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The Home documentary was very powerful and insightful. The scenery is beautiful and the way the film is made, makes you really think about the stark reality of this scenery and the extensive damage being done to it. I think that it would be a good teaching resource because the impact of human actions are shown very clearly. If you were teaching a younger class, you could use screenshots or still images from the film as a stimulus. I do think the film could be very engaging in older classes. I think Greta Thunburg’s Ted talk is probably the most useful resource of all. I agree with other participants that there is something very powerful about children recognising the activist as their peer. While students may be familiar with her and her cause, they may not have heard her speak in this capacity. It’s a great example of how social media can have a positive effect and also supports Autism awareness. I really liked the tool to rate your carbon footprint also and I think this could be an excellent resource for my 6th class next year.
I agree Robyn, a great chance to get digital technology involved in the classroom and the use of the TEAL tool also.
The Paxi video is an excellent resource, I can definitely see myself using this in the classroom next year, along with the other resources in activity three. I found the video was probably the best pitched part of this activity, in terms of being suitable for all class levels. However I think that some of this activity may be more suitable for older classes, or need simplification in the junior end of the school. The Teal tool is fantastic but I did have to rewatch parts to fully get to grips with the task.
I think when teaching the content of this activity, I would definitely focus on Ireland as a basis for learning and then students could investigate or make comparisons between Ireland and the rest of the world. There is a good opportunity for integrating this learning across the curriculum, particularly with maths as well as some links with the the school’s Eco Team.
I love the idea of involving grandparents, weather proverbs could be used both in English and Irish. It ties in with history, heritage and even a nice project for Grandparents Day!
Activity 1:
As several other participants have mentioned, I think I would use a school activity or an outdoor event as a good hook for maximum engagement. This would work particularly well in terms of older children, as I was working through the activity myself, I was starting to think of how I could tweak it to suit a diverse sixth class next year. I would also try to integrate the different climate zones with the heritage of the students in the class and the places that they visit and travel to.
Activity 2:
I think there are great learning opportunities in activity two and love the integration of maths also. I always love when there is a chance to get outside and get involved in hands-on learning and I think Weather Detectives would be great for this. It would be important to discuss the different variables that allow for accurate readings and maybe have a variety of different sized temperatures depending on the age of students and or differentiation.
