Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Mel, these are great easily accesible ideas that everyone can do to tackle climate change. Thanks for sharing.
Climate change has a huge impact on our lives today. In my local area, the most impactful change the climate has caused has been the weather. The extreme weather includes high levels of rainfall and strong winds. The high levels rainfall have caused the local river to overflow, flood and block roads. Similarly, the strong winds have caused trees to fall down blocking roads and taking out electricity wires. These adverse weather conditions affected our local communities for days and took months to reverse.
In the classroom, I would encourage the children in my class to take action against climate change by raising awareness and highlighting the importance of taking action now. Placing emphasis on green team activities such as recycling, water checks and picker pals the children in the school can take small actions to make a big change.
Regarding school self evaluation, I would liaise with my colleagues to ensure we work together to create initiatives so that we can achieve change as a whole school.
The Fingal County Council have a Local Authority Integration Team (LAIT), that aims to empower individuals integrating into Irish society to live independently in Fingal communities. The LAIT work with applicants for international protection, those with refugee, subsidiary protection and permission to remain status, programme refugees and beneficiaries of temporary protection. The LAIT’s priorities include integration from day one, community engagement, human rights and equality, participation and empowerment and delivery of high standards. In order to meet these priorities they provide individuals with confidential information and advice regarding education, employment, health, community and events upon request.
To encourage our local communities to take action to support refugees and welcome them to the community I would encourage the children in my class to create posters to raise awareness. As well as that, we could host a gathering whereby people could come together to celebrate our growing intercultural community. A gathering of this sort will promote inclusion, integration, understanding and empathy.
Hi Harriet, I agree, children are encouraged to take action when they are made aware of issues that they can directly connect with their own live experiences
Sustainable development goal 12 “Responsible consumption and production” is a goal that affects children at both a local and global level. This goal aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Reducing waste is a very important target of goal 12 and impacts the lives of the children in every classroom.
To encourage the children to take action to support goal 12, I would discuss waste in its broader form with the children. I would then place focus on household/school waste and ask the children to identify waste in their household/school. General waste, recycle waste, food waste, water waste and electricity waste. I would encourage the children to come up with ways to reduce each type of waste. To conclude the lesson, I would split the class up into groups and assign each group a different type of waste. I would ask them to design a poster to raise awareness of these types of wastes and to provide suggestions on how we as a household/school can combat these types of waste.
Gender stereotypes affect children from a very young age. These stereotypes are often brought into the classroom unbeknownst to the children. I believe that the everyday media surrounding children reinforces gender stereotypes and easily influences the thoughts and beliefs of children. As a teacher, it is important to be aware of stereotypes to ensure all children are offered equal opportunities.
The gender stereotypes that I have observed in the classroom include, gender based play and gender based roles. For example, during Aistear, I see the boys tend to lean more towards the construction play whereas the girls tend to lean more towards role play/small world play. Aistear encourages active exploration of all play materials and as a result over time enjoyment can be seen in all play areas from all of the children, regardless of their gender. As a teacher, I believe it is very importance we encourage active exploration and challenge gender stereotypes. This will in turn enhance self-esteem, confidence and participation in class.
Hi Laura, I agree. Choice is extremely important and through the exploration of all play materials we can challenge the stereotypes in the classroom.
Hi Justine, that sounds like a great way to introduce and teach children about development education.
Eric Ehigie’s paper “The Role of Global Citizens in Today’s World”, emphasises the role that we as a society hold in creating positive change. Ehigie discusses the issues in todays world and highlights how change is possible. The paper reinforces our role as individuals to become aware of the global issues and to work collectively as a community to make a brighter future.
The sentence “trying to be the change we wish to see in the world is both accessible and powerful, no matter how big or small one feels their contribution is” carries a deeply inspirational tone. It empowers us to recognise that everyone has the ability to make a difference. No matter the size of our actions, they hold meaning. This idea motivates us to recognize the issues in the world and take part in creating positive global change.
As a teacher, this paper has solidified my commitment to help children understand the role they play as global citizens. Developmental education is vital in today’s classroom. I strive to ensure developmental education is incorporated across the curriculum, ensure that ideas are voiced and action is taken for a better world.
I choose the activity set on Rockets. This year, I engaged the children in my class in creating and launching our own rockets.
To begin the lesson, we recalled what we had learned about Neil Armstrong and his mission to the moon in our History lesson. I explained to the children that in todays lesson we would be creating our very own rocket. I re-showed the children the video of Neil Armstrongs rocket launching into space. We discussed the video and asked and answered questions about the video. I then engaged the children in creating their own rockets using paper. The children coloured their rockets, cut them out and stuck the two sides of the rockets together. The children then experimented using a straw to launch their rocket across the classroom. We realised that the sticking of the two sides of the rocket was very important when launching the rockets across the classroom and many of the rockets had to be re-stuck before the children could get them to launch. This step was a bit tricky for infants. If I was to do this lesson again, I would definitely try out the rocket mice idea using a bottle. I think this idea is more suited for infants. After launching the rockets in the classroom, we discussed the force needed to make the rocket move and we explored ways to make our rocket go further.
Hi Hilary, this looks so fun. I look forward to incorporating the ideas in your photo into my Aistear area. Thanks for sharing.
I choose the hands-on classroom themed activities for the activity set on where do you live?
To begin the lesson, I would show the children pictures of a variety of different homes and engage them in discussion about how the houses are different. I would be sure to incorporate the new vocabulary throughout this discussion. I would then ask the children to share what their houses look like. I would ask them how their houses are similar or different from the pictures of the houses. I would then engage the children in creating their homes using clay. I would then engage the children in painting their clay to look like their house.
As an extension activity, I would discuss with the children the facilities in the local area. I would also bring the children on a walk around the local area and would engage the children in creating the facilities in our local area in small.
