Welcome to Seomra Ranga, the Hub for Primary School Resources. For the overseas visitors “Seomra Ranga” means “classroom” in the Irish language.
Seomra Ranga has been successfully providing tried and tested resources for primary school classrooms since 2007. Since that time, the site has gradually built up a strong following amongst educators as a repository of quality teacher-created resources. The resources on the site, which support all areas of the curriculum, are arranged in accordance with the curricular provisions of the Irish primary school….
Please have a browse through the new site and support our work in developing new resources by becoming a Member. Individual and School Memberships are available.
Review of 2010
2010 was a busy year on Seomra Ranga, mostly taken up with the planning and putting together of the new website, which was eventually re-launched in November. To co-incide with the launch of the new website, Seomra Ranga also launched its new Facebook page which has blossomed in a very short space of time. The Seomra Ranga Twitter page was also re-launched displaying the new logo and colour scheme. As usual, the year also meant that lots of new resources were added to the site in lots of different curricular areas. This year also saw the introduction of the iPod Touch into my classroom, which has been a huge success. I’ve written a number of articles during the year on the Blog charting the progress we have made on the integration of this new technology into the classroom. I’ve used the Wordle website to produce a visual representation of 2010 on Seomra Ranga and you can view it HERE.
Best wishes to all visitors to the site for 2011 and hopefully you’ll continue to visit the site in such large numbers.
Teaching Council – Continuum of Teacher Education
The Teaching Council (An Chomhairle Mhúinteoireachta) has recently drafted a Policy Paper on the Continuum of Teacher Education, which will provide the framework within which it will implement its functions relating to teacher education. The draft policy paper deals with the background of the Continuum of Teacher Education, Initial Teacher Education, Induction of Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) and the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of qualified teachers. The Council now wishes to get the views, comments and suggestions of teachers on this important document. The deadline for receipt of submissions is 1 March 2011.
I have copied the text of the draft policy, which is only 20 pages long, into Wordle which has produced a Word Cloud of the most common words and phrases used in the document. This word cloud allows teachers to look at the document in a different light and shows the important themes running through the draft document. This Wordle can be viewed in full HERE.
Teachers may also be interested in joining in a lively debate on the Education Posts Forum on the Draft Policy on the Continuum of Teacher Education which is running at the moment.
I would also like to remind teachers that Áine Lawlor, Director of the Teaching Council, has agreed to answer questions about the work of the Council from visitors to Seomra Ranga. If you have a question that you would like to put to Áine, which must be non-specific in nature, please add it to the Seomra Ranga Facebook page, the Seomra Ranga Twitter page, or add a comment to this Blog Post.
Stop Den …..
Póstaeir le frásaí a bheadh á úsáid ag an múinteoir sa seomra ranga: Stop den chaint; Stop den luascadh; Stop den phleidhcíocht srl. (comhad .pdf 314KB) Íoslódáil an Comhad…
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Cúchulainn
Luaschártaí leis an príomhfhoclóir chun scéal Cúchulainn a mhúineadh i gceacht Ghaeilge nó i gceacht Staire. (comhad .pdf 982KB) Íoslódáil an Comhad…
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Writing a Letter
These flashcards are to help with the teaching of writing a formal or informal letter. They include greetings to be used, abbreviations for people and closing remarks. (.pdf file 167KB) Download File…
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Teaching Council Interview
A new addition to the new website will commence in January when a series of monthly interviews will be conducted with prominent figures in the field of education. The series will kick off with an interview with Áine Lawlor, Director of the Teaching Council.
This is where visitors to the website can become involved. Áine has agreed to take questions from visitors to the website. You can submit questions for Áine via the Facebook or Twitter pages, or by posting a comment on this post. These questions must not be of a specific nature but about points in general in relation to education in Ireland and the work of the Teaching Council. I will collate / edit /amalgamate these and submit them to Áine for answers / comments. I will then put Áine’s answers together into a post on the Seomra Ranga website.
This is a great opportunity for practising teachers to put questions to the Director of the Teaching Council, so I hope that we can get a series of questions from a cross-section of the teaching community. I wish to express my appreciation to Áine Lawlor for agreeing to submit herself to questioning through the Seomra Ranga website. If there are other figures involved in education that you think would be a good interviewee, please let me know.
Balla Focal Toghcháin
Foclóir ag baint le toghchán ar dhá bhileog A4. (comhad .doc 65.5) Íoslódáil an Comhad…
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Christmas Greetings 2010
Christmas greetings to you all from Seomra Ranga, and best wishes for the New Year. Enjoy the well-earned break and return to the site in 2011 for all your classroom resources. It’s been a busy and eventful year for Seomra Ranga, especially during the past month with the launch of the new site. A lot of this year has been spent researching, planning and creating the new website, culminating in the re-launch during the month of November. After some initial teething problems, the new site has settled down well and is experiencing unprecedented number of visitors. I understand that the layout of the site is very different for many visitors who may not be used to searching a blog-based site, however, given time I’m sure that most visitors will see the benefits of having a more searchable format and layout to the site.
The last month also saw the re-branding of the Seomra Ranga Twitter page (http://twitter.com/seomraranga) and the launch of the Seomra Ranga Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/SeomraRanga). Both of these display the new Seomra Ranga logo. The number of visitors to the Facebook page has been amazing and the number of people who “like” Seomra Ranga grew rapidly in a short space of time and presently stands at over 400. Both the Twitter and Facebook pages are great ways of keeping people informed of what is going on on the site. They are also great ways of informing people of new links and resources that I have come across on other sites. I would strongly encourage teachers to get involved in these Web 2.0 technologies. I would also like again to thank Debbie and James at Logis Media for all the work they did in 2010 in bringing to fruition my vision for the site as well as making many great suggestions and recommendations which are now part of the new Seomra Ranga.
There are more great plans for the site during 2011 which will hopefully add extra dimensions to the site. The project to digitise old filmstrips had been ongoing until work on the new site took over. So, hopefully, 2011 will see some of these old resources given some new life on this site. New content and resources are also being planned to add to the existing bank of resources on the site. Some of the seasonal content from the old site needs to still be transferred to the new site so this will continue to be done during the coming months. Election resources will appear on the site as soon as we know when the General Election will take place in the new year. So the plan for 2011 is to continue to develop the new site and to keep adding resources which are relevant and suitable for the primary school classroom in Ireland and beyond.
