🏆🎙️Students’ Podcast 2026🎙️🏆

Teacher introduces the Students' Podcast 2026 project by explaining how student-led podcasts will share real campus incidents and updates with international partner classrooms, emphasizing the power of storytelling to connect communities.

Students explore 2-3 examples of student-created podcasts (such as educational shows or youth-focused series) and discuss what makes them engaging, interesting, and worth listening to.

Teacher presents the Design Thinking process and the 16-week journey, showing students a visual roadmap of the phases they will go through: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, and Presentation.

Each student shares on the project board one campus story or incident they find important or interesting, explaining why they think it matters to their community.

Students create short introduction videos (45-60 seconds) sharing their names, hobbies, and one interesting fact about their campus or community.

Each class posts their introduction videos on the project board for the partner classroom to view and respond to.

Students watch partner classroom videos and write down 3 questions they want to ask their international friends about their campus and school experiences.

Students participate in a live video call or asynchronous Q&A exchange where they ask and answer questions with their partner classroom, building initial connections.

Teams collaborate to create a 'Getting to Know Our Partner School' digital poster using Canva or Padlet that includes photos, fun facts, and campus highlights from both classes, posted on the project board for both communities to see.

Students conduct structured interviews with 2-3 peers, asking questions about memorable campus incidents, recent updates, and stories that matter to them (e.g., 'What was the most interesting thing that happened on campus this month?' or 'Tell me about a time you felt proud of your school').

Students perform observation walks around campus, documenting real incidents, activities, and updates through photos, sketches, or written notes in observation journals (examples: sports events, community gatherings, environmental projects, student performances).

Students create empathy maps or user profiles for different community members (classmates, teachers, families, younger students) that capture their perspectives, concerns, and stories about campus life.

Working in small groups, students compile interview recordings, observation journals, and visual documentation into a shared Google Doc or Padlet, organizing stories by themes (school events, community impact, student achievements, campus challenges).

Each group shares their collected stories with the class and posts key findings on the project board, explaining which stories surprised them and why certain incidents matter to their community.

Students exchange their empathy research with the international partner class via the project board, learning about the challenges, celebrations, and stories that matter in their partner's context.

Students review all collected stories and empathy research from both their own campus and the partner classroom, identifying common themes and the most compelling incidents to share.

Working in small groups, students synthesize their findings and draft a clear problem or focus statement for their podcast (e.g., 'Our podcast will share untold stories from our campus to help students worldwide understand what student life is really like' or 'We will highlight how our school is addressing environmental challenges').

Each group presents their proposed podcast focus to the class, explaining which campus stories matter most and why a global audience should care about these incidents and updates.

Teacher facilitates a discussion where students reach consensus on 1-2 core podcast themes that will guide their content creation, ensuring the focus is actionable and relevant to both their local campus and international audience.

Students post their final podcast focus statement on the project board and share it with the international partner class, inviting feedback on whether the focus resonates with their context and offering suggestions for how their partner's stories could complement the podcast theme.

Teacher introduces brainstorming techniques (classic brainstorming, SCAMPER, rapid sketching) and students participate in a whole-class brainstorming session to generate diverse podcast format ideas without judgment, recording all suggestions on a shared Google Doc or Padlet.

Students explore different storytelling approaches by listening to short clips from various podcast styles: narrative episodes (storytelling format), interview-based shows (conversations with guests), documentary-style reports (investigative journalism), student debates (discussion format), and creative dramatizations (scripted stories with sound effects).

In small groups, students sketch or describe 3-4 different podcast format concepts that could work for sharing their campus stories, considering elements like episode length, host style, guest participation, and use of sound effects or music.

Each group presents their podcast format ideas to the class, explaining how their format would best showcase campus incidents and engage a global audience, and the class votes on the most promising ideas.

Teacher guides students to evaluate all ideas based on three criteria: impact (will this format engage listeners?), feasibility (can we realistically produce this?), and appeal to global audience (would international students find this interesting?).

Students share their idea bank with the international partner class via the project board and use 'Yes, and...' thinking to build on each other's concepts, adding suggestions for how partner classroom stories could fit into each podcast format.

Students finalize 1-2 podcast formats to move forward with, documenting their chosen approach in a shared Google Doc that includes format description, episode structure, and examples of stories that would work well in this format.

Students select campus stories from their empathy research and assign roles: hosts, guest interviewees, sound technicians, and editors, ensuring each student has a meaningful role in the podcast production.

Teams script or outline their first podcast episode using a Google Doc template, planning the opening hook, story segments, transitions, and closing message (example: 'Episode 1: The Day Our School Went Green, featuring interviews with the environmental club and photos of campus sustainability projects').

Students conduct practice recording sessions using free podcast recording tools (such as Anchor, Audacity, or GarageBand), experimenting with microphone placement, speaking pace, tone, and sound quality to find what works best.

Each team records a rough prototype of their podcast episode (5-10 minutes), capturing at least one campus story with interviews or narration, and saves it as an audio file or draft episode.

Students listen to their own prototypes and document what works well (engaging storytelling, clear audio, interesting guests) and what could be improved (pacing, background noise, transitions) in a reflection sheet.

Teams share their podcast prototypes on the project board or via a shared audio link, and classmates provide constructive feedback using a structured feedback form (What was engaging? What was confusing? What would make this better?).

Students iterate on their prototypes based on feedback, re-recording sections, adjusting pacing, or adding music and sound effects to improve the listening experience.

Students organize listening sessions on campus, inviting target audiences to hear their podcast prototypes: classmates from other grades, teachers, families, and community members (in person or via shared audio links).

During listening sessions, students observe audience reactions and take notes on engagement: Did listeners seem interested? Did they ask questions? Did they want to hear more?

After each listening session, students conduct brief interviews or distribute surveys asking listeners key questions: Did the podcast engage you? Did you learn something new about our campus? Would you listen to more episodes? What stories did you find most interesting? What could we improve?

Students compile feedback from all audiences in a shared spreadsheet or Google Doc, organizing responses by question and identifying patterns (e.g., 'Most listeners loved the interview format' or 'People wanted longer episodes').

Teams present their test results to the class, sharing what worked well, what surprised them, and what they learned about their audience's preferences.

Students exchange their podcast prototypes and test feedback with the international partner class via the project board, inviting the partner classroom to listen and provide cross-cultural perspectives on storytelling effectiveness, tone, pacing, and topic relevance.

Students analyze feedback from both local and international audiences, identifying which podcast elements resonate across cultures and which might need adjustment, then document insights in a reflection document.

Based on audience feedback and test results, students refine their podcast episodes, re-recording sections, improving audio quality, adding background music or sound effects, and polishing transitions using podcast editing tools (such as Audacity, GarageBand, or Anchor).

Teams finalize 2-3 podcast episodes showcasing different campus stories and incidents, ensuring each episode is 8-12 minutes long, well-edited, and ready for a global audience.

Students create podcast cover art and episode descriptions using Canva, designing visuals that represent their campus and podcast theme, and writing compelling descriptions that explain what each episode is about.

Teams upload their final podcast episodes to a platform accessible to the international partner class and wider audience (such as Anchor, Spotify for Podcasters, or a shared Google Drive folder linked on the project board).

Students create a podcast promotion campaign by designing social media posts, posters, or short video trailers that encourage classmates, families, and the international partner class to listen to the episodes.

Each team presents their podcast series to the class in a live listening party or virtual premiere, playing episode highlights and explaining the campus stories featured, the design choices made, and lessons learned from the production process.

Students post their final podcast episodes and promotion materials on the project board, sharing them with the international partner class and inviting listeners from around the world to engage with their campus stories.

Students complete individual reflection journals answering key questions: What did you learn about Design Thinking through this project? How did working with an international partner classroom change your perspective on storytelling? What was the most challenging part of creating a podcast? What are you most proud of?

Teams create a shared reflection document or presentation highlighting key learnings about the design process, including moments when they had to iterate, adapt, or think creatively to solve problems.

Students exchange final reflections and appreciation messages with the international partner class via the group chat on the platform, sharing what they learned from each other and how collaboration enriched their podcast.

Working together, both classes create a shared digital mural using Padlet or a collaborative Google Slides presentation where students from both classrooms post key learnings about design thinking, international collaboration, and podcast storytelling (example posts: 'I learned that listening to others' stories helps me understand the world better' or 'Collaboration made our podcast stronger because we had different ideas').

Students discuss how working with a global partner enriched their podcast and solutions, identifying specific examples of how international perspectives improved their storytelling or format choices.

Both classes exchange certificates of collaboration or create digital badges recognizing each student's contributions to the project, posted on the project board for celebration.

Teacher facilitates a final discussion about next steps: Could the podcast series continue? Could they share episodes more widely? Could they launch new collaborative projects with their international partner? Students brainstorm future possibilities and document ideas for potential expansion or scaling.