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I like the idea of running a competition with energy monitors. Although we try to make sure the lights are turned off when the classes are not in their rooms it does not always happen. A little competition is always a great incentive.
We are seeing the effects of climate change through more extreme weathers. The warm days are very hot and every year we are getting days off through storm days or snow days. I don’t remember ever getting days off due to weather when I was in primary school.
Our school has an Eco team and they really push great initiatives through the school. We were having issues with bins being mixed when they were emptied in the evenings, so now the cleaners only empty the rubbish bin and the Eco teams empty the class recycle bins weekly. At Christmas we had a Christmas jumper swop which was very successful. Children brought in their old jumpers and could swop it for another jumper. It was a sustainable and cost effective way for them to get a new Christmas jumper. Each child also brings a hand towel in with them daily to use to dry their hands when they have washed them. This has cut down massively on the amount of tissue we are using.
I really like the idea of a welcome garden. We take huge pride in our garden in school and connecting it to something meaningful and important such as something like this would make it all the more special.
Cultúr is a migrant-led community development organisation based in Meath and Louth. Since 2004, they have been working with ethnic minorities, including immigrants, migrant workers, asylum seekers and refugees, promoting equal rights and intercultural inclusion. Their work includes community work such as workshops, drop-ins, English classes, youth groups. It also includes Human Rights such as legal advice, anti- racism tools and advocacy. It helps with organising development around building local leadership and volunteer engagement.
I think the main thing for children coming into your school and community is to make them feel welcomed and safe. There are numerous ways to do this and I think as the years go by and more children are coming to our schools we as teachers are getting better at it. Using Google translate so the child can understand and be understood is very important. Having a communication board on their desk could also work for some things. We have bought a lot of new books in the past few years so that the images in the books and the pictures of the people are more diverse and the children can all see themselves in the books.I love the idea of doing a food drive and ‘Grow Your Own’. I think children would really love both initiatives and it’s a great way to get them involved and doing something practical.
A relevant topic related to Sustainable Development Goals would be Climate Action. This has been well documented on the news in recent years and all children inn older classes are familiar with Greta Thunburg and have heard her speeches. Researching how climate change has progressed over time and the affect it has on the environment both nationally and globally would be of great interest to the children. As our classes become more diverse many children might have families who are living in countries who are being particularly affected by these changes.
To support ESD to 2030 Priority Action Area 5: Accelerating Local Level Actions we would have a look at what we are already doing and how we could improve on this. We currently have an ECO team who work closely with the local tidy towns and we have recently set up a wormery to fertilise our flower beds and trees that we have planted. Ensuring that each child in the school is involved in this is vital and not just the children on the ECO team.I wonder are gender stereotypes more prevalent in single sex schools? I teach in a co-ed school and am definitely seeing a huge decline in the last few years. On yard we have girls joining in with football and boys choosing to play skipping games. In the junior classes during Aistear it is usually fairly equal as to who chooses to play at the role play area and who chooses to play at the construction area. It might be interesting for someone to do a study on this.
Gender stereotypes affect the children at a young age through images that they see. For example most images of nurses are women and images of fire fighters are men. I have seen this myself in the classroom when role playing mammy stays at home to mind the children and daddy goes to work. I do however believe that this is changing. In the last few years I have seen more ‘daddys’ cooking for their children and girls putting on construction hats and choosing the construction area. I think a lot of this change is coming from home and children seeing how roles are interchangeable.
Education can also play a huge part in this by showing images of boys and girls doing different jobs and playing different things. Recently we had a female past pupil come back to our school who is now a professional soccer player in England and talk to all of the classes. Giving them the opportunities to see real life scenarios like this will help with the gender stereotypes.I really like the idea of using real world topics and projects. Group work and critical thinking are so important for children now so lessons that incorporate all of these are excellent. It’s great that it fits in with your SSE too.
This was an interesting article to read. I really liked the part where they wrote about “focusing on the more immediate task of improving ourselves incrementally and acting in accordance with the aspirations we have for our local community, and the global community, is the sufficient starting point in embracing our role as global citizens.” This shows us and the pupils that changing our thoughts or becoming more educated about justice and equality is a stepping stone in the right direction.
This article also makes the connection between education and global citizenship. It is therefore our responsibility to educate in relation to social and civic responsibilities. I would share this article with my colleagues and try to form a discussion around what we as a school can in relation to education development. As with all schools we are extremely diverse and do celebrate everyone in our school through various days such as intercultural days, inclusion days etc. But there is always room to do more and build on what we have done already