Yesterday, I had the pleasure of podcasting with a group of seven and eight year old pupils from Nine Acres Primary School in Newport as part of my Languages and Creative Learning Lead Practitioner work for The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The idea of the project was to produce a podcast which imaginatively built on what they had been learning in class and featured the pupils speaking, singing and rapping in French.
This was very much a collaborative effort and the podcasting team assembled for the day included:
- Judith Stinton, Deputy Head and Music Coordinator
- Louis Henry, Acting Head of the Music Service on the Isle of Wight
- Teresa Williams, Yr3 French teacher
Being able to plan and collaborate our ideas in the morning before meeting the children, paid dividends and allowed us to draw on each other's strengths and inspirations. The volunteer pupils all rose to the high expectations we put upon them and as a result, improved their pronunciation and confidence in the process.
The recording took about three hours to complete from start to finish and about the same time to edit in Audacity. In the last part of the podcast, you can hear the pupils describing their thoughts and feelings of their experience while being accompanied by Yr4 guitarists and their teacher, Andrew Steed. Have a listen to what Louis and Judith had to say too.
The day was an undoubted success and I was delighted that Nine Acres agreed to host the podcasting project. Not only do they offer French in Yr3 and have a very good reputation for music, they also are our main feeder school. I am now hoping that the link that was forged yesterday as a result of the project will allow us to collaborate further in the future. Exciting times.
Download Nine_Acres_French_podcast.mp3
Joe, Have had a look at primary but how do I listen? do I have to download first? Dad.
Posted by: Jack Dale | 15/03/2007 at 09:41
Hi Dad,
You can click on the link Download_Nine_Acre_French_podcast.mp3 in the post and it should play the podcast automatically in Windows Media Player or you can right click the link and select Save Target As .. and save it to your Desktop for example, then open it from there. Hope that helps.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 15/03/2007 at 12:34
Joe, could you pass on this message?
WoW! I was well impressed with you guys. Some great accents there! Keep up the good work.
Mrs Forbes (Scotland)
Posted by: Eva Forbes | 15/03/2007 at 18:00
Cheers Eva,
Will do.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 15/03/2007 at 18:34
Hi Joe
Please pass on my congratulations to the Nine Acres gang I loved the podcast and hope it will be the first of many - I had better brush up my French as well : )
Paul Harrington
Posted by: Paul Harrington | 15/03/2007 at 20:48
Hi Joe! as always your podcasts are a great inspiration to us all. I'm working on getting my GCSE oral questions online thanks to the flashmeeting you had last week.
Great stuff!
Janet
Posted by: janet mccann | 16/03/2007 at 17:33
Cheers Janet,
I've been really impressed how you've taken to blogging with Campo's Corner. As you can see I've included it in my MFL Blogroll.
You may also be interested to know that I've uploaded a mp3 of the Flashmeeting too for people to listen to on the move.
Posted by: Joe Dale | 17/03/2007 at 20:02