[Carol Smith]

I asked the Brainstorm Gem to help me with a practical idea to teach sixth class about surface area. The content returned was in line with the New Maths Curriculum, and was very useable in my classroom. The first suggestion was to use a cereal box, deconstruct it, and measure the sides. I really liked this idea, and as we had already explored shape nets, think this is a very practical exploration of surface area.

I rejected the second idea, covering a box using sticky notes, without allowing them to overlap and then calculate area using the measurement of the sticky notes. I feel that there are too many parts to this, and it may cause more confusion.

I did not enter any personal information about my class, or individual children, although I may ask for a similar simplified task to include children who struggle with maths concepts.

The Gem was valuable in giving me ideas on practical maths activities, as these are so important for children to engage in the new maths curriculum. The Gem suggested another activity which would help enhance the understanding of surface area and comparing it to volume which may be an interesting add on for more capable children.

I feel that these Gems are a valuable tool that will help in any classroom, once it is used responsibly and with professional judgement. SSE in schools may use these tools to suggest ways to improve pupil engagement, or enhance teaching and learning in specific areas.

[Carol Smith]

My chosen activity for this module was ‘athinsint’ in sixth class. Having worked on recount writing in English already this year, the class are aware of the features of recount – past tense verb, orientation, time connectives. We have completed a lot of work on the aimsir caite and irregular verbs. To begin this lesson we will look at a picture on out school website of a tour the children went on recently. Together we will explore the verbs and vocabulary needed, writing these on the board.  We will discuss opening lines for the first paragraph. Children will think, pair, share to begin their recount. Day one will be to plan and draft the first paragraph. Children who struggle with writing will be encourages to use an audio recording, or draw three pictures for beginning, middle and end of the recount, label the pictures and list some verbs that they may need to use.

Pupil feed back will be obtained via an exit ticket. Using the pupil feedback, I can plan for the next steps as we write the middle section of our recount.

Google shared drive will be a great addition to our SSE next year. We have only recently begun to use a shared drive and now have email addresses linked to the school. To have the lessons and feedback in one place will be very informative on hoe children learn best and what the enjoy about learning, guiding future lessons.

[Carol Smith]

Hi Nicola,

Great idea getting Mote to read aloud the questions and information to the children. If you have and EAL kids in your class you could also switch the instant translate app, then their own language will appear on the bottom of your whiteboard as the text is spoken in English. While I’m not sure if its always work perfect, I have used it with the Starlight programme to try engage EAL kids more in our English lessons.

Diffit is also a brilliant website to choose a target reading level and translate and pasted text. It will generate vocabulary lists, activities and comprehension questions too. This was a vital site for me when I was in SEN with children arriving to senior classes without English.

[Carol Smith]

I am teaching sixth class. The topic I chose for module two was ‘Trees’. Assuming that we have already studied life along the local river bank close to the school.  My class will be challenged to choose a tree in the school grounds, identify the tree by examining the leaves and bark. Explore how the tree impacts the area – shade, drainage, supporting other life forms eg. Birds, insects, fungi, moss etc. The children will use tablets to take pictures of the trees, and design a poster with a labelled diagram of the tree, and give an oral presentation of their research. I decided that a poster would be an inclusive format for presenting this project, and children could add information through the oral description. One adjustment I would make is to allow the children create a slide/powerpoint presentation instead of the poster. It is useful to remember to include options for children who find presenting information, the possibility of pair work or encouraging children to label the picture in more than one language, Gaeilge, English and a childs native language.

Google workspace would be hugely beneficial for our SSE, as we would be able to capture the opinions of the children, and focus on the style of teaching and learning that works best for them.

[Carol Smith]

Hi Nicola,

I really like your prompt for your Irish lesson. I absolutely agree that taking the honesty part out is a good idea, as children (and even adults!!) can really struggle with this. Having a prewritten bank of questions can always come in useful, especially if someone is struggling with the game.

Its always very useful to have some accessibility suggestions also.

[Carol Smith]

I entered the following prompt into my Gemini search.

You are a sixth class teacher. You want to children to explore the history of their locality. Suggest three project options for this.

I selected the following option as my project for my class.

Option 2: “Living History” (Oral History Interview)

The Concept: Students interview an older member of the community (a grandparent, an elderly neighbour, or a local business owner) to capture how daily life in the locality has changed.

·       What they do: Students design a questionnaire focusing on specific themes like school days, games/hobbies, technology, or local shops when the interviewee was young. They record the interview (audio or written notes).

·       The 6th-Class Twist: Students must compare the interview answers to their own lives, highlighting what has disappeared entirely (like old-fashioned milk deliveries) and what has stayed exactly the same.

·       Final Output: A written transcript accompanied by a reflection, or a short edited audio podcast.

 

An adaptation I would make to this search is to have children focus on just one specific theme for their interview, eg school or groceries/shopping and make a questionnaire based on this topic. This will enable children to get much more detailed information for their project, and enable them to make comparisons to their own lives. I like that there is already differentiation allowed in this project, it is accessible to all children as the finished project can be an audio podcast. I would also encourage children to use powerpoint or scratch to present their projects.

My boundaries for responsible AI were that: I did not include where our locality is, any information on the children in my class or specific information that would identify our school or people in our locality.

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