[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Claire,

Thank you for your post. As someone who also teaches in an all boys’ school, this is something that I can fully agree with. I find the same exists in some cases with subjects like music and drama also. However, I’d be interested if this also is the case in mixed gender schools. Would the presence of girls who they perceive to be ‘good’ at art exacerbate their feelings towards the subject. Regardless, it points to a wider unconscious gender stereotype around the school subjects that boys and girls should be ‘good’ at. This carries onto to second level, with subjects like home economics and metalwork heavily dominated by one sex.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Mairead,

Thanks for your post. I fully agree with you regarding the potential of digital technology to transform the learning experiences of children. It is constantly evolving, and unfortunately some changes require us to constantly develop and hone our skillset further. The creation of a school based repository is so important – it’s something that can take a few years to properly set up and get full buy-in, but the impact of having a range of bespoke, ready-made digital resources waiting for you when you switch class levels cannot be underestimated.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Declan,

Thank you for your post here and for sharing so much of the great work that is happening with organisations based in Tullamore and around the midlands. You have shared so many suggestions for how a school can help – the idea of student action’ is particularly important. Getting children involved in campaigning and raising awareness around these issues can have a profound effect on building empathy to the plight of others.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Declan,

Thank you for your post here on gender stereotypes. You have raised a key point around ‘unconscious’ bias. Many of the societal issues around gender inequalities are rooted in this. As you have said, boys generally will take on the more physically demanding and labour intensive roles. This then continues as the children grow older and become generational. You have suggested some very doable activities to try to break this cycle and bring gender equality to the fore within schools and classrooms.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Claire,

Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts here. Most teachers will see the value in exploring the themes of development education with their children, but the question of ‘time’ will always be brought up. In an already overpacked curriculum, adding something extra and expecting it to be done well is probably unrealistic. That’s why integration is so important and you’ve provided some simple but effective ways of integrating these themes with the traditional subjects of geography and English.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Pól,

Thanks for your post. Climate action is certainly a very topic area nationally and internationally in recent years, and it is an area that many young people have a significant interest in. Activists like Greta Thunberg have really resonated with young people. I like how your post has acknowledged the importance of teaching children how to cycle, rather than simply promoting cycling. Very often, this can be a barrier without us ever realising.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi James,

Thanks for your post here. I have also used PowerPoint in the past to create social stories for children. I have found it useful to have a master PowerPoint and make a copy each time deleting the slides not necessary for that child. I have found that over a number of years social stories around similar topics are required, with only minor changes needed for my ‘master’ copy, e.g. adding a particular child’s picture, etc. There’s no need to attach your presentation via email, as you have given a detailed description here and exceeded the required word count.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Roisin,

Thanks for your post and congratulations for reaching the end of the course. I think there’s nothing like a school closure day unexpectedly to relate global issues to the lives of individual children. However, despite the initial euphoria they may feel around an extra day off school, it’s important to dig deeper into the reasons for this. As well as making comparisons with other countries, they could take a look at the number of enforced school closure days due to weather in their own school over a significant period of time.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Emma,

Welcome to the course and thank you for your overview here on an introduction to development education. Schools have many priorities in developing children both socially and academically, and it can be very hard to pinpoint a focus for SSE, as there are so many competing areas. All of these have merit in their own right, However, I think your suggestion of a focus on development education could be very powerful. Putting it at the forefront of school life and culture would make a significant statement. With SSE comes accountability and documentation, and it would ensure it is being done throughout the school on a consistent basis.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Aoife,

Thanks for your post here and your participation and engagement throughout the course. You have highlighted what we are all seeing for ourselves in terms of the growing number of extreme weather events, both here and around the world, each year. It’s clear from your post that your school is already taking a number of small, but very effective steps to become more sustainable, and reduce ‘wasting’ electricity. The lights and whiteboards are a huge one in all schools – in many cases these may be on for hours each day needlessly. It’s great to hand control for things like this over to children in senior classes, who are often very willing to enforce such initiatives.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Derek,

Thank you for your post and for sharing your Google Form on Synonyms with us. It’s clear tat you have been well able to navigate the permission settings, creating multiple choice questions, and assigning point values to each question. These are all staple skills to develop within Forms, and it’s clear that you have mastered them. As you have said, it’s important to start small with the children in our class. As they get more comfortable using the tool, they may be able to different question types like text answers, drop-down menus, etc.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Pól,

Welcome to the course and thank you for your contribution here. I really like how you have highlighted the importance of teaching development education to children, by placing a key focus on how the themes relate to their own lives. All too often, we can see poverty and inequalities as problems that are rooted in other parts of the world. However, many of these issues exist in Ireland, potentially within the community that their own school is located in. This makes it all the more important that these themes are explored with the children in our classes.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Mairead,

Thank you for your post and for the One Note notebook attached to the post. Within your submission, it is clear that you have been able to navigate a large variety of the features within One Note. Including text, images and learning intentions around the province of Leinster, as well as attaching a link to a PowerPoint presentation shows very good skills with this tool. Your Notebook has the potential to be used as a perfect aid for a ‘flipped classroom’ approach, something that the 365 apps really lend themselves to.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Helen,

Thanks for your post. As you have said, the SETT model really complements the school support plans that would already be in place for children with SEN. The beauty of both the SETT and School Support plans are that they allow you to take each individual child on their own merits, and apply various interventions that are specifically targeted to address an area of need. Being able to create such bespoke plans and solutions can be hugely beneficial for individual children.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the course. It is great to have participants bring experience from many different settings and perspectives to this course. It’s clear that you can already see a huge benefit in incorporating digital technologies into your classroom learning environment. The fact that your students are comfortable using the available devices should make the use of tasks through Google Classroom reasonably seamless. The subsequent modules will outline how some of the individual Google apps can be used to create tasks similar to those you have mentioned in your overview.

[Author]

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