Blogging in Schools
November 9th, 2009
Our 16th podcast since we started six months ago is a joint effort with the Science Department’s Frog Blog, in which teachers Jeremy Stone, Humphrey Jones and Julian Girdham discuss the value and purpose of blogging in schools, particularly for subject departments. The podcast (or, as the scientists call it, ‘frogcast’) may be of particular interest to teachers, since there’s lots of advice here on how blogging can enhance teaching and learning in schools. The discussion examines the way blogging has widened the reach of teaching and learning in both the Science and English Departments at St Columba’s.
Standard Podcasts [17:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (164)Posted in Blogging, English Teaching | Comments (0) » |
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‘The Wild Swans at Coole’ by W.B. Yeats
October 13th, 2009
Our fifteenth podcast is the first of this academic year, and is also the first in a series of podcasts on individual poems on the Higher Level Leaving Certificate course. This one is on W.B. Yeats’s poem ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, and sets the poem in its literary and historical background.
The second volume of Roy Foster’s biography, which is quoted in the podcast, is The Arch-Poet. The Yeats exhibition at the National Library of Ireland, is open now, and the website is here (you can see the manuscript of ‘Wild Swans’ online by searching). Coole Park’s website is here.
Standard Podcasts [10:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (210)Posted in Poetry | Comments (0) » |
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Henry James’s ‘The Portrait of a Lady’
June 18th, 2009
Podcast 14: our final podcast of this academic year, just in time for some satisfying holiday reading, is an interview with former colleague John Fanagan, who talks about Henry James’s great 1881 novel The Portrait of a Lady. Set in England and Italy, the book examines the progress of the innocent American young woman Isabel Archer, as she comes into contact with the ways of an older civilisation. John discusses other characters in the novel, such as Ralph Touchett, Lord Warburton, Madame Merle, Henrietta Stacpoole and the dark Gilbert Osmond. There’s a spoiler warning before the last few minutes of the podcast, in which the infamous ending is discussed, so if you haven’t already read the novel, you might like to pause it then, and return later.
Standard Podcasts [37:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (230)Posted in Fiction | Comments (0) » |
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Actiontrack: an interview with Nick Brace
June 11th, 2009
Our 13th podcast is an interview with the Artistic Director of the Actiontrack Performance Company, Nick Brace. Actiontrack have been coming to us since 1993, working with II formers in March, and with Transition Year in particular at the end of each year in ’showbuilds’. Nick discusses the process in which a musical production is created from scratch in five days, involving song-writing, singing, dancing, set design and of course acting. He also talks about Actiontrack’s work generally, including local work in Somerset with schools, youth groups and communities. Actiontrack’s website is here.
Standard Podcasts [29:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (129)Posted in Drama | Comments (0) » |
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The Great Hunger: MacIntyre, Kavanagh, Jameson
June 6th, 2009
Our 12th podcast is an interview with Department member Evan Jameson, about the highly successful part he look in the Balally Players’ production of Tom MacIntyre’s The Great Hunger, his 1983 adaptation of the epic poem by Patrick Kavanagh (the first part of the poem is on the Leaving Certificate course). We reviewed this here six months ago. Evan discusses the rehearsal process for this very physical piece of drama, the nature of the writing itself, and the experience of going to amateur drama festivals around the country, culminating in the All-Ireland finals in Athlone last month, where the production achieved 4th place.
Standard Podcasts [20:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (144)Posted in Drama | Comments (0) » |
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Macbeth revision VII: his tragic end
May 28th, 2009
Podcast 11: The last of our seven Macbeth revision sessions deals with Macbeth as he faces his end in Act V, and analyses the crucial speech in Act V scene v, ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrrow…’ It looks at why we consider his story tragic, given the horrendous deeds he has committed.
Standard Podcasts [10:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (205)Posted in Drama, Shakespeare | Comments (0) » |
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Macbeth revision VI: quotation auto-test
May 22nd, 2009
Our penultimate Macbeth revision podcast is a little different. Here are ten quotations from the play; you can pause your computer or MP3 player after each, and guess who spoke the words, and the context, and then listen to the answers and a commentary on the quotation. These commentaries examine the quotations as key moments in the play, linking them to the rest of the text, and again trying to prompt fresh reflection on the themes and characters.
Standard Podcasts [18:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (187)Posted in Drama, Shakespeare | Comments (0) » |
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Louise C. Callaghan: an interview and reading
May 20th, 2009
For Podcast 9, we’re delighted to present an extended interview with the poet Louise C. Callaghan, who discusses her poetry, and reads several poems. Included is ‘The Binder’s Notes’, the poem for which Louise was shortlisted at the recent Strokestown International Poetry Festival, and which you can read here on their website. Louise also reads poems such as ‘The Palatine Daughter Marries a Catholic’, ‘Fragments’, ‘The Trader’s Magneto Dynamo Company’ and ‘The Trick Is’, and discusses the origins of her writing, and the methods she uses to encourage children to write.
Standard Podcasts [34:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (103)Posted in Poetry | Comments (0) » |
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Macbeth revision V: the Witches and the supernatural
May 17th, 2009
Our 5th Macbeth revision podcast, leading up to the Leaving Certificate, examines the influence of the ‘weird sisters’ and the supernatural on the events of the play, particularly on Macbeth’s own thoughts and actions. It concentrates on the witches’ influence in the early part of the play.
Standard Podcasts [15:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (180)Posted in Drama, Shakespeare | Comments (0) » |
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Macbeth revision IV: Malcolm the hero?
May 11th, 2009
Podcast no 7 : Our fourth Macbeth revision podcast in a series leading up to the Leaving Certificate looks primarily at the latter part of the play. It leads on from last week’s session, which examined the nature of order and law in the early part of the play. This week, we consider the end of the story, looking particularly at Malcolm and Macduff in the long scene set in England, the English King Edward, and our feelings as an audience as we watch Macbeth vanquished by the forces of decency.
Standard Podcasts [12:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (177)
