An interesting report was published last week, which is certain to stir things up in the debate around small schools. According to the report (linked above), there appears to be little difference between a school’s size and the quality of teaching. The Department of Education were quick to add that this report had nothing to do with the debate around the viability of small schools and Ruairi Quinn was quoted as saying that small schools would be a major feature in the education landscape.
Month: April 2012
INTO uses Social Media during Congress
It’s good to see leadership in education. An example of this is in the INTO’s use of social media to report on the happenings at their annual congress in Killarney. I have been following the updates from the congress on Twitter and Facebook and both have proved very valuable in keeping up with things. I … Read more
A Titanic Lesson
We are delighted to welcome a guest writer, Dawn Altnam, an American blogger who has an interest in education. In a timely post, Dawn outlines how teachers can use the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking as part of their lesson plans. Thanks Dawn for the great post! This lesson plan will also be available … Read more
Pluralism and Patronage Report
The report from the forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary sector published its findings today. It was interesting to see the media’s take on the findings. The Irish Independent focused mainly on how sacrament preparation would be removed from the school day in all schools, mentioning this in all its articles. They also … Read more
Filmstrips Project
Teachers who are nostaligia lovers will be thrilled to hear that Seomra Ranga is publishing filmstrips from old projectors from over 30 years ago. Damien Quinn, the webmaster of Seomra Ranga announced this week that after two years, he has now collated over 500 spools of film and is busy copying each side into PowerPoint format. He is now sharing these slides using SlideShare with teachers all over the world. Not only will Quinn be doing this in his own time, all this work will be available for free. Quinn, through this project, has single-handedly preserved a part of the history of the Irish Education system. This sort of selfless work often goes unrecognised in the public domain so I hope that it will be seen and celebrated in the manner it deserves.
Guest Article: Animation in the Classroom
Making Animation accessible to young people is a topic I have found fascinating and inspirational over the past eight years. Through a Course with the National Youth Association Ireland, and the support of the Schools completion programme, the craft of stop motion animation became a project that blossomed and evolved into a series of projects … Read more
Google Teacher Academy: Reflection
I was one of fifty lucky teachers to be accepted on Google’s Teacher Academy in London this week. Held in their offices in St. Giles’ High Street, we were treated to two days of training from some of the world’s best educators. From the second we sat down to the introductory talk, we were hit … Read more
Video-conferencing on an iPad
Tom Whitby tweeted recently about ways to video-conference on an iPad. The link above goes to the web site Apps in Education, a blog that lists iPad apps by subject. Obviously video-conferencing on an iPad requires one with a front-facing camera so iPad 1 users like myself won’t be able to take advantage. The great thing about this list is that most of the apps are completely free.
Review: eChipmunk
Student Management Information Systems are the big thing in the Irish Primary School system at the moment. For those not in the know about these systems, essentially a Management Information System (MIS) is a piece of software that allows a school to store administrative information about pupils, staff, attendance, enrollments and lots more. It provides … Read more
Death of Gaeilge?
One of the official languages of Ireland is Irish and most children experience a compulsory 14 year cycle of Irish lessons on a daily basis in school but according to the article above, only 82,600 people in Ireland speak the language outside of school – approximately 2% of the population. In fact, Polish is now the second most spoken language in the country today.
Something is obviously very wrong when statistics like this come out. Reactions will inevitably range from denial to acceptance. For example, 1.77 million people marked that they could speak Irish – however, this is still only 41% of the population.
Another inevitability is that schools will be blamed for this; after all, how is it possible that after 14 years of instruction, many students leave school with a better knowledge of French, Spanish or some other “3rd language?” Different people will have their reasons.
I believe that we need to logically assess why Irish has been allowed to become the third language of Ireland. We need to cut out the denial, the blaming of others and any other excuses. I say this not as a proponent of the language – one might suggest that Ireland’s greatest strength is in our ability to speak English fluently – but then there’s the adage of “Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam.” There’s a definite richness to the Irish language, which has shaped the Irish people in how we hold ourselves. However, Irish is simply not being spoken by Irish people and we need to fix it before it becomes extinct.