MENDON — Superintendent Maureen Cohen and Clough Elementary School Principal Liz Garden are excited to share that Clough Elementary students have recently launched a new podcast: Clough Speaks Up.
Earlier this year, Clough Elementary School was awarded a $1,200 grant from the Mendon-Upton Education Foundation to purchase podcasting equipment that students used to create the podcast.
Four Clough Elementary School students recently debuted the first two podcast episodes at the April School Committee meeting. During the meeting, third-grade student Charlie Bliss, third-grade student Caleb Fater, fourth-grade student Logan Nelson and fourth-grade student Lylah Rubin presented the podcast and shared what they’ve learned as new podcasters.
The students meet once a week before school and brainstorm their ideas for new episodes. All third and fourth-grade students are welcome to sign up to participate and bring ideas they’d like to talk about on the podcast.
The episodes have featured interviews with teachers and staff members on why they chose teaching as their profession. Other episodes will include interviews with fellow students on topics such as sports, common interests, books, what students are learning in school, debates about changes they’d like to see at Clough, surveys and more.
The podcast episodes will be posted every other week and will be played for students after the morning announcements in their classrooms. The episodes will also be included in the weekly newsletters for parents.
“I am extremely proud of the 3rd and 4th grade students who have now become our podcasting experts,” said Principal Garden. “It’s wonderful to see how excited and engaged they are throughout the whole process. Students are not only working on different components of the writing process, they are also bringing several of our Portrait of a Learner competencies to life, including being Effective Communicators and Skillful Collaborators. It’s an awesome thing to see what happens when we amplify our students’ voices.”
Click here to listen to the first podcast episode of Clough Speaks Up.