Top 9 podcasts for principals
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to keep up with the latest educational trends and news while you commute or hit the treadmill? To this, we say ‘podcasts’. Far from a passing trend, Apple announced last year that all podcast content in the iTunes and podcast app had been downloaded and streamed a total of 50 billion times. It’s safe to say podcasts are here to stay. This week, School Stream takes a look at the best podcasts for Principals and finds there are some incredibly insightful podcasts brought to you by some of the very best researchers and analysts working in education. Whether you are looking for a homegrown or international perspective, there will be a podcast for you.
We know you’re busy. Click here to see School Stream in action or keep reading for our round-up of the best podcasts for Principals.
There’s a podcast for that
Podcasts have emerged from their niche recently to become practically ubiquitous, thanks to the explosion of smartphones. They are now a huge part of our content diet, and it’s easy to see why. The mobile nature of podcasts means they are uniquely placed to fit into our busy lives. The multitasking combination of education and entertainment makes them very attractive at a time when ‘busy’ is the new normal and efficiency rules. We may be too busy to read, but we can certainly find time on our commute for that true-crime podcast our co-workers are all raving about. And it doesn’t matter how specialised your area of interest is, with more than 600,000 shows worldwide, there will be a podcast for you. Another feature particular to podcasts is the communities that coalesce around them. Many popular podcasts have active pages on social media, which creates the opportunity to interact with other likeminded individuals. Listening to a podcast and chatting online with fellow listeners afterwards is the chance for genuine community building.
Educational podcasts are PD on the go
In the time-pressed reality that is a Principal’s life, podcasts are a way to source content for self-directed professional development in a way that is easy, convenient and requires absolutely no planning or time away from school. It’s PD on the go, if you will.
Educational podcasts to add to your playlist
The podcast ecosystem is complex, rich and ever-changing – and that’s a good thing – but it can also be overwhelming and difficult to know where to start. The following podcasts are all powerful resources for Principals and educators. Add them to your playlist and get ready to learn and be inspired.
- The Educhange Podcast is presented by Australian education entrepreneurs Dave Faulkner and Aaron Tait, who you may remember from School Stream’s recent focus on education entrepreneurs. This high rating podcast is for the “doers in schools”.
- Teacher Magazine covers education and leadership from every angle. Topics include ‘Building a School Reading Culture’ and ‘Being a New School Leader’ (episode 19), ‘Teacher’ presents all the content and analysis you love to read, in handy audio form.
- The Teachers’ Education Review is a fortnightly podcast with a focus on educational issues in Australia and around the world. TER is hosted by a NSW secondary school teacher and a NSW primary school Assistant Principal, so you can be confident your hosts share your lived experience ‘on the ground’ in a school. The podcast ‘explores the implications of educational policies, teaching practices, and international events that impact on teaching and learning in Australian classrooms.’
- Talking Teaching comes out of the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Teaching. Tune in to hear interviews and conversation about effective classroom practice and the latest in educational thinking with leaders in the sector.
- QUT Teacher Podcast is a seven-part interview series hosted by journalist Madonna King. The series is presented by the Queensland University of Technology, where some of you may well have studied. You can listen to a short trailer via the link.
- Educate is produced by the much-lauded National Public Radio (NPR). It describes itself as presenting stories about education, opportunity and how people learn. While the program has a distinctly American-centric focus, ‘Educate’ looks at international research, and topics such as ‘Students on the Move: Keeping uprooted kids in school’ are relevant to school leaders worldwide.
- Truth for Teachers is a US podcast hosted by teacher Angela Watson and is the pep talk you didn’t realise you needed. Topics like ‘5 Ridiculously Unhelpful Things I’ve said to students’ and ‘Overcoming mom/dad guilt when you spend more time with other people’s kids’ are interspersed with a message about being kind to yourself and encouraging you to keep on keeping on.
- EdTech Situation Room is a podcast looking at the intersection of technology news and educational analysis. It is hosted by Wesley Fryer who was also responsible for the now (sadly) defunct Moving at the Speed of Creativity. Old episodes of which are still available online, along with some very detailed show notes.
- Getting Smart can be found on SoundCloud and the bio notes describe the podcast as covering topics in K-12, Higher Education and lifelong learning. Episodes cover developments in research, technology, entrepreneurs and classroom methods.
We hope you find a podcast that inspires you. Have we missed any of your favourites? Get in touch.
