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I agree with your idea to keep a weather diary. This provided lots of integration opportunities with time in maths. Children would log the weather every day on every month.
Thats a really interesting point you noted that you observed in your class the boys quickly taking on leadership or ‘building’ type roles while girls are assigned note-taking or more artistic or ‘creative’ tasks.
I think that it is a great initiative that in your school, you hold two knowledge-sharing weeks a year where you demonstrate and observe each other’s lessons.
I think it a really good idea to bring the children on nature walks to show them first hand the impacts of climate change
What is our classes carbon footprint and what actions can we take to reduce it?
I feel that this question has two parts, one being the research and data collection part and the second being the implementing of the findings and our action plan. We will collect data after some time to see if our actions have had a positive effect on the environment in which we worked on.
To begin each student will investigate their own personal carbon footprint and then we can move forward. We can do this by asking the kids to use the website Climate Hero Carbon Calculator.
Here is the link provided for you:
The questionnaire will examine:
• how large the students house is and if their home is
• detached or semi detached or apartment living
• what year their house was built
• what heating source their house uses
• if their insulation has been upgrade
• if their home has air conditioning
• are they actively trying to reduce their electricity usage
• how many people live in the house
• how many pets are in the house
• how many flights do they take a year and if they are domestic or long haul
• how many cars are in their household and questions regarding their car
We would take the questionnaire again after 2 months to see if their carbon footprint has reduced.As I work in a city located in a major city, we have a lot of experience working with students from refugee families. Many times these families have been displaced due to war and violence and they have experienced significant trauma before arriving to our school.
It is vital that the children are met with compassion, understanding and a warm friendly smile. I feel like it is not only important to make the children feel welcome but also their parents/guardians. A coffee morning within the school would be a nice way to do this. Our HSCL teacher has previously done this and felt it was very effective in making families feel included.
Often a massive obstacle for refugees is the language barrier. I would try and introduce them to other children in our school who have the same language. For example we have received many students from Ukraine. Often it helps a child feel secure when they know there are other children in the school who can understand them and they can speak to.
One Sustainable Development Goal that I believe is especially relevant to children today is SDG 13: Climate Action.
I feel it is important to discuss and explore this topic with children in our classrooms because climate is such an increasing topic in our media and lives. For example currently throughout the media you would see issues across Europe with extreme heatwaves, wildfires etc. Similarly in Winter time you can see extreme issues here in Ireland with flooding, storm damage and so on.
In school we could explore the different climatic changes occurring across Europe over the last 10-15 years and examine the changes in temperature and climate.
Closer to home we could examine rainfall in our local community. We could look at the ecosystem within our local community and carry out research as to how these plants and animals have become effected due to a change in our climate.
I agree with your statement Christina that- through development education, we can challenge these gender stereotypes and encourage our pupils to recognise and question perceived gender norms.
From my experience I think it is true that children can be heavily influenced by gender stereotypes from a young age. In yard I’ve witnesses children go into their shell more as games get more competitive in 5th and 6th class. To combat this cooperative games and non competitive ones have helped.
After listening to Emma Watson’s speach the negative role gender stereotyping has on males struck me. During SPHE if there is some boys who are dominant within the class who gender stereotype it can be difficult to foster an atmosphere of sharing.I think modeling sharing is an effective way to get past this. I would also love to see more sports people and role models challenging gender stereotypes and showing their vulnerabilities as well as their sporting prowess.
I think the lessons in the module to challenge gender stereotypes are invaluable in creating a positive classroom environment free of gender stereotypes. This will hopefully laying the groundwork to explore the implications of gender stereotypes in Ireland and other parts of the world in an emphatic and powerful way.
I agree with your point that with todays social media children are immersed more than ever in global media.
I believe Development Education is of utmost importance within a primary classroom. It is a vital tool in ensuring our learners become more rounded and considerate individuals who can move forward in their lives with an empathetic view of the world we live in.
I would include Development Education within my classroom by including it as a theme across as many subjects and topics as possible. I believe that by doing this we are showing our students that it is a practice we need to include across everything we engage with in our lives. Themes such as exploring other cultures, embracing differences and promoting equality are easily accessible through various subjects.
To ensure colleagues are engaging with Development Education practices, it is vital to give them some understanding of its importance in today’s world. If there is a whole school approach to these practices it can be very helpful in consolidating children’s belief that this is a part of how the world works and not a selective approach
My reserch question would relate to something that we all need to think about which is – “What is our school’s carbon footprint and how might that be affecting climate change?”
To start, we would discuss energy usage in school: lights, IWBs, internet etc. We would then discuss what actions we can take day-to-day to ensure we are not wasting this the energy (such as turning off lights when we leave the room)
We would also look at the type of heating system the school may use – fossil fuel based or electric – and talk about the most efficient ways to heat buildings. This could lead to discussion about renewable energy forms such as solar and wind and the potential to use solar panels and insulation to better heat our building.
I would show the children videos and we would do lessonas about climate change before undertaking the next steps which would be do problem solve how best they could record and measure the energy use in the school, how they could represent this data and how best to interpret it. This would then be turned into a whole school project about how we could improve our schools carbon footprint.
I think students would love to take ownership and responsiblity over this type of project and I believe the idea of making a big positive change in our community’s impact on climate change would be a real source of pride for them.