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My school recently got solar panels. I must say it has made more of an impact on the students and staff than I thought it would have. The company who supplied them included a digital graphing presentation that shows how much energy the panels store each day, compare it with the energy we consume and show us how much electricity we are saving. The maths lessons, climate discussions, art responses and class debates have flowed as a result. It has been a very powerful and positive influence on the children.
I think the there areas I would like to work on next year would be as a follow up tot his initiative:
1. The School Garden – we have received funding for our school garden and I would love to grow food with the children. We could look at seasonal veg throughout the year. I would love to look at growing things like strawberries and raspberries to inspire a conversation about importing fruits and the carbon footprint that can be reduced when we grow them ourselves. I would also like to start a compost bin for the foliage and grasses we gather on garden clean up days.
2. The Solar Panels – now that school awareness has been promoted with the solar panels it would be wonderful to bring it into the community. I would like to create a digital link that could inform the parents and wider community of the success and the energy we have conserved as an awareness campaign of sorts and an effort to inspire other schools and local businesses to do similar.
3. I read through one of the other posts here about weather tracking. I was struck by the statistics shown on this module about the hottest temperatures in history since the 1880’s. It is such as Irish thing to talk about the weather but a global weather watch would be an idea I would like to trial next year. I would like the children to monitor things like the hottest desert in the world or Death Valley and compare hoe the temperatures have changed there. I would encourage them to look at the coldest parts like the East Antarctic Plateau and compare sea levels and iceberg regression. Looking at countries where monsoons are increasing in frequency and severity in the last decade etc. The bar charts and debates that could happen as a result would develop increased awareness of Climate Change following activities like this.
I completely agree with bringing the children to the sites where climate change is most apparent like the local farm or county council. We live in a coastal area and the effects of the weather changes on tourism, the increase in road floods and homes being flooded near the beach is more visible than ever. The county council workers have been ever more present with sand bags for flooding, salt for ice on the roads and more frequent road closures. The farmers have really struggled this year with the amount of rain that has fallen and this can be seen in the produce in shops and increase in prices of those items that are in decline, like certain types of flour etc. The only way the children are going to see climate change is seeing it in their locality.
SDG 1 – No Poverty, is one I would like to focus on this year. The children in our school will be receiving the hot dinners this year for the first time. Adequate nutrition for lots of our school children is a positive step towards addressing this goal on a local level. I think this development is a gentle way of starting a broader conversation about poverty in Ireland and developing to a larger conversation about poverty globally.
The video of ‘If the World was 100 people’, was a wonderful visual and impetus for discussion that I will access this year. So many of our children still belong to families where there is no literacy, possibly no physical home structure, access to sanitation, access to clean water etc. In conversations with our local librarian about this goal recently I was saddened to hear that there are still many families who spend time in the library just to be in a safe and warm environment for their children. It made me realise how much poverty is still within a stones throw from our school and how children both in and near poverty are coping with this challenge. The step forward and backwards game would be an effective interactive activity at this point. We could divide into groups and discuss various aspects of our own school day through role play. Activities like this allow children time to reflect on how they go to school and then consider how would they do the same journey without their car or bus? How would they stay dry without their raincoat? Where would they do their homework, where do they play etc. All of these questions are aspects of poverty that children can identify through the lens of their own experience and subsequently be the focus for conversations that can bring about change, starting in their own community and then looking at something like the hot dinners and consider the effect it will have on a national level.
The task for this module was a very interesting one for me. I didn’t readily find supports in my immediate area in Waterford but once I found one, it led to many examples of how accommodating and supportive my community has and continues to be to refugees. I started looking at my school. I work in an Educate Together and like some of the teachers here, I am very aware of amazing efforts and supports put in place for all children who come to our schools with refugee (and other) status. It was the small things that really mattered with the children. The breakfast clubs, the after school help, the cultural projects and shared music and food activities done with the classes. It really hit home when I recalled how one of our students who arrived from the Ukraine, with no level of English, had an adverse reaction to the P.E. It transpired that when he arrived to Waterford, they had been sheltered in our school hall and the sight of the hall obviously evoked huge upset for him. It took a while but he returned to the hall, not because of the adult interventions and supports put in place (although I know they helped in some way) but because the children in his class rallied around him and he went there to play with them.) Play is a powerful tool for these young refugees in more ways than language development and social skills. The emotional support he received from his peers was a wonder to see. I thought then of Spraoi. An annual celebration of diversity that promotes multicultural arts and creative expression and every year welcomes all groups to participate. The play and fun that it offers adults has a similar effect. From there I discovered the Waterford Integration Services and spent quite a while looking into all the community projects and advocacy services they offer our refugees. Even the story telling events that are held in places like the Book Centre and Garter Lane in Waterford city and places like Mount Congreve and Lafcadio gardens are wonderful resources to appreciate and connect our local children and new refugee neighbours in the art of play, communication and shared histories.
I think that this module has inspired me to look into the local legends and myths. The theme for Spraoi this year is based on Madame Carat and her cavalcade of curious creatures. I think the children would love learning about the many mythical creatures that are know through storytelling across the world. The extension of creative arts and music activities would be both fun and a gentle approach to sharing the positives that all children experience from various parts of their heritage.
This module contribution made me feel very proud to be a Waterford woman!
I think your mention of how impactful the ‘missing pet cat’ was as a relatable experience for the children around those Ukrainian families. It really is about sharing these experiences with many of the Irish children as the media depictions and perspectives of war and displacement are often so horrific that a0children are shielded from the news by parents or b) the portrayal of war and the displacements of others is so traumatic it seems surreal, like a film or something that is not tangible or relatable for children so removed from it. The cake sale also promotes that sense of self system from module one where the children can in their own small way through baking cakes have an impact on a huge social and global issue!
Completely agree with the need to highlight female excellence in the sporting world. I truly feel that children respond so well to this social media hotspot because it is in their world, sporting success and ambition for young women is an achievable goal and is a career position appreciated by men and women alike. The likes of Jackie Hurley as a successful female presenter for the GAA who also has published a book on this topic – Girls Play Too, is a great resource to inspire conversation in the classroom.
I enjoyed the video that explored the language difference in ‘sex’ as a biological marker and ‘gender’ as being the feeling inside our bodies that denotes which sex we identify with. The evolution of the term ‘they’ in gender identity is bringing the gender bias culture into full view. The gender bias that exists is shown in the video where pink and the arts etc are denoted as female attributes whereas blue and science are accepted as predominantly male.
Whatever an individual’s preference, I think the introduction of androgenous/neutral, unisex etc. toys and resources at a young age is very important. I constantly see hats, bags, pencil cases etc in specific glittery girls or army clad boys fashion enter the classroom. All the main retailers have brought this developed gender bias to the fore with pink and blue marketing and products on view in separate ‘girls and boys’ sections. As an educator I hope that by providing dolls, footballs, sports and science equipment in a variety of colours, discussing female and male role models based on individual accomplishments and discussing ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ terms in a safe scaffolded and appropriate way will allow for increased opportunities for young people to converse, explore, question and debate the marketing influences that are thrown at them constantly. Like Emma Watson mentioned in another video here, she remembers clearly when her girl friends dropped out of sports because they did not want to appear ‘muscley’. I sincerely hope that the likes of Sharlene Mawdsley and Rhasidat Adeleke are perceived with the same level of accomplishment and individual female brilliance as their Olympic male counterparts in the outstanding Rhys McGlenaghan and Thomas Barr. Fitness looks good on everyone! I feel it is part of my job to make sure their examples are shown together in classrooms so that names and accolades are fairly acknowledged in our schools and that men and women can perform brilliantly alongside each other neither better or less than the other.Having read through Ehigie’s (2021) paper, “The Role of Global Citizens in Today’s World,” I was struck at how powerfully I was effected by the section entitled – ‘the power within the system of self’. The author writes eloquently about how important education is and the effectiveness of individual thoughts and experiences as noted by the authors inclusion of O’Connells speech, Dr. King’s ‘moral arc’ and Darwin’s scientific observations. He values these contributions to the development of societal norms but emphasises the equally important efforts of all, comparable lesser known, humans. It brought to mind the quote from Van Gogh that; ‘’If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat even if people think it is a grass in the beginning’’. I fear I was victim to mental fatigue regarding my faith in the effectiveness of individual efforts as of late and yet I found that this article and course was very much needed to reignite my own sense of collective social justice and awareness that every little effort does in fact help. It really resonated with me on what development education is and why it is so important for us as educators to include it in our classrooms and for the cultivation of these ‘citizenship’ traits and beliefs in our young people.