Engineers Week
The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., has joined Engineers Ireland in encouraging students, schools and parents to get involved in Engineers Week 2012, which will be taking place across Ireland between the 27th February and 4th March 2012. The week-long series of activities across the country is run by Engineers Ireland and is a campaign held annually to promote engineering as a career and the importance of the profession to Ireland. The theme for Engineers Week 2012 is “Connecting Our Lives“. read more…
Animal Homes QR Codes
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Leabhair Labhartha
A nice new addition to the bank of resources on the Scoilnet website is a collection of short books “as Gaeilge”. They are aimed at younger pupils in the primary school, perhaps for pupils as far as Rang III. In terms of content and presentation, the books are basic enough, however they will be fine to assist pupils in practising their léitheoireacht Ghaeilge. The language used in the readers is also quite basic but that is suitable for many younger pupils. read more…
Signs of Spring 2012 Twitter Project Review
Photo courtesy Kilbarry NS
With the approach of the beginning of February and the beginning of Spring with the celebration of Lá Fhéile Bríde, I decided to organise a Twitter Project to gather information, observations and photographs on the signs of Spring 2012. Given that this was the first year that we tried this project, I think we can say that it was relatively successful. Lots of schools and teachers became involved and all used the hashtag #signsofspring2012 to keep all of the Tweets together. read more…
Blue Star Programme
Last Tuesday, the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD and Minister of State for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton TD launched a new pilot programme for primary schools which focuses on the EU, called the Blue Star Programme. The idea of the Programme is to foster better understanding and knowledge of the European Union and how it affects our lives amongst Irish primary pupils through classroom projects and activities. The Blue Star Programme will introduce participants – pupils, teachers, parents and the wider community to the EU, what it means and how it works. read more…
Snuggle Mountain
Snuggle Mountain is a beautiful story app in HD for iPad or iPhone/iPod for younger pupils. The story, written by Lindsey Lane, is centred around Emma, a little girl who must climb to the top of Snuggle Mountain to wake the two-headed Giant who is caught in a Sleeping Spell. She wants pancakes for breakfast and she must enter the cave at the top of the mountain to wake the Giant who has forgotten about breakfast. read more…
Draft School Self-Evaluation Guidelines
The Inspectorate recently published “School Self-Evaluation: Draft Guidelines for Primary Schools“. The Guidelines are intended to support schools to engage in robust self-evaluation of teaching and learning. Its purpose is to allow schools to take the initiative in improving the quality of education provided to its pupils. The Guidelines also offer a framework for school self-evaluation that places the process in the context of school development planning and the school improvement plan. The Guidelines are intended to assist schools to: read more…
Facebook Milestone
WOW! Today marks the milestone of 2,000 “Likes” on the Seomra Ranga Facebook Page. I have to admit that I was initially reluctant to get involved with Facebook, but I was persuaded by Debbie in Logis Media to go with it. So, the Facebook page was set up in advance of the launch of the new website in November 2010. Its purpose was to compliment the website and establish the site in the world of Social Media. read more…
Cathal Can Sign
I just came across this book in a bookstore yesterday. Even though it’s been in print since 2010, I hadn’t heard of Cathal Can Sign before. Written by Brenán Mooney, it is a beautifully produced book with 60 glossy pages filled with colourful illustrations. The primary purpose of the book is to teach children Irish Sign Language (ISL). However, what is unique about this book it that it combines the teaching of ISL with both English and Gaeilge. The characters of “Cathal” and his family are used throughout the book both as decorative illustration and as a means to engage pupils to learn ISL. read more…
Station Teaching: Poland
Dennis Collins explains how he used a “Station Teaching” methodology to teach his pupils about Poland, its physical features, cities, sport, history, religion:
I used the Resource 1 document for station teaching – each station is coded with a different colour for the text – when teaching the topic of Poland with sixth class. I used the Resource 2 document as an introductory worksheet to start the lesson with the class. This went really well as it is very relevant for the children at the moment with the Euro 2012 tournaments coming up, as well as the fact that there are many Polish people living in Ireland.
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