Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Very interesting input about your local area. While it is a different one to where I am, it is still seeing significant problems with climate change.
My school is based on the coast. While it has great views and can be lovely in the summertime, in the winter it can be a different story. We have missed multiple days for storm warnings over the last number of years. Flooding and high winds being the main cause of the school closures. There are schools in other parts of the country that have missed even more than we have. We can only assume it will happen again this coming winter. There is a noticeable growth in these days since I began teaching only 20years ago.
Every one of us needs to be conscious and proactive in helping to combat climate change as much as possible. On a school basis, looking at our waste and energy consumption would be a great start. Our school could look to install solar panels, reduce our waste through composting or reuse and be mindful of our use of electricity unnecessarily through the day. On a community level, our school could have increased involvement in local green initiatives like beach clean ups and recycling drives.
On a national level children and families could be involved in campaigning and writing to members of government responsible for making decisions on waste management and energy consumption.
All of these initiatives could easily be brought into the classroom. From a junior level of children learning about what materials can and can’t be recycled to a senior level of children writing to TDs about their local climate worries. Inviting community initiatives into the school to talk to the children about their projects is also a great way to teach and get the children involved.
This course feeds into our SSE very well and gives some excellent new thinking points when bringing about change. Whole school approaches to development issues are essential.I would focus on SDG2- Zero hunger.
The video in this module, If the world had 100 people, really showed the disparity in food availability around the world. Many assume food is plentiful because of a growing obesity problem but that is not always the case. Much of the time in school we teach about healthy eating, not realising just how privileged we are to have a choice between healthy and unhealthy foods.
This topic would work very well with SPHE and Geography in all schools as well as Learn Together in my school. A history element for older classes learning about the famine could work well with this lesson too
I would begin by discussing food and food poverty, explaining these concepts, what they mean and how food poverty can happen. Children would be encouraged to think about the food they are eating and discuss ways they could educe food waste at home or at school. Some extension activities for a class could be planting fruit or vegetable seeds in the hope children would be able to eat the food they have grown. This can be done on a whole school level as a school garden which would be very effective. Another option would be to learn some recipes to use food that might not otherwise be used. Banana bread and bread and butter pudding are great examples of these.
There is lots of room for the children in my school to be more mindful about the food they eat and make some changes to reduce waste. Drawing attention to and taking part in food drives can be great ways to help our community in this way too.Safe and secure housing is a very important issue for children and families nowadays. it’s something that is an issue for a great number of families across our school.
There is a wealth of information available on one of the links shared in the additional resources part of this module. It is titled Solidarity with Refugees: 10 Things You Can Do to Help in Ireland. There are programmes and opportunities all over the country that would be suitable for many schools to take part in.
The PTA in my school is very active and always coming up with inventive ways to both fundraise and help out the families in the school. They work hard to support the families in the school and the local community so they would be of great assistance with any initiative the school would roll out. There have been some families who do a lot to support refugees at a family level. Raising money and hosting refugees when needed.
In terms of directly supporting refugees there is a lot our school could do. I think a great starting point is in the teaching of the topic at school. Raising children’s and families awareness of the topic and issue as well as the ways in which they could help. There’s a lovely programme involving pairing up with a family in direct provision with children slightly younger than your own. You’d pass down clothes, toys, equipment as needed to this family. I think this would be a great programme to support as it doesn’t have a financial burden on the families in our school but it greatly helps families in direct provision.To be a global citizen, is to care. It is to empathise
This quote is taken from the article. I feel this is a very important message to take away from the article. It’s an incredibly important message for us to take into our daily lives and our classrooms.I found this article very interesting and a great start to this course. Being a global citizen is very important and a hugely important topic to teach in the classroom. Instilling the message to younger generations will hopefully have a positive impact on our future.
Working in and Educate Together school, much of this topic goes hand in hand with the Learn Together programme. I feel the Geography, History and SPHE curricula are also great places to go from with this topic.
Development Education and Global citizenship can be included into the School Self Evaluation in many ways. Looking at how the topic is included already in our school is a very important step. I feel our school supports the topic well with curriculum teaching, Green Schools and Student Council initiatives. There is certainly more we can be doing though and I’m looking forward to continuing the course and finding out more information.The topic of gender equality is a fascinating one as often in Ireland we look at it from a historical point of view. We have come a long way in recent years to bring about better gender equality.
Recently when teaching 1st class about female historical figures, the topic of their formal education came up. Many of these women were not accepted into certain courses, had to pretend to be men or had to fight hard for basic educational rights. The girls and boys in the class thought this was so unusual and strange. Why would girls not be allowed become vets or scientists? It was a very worthwhile lesson to show the children just how far we’ve come and how hard people had to work to get us here.
On the other hand, day-to-day we see small acts, hear tiny comments that really show we’re not fully equal yet. I work in a coed school so children are educated with the opposite gender from a very young age. Many mixed gender friendships are made and in many areas there is a huge sense of equality. On the topic of sports however, there is a noticeable difference. When discussing sports teams, the boys would prefer to play with other boys on their team. If there is a girl who is good at sports the phrase “she’s actually good” is used when describing her abilities. This obviously has an effect on how boys and girls interact and the hobbies they might choose to pursue.
We’ve come a long way in our country but we still have a very long way to go. It’s important to teach this topic and draw children’s awareness to it. There are certain parts of the world where gender inequality is a huge problem. While it might not directly affect the children in our class, we all need to be aware of it and help bring about change.Wow, so young to have these attitudes. It’s clear we need to explicitly teach topics like gender equality from a very young age.
Very interesting input. It’s clear gender stereotypes have a huge impact on children from a very young age
Hi John,
Thanks so much for sharing your methods on including development education in regular classroom teaching. I found your questions particularly interesting as talking points when approaching certain SESE topics.
Hi Lianna,
This list looks amazing. I love Space Week in my school and can’t wait to try out some of the activities you mentioned. Thank you for sharing.
I love all the lessons in this module about rockets. This is always a fun, hands-on lesson that children remember well.
To begin, I would read Oliver Jeffers’ The Way Back Home. I love the simple illustrations in this book and believe it would be very engaging for the children. Use of a picture book integrates very well into the language curriculum too. We would also look at some pictures of rockets, from real life and from fictional worlds. Children would discuss their shapes and how it seems they might work. A history element could be brought in here as we discuss rockets from the past and modern rockets. References to recent rocket launches and space missions could be discussed here too.
I particularly liked the Space week resources in this module. I’d really like to try the Seltzer rocket with my class. I feel using recycled materials is a great way to link in with Green Schools, Geography and Learn Together curricular areas. The children can bring items from home that are essential for building and also some items they feel might look nice from a design point of view.
The class will work through the steps for how to build the main body of the rocket. Some elements of this build need to be done the same way so the seltzer part works well. Once the main body of the rocket is done, the children will have the opportunity to decorate and design their rockets any way they like. There is a very easy link with the art curriculum here. Children will however be reminded not to get too attached to their rockets as they might get damaged when testing their flight.
If weather allows, we would do the fight testing part outdoors. Our school has an outdoor classroom that would be perfect for this type of experiment. If I was working with a younger class on this project, I might consider having an older buddy class help out with this part too as it can be quite messy.
Each rocket would be tested out and we’d see how or if they flew. Some discussion on what went well or why something didn’t work would also be included in this part of the lesson.