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Write a reflective piece (150 words minimum) as a reply to this post on how you are going to focus on developing the particular skill in your classroom. Include a sharing link to the Sway you have created above.
Collaboration is a key skill for life in the 21st Century. The ability to work productively with other people in daily life is something that everyone should know how to do in an effective way. This will not only be beneficial in our children’s future workplaces but also in their daily interactions with friends, family and neighbours.
As an administrative principal, I will not have the opportunity to directly teach these skills in my classroom. However, it is something that I feel very strongly about in my professional life. Life is all about relationships. Being able to collaborate is essential i.e. with colleagues as part of the in-school management team, staff meetings, sitting down with the student council communicating with parents, the Board of Management and external professionals – the list is long!
In my sway I refer to giving opportunity to work together. Staff need this opportunity to feel ownership over decisions being made in the school so that there is a shared responsibility for the running of the school and a shared ownership of that responsibility. If you make yourself an island, you will become an island.
Consider how you can use Digital Technology in your classroom to enhance students learning? How can you now apply School Self Evaluation Guidelines to your teaching? What impact can developing your own use of Digital Technology have at school level (SSE)? Post a reflective piece (150 words minimum) as a reply to this post.
Digital technology can be used in the classroom to include all learners using Microsoft 365 in many ways. Throughout this course I have learned about how PowerPoint can be used as a tool for presentation using screen recordings and also by providing subtitles for speech. Teams can be used for scheduling meetings, collaborating with groups of pupils and staff and for video calling when necessary. OneNote is another Microsoft application that has great potential for use in the classroom to provide multimodal access to viewing, engaging with and responding to content. Forms is a great way of engaging with the whole school community to gather opinions as well as using it in the classroom.
As a non-teaching school leader, I would find that these tools would be very beneficial to teaching and learning in my school. I will be using the information I have learned on this course to support the teaching and learning in classrooms but also by updating and improving our digital learning plan using the digital learning framework and looking at our schools document.
Consider how OneNote and OneNote Learning Tools could support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students. Post a reflective piece (150 words minimum) as a reply to this post.
I have never used OneNote before. Colleagues in my previous school had recommended it but I had never bothered with it until now. It took me some time to become comfortable using it as I found that the 1×1 table text boxes were difficult to use at first. If I hit the return button to go to a new line rather than Shift and Enter it would create a box below as part of the table and then whenever I tried to delete this, it would delete the whole thing.
Immersive Reader is a very beneficial tool for a wide variety of pupils and I will be plugging this to the teaching staff in September. We have an above average number of children with dyslexia in our school and I could see this working quite well in our senior classes to promote UDL. Getting teachers on board with such technology can be a challenge so it may take time, but it would be worth it.
As a school leader I can see how this would be beneficial for organising my own thought and to-do list! I wish I had this when I did the leaving cert as it seems like a fantastic tool for summarising and studying!
1. I created an assignment in Teams
2. I completed a Microsoft Learn Course
3. I uploaded a link to my powerpoint in a previous submission.
4. Consider how Microsoft Teams can be used for shared Department and Classroom resources, listing the challenges and opportunities. Post a reflective piece (150 words minimum) as a reply to this post.
I used Microsoft Teams daily in my old school. It was a very big school and as head of the SEN department I found Teams very useful for scheduling meetings with parents and staff. When I scheduled a meeting which other staff members would be required to attend, I could immediately see if they were available for the meeting or not. We also used Microsoft Teams for video calling if staff members on leave or parents or BOM members were unable to attend in person.
We also used Microsoft Teams for collaboration. It was used for various staff groups to enable collaboration. For example, we had a Droichead Team. The members of the team included NQTs, PSTs and the Principal. Having a central location for organising documents and posting Droichead related queries was vital for the successful running of the programme.
Microsoft Teams can also be very useful for creating pupil teams and assignments, however I don’t think my school is ready for that yet! I am slowly introducing Microsoft 365 in my new school. I have started off with email only for the past 6 months. In the next 6 months, I hope to incorporate the use of Microsoft Teams and Calendar. Slow and steady wins the race!
My Powerpoint Presentation with recording uploaded to Stream.
Thanks,
Emer Magee
Here is the link to my Sway:
Here is the link to my Forms Quiz:
https://forms.office.com/e/n6BYsrvECC
My Forum Response:
I have quite a bit of experience using Microsoft Forms for surveying parents as part of the School Self Evaluation process. I also use Forms when surveying parents about after-school activities and other important issues that may sometimes arise e.g. change in school start time, mobile phone policy etc. As I am not a class teacher, I haven’t used Forms much in the classroom to support learning; however, it is something I will be suggesting to staff in September to promote digital learning in our school.
Sway was new to me and I will probably use this occasionally going forward. I could see Sway replacing PowerPoint for me in certain circumstances. It is definitely a good digital tool to have a basic knowledge of, thank you!
I have completed the required courses on the Microsoft Learning website. This is something that I wasn’t previously aware of, thank you for bringing it to my attention. Currently, I am trying to promote the use of technology amongst staff in my school as it wasn’t really seen as a priority in previous years. These short courses could really benefit the staff as since January 2025, they all have a Microsoft 365 account.
Hi Julie,
Two things have stood out to me from your post.
1. That sway could be used at the publishing stage for writing. This is a great idea. We have several pupils who use assistive technology so providing this opportunity for all pupils to use Sway is a great example of UDL in the classroom. (provided you have the technology for all to access)
2. Before and after quizzes would be a very easy and visual way to assess pre and post in-class intervention! I will be suggesting this to special ed!
