Two days into the new year, I was overcome with a desire to start a podcast. I'd talked about it a little bit over the past few years but with no real direction and then, BAM! I needed to do it NOW.
It's funny how our mind works with these things and I can't tell you why the sudden desire to get it started. Perhaps I had one of my most restful, recharging school breaks in years and I was flooded with passion for my career. Perhaps it was that I suddenly realised I don't really have a hobby combined with my passion for talking about my job and how excited I have been for the year ahead. Whatever it was, it's started and I'm so pumped for what I've already acheived and what I've got to look forward to.
Getting started was easy in my mind but in practice was much harder. Not so hard that I wanted to quit already but hard enough that I felt suitably challenged (I was well and truly in my favourite place; the learning pit). I read countless guides, tossed up many different podcast web hosts and contacted many people that might be able to help me get started.
I settled for Podbean as my podcast host. They had some pretty good guides, a decent free service (that I could use until I decided I wanted to pay for more) and after contacting them for help a couple of times, realised they were very customer focused. I needed to know if I ran into trouble I could get a reasonably fast reply from a support team.
I also found some really useful guides on what you need to consider when starting a podcast. This guide from Podcast Insights became my beginners bible. I got so much useful information from this and I owe much of my beginnings to their words of wisdom. Given that I decided to use Garageband on my Mac to do my recordings, I found this guide from macworld.com especially useful.
Chris Woods from The STEM Everyday Podcast was really forthcoming with advice when I first announced I was starting. Best of all, he reached out to me to offer help which I truly appreciated. In fact, I was so grateful for the support of my online community in helping me get started. At writing this post, I have already interviewed some brilliant educators from around the world with a stack more lined up. I am loving the engaging conversations I've been part of and am so happy I am now sharing them with the world.
Special thanks to the following people that have been part of the podcast so far (follow them on Twitter):
Bec Spink (@becspink), Mazz Ellery (@lv2teachntravel), Kim Martin (@kimnitram), Stephanie Kriewaldt (@stephkrie), Sally Lowe (@sallylowe17), Karen Caswell (@kcasw1), Dr Linda McIver (@lindamciver), Jody Unterrheiner (@readforlifeug), Christina Polatajko (@cpola17), Tanya LeClair (@TanyaLeClair) and Dr Matthew X. Joseph (@MatthewXJoseph)
I'm in the phase of growing the podcast now and trying to find new listeners. If you could take a few minutes to listen, share and rate the podcast it will really help it grow. You can find The PonderingDan Podcast on most podcast players (Apple, Spotify, TuneIn Radio and Podbean). I have also just begun sharing the episodes on YouTube (PonderingDan).
It's funny how our mind works with these things and I can't tell you why the sudden desire to get it started. Perhaps I had one of my most restful, recharging school breaks in years and I was flooded with passion for my career. Perhaps it was that I suddenly realised I don't really have a hobby combined with my passion for talking about my job and how excited I have been for the year ahead. Whatever it was, it's started and I'm so pumped for what I've already acheived and what I've got to look forward to.
Getting started was easy in my mind but in practice was much harder. Not so hard that I wanted to quit already but hard enough that I felt suitably challenged (I was well and truly in my favourite place; the learning pit). I read countless guides, tossed up many different podcast web hosts and contacted many people that might be able to help me get started.
I settled for Podbean as my podcast host. They had some pretty good guides, a decent free service (that I could use until I decided I wanted to pay for more) and after contacting them for help a couple of times, realised they were very customer focused. I needed to know if I ran into trouble I could get a reasonably fast reply from a support team.
I also found some really useful guides on what you need to consider when starting a podcast. This guide from Podcast Insights became my beginners bible. I got so much useful information from this and I owe much of my beginnings to their words of wisdom. Given that I decided to use Garageband on my Mac to do my recordings, I found this guide from macworld.com especially useful.
Chris Woods from The STEM Everyday Podcast was really forthcoming with advice when I first announced I was starting. Best of all, he reached out to me to offer help which I truly appreciated. In fact, I was so grateful for the support of my online community in helping me get started. At writing this post, I have already interviewed some brilliant educators from around the world with a stack more lined up. I am loving the engaging conversations I've been part of and am so happy I am now sharing them with the world.
Special thanks to the following people that have been part of the podcast so far (follow them on Twitter):
Bec Spink (@becspink), Mazz Ellery (@lv2teachntravel), Kim Martin (@kimnitram), Stephanie Kriewaldt (@stephkrie), Sally Lowe (@sallylowe17), Karen Caswell (@kcasw1), Dr Linda McIver (@lindamciver), Jody Unterrheiner (@readforlifeug), Christina Polatajko (@cpola17), Tanya LeClair (@TanyaLeClair) and Dr Matthew X. Joseph (@MatthewXJoseph)
I'm in the phase of growing the podcast now and trying to find new listeners. If you could take a few minutes to listen, share and rate the podcast it will really help it grow. You can find The PonderingDan Podcast on most podcast players (Apple, Spotify, TuneIn Radio and Podbean). I have also just begun sharing the episodes on YouTube (PonderingDan).
Your article was shared with me by a fellow teacher of instagram when I posted about looking for a site my students could use to create their own podcasts. Any tips there? Looking for something safe & student-friendly. Thanks in advance!
ReplyDeleteHi Kathryn,
DeleteI think all the resources in the article would help for students too. Podcast seems great (the free option). I'm yet to use it with students so I would have to test everything out myself I suppose.