The other day I Googled myself. For the record, I do not do this often. I just don’t think it is a healthy thing to do. However I wanted to see if this site had registered in the Ether anywhere. And it had! Just. Hurrah. And then in the search results I spotted something else that tickled me.
Several years ago I took a course in Writing for Children. One of the assignments was children’s poetry and I wrote a little ditty called Colourful. The course then required that we send some samples off to poetry anthology editors (I’m sure they were delighted! I suspect the course was trying to thicken our skins.)
A week or so later, on a Friday night, I picked up the phone to none other than the lovely Benjamin Zephaniah, who was asking my permission to post Colourful on his website. Just to be clear; the Benjamin Zephaniah, calling me on a Friday night. OMG. Obviously I answered Yes please. (I might even have gushed a bit. Well, it was Friday night -there had been wine in the near area...)
Fast forward then to now and my Googling, and I see a search result with Colourful mentioned on a site that wasn’t Benjamin Zephaniah’s. Turns out a French journal for Teachers of English, New Standpoints, had made a classroom worksheet which focuses on the poet,Jamaica and family relationships. AND it used my poem. How random is that? I’m teaching French people English! Who knew?!
Isn’t it amazing what you can learn on Google?
Today’s Distraction Tool; Googlewhacks
Wow, you are so multi-talented! writer, artist, poet, and English teacher!
ReplyDeleteand I didn't have a clue!
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