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You’re right to ask parents and grandparents to contribute to the piseogs and stories. It’s so important that they are recorded. Only in the last week, I heard a radio interview with a lady who was compiling a collection of piseogs. Some of them were scathing!
When you think about all the art, songs and poems that were inspired by the night sky, it is quite amazing. As humans, we have long been enthralled by the mystery and beauty of the night sky. You can see a selection of them listed here:
Songs
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
You Are My Sunshine
A Sky Full of Stars
Fly Me to the Moon
Mr. Moon
Moon Moon Moon
Rocket Man
Starlight, Star Bright
When You Wish Upon a Star
The Moon
Star Light, Star BrightPoems
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star — Jane Taylor
The Star — Robert Louis Stevenson
The Moon — Robert Louis Stevenson
The Moon — Emily Dickinson
Silver — Walter de la Mare
The Moon — Christina Rossetti
The Moon — Sara Coleridge
The Moon — Edward Lear
Stars — Sara Teasdale
A Lady Who Thought She Was a Cat — William Brighty RandsArt
The Starry Night — Vincent van Gogh
Starry Night Over the Rhône — Vincent van Gogh
The Evening Star — Henri-Edmond Cross
Starry Night — Edvard Munch
Two Men Contemplating the Moon — Caspar David Friedrich
Night Sky IV — Georgia O’Keeffe
The Night — Paul Klee
The Coming Storm — Winslow Homer
The Night — Joan MiróYou have really nice ideas there Bríd. All quite simple to implement too. It’s heartening to see that lots of these ideas are being put in place locally already. No mow May is very popular for sections of grass.
School biodiversity plans should consider nocturnal wildlife and the importance of maintaining dark skies. As we have learned, many species including bats, moths and owls, depend on darkness for feeding, navigation, breeding and avoiding predators.
Schools could create dark zones by switching off unnecessary outdoor lighting at night and using motion sensors where lighting is essential. Security lights should be directed downwards and designed to minimise light spill into trees, hedgerows and gardens. Where possible, schools could avoid installing lighting near bat roosts, nesting areas and wildlife corridors. They could also used warm toned lighting where lighting can’t be avoided.
Planting native, night-friendly habitats can also support nocturnal species. Night-scented flowers such as evening primrose and honeysuckle can provide food for moths and other pollinators, while hedgerows, long grass and log piles offer shelter for insects and small mammals. Schools could also protect mature trees and install bat boxes where appropriate.
Students could monitor nocturnal wildlife through moth trapping, bat detectors or wildlife cameras, helping them understand how artificial light affects biodiversity. The school could then use their findings to set targets for reducing light pollution and improving habitats.
By treating darkness as an important habitat feature, schools can create biodiversity plans that support wildlife throughout the entire 24-hour cycle.
I love how they have adapted their lighting to create feeding routes for the bats. We have a very strong bat population in our area and I think this reflects well on the biodiversity measures which have been implemented by a group locally.
Ballinamore is a small rural town and like many communities, it is affected by light pollution. Streetlights, buildings, cars, pitch lights and other artificial lights can make the night sky brighter than it naturally should be. This can make it harder to see stars and may also affect wildlife such as bats, insects and birds that depend on natural patterns of darkness and light. For people, too much artificial light at night can interfere with sleep and reduce our connection with the natural environment. New road lighting to light up extended footpaths are excessively bright giving the road out of the town an airport/runway feel.
If I were exploring light pollution with my class, I would begin by asking the children what they can see in the night sky from their homes and whether they notice a difference between the town views and darker rural areas. I would encourage them to take a walk around the town in the evening time and observe the lighting. The children could record their observations using drawings, photographs or a simple light-pollution chart.
Back in class, we could compare our findings, investigate how light pollution affects animals and humans, and discuss ways to reduce unnecessary lighting. The children could then design posters encouraging people to use outdoor lighting responsibly. This would help them understand that even small changes can reduce the impact of artificial lighting on our local area.
Create an observing plan for autumn that shows which planets are visible in the evening sky.
Before we would start our autumn observations, I would ensure the children are aware of the planets in our solar system, stars, constellations and that they are familiar with the terminology relating to the night sky. They would also need to be familiar with north, south, east and west.
I would discuss what they think might be useful for us to record over the coming months and the best way to format it. We would then create our observation record sheet which they would all get a copy of. This would include: date, time, direction they looked in, planet they saw and description of how it appeared. Was it bright, twinkling, steady etc.
We would focus our observations on Saturn and Jupiter due to their visibility in the autumn sky. They would be allowed to borrow the school telescope and use binoculars to assist their observations.
They would also be reminded not to observe the sun directly and never to use binoculars or a telescope to observe it.Children would compare records at the end of each week to ensure the records are being completed and to maintain interest and engagement in the activities.
Great work. You have so much integration of various subjects there with lots of engaging ideas to hook their attention.
Plan how your students could “observe and record the positions of the sun when rising and setting and at different times of the day”.
I would start by asking the children a stimulus question. “Does the sun move in the sky?” I would let them ponder this and observe for the evening and tell them that we will investigate tomorrow.
We would discuss there observations from previous afternoon and then discuss their current knowledge regarding the sun. We will revise positional language such as north, south, east and west. I think this links the science and maths elements of the lessons well as we should be aiming to do based on Liston’s paper on STEM.
We would move to the yard and in pairs, children would observe the sun’s position in the sky and record this in relation to the position of the school. We would repeat this 3 more times during the day to map the sun’s position throughout the day. We will predict where the sun might appear later in the evening. They can then compile their observations into a visual presentation as a record of their observations.
Finally we will watch the Paxi video regarding the suns position which will consolidate the children’s existing knowledge, observations and predictions.
That is a super block of work Elizabeth. I really like how you’ve planned it out. It is hands on, practical and relevant to their lives. I think they will find the part about planning home orientation useful as we find ourselves struggling with homes that are becoming unbearably hot during the summer.
Child X has ADHD, Autism and struggles with anxiety and school refusal. Gets overwhelmed with new topics or when he loses focus.
I plan to use
Immersive reader: Breaking up text, one line at a time, reduces demands on child.Dictate: I would use this feature to engage the student in the writing process so that they can get their ideas on paper without the strain of handwriting a full story.
One Note: I would use Maths Assistant to prompt the child with the steps involved in solving a problem
Khan Academy: After teaching the new topic, I would get the child to use Khan Academy to consolidate the information.
The school development planning section of the Inclusive Education Framework emphasises the importance of all children being able to attend their local schools and the onus being on school to not only facilitate this but to ensure that all children are actively participating and engaging in lessons. This ensures that teachers are not teaching to the majority of the class but instead provided material for each child that is appropriate and meaningful.The SETT model gives a clear, easy to follow structure for teachers to consider when deciding how best to intervene to assist a child with special educational needs through the use of assistive technology. It prompts the teacher to consider the strengths and needs of the student. Also their environment and adaptations that can be made. Then it requires the teacher to think about the task they want the child to complete. Finally the teacher looks at the tools that could be used to allow the child to complete the task. The SETT plan used in conjunction with the Student Support File gives a comprehensive picture of the child and enables the teacher to plan an appropriate lesson as well as being able to assess if it was successful or not.
The sample SETT plan below is for an 11 year old boy who is finding it very difficult to remember the steps involved in solving number theory questions and what the correct order of operations is. He is strong mathematically but concentration is an issue and his lack of ability to focus leads to overwhelm and the child becoming upset. By using Microsoft One Note Maths Assistant, he can type the problem on the screen and produce a series of prompts to remind him of the steps to follow.
I think using this SETT plan would be a useful way to scaffold the child until he is comfortable with solving multi step problems.https://1drv.ms/w/c/dd0ca8de495f8165/EUuZ5Od3vTZMqm2NVSPLK5wBFW8Bqf3hLJDNs1EZIKZoNw?e=HpKrQH
The pupil I have in mind that would benefit from an AT activity is 12 with Autism, Dyspraxia and ADHD. The child in question finds it incredibly difficulty to work on comprehension pieces as he finds it so hard to read texts as he loses focus midway through a sentence and finds large pages of text overwhelming. He also struggles to produce a lot of handwriting.
In order to build his confidence and literacy skills, I will take photographs using Microsoft Lens, of text based around his special interest (Minecraft). I will show him how to use Immersive Reader so that he can have the text read aloud to him. I would alter the text spacing for clarity and also using the line spacing feature to reduce distraction.
I would then use the dictate function in Microsoft 365 to allow the child to answer the questions. This would reduce the burden on the child in terms of concentration and physical demand and therefore allow the child to focus on sentence building, vocabulary and comprehension strategies.
CPD is of crucial importance for teachers. There are so many innovative ideas and technologies available to us that can be utilised quite simply. However if teachers are not open to engaging with CPD, then students will miss out and may find it difficult to reach their true potential. An environment of learning and collaboration and sharing of ideas is fantastic for teachers to work within and is a wonderful example to give to children. I like that the Cosán framework promotes teachers engaging in lifelong learning but also recognises and trust that they are best placed to choose areas in which to upskill.
Sharepoint seems to be a fantastic resource that I hope to utilise this coming year. I look forward to trying it out.
I am very excited to have learned so much about the accessibility features of apps that are free and easy to use. These will be of great benefit to some of the children I teach and will give them much greater independence and a sense of confidence completing routine daily living tasks.
Immersive reader is a fantastic too which I am ashamed to say I had no knowledge of previously. This is help children I teach to access information, prioritise it and to replay it as often as necessary to ensure comprehension. For some children, it will allow them to be able to use their phones to do something as simple as order from a menu without it having to be read to them by a peer or companion. This will really develop self esteem and confidence to participate in enjoyable daily activities. Like any new skills, it would be very important for the child to be explicitly taught how to use the technology and the features that would be beneficial for them.
Dictate is another fantastic feature that will be very useful for those struggling to produce volumes of writing. I have noticed that many children really struggle with handwriting these days and having another option to get their ideas out on paper is wonderful.
Dictate