The Object Lesson 03
This is an oral language activity that can be done with pupils from second class upwards. On each card is the name of an everyday object. The purpose of the activity is for the pupils to describe the object on the card to the class without mentioning the name of the object. The more you…
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The Object Lesson 02
This is an oral language activity that can be done with pupils from second class upwards. On each card is the name of an everyday object. The purpose of the activity is for the pupils to describe the object on the card to the class without mentioning the name of the object. The more you…
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The Object Lesson 01
This is an oral language activity that can be done with pupils from second class upwards. On each card is the name of an everyday object. The purpose of the activity is for the pupils to describe the object on the card to the class without mentioning the name of the object. The more you…
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End of Year Report
Teachers are used to writing reports at this time of the year, so I thought it would be an opportune time to look back over the year on Seomra Ranga. It’s hard to believe that the site is almost four years old and it’s safe to say that this has been the busiest year on the site to date on so many fronts. This time last year I was in the throes of developing the new site. I had been planning the development of the site since December 2009 in conjunction with local company Logis Media, but it was at this time last year that the serious work began. It took five long months to upload all of the material onto the new site. This was painstaking work as each individual resource had to be categorisied, assigned to class levels and tagged. It was a long process, but it needed to be so. It culminated in the launch of the new site in November 2010.
This in itself was a tricky time as, no matter how much testing you do on a site, it’s only when it goes live will you know if everything is working according to plan. What we hadn’t banked on at the time of the launch was that so many teachers would log onto the site all at once. Inevitably, the site ran into difficulties. However, thankfully, most visitors to the site were patient while the technical difficulties were sorted out. Others made constructive suggestions for the layout of the site to make the site experience more user-friendly. By this stage, I hope that most people are now well used to the new design and layout of the site and that they can find what they are looking for.
In terms of visitor numbers to the site, I’m constantly amazed by the sheer level of traffic that the site experiences. From the humble beginnings of the site in September 2007 when visitor numbers were modest, the site has now grown to such an extent that the first year’s total visitor numbers could now be surpassed in a couple of weeks! This in itself has caused problems, especially at some peak times during the year. So much so, that I’ve had to upgrade the hosting plan of the site already twice this year and will probably have to do so again soon.
Another development on the site this year coincided with the launch of the new website. I hadn’t really been a Facebook fan, but was persuaded of the benefits of a presence on Facebook for the website. So, last November, the Seomra Ranga Facebook page was developed, again with the help of Logis Media. While feedback on the Facebook page is quiet, I’m still very much aware of the number of people that read posts on the Facebook wall. In the short space of time sine the Facebook page was launched, it’s gathered more than 1,100 people who now “like” the page. At the same time, the Seomra Ranga Twitter page was re-designed incorporating the same logo and colour scheme as the website. I must admit, I do love Twitter and it’s a great way of touching base with so many educators around the world.
Another new development on the site this year has been the start of an interview series. I wanted to get more people involved with the site so the interview process has invited visitors to the site to suggest questions to ask of our interviewee. This is done using comments on the site as well as on the Facebook and Twitter pages. The series started in February with an interview with Áine Lawlor, CEO of the Teaching Council. This was followed up by interviews with three of the Education spokespersons in advance of the General Election. Sheila Nunan, General Secretary of the INTO, accepted an interview request in April and the series concluded with the somewhat controversial interview with Kevin Myers, Irish Independent columnist. A couple of other interview requests were declined, so hopefully the series will continue in the Autumn.
So, what are the plans for the forthcoming year on the site? Firstly, continuation of the provision of relevant classroom resources for primary teachers as this is the main business of the site. A number of people are lined up to write guest posts for the site, so I’ll have to chase them up for those in the Autumn. I’ve sought permission from a couple of places to reproduce material on this site and I’m awaiting confirmation of that at the moment. I’m hoping to finally get around to putting some of the filmstrip resources that I gathered last year onto the site. This will be a long-term project as I received literally hundreds of them. However, permission has been declined to use some great Irish filmstrip resources which was disappointing, but hopefully this decision will be reversed in the near future. I’ll also be starting some work soon on a new companion website due out later in the year. More information on this will follow in the Autumn.
All in all, it’s been quite a busy year on the site. Hopefully, we’ll all return in September refreshed and raring to go again! Many thanks to all visitors to the site, the Twitter page and the Facebook page for you compliments and good wishes during the year.
Air Raid Shelter
This is an oral language game that can be tied in with a unit of work on war in history. In each set, there are eight cards with the name of an occupation written on them. The idea is that you explain to pupils that there has been an outbreak of war in your area…
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Old School Reports
I recently found these in some old roll books in school, some dating back to the 1870’s. I’m not sure, but I’m presuming that they are old-style school reports. They appear to be for pupils in 5th and 6th class. Again, I’m not sure when exactly they were used. However, it’s safe to say that…
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Tom Barrett’s Interesting Ways Series
For those of you who were at the CESI conference in Portlaoise in February, you will remember Tom Barrett who gave the keynote address on the Saturday morning. He spoke broadly about the idea of crowdsourcing content with teachers and asked each teacher to use a Post-It note they had been given to write one idea, one simple bit of advice or tip that could be shared. It could be about technology, after all it was a technology conference, but could have been about anything. Tom took these ideas home to England and put them together as a Google Doc to share with the world.
However, Tom also has a great series running on his website, EDTE.CH, called the “Interesting Ways” series. In this series he has asked other teachers to work collaboratively to share the wisdom of their collective classroom practices. This method of sharing is called “crowdsourcing” where he asks teachers to share ideas, or “interesting ways”, of approaching a topic or methodology in the classroom. Among the Interesting Ways on his website are:
- Use Google Forms in the Classroom
- Use Google Docs in the classroom
- Use the iPad in the Classroom
- Use the iPod in the Classroom
- Use the IWB in the Classroom
- Use Mobile Phones in the Classroom
- Use a Vizualiser in the Classroom
- Use QR Codes in the Classroom
- Get To Know Your New Class
- Support Writing in the Classroom
- Support Spelling in the Classroom
- Teach Reading Comprehension in the Classroom
- Use Nintendo DS in the Classroom
- Use Nintendo Wii in the Classroom
- Use Twitter in the Classroom
- Use a Wiki in the Classroom & many more
These ideas are all put together in shared Google Docs and are available to peruse or to add to. They are a rich source of knowledge and ideas and are well put together by classroom practitioners. Because mainly teachers have added the ideas, they are generally “tried and tested” in the classroom, so you know that they are ideas that work. They are well worth a visit, then bookmarking and then adding your own idea. All these resources can be viewed on Tom’s blog at http://edte.ch/blog/interesting-ways
Operation Godwit
I must admit that I’d never heard of a Godwit before, so when I received an email from Willie McSweeney from Scoil Iosaef Naofa, an all boys’ school in Cobh, Co. Cork, my first reaction was that this was yet another spam email amongst the hundreds of other that I get through the website. And when…
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Division Tables Test
Division tables test containing 120 division tables including all combinations from ÷0 to ÷10, jumbled up on one A4 sheet. (.pdf file 15.5KB) Download File…
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Mr Thorne Does Phonics
Mr. Thorne Does Phonics is a website of phonics resources for junior classes in the primary school. What is unusual about these resources, however, is that they are all made up of videos. The website is the creation of Christopher Thorne, a primary school teacher teaching in London. The website has been going for four years (about the same as Seomra Ranga!) and has grown in popularity since then. The website has also gained quite a bit of media attention in the UK as schools are finding that it lives up to its motto: “Mr. Thorne Does Phonics – Where Learning to Read Becomes Reading to Learn”.
The website takes a very progressive approach to the teaching of phonics for word attack and reading. There is a natural progression as you move from Phase 1 (Introduction) videos through to Phase 6. There is even a video in the Introduction section for use at parent induction evenings to instruct them as to how phonics is taught. There seems to be a video for almost every conceivable phoneme, consonant blend, vowel diagraphs, short and long vowel sounds. In Phase 6, there are videos focussing on spelling patterns, complex and unfamiliar words, plurals, compound words and opposite words, amongst others. There is also a section of videos of High Frequency Words, which include fruit words, colours, days of the week, months of the year, number words and silly sentences.
A recent addition to the Mr. Thorne stable is the development of apps for both the iPhone and the iPad – Letters and Sounds; Blends and Spellings. I’ve recently downloaded the Blends and Spellings app for the iPad and it’s a great resource, one that could even be recommended to parents for working with young children on phonics at home. They are available to buy on the iTunes App Store and are doing well in the Education App charts.
Mr. Thorne can be followed on Twitter and all of the videos are also available on his YouTube channel. All in all, this is a website that comes highly recommended.