Spellbound by a Podcast
Ewan McIntosh pointed me to this amazing poetry podcast from Sandaig
Primary in Glasgow, Scotland. The students celebrated National Poetry
day 2005 by writing a Keepers Poem. The poem was inspired by The
Keepers Poetry Project which is inspired by the original Keepers poem
by Phil Whitehead. John Johnston is the teacher who put this incredible
project together. These children are in primary 2 to 7. They wrote 150 verses, blogged them and then
created the podcast. John writes a most helpful description of the
project here. He offers his suggestions and thoughts. Ewan posts about it here and
proclaims it “A real success that can be emulated in any school.” I
couldn’t agree more.
Having both the blogs and the podcast is a dynamite combination. I love
this type of engagement by the students. I was spellbound as I listened
to their beautiful voices. What a powerful way to bring poetry into
their lives and their reader’s lives. Then as I was reading through the
blog, this comment from Phil Whitehead:
I agree with Greg - a great colllection. The one
that sticks for me though was Lucy’s patience running out . I love that
idea .. puts strong image in my mind.
Why don’t you paste a different one every couple of days into the main
page with the same invite to click on the banner for more?
I wish I’d had a blog when first asked to write the collection Keepers
comes from . I could have just posted the idea and waited for everyone
to give me brilliant poems back.
Congrats to all the writers.
Phil (original Keeper)
Now that just tops it off! Great work from our fellow educators in
Scotland! You just know this teacher is fostering the love of reading,
writing, blogging and podcasting!
October 10th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
Hi Anne,
Thanks for the positive comments. Since you blogged this we have had a flurry of comments from the USA.
I am really looking forward to the children at school reading these and telling them you were ’spellbound’ when I go to school today.
We have been blogging for nearly two years now, but this wee project has gathered more comments and links than any other so far. This will I am sure give a huge boost to the children, and I hope to blogging here.
Cheers John