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Tralee International Resource Centre offers free classes and services to refugees in our region. Their work includes daily English language classes, family programmes (including summer programmes for children, school liaison etc), mental health programmes, music classes, one off classes and programmes, help with filling in forms, access to the internet and computers, International Friend’s Group and referrals and a drop in space.
Our school can help refugees by being in contact with the school liaison officer in the resource centre, ensuring that the children are in a safe environment and understanding the resources that we need as educators to ensure the pupils feel happy within the whole school environment. I feel it is important that contact is maintained for the good of the children, so that we can better understand where the children came from, the possible dangers or trauma they might have experienced and the learning progress they have made to date.
Most small towns in Ireland have Family Resource Centres that may have some resources available to refugees, however, from my research, it seems to be the larger towns that have the main supports advertised on line.I completely agree with you Olivia with regards the latest fads that the kids have these days. The availability of these collectable toys means that trends can change so quickly and kids just change their minds. It used to be before you either liked Cindy or Barbie, now there are way too many choices!
Yes I agree with your post, particularly when it comes to role play in jobs. The teacher in schools was seen for a long time as the female role, however there is a significant rise in male teachers in schools, which is great to see also! Gender balance needs to be seen to be believed , and when children see a balance in the everyday workforce, it becomes the norm in play.
I have taught in an all boys school for nearly 20 years. I have seen gender stereotype quite regularly throughout my career, particularly when it comes to involvement in sports. However, there has been a change in recent years.
When I first started, it was a very “sporty” school. There didn’t seem to be many extra curricular activities available for boys, both in school and the locality, other than GAA and soccer. However, now we have chess clubs, art clubs, STEM clubs, and the perception that all boys should like sports is gone. Most boys enjoy singing in choir and see these as a strength and not a weakness to be involved in the arts. We have a cross over of boys who enjoy all activities across the board. It’s very encouraging to see the boys flourish and be themselves without the worry of gender stereotypes.
In SSE, it would be important to gather the evidence from sources to share with the children. I would, of course, take action that would lead to improved learning for the children when we learn about gender equality.
I love your idea of connecting with other schools abroad. With the introduction of the teaching of foreign languages, it would be interesting for the pupils to find out the countries were French, Spanish and Portuguese are spoken, besides the obvious!
The Role of the Global Citizen In Today’s World was an interesting and thought provoking piece of writing. In one way, it celebrates how far we have come in identifying racism and calling it out. However, on the other hand, we have ways to go yet with acceptance. Quoting Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King was an excellent introduction to the piece, as they are well known and historical figures when it comes to human rights. They were well respected in their time, and are still seen as revolutionary figures in history. I also respect that Ethigie gave an insight into his own background and his own experiences.
I was delighted when I read on, to read a quote from Daniel O’ Connell, that I hadn’t heard before with regards slavery in America. I have always respected The Liberator, and I was delighted to read that he was aware of the plight of the slaves in America. His compassion for all human kind is evident in his quote, that, as Darwin said, we are “cut from the same cloth”.
This leads us to the importance of education across the globe and the right to education for all. There is a feeling of empathy from Ethigie, I feel, for the white supremacists. Not that he feels sorry for them, but that they don’t fully understand what they are doing. It’s lack of knowledge, or appropriate knowledge, that leads to their racism and undesired ideologies. I found it very interesting that he called the “victims”, which I would agree they are.
I would share this piece with my colleagues with a view to emphasising the empathy the author feels in the writing. If sharing this with the higher classes, I would pre teach who Daniel O’ Connell, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King are. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
Apologies, I think I posted this in the wrong reply box! Reposting here:
Construct a sundial in your immediate area or plan for your school grounds to see where a sundial could be placed:
My class would absolutely love this lesson. I would start by teaching the history of sundials, the Ancient Egyptians and the Maya in Mexico. We would research these civilisations and related peoples and find out if there were any old sundials found in Ireland, if so, where and what is the oldest.
We would follow up by using a torch indoors. Looking at how shadows can be cast, making some shadow puppets on the walls and changing direction of the light source to show the difference it makes with our hands.
Finally, we would go outside. I would draw a circle (I have the perfect place in mind where there is concrete and we can use chalk). We would make a centre point and using a compass (pre teach north and south and how compass works) find south. We would start by using a simple stick in a flower pot to make the first shadow line and write the time with chalk. We would check the times over the duration of the day and repeat the exercise the following day to compare the lines and times.
Any time the kids get to leave the classroom for an activity is a bonus. The love to be out and active!
I didn’t think to include NASA photography as art, great idea! The pupils will thoroughly enjoy researching photography from space.
Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky? For example: Look up President Michael D Higgins’ “Stardust”
In our school,we are big fans of Coldplay for the school choir, so Sky Full of Stars would be first on our list! When researching these, I would have to be sure that the lyrics are appropriate for primary school children first and foremost, as one can never be too careful these days! From Coldplay on, we would listen to Frank Sinatra, Fly Me To The Moon, Star Star by the Frames, and of course Space Oddity by David Bowie. Starlight by Muse would be enjoyable also. These are the songs I can think of that the children would enjoy the most with regards references to stars and space.
In poetry, I would ask if the pupils could think of any rhyme about stars, and of course reference Twinkle Twinkle. I would look at The Stars Stand Up In The Air, by Thomas MacDonagh. A poem about love and loss, and a poem that is easy to read and understand.
In art, the most obvious is to compare Van Gough and Munch in their depiction of the Starry Night. We would discuss light pollution and how this could be reflected in their paintings.I love the idea of a lights out night. We often do fundraisers with cinema nights in school, it could be done then with the older classes and a quick discussion before (or after) the movie. However, I would be fairly sure that one of my pupils would remind me that we are ,of course, contributing to the light pollution by having a movie night…..!
How you would incorporate the needs of nocturnal species, especially those that rely on dark skies into school biodiversity plans
To begin with, we would study the nocturnal species in Ireland. We will make a list of the ones we know about, and research any species that we may have forgotten. We will look at their images, their habitats, and in particular, find the ones that might live near an urban school that has a large park nearby. We will sketch some of their pictures and write 3 facts on each one, relating to their habitats, their young and specifically researching any threat to the animal where it lives.
In the next lesson, we will look at what light pollution is and how it affects the local area, specifically the wildlife. We will look at our local area on the map showing how much light pollution there is around us. We will take a walk around the perimeter of our own school and see if there could be any light pollution that we are contributing to.
We will discuss how our school and their homes could reduce light pollution, such as using warmer toned lighting, motion sensors for outdoor lighting or timers, and more importantly, educating the whole school community about the importance of protecting our wildlife from light pollution and how dark skies are beneficial for their protection. Along with informing the students and teachers in the school about our findings, we will share our projects with parents and followers on social media to emphasise the importance of protecting nocturnal species in our locality. We could ask for ideas as to how we, as a school community, could collectively help, by creating natural habitats. We can encourage people to plant more shrubs, put in water features and take surveys of the nocturnal species they see at night.
We are based in Kerry, an overnight trip would be a fantastic idea as we have the Kerry International Dark Sky Reserve. I would love to do a tour there some time!
Detail how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
With the pupils in 5th class, we will research what light pollution is. We will do a KWL wall, looking at what we know, what we would like to know and finish with what we have learned. We will find the definition and discuss our own local town and brainstorm what we think could be sources of light pollution in the area. We are in a small town, and we are not far from Shannon airport, we will consider all these factors when brain storming.
We will then discuss the impact that light pollution can have on ourselves. We will look at 3 different factors, how it affects humans, natural ecosystems and the quality of the night sky. I will split the class into 3 groups, with 3 large posters and a marker. One group will write how light pollution could effect humans, one will write how it could affect the ecosystem and the last will write about the quality of the night sky. Each group will present their ideas to the class.
The pupils focused on wildlife ecosystems should focus on disrupted biological rhythms, confusion,ecosystem imbalance and the impact on bats.
The pupils focused on humans should focus on sleep disruption and potential health issues.
Pupils focused on the quality of the night sky should write about skyglow, reduced visibility and the loss of dark skies.
We can hang the posters in the class and follow up by researching the local wildlife in the area and how it could mostly affect our local garden birds, which will be pre taught as an art and science lesson.