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If I were the Minister for Education...
How many times have you said to yourself, “If I were the Minister for Education…?” Well I do! Rather than grumble to myself, I decided to podcast my thoughts on ways I’d change the primary education system in Ireland.
Featured Episode: Thank you, Racists
Twelve years ago, the Irish Times published an article, out of the blue, which listed the top 50 most influential people in education. It was compiled over four weeks and the journalists stated that key figures (without naming them) were asked to compile their own lists confidentially. The names that featured were the most prominent...
One of my biggest bug bears is when a primary school calls itself inclusive. For one, in Ireland, it is impossible to be fully inclusive because schools are completely reliant on government funding and the allocation of resources. For example over 90% of schools in a self-assessed survey revealed that they didn’t have enough resources...
Why are primary school teachers like me going on the radio talking about banning smartphones? In this episode I wonder why it is schools, yet again, being asked to police society. Blog Post: https://medium.com/@slewis7796/smartphone-bans-and-schools-solving-societal-issues-6e1273403c23
If you were listening to the last episode of If I Were the Minister for Education, you’ll know that I was talking about Artificial Intelligence and how I believed it was going to change everything. In the episode, I said I was going to try out A.I. to create an episode and this is the...
Technology and education have a strange relationship in Ireland. If a teacher said to a parent or another teacher or anyone at all that they really didn’t like Maths so they don’t bother teaching it or using it, there would be uproar. And rightly so. However, even in 2023, you’ll still hear teachers saying they’re...
Coming up to interview season, I was approached by someone that has been working in the system for a number of years and hasn’t managed to get a permanent post. You’ll probably be thinking, there must be a reason for that. Maybe this person is a raging heathen like myself or maybe this person is...
What better way to celebrate my beloved Sheffield United’s return to the Premier League than talking about soccer and education! In this interview, I talk to Mark Connaughton from KlaasKickz, a fantastic company that has produced a football boot to help teach children how to kick a football successfully. We talk all things soccer including...
Technology is central to most people’s work and lives and, for schools, it’s no different. Despite this, the Department of Education failed to provide a regular stream of funding for almost two decades after the launch of IT2000 in 1997. Former principal and early pioneer of educational technology, Robbie O’Leary, famously said that technology in...
I’m always giving out about our education system so when I got the opportunity to speak about the Canadian system, I was only happy to give Ireland a break for an episode. However, I didn’t expect to meet someone with such a rich and fascinating history as Maxwell Roach. A former musician that worked with...
The best talks I ever saw live happened in the same conference. It was the IPPN conference in 2012. Imagine this as a lineup – Mary Robinson, who needs no introduction; Michael Fullan, one of the world’s greatest thinkers in education; Ben Waldon, a Shakespearean actor who tours the world giving talks on leadership; and...