Podcasts: Church-Science Debate Format and Copernicus Lecture (Lesson 2 of 4)

A ten-minute overview of the debate format (and the debate Wiki) here:
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A 20-minute lecture on Copernicus (pp. 1-8 of the packet) here:
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Good luck in Japan and SeoMUN!

Enlightenment Lesson 1 class recording (for absent students)

Here are three mp3's (about 15 minutes each) from the first History class on the Enlightenment. They introduce the debate project we'll be doing. This is especially for the volleyball team in Japan!


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A Glimpse of Student Projects to Come: Embedded Video

Give us a video camera and a microphone, and you'll be seeing our class in this box....

Acting with the Voice: Reading Stories to Life

In 9 English (World Literature), we spent the first quarter in preparing for the Renaissance by going to beginnings--in fact, to the very beginnings.

We went to the oldest written story on Earth: Gilgamesh, the epic poem from the Sumerian-Babylonian city of Uruk, in today's Iraq.

We took detours into other ancient myths and religions--especially the Hebrew Tanakh (known to Christians as The Old Testament), and the Greek creation myth, The Theogony, by Hesiod.

Most students agreed that Gilgamesh was clearly the most well-written of the three ancient myth traditions. And this aging teacher himself was quite amazed at its power and wisdom. (This might have something to do with the new translation by Stephen Mitchell that we read, which is available in the KIS library.)

OUR PODCASTS TODAY ARE TWO STUDENT READINGS FROM THIS 5,000 YEAR-OLD STORY, which sounds young indeed--or timeless--when read by these students. In the scene they recite, Gilgamesh speaks to the Sumerian-Babylonian "Noah," Utnapishtim--sole survivor of the Flood sent by the Gods, and only human ever to be made immortal. Utnapishtim's advice--and his language--is a wonder.

Listen to Jessica Y's interpretation here:


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AND

listen to Jeffrey A. perform it here (notice his instinct for dramatic pauses!):


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Please leave a comment and let the students know what you think! Give us ideas, requests, and advice for future podcasts! "The Web's the Limit!"

Coming Soon: KIS Grade 9 Podcasts!

Click the icon to play this little bit of weirdness. I made it just to show some of the effects you can play with when making your podcasts.


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I did this by using Audacity, a free audio recorder that we'll definitely use from now on.

You can pause while recording. You can delete mistakes. Add sound effects and music. Sing and then record yourself singing harmony with yourself ;-) . A million other things. And you can save to mp3. And then upload it to this site. And then....subscribe to it on iTunes. And so can your parents.

In fact, to subscribe to our podcasts, click here. Or just go to iTunes, click "Advanced > Subscribe to podcasts" and copy and paste this into the popup window:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Cloud9Phoenix/

After that, iTunes will automatically download any of our new podcasts within a day. They'll be waiting for you in your iTunes library.

Podcast: 3,500 years in your head

Click the icon to play the podcast. Because you're not going to leave grade 9 without having three millenia of "the big picture" in your head....

A New World?

People will say anything.

First, they start talking about the earth being round (that's right, you heard me: round).

Now they're saying that there's another world "on the other side of the ocean."

Right.

I don't know about you, but I don't buy it. But all these "educated" people say it like it's totally possible.

Snobs. Next thing you know, they'll be saying the sun is the center of the universe, and the earth goes around it.

Stay tuned for more news about this stuff. We'll report on our podcasts.