Brian Kenney

Finally, a good use for podcasting:poetry
April 5, 2007

At times, learning to use these 2.0 tools can be a real drag, no matter what Chris Harris says. It can just feel like homework. Until that day when you find the a good use for them, it all falls into place, and you think "how brilliant!"

Case in point: podcasting. Yes, we've been experimenting with podcasting here at SLJ. But this past month Kathy Ishizuka, our technology editor, and Trev Jones, editor of our book review, were talking about podcasting and authors. Then the talked turned to podcasting and poets....which is when things really started to take off.

April, of course, is National Poetry Month, and the Focus On feature in our April issue ("What Rhymes with Math?") is about poetry. Wouldn't it be great to have some of the poets featured in the article read from their books?

No sooner thad someone (not me) thought of this when Walter Dean Myers was here to record our first podcast in what was fast turning out to be a series. All week there has been a steady stream of poets stopping by SLJ, headed to the office of Trev Jones (now known as the "podcast soundstage.")

What could be a better match? Poetry, after all, you most definately want to hear. And podcasting makes these recording easily accessible to nearly anyone, anywhere. And there are so many ways you can use these readings to introduce children to poetry in general or the specific poets in particular.

Like a lot of the best things we do, our poetry podcast series "just happened" before we could create any sort of marketing...now we're scrambling to get the word out. We will be putting up the podcasts as fast as possible, look in the next week or two for Douglas Florian, Kay Winter, Charles R. Smith, Jon Scieszka, and others.

We're looking at other ways we can integrate podcasting with out features on books and authors, so let us know what ideas you mights have, or what is working in your library or classroom. 

Posted by Brian Kenney on April 5, 2007 | Comments (1)