Fiona Lochheed has interviewed Michael Kaufmann about the Glendaruel Hotel and life in the glen — click here to listen to it
Tag Archives: interview
Interview from 1909!
We have just published Margaret Burnley Campbell’s interview of Daniel McEwen in January 1909. Daniel was born in 1820 and as a native of Glendaruel this is a priceless insight into life in the Glen in the 19th Century. Thanks to John MacNaughton for allowing us access to the papers to scan – to see the interview click here.
Interviewing Mrs McKay & Mr MacNaughton
The pupils at Kilmodan have been interviewing two knowledgeable residents of the Glen gleaning lots of information about the history of our place. We’ve recorded it all, and in the near future we will be placing it on our timeline pages for everyone to listen to.
Workshop: Putting Skills Into Action!
Date: Tuesday 11th of June 2013
Location: Kilmodan Primary School
Workshop: Interviews: Putting Skills Into Action!
Walking Youth Theatre Team: Sadie Dixon-Spain and Alana Mathers
Guests: Mr. McNaughton and Mrs. McKay
The afternoon was split into two sessions. The first focused on recapping from last weeks workshop, and discussing the interviewing skills the pupils had identified and practiced. The class was then split into two groups, one to work with Sadie, and one to work with Alana. The groups were told they were each going to be interviewing a member of the community later in the afternoon, and had the session to prepare for the interview. Sadie’s group were going to interview Mr. John McNaughton, a Glendaruel farmer, who grew up in the Glen. Alana’s group would be interviewing Mrs. McKay, who has lived in the Colintraive and Glendaruel area her whole life, and has many memories to share with the pupils.
In their groups, the pupils made a mind map of questions they would like to ask their interviewee, and the topics they would like to cover in the interview. With Mr. McNaughton, the pupils were interested to find out about farming in the Glen, and what makes Glendaruel an ideal location for farming. They were also interested in hearing about Mr. McNaughton’s childhood, as he too grew up in the Glen.
The group interviewing Mrs. McKay were interested in hearing about Glendaruel’s past, especially how the school has changed from when Mrs. McKay was their age. The pupils were also keen to hear about how the Glen has changed over the years, and what jobs have been available in the area over time.
The pupils also gained experience is using the recording equipment, and had time to practice recording themselves speaking, to ensure they used their strongest, clearest voices to interview.
As the second half of the session approached, the pupils were excited to meet with Mr. McNaughton and Mrs. McKay, and to put their interviewing and recording skills into action. The pupils did a fabulous job interviewing our guests, and both interviewees and interviewers had a great time engaging with Glendaruel’s past.
The interviews can be found on our website. Many thanks to Mr. McNaughton and Mrs. McKay for taking the time to come along to Kilmodan Primary School to work on the Glen of the Red River project.
Workshop: Interviews and Recording Information
Date: Wednesday 5th of June 2013
Location: Kilmodan Primary School
Workshop: Interviews and Recording Information
Walking Youth Theatre Team: Sadie Dixon-Spain and Alana Mathers
The second half of the session focused on interviews, encouraging the pupils to develop their communication, interviewing, research, and media recording skills, as well as discovering who the pupils would like to interview as part of the All Our Stories project, and identify individuals who may be iconic in the pupil’s Glendaruel research.
Firstly, as a group, we discussed what makes a good interview, and what an interviewer must do when conducting a recorded interview. The pupils gave us some great suggestions on questions that they would like to ask fellow Glendaruel residents, and were all very keen to interview the older residents of the Glen, who have lived here for many years. The pupils were enthralled in finding out more about what life was like for their grandparents generation when they were at Primary School – what facilities they had in the Glen, which school they went to, how did they travel to one another’s houses, what games did they play in the wide open spaces, and what they liked about growing up in such a beautiful, but rural, area. Many of the pupils began thinking about their family members who live in the area, and began taking notes on questions they would like to ask them on living in Glendaruel. It was a great exercise to also find out what the pupils already knew about the history of the Glen, particularly through discovering which Clans they descended from, and which family groups have become joined through the years by marriage.
The next part of the session saw the pupils putting their interviewing skills into action, by taking turns in interviewing one another in groups. Following some practice of identifying topics, constructing questions, how to begin and end an interview, and working on producing strong, clear vocals, the class reconvened, and the pupils would conduct their interviews in-front of the class. The interviews were recorded, and then played back to the group, who then identified the good aspects of what they had listened to, and those that had to be worked on. This was a great exercise that really gave the pupils confidence in conducting interviews, and it was encouraging to hear how keen they were to interview members of the community for the project.