Presenter: Name: Amy Ivory

Title: School Librarian
Organization/School: Lightridge High School

Program Description
We are librarians at a 9-12 public high school in Loudoun County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C. Our building opened as a brand new school in August 2020 under a 100% distance learning model. Our area is highly diverse, highly educated, and very wealthy. Amy was the sole librarian in 2020, while Jenna came on in 2021.
When she opened the school in 2020, Amy brought her passions for podcasting and sharing stories. Inspired by NPR’s StoryCorps and Copenhagen’s Human Library, she created Lightridge Living Book, a publicly shared podcast to highlight the stories of the people in our school. This podcast established a space to learn about members of this newly created community, especially during virtual learning. Jenna came on in 2021 as the second librarian, and joined Amy as the co-host. We added our library assistant as a third host in 2022 and are currently on the fourth season of Lightridge Living Book. We have expanded our episodes to include other stakeholders in the district including principals of other schools, our library supervisor, and our school board chairperson.
In 2022 we upgraded our equipment via a local education grant with the intention of bringing podcasting into the classroom. Through student-created podcasts, we encourage voice and choice while fostering communication and soft-skills, and while supporting our district’s project-based learning initiative. In the last two years students have used the equipment for college applications and classwork. Our journalism students have hosted recurring podcasts on the Lightridge News website. Teachers have begun including podcasting as an option for final assessments and have designed lessons aligning to their curriculum standards around podcasting. Based on the use of the podcasting studio, in 2023 we started a second publicly published podcast, The Lightning Pod, to showcase the podcasts produced by the students at our school.
Our intent for this session is to make podcasting accessible. We will share our passion and inspire librarians to both produce their own podcasts and to be instructional leaders who collaborate with stakeholders to create student-led podcasts. We will address concerns surrounding limited or nonexistent budgets and reassure anyone intimidated by the technology. We will share our podcasting journey, which started with a cell phone, a Chromebook, and zero dollars and has evolved to a grant-funded $1000 professional setup capable of recording up to six in-person participants while also allowing for call-in, off-site participants. Our informal conversations and anecdotal evidence shows that many people avoid podcasting due to the editing process. We will demonstrate the ease of editing in real-time showcasing a free software program, and offer alternative editing software as well. Additionally, because many of our students communicate primarily through screens, we will discuss the importance of preparation and share resources for instructing students about natural, organic, in-person conversations and how to incorporate these skills and more into lessons resulting in podcasts. We will also show how we market our podcast using social media and inside school channels, and address potential publishing concerns such as parent permission, disclaimers, and more!
We shared a similar presentation at our state conference, VAASL, in November 2024. We received an incredible amount of positive feedback. One of the biggest takeaways from participants was the number of resources included in our presentation and the value of sitting down with the equipment. Ideally, we would love to have a table in a makerspace or information area where we can set up our equipment for a few hours and allow conference-goers to stop by, organically play, and discover how easy podcasting can be while also being available for questions and discussion. When we did this at our state conference in November, we were able to connect with conference goers unable to attend our session, thereby furthering the reach of our session.

Learning Objectives
In this session, attendees will:
Learn about our journey with podcasting
Learn about potential funding sources and equipment tiers
Hear how we use podcasting with our students and staff
Witness a live editing demonstration
Be inspired to begin their own podcasting journey


AASL Standards for School Librarians:
I.B School librarians promote new knowledge generation by:
3. Facilitating the development of products that illustrate learning.

II.A School librarians direct learners to contribute to a balanced perspective when participating in a learning community by:
2. Guiding learners as they adopt a discerning stance toward points of view and opinions expressed in information resources and learning products.

II.C School librarians facilitate experiences in which learners exhibit empathy and tolerance for diverse ideas by:
1. Giving learners opportunities to engage in informed conversation and active debate.
2. Guiding learners to contribute to discussions in which multiple viewpoints on a topic are expressed.

III.A School librarians facilitate collaborative opportunities by:
2. Scaffolding enactment of learning-group roles to enable development of new understandings within a group.

III.B School librarians demonstrate the importance of personal, social, and intellectual networks by:
1. Modeling the use of a variety of communication tools and resources.

III.C School librarians promote working productively with others to solve problems by:
1. Demonstrating how to solicit and respond to feedback from others.
2. Advocating and modeling respect for diverse perspectives to guide the inquiry process.

V.C School librarians prepare learners to engage with the learning community by:
1.Providing strategies for acting on curiosity about a topic of personal interest or curricular relevance.

VI.A School librarians promote ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information by:
1. Directing learners to responsibly use information, technology, and media for learning, and modeling this responsible use.
2. Modeling the understanding of ethical use of information, technology, and media.

VI. D School librarians support learners’ engagement with information to extend personal learning by:
1. Structuring a learning environment for innovative use of information and information technologies.
2. Designing experiences that help learners communicate the value of the ethical creation of new knowledge and reflect on their processes.
3. Championing and modeling safe, responsible, ethical, and legal information behaviors.


AASL Standards for Learners:
I.B Learners engage with new knowledge by following a process that includes:
3. Generating products that illustrate learning.

I.C Learners adapt, communicate, and exchange learning products with others in a cycle that includes:
4. Sharing products with an authentic audience.

II.A Learners contribute a balanced perspective when participating in a learning community by:
1. Articulating an awareness of the contributions of a range of learners.
2. Adopting a discerning stance toward points of view and opinions expressed in information resources and learning products.

II.B Learners adjust their awareness of the global learning community by:
1. Interacting with learners who reflect a range of perspectives.
3. Representing diverse perspectives during learning activities.

II.C Learners exhibit empathy with and tolerance for diverse ideas by:
1. Engaging in informed conversation and active debate.
2. Contributing to discussions in which multiple viewpoints on a topic are expressed.

III.A Learners identify collaborative opportunities by:
1. Demonstrating their desire to broaden and deepen understandings.
2. Developing new understandings through engagement in a learning group.

III.B Learners participate in personal, social, and intellectual networks by:
1. Using a variety of communication tools and resources.

V.C Learners engage with the learning community by:
1. Expressing curiosity about a topic of personal interest or curricular relevance.
2. Co-constructing innovative means of investigation.

VI.C Learners responsibility, ethically, and legally share new information with a global community by:
1. Sharing information resources in accordance with modification, reuse, , and remix policies.
2. Disseminating new knowledge through means appropriate for the intended audience.

VI.D Learners engage with information to extend personal learning by:
1. Personalizing their use of information and information technologies.
2. Reflecting on the process of ethical generation of knowledge.

Program Outline
Throughout the session we share stories of the numerous collaborations made possible by the podcasting studio. These include collaborations with adults in the building and almost every department in our school. Our plan for this 50-minute session is as follows:

Arrival, introduction, overview of our school population and demographics, agenda (5 minutes)

Overview of our podcasting journey (3 minutes): When she opened the school in 2020, Amy brought her passions for podcasting and for sharing our stories. Inspired by NPR’s StoryCorps and Copenhagen’s Human Library, she created Lightridge Living Book, a podcast to share the stories of the people in our school community. Jenna came on in 2021 as the second librarian, and joined Amy as the co-host. We added our library assistant as a third host in 2022. In 2023, we started a second podcast, The Lightning Pod, which hosts personal and/or assignment-related podcasts produced by the students at our school.

Identify potential funding sources (3 minutes): Public school library budgets are limited; we recognize start-up costs are involved in podcasting. We provide a list of funding suggestions, with links to 15+ grants participants can apply for and use to fund their podcasting efforts.

Review equipment options for any budget (5 minutes): Equipment options range from a cell phone and computer for zero dollars to a professional setup for $1,500, with everything in between.

Our setup (4 minutes): Our original intention was to create a mobile podcasting studio. This was problematic because our podcasting cart was crammed with equipment, and because classrooms were not an ideal place to record due to overcrowding and background noise. We permanently relocated the equipment to the news studio, which is housed in the library.

Preparing to record and edit a podcast (10 minutes): NPR’s Podcasting Guide and StoryCorp’s example questions and conversation tips help prepare podcast participants for a natural, organic conversation. We will demonstrate editing a 1-2 minute clip in real time to show how simple it can be to edit, especially when utilizing some AI features. Currently we use Riverside, which is included with Spotify for Creators but editing without AI in WeVideo is an option, as is Audacity or Adobe Studio. Both WeVideo and Storyblocks provide a multitude of royalty free music clips and sound effects to enhance a podcast.

Publishing and marketing a podcast (8 minutes): We host our podcasts on Spotify after obtaining permission to publish from all parties. We obtain verbal permission from participants for Lightridge Living Book (our podcast for adults). For the Lightning Pod (our podcast for students), we first obtain permission to publish from all students in the group. If all students consent, we send their parents an electronic permission form with a link to the episode. If all parents consent, we publish the episode. All episodes, whether from Lightridge Living Book, or the Lightning Pod, contain a disclaimer to indicate the views and opinions expressed on the episode are the sole property of the participants and don’t reflect the views of our school employees or school board. We advertise the podcast on Instagram, through school and community newsletters, word of mouth, school meetings, and local signage.

Lessons learned (5 minutes): We have amassed a comprehensive, wide-ranging list of tips and tricks to share from our podcasting journey.

Resources (1 minute): We have a Google Doc with links to everything we talk about, editable templates for instruction sheets and IG posts, sample wording for grant applications, permission slips, disclaimers, and more.

Questions and Answers (6 minutes)
All About Podcasting! (It’s Easier Than You Think!)

Grade Level: Not grade specific

Session Strand: Design & Create

Presenter
Amy Ivory

Amy graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with her Master's in Library and Information Science in 2013. She relocated to Northern Virginia beginning her career at Parkside Middle School in Prince William County. In 2016, Amy helped open Colgan High School in Prince William County and in 2020 moved to Loudoun County to open Lightridge High School. She is still there and along with her co-librarian, Jenna Lombardo, has built the library program as the school has grown from 800 Bolts to over 2,000. Amy is passionate about research, books, podcasting, and her two sons. Amy is a National Board Teacher (2018, 2023) and a Knowledge Quest contributing author (November/December 2019).

Jenna Lombardo

Jenna holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History / Political Science, a Master of Arts in Teaching, and a certificate in Library Media Studies. She began her career as a first grade teacher before moving to the library in 2020. In 2021, she joined her co-librarian, Amy Ivory, at Lightridge High School and together they've built a library program rooted in freedom to read, access to information, accessible programming, and lots of joy! Jenna loves to bake, organize, exercise, and read. She is naturally introverted but always willing to talk about books.


Description: Learn how to bring podcasting to your school as we share about equipment, funding, publishing, and marketing. We will teach you to use podcasting to promote your library, build relationships in your school community, and collaborate with colleagues from all departments. No money? No problem! We have options for every budget. Afraid of the tech aspect? Come watch us edit part of an episode live and ease your worries. This session is for new and experienced podcasters. Unable to attend? Look for us in the makerspace to play and chat!