iPods with Audiobooks, Instructional Readers & Shared Books

There are lots of Audiobooks available for download online on iTunes, but rarely the one you want! Harry Potter books are available on the US iTunes site but not on our NZ iTunes (What's up with that?)
But if you have an iPod , a 5 way splitter
Belkin Rockstar
(NZ $20) and cheap headphones (NZ $2.99) then you can create absorbing reading activities for your students.

Record your voice in GarageBand (Mac) or Audacity (Win), upload to iTunes and download to your iPod.

Kids love the iPods and the headphones and this makes for a very 'q-u-i-e-t' activity!

More Ideas

1. Do you know somebody who has an interesting, expressive voice, ask them to read for you and record them
2. Record in theatre reading style where you have different voices reading the parts of the characters and narrator
3. Junior teachers ask teachers of Senior children to get their students to record some of your instructional readers or shared books
4. More able readers in the class can create audiobooks for less able students
5. Keep a box of the books/Journals/Instructional readers that you have recorded so that children can choose their favourite story to listen to

Or what about when you can't get to every reading group, record the questions you would normally ask as part of the recording. Students can pause the iPod to look up or find the answers.