reading is one of them. Actually, in my STEM Teacher Bookshelf membership, I give them a spreadsheet as well to keep track of the time that they are reading and participating in the STEM Teacher Bookshelf membership. So if you're looking for a couple of ways and easy ways things you're going to do anyway, use this podcast and track all of that time this summer or whenever.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:40]:

And then you can also join in on the STEM Teacher Bookshelf membership and track all of that time too. So both will be linked in the show notes where you can grab both of those, but definitely, just a fun way to keep track of the time and the time that you're hanging out with me. Make meaning of it as a recap. Here are the three ways that you can use this podcast, the Elementary STEM Coach, as free professional development. First, take notes as you listen. Next, share with your teacher besties. And third, pick specific topics, and you can record that with the podcast playlist. Again, grab those free podcast playlists and the spreadsheet.

Naomi Meredith [00:16:25]:

I will keep it free for you to save you time, but grab that free podcast and playlist, and spreadsheet to track your minutes by going to Naomimeredith.com/podcastplaylist. Again, thank you so much for listening. I can't believe we have made it to episode 98. It has definitely flown by. I never thought I would keep doing two episodes a week, but you guys are listening. I see the numbers, and I've been talking to people who listen. It's so incredible. I love, love, love the emails that you guys send me, and I've even met some people at the conference that I just went to who listen.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:08]:

And I love being able to put a face to a number really of those who are out there listening. So I appreciate all of you spending time with me each week and letting me be your guide and your Elementary STEM Coach. So thank you so much again; grab that free spreadsheet and all the playlists, and I will talk to you soon.