[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Alison,

Thank you for sharing your knowledge of the work being done by the Civil Defence in your experience. Small actions such as the welcome booklet or having a few phrases or words in their native language can be hugely important in fostering a sense of belonging for young children joining the school. It also allows us to build an initial connection and show that we value their culture and background, and how this can and will ultimately enrich the classroom dynamic.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Fiona,

Thanks for this post – it’s clear that climate change is having an impact on the weather we are getting here in Ireland with more extremes of all weather types being present over the past number of years. Having an event like Storm Eowyn can be a really useful stimulus for children, as it can highlight the local impact of such a global issue, and how it doesn’t just relate to other countries far away. Working on some of the small changes you listed can be useful in creating a duty in us all to make small contributions that are replicatable at scale.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Gillian,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts here around the SDG on reducing inequalities, with particular reference to how this relates to the context you are teaching in yourself. Some of the initiatives you are already doing are brilliant and you have a number of very relevant suggestions included also. There are also some suggestions in the Module 4 forum that you may find particularly useful in addressing this SDG, with people sharing work being done by organisations around the country in relation to migration.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Sandra,

Thank you for your post here and for sharing some of the tremendous work being done by community organisations across Galway. I think the initiative you are involved in around language acquisition is so beneficial for all children involved. It really lends itself to Cummins’ theory around BICS and CALP, and and the importance of children picking up the ‘language of the playground’ before being able to access the more formal elements of the ‘language of the classroom’. Forming strong relationships with others is central to enhancing the learning experience of all children in schools and this is a lovely way to achieve that.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Kevin,

Welcome to the course and thank you for this post. I love how you have used the way in which we all look at different stories and situations from different viewpoints as an ideal starting point for delving into development education themes in the classroom, Pictureboks are a particularly effective way of exploring some of these themes around stereotypes and inequalities and allow children to discuss these themes and formulate opinions through a fictional lens, before applying this to issues that exist in the ‘real world’.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Chantelle,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. I think its fair to say that some of these innocently-intended stereotypes start long before a child enters an infant classroom. Marketing is everywhere around us, and creates subconscious bias in us all around what roles, toys, colours, etc. are fixed towards certain genders. One flick through the Smyths magazine at Christmas will clearly point towards certain toys being geared heavily towards girls and others towards boys. It’s certainly a hard cycle to break, but I like your idea of raising awareness and the profile of this through the SSE cycle.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Joann,

Thank you for your post and for sharing the ways in which Osmo can be used, with particular reference to the infant classroom. I haven’t used it personally but really like the sound of the numeracy resources you have mentioned within it. The hands-on nature, with a focus on understanding and exploration, certainly aligns closely with the main aims of the PMC and the development of mathematical proficiency.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

HI Sarah,

Thank you for your post here and for sharing your reflections. I think focussing on just a few AI tools is a good step to take going forward. Once we are in the swing of things, the reality is that we will often return to the same one or two tools/resources/websites, etc. Seeing how these work and can be adapted to suit the needs of those in our class is so beneficial. Magic School is one that I constantly find myself reverting back to, even after experimenting and using some newer platforms that have been shared. Claude AI is another that is gaining traction recently, and seems like it could add huge value to lesson preparation.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Rose,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the course. I hope that you will be able to take some ideas back to your class next year, and I look forward to us all learning from your own experience of working in a special class, and how the 365 tools can be of assistance here. The Forms quiz you have attached is a perfect example of how the Microsoft suite of tools can be used within the classroom. Quickly capturing children’s attainment at either an individual or whole class level is so important to ascertain where they are presently at – indeed, the inclusion of visuals, videos, audio files, etc. could make this an activity that is accessible to all children in all contexts.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Marie,

Thanks for your post. You have alluded to the fact that some skills and competencies are more relevant for modern society, and some which may have been prioritised during our time in education are of ‘less’ value. You are right that technology is everywhere, but that its effective and efficient use is not necessarily evident to the same degree. Over the following modules, you will hopefully be equipped with ideas and suggestions for using technology to assist with making lessons more inclusive and accessible.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Anne Marie,

Thank you for sharing this reflection with us here. I think many people would be in a similar boat with regards to their use of AI being confined largely to Chat GPT. Whilst you can get so much from this already, the additional tools you mentioned offer so much to teachers in terms of transferring the content generated by a LLM into digestible formats for use with children in our classroom. AI is often sold as having the potential to reduce our workload – these apps and websites often go the extra mile and further help us to have personalised lessons ready for children, whilst also looking after some of the presentation of this.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Keara,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on how so many of the Workspace tools could be integrated into the science task. The tabs feature is a really useful feature of both Google and Office 365, but is somewhat of a hidden gem that we don’t often think of using. The creation of an effective administration system when naming files and saving them to folders is also so important – indeed, enlisting the help of Geminin could be beneficial for suggestions in how to do this.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Joann,

Thank you for sharing this with us her. I think we all could benefit from enlisting the assistance of your AI-generated ‘classroom helper’. However, this is a perfect example of how children can see and learn how AI works and the development involved in training such a model. At the senior end, children could look at ways in which the model could be tricked or fooled, which would be a perfect example of the need for a critical eye when analysing AI generated content and how we can’t just immediately believe everyone we see or read.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Joann,

Thank you for sharing this with us her. I think we all could benefit from enlisting the assistance of your AI-generated ‘classroom helper’. However, this is a perfect example of how children can see and learn how AI works and the development involved in training such a model. At the senior end, children could look at ways in which the model could be tricked or fooled, which would be a perfect example of the need for a critical eye when analysing AI generated content and how we can’t just immediately believe everyone we see or read.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Monita,

Thank you for your post here and your engagement throughout the course. So many of these websites and apps have such potential for assisting children with literacy difficulties. It’s great that you have been able to list so many resources that you will be able to use from September, as well as the ways you plan to use them. Providing children with alternative means of accessing curriculum content and progressing at their own pace is such an important part of our role, and you have identified so many ways in which this could be achieved.

[Author]

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