Robert Burns = The Bard, Rabbie, Robin or The Ploughman Poet, His Bardness, The Barderino (if you're not into the whole brevity thing...)

Well it's that time of year again when schools all over the country are chasing their tails to pay their dues to Scots and by celebrating the life and work of the man himself- Mr Robert Burns.
How many renditions of J.K. Annand's 'Street Talk', or Robert Burns' 'Tam O Shanter' will be sent home for homework? As well as all the paintings and songs being entered for the various World Burns Federation competitions.
As a teacher I love this time of year. Scots is such a rich language, full of brilliant descriptive words like glaikit and mawsie. But I hardly ever use it in a fluent sense. I always feel guilty that I'm one of these Scots that can unnerstaun and spik it (if it's written down) but it certainly doesn't roll off the tongue.
I also feel guilt for not embedding it more into my daily teaching over the year. Each year I promise myself to do more, but it just never happens. Always so MANY things to do.
Less about guilt, more about resources.
Some classic publications I always use are all my old Broons and Oor Wullie annuals, 'Bairnsangs', 'The Kist' , three volumes from Mercat Press ('A Bairn's Sang', 'Bairn Rhymes' and 'Scots Poems for Children). The excellent 'Burns for Bairns' published Burns specialists Alloway Publishing is full of shorter classics like 'To A Louse' and 'Willie Wastle'.
For a more modern slant on Scots then Itchycoo publishers are amazeen! The 'Eck the Bee' activity book and 'King o the Midden' poetry collection are personal faves, but recently they have produced a Scots version of Roald Dahl's 'The Twits', simply called 'The Eejits' and Stevenson's Kidnapped in graphic novel form- 'Kidnappit'.
There are some great online sources on Scots or Burns from LTS Scotland, The National Library, Scran, The Scottish Storytelling Centre and Burns Cottage.
Burns Country and the World Burns Federation provide detailed knowledge about Burns, his poetry and Burns Suppers.
Be inspired with some alternative recipes for haggis from the world famous producers MacSween of Endinburgh.
An extensive online collection of other Scots poems for children can be found here.
'Tam O Shanter', Burns' classic tale of drink, likeable rogues, witches and dancing is retold in dramatic fashion by the painter Alexander Goudie. These can be admired online here. I can't wait to show them to my class!