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Hi Orla,
That is a great comprehensive list of art, poetry and songs which could be used with the classroom. I might borrow one or two of those ideas!
BrendanPrepare a school project to collect Piseógs/Traditions/Stories of the Night.
School projects which involve a combination of research and inter-generational interviews, whether written or filmed, can be of great benefit to the pupils, teachers and families. They say that every time an old person dies, it’s like a library burns down and I am a big fan of chronicling the history of an area, or specific topic, in this case traditions and folklore of the night.
In terms of planning ahead, I would initially contact parents and grandparents about the topic and garner interest in visiting the school. I would also make contact with the Museum of Country Life about visiting the museum with a view to a tour on the topic of traditions of the night, then research the Dúchas project to identify some extracts that may be of use to the project, which will be documented in a Scoilnet Learning Path.
From there, I would have a KWL with the pupils regarding any traditions that they may already know or be aware of. We would develop an interview schedule that could be most beneficial to gather the most amount of useful information for our project. When the interview schedule is completed, some of the grandparents who volunteered to visit the school will come in and be interviewed. The pupils will then know how to conduct the interview and will have a week to interview at least 2 people regarding traditions/folklore of the night.
Pupils will then type up the answers to their interview questions and these will be collated. Combining this information with their research, museum visit and in-school interviews, the pupils will thematise the information and create a book which will be ultimately published for the school.
Hi Orla,
We had someone from Heritage in Schools visit my class many years ago and it had completely slipped my mind to do this again until this course. Using this fantastic resource to identify an expert in biodiversity and potentially Dark Skies/Light Pollution, would be great to bring to school.
Thanks for the idea!
BrendanHow you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.We have been working on a 3-part project through term 2 and 3 in our school on biodiversity in our local area and I think that it would be great to extend this in order to investigate the possible impacts of light pollution on the local biodiversity.
The three parts to our project were:
1. Pupils to ultimately create an art project demonstrating the local biodiversity through lessons, discussion and painting a giant canvas to show what they consider the current local biodiversity.
2. The wider school community, in particular grandparents, to discuss, outline and chronicling the local biodiversity from their childhoods and create a contrasting giant canvas of this.
3. Pupils, in groups, map the school grounds into zones and create, using 360 camera and VR Headsets, a virtual biodiversity tour of the school, outlining the various species etc and provide information on each plant/tree/insect etc.
4. Extending this project to include the effects of light pollution would certainly be eye-opening for pupils and their families. Potentially using rigged cameras, and a school trip to Wild Nephin National Park will enable pupils to be informed as to how they can document the impacts in their specific locality as well as the school grounds.Hi Laura,
I enjoyed reading your post and I have to agree that, the map is a shocker alright. The effects of light pollution is something that I certainly had not considered and perhaps Una is right with her point that it could be ‘shifting baseline syndrome’. We definitely need to make pupils aware and encourage them to share this knowledge with others.
Brendan
Question 3:
I had never heard of the Dark Sky Rising Star award before and I really liked that it essentially honours pupils and students from any education level who, through project work or otherwise, show great enthusiasm and commitment “to dark sky conservation and/or research into the nocturnal habitat, human health, safety, security, or other areas in the context of natural darkness and light pollution.” That is a broad range of options for a project of this nature and would require considerable planning.
After the series of lessons on Dark Sky, I would show examples of successful projects that have won the International Dark Sky Association’s “Rising Star” Awards Programme in the past, e.g. https://darksky.org/news/announcing-the-2023-darksky-award-winners/. We would then look at the criteria for winning the award and the benefits of participating in the programme.
Divide pupils into small groups and assign each group a specific topic related to light pollution and dark sky preservation (e.g. effects on wildlife, human health, energy consumption).
Have pupils research their assigned topic using Scoilnet/Symbaloo Learning Pathways that would be created for them. Encourage them to take notes and gather information to support their project proposal.
In their groups, have pupils brainstorm project ideas that address their assigned topic and align with the criteria for the “Rising Star” Awards Programme. Encourage creativity and innovation in their proposals.
Each group will create a Padlet or a Canva presentation outlining their project idea, including the goals, methods, and potential impact of their project on dark sky preservation. Groups will present their proposals to the rest of the class.
Given that our school is in Mayo, perhaps bring pupils to Wild Nephin National Park and after the visit have them reflect on how they can personally contribute to dark sky preservation in the local area.Hi Niamh,
This is such an interesting plan and I certainly might ‘borrow’ your ideas for using the Stellarium app in the classroom. I think that your pupils will really engage with this lesson.
Thanks,
Brendan
These two activities take place after initial KWL chart is done as a whole-class activity and some information is discussed with pupils.
Activity 1: Observing Planets
In a flipped classroom activity, pupils can work outside in the evening with family member(s) to observe the night sky. Provide step by step instructions for pupils and for parents, sent through SeeSaw or Class Dojo, as they navigate the sky. Pupils and family members will use the information they learned from the Scoilnet/Symbaloo Learning Pathway to locate and observe planets in the night sky. Pupils will record their observations on SeeSaw.Activity 2: Create an Observing Plan
From this point, in-class, pupils will be divided into groups and they will create a simple observing plan for tracking the movement of planets in the evening sky during autumn.
Again, through use of a Scoilnet/Symbaloo Learning Pathway, pupils will be provided with information/research sources regarding the best times to observe each planet, their positions relative to Earth, and any interesting facts they have learned about each planet. Pupils can share their observing plans on Padlet and other groups can provide feedback.Hi Breda,
I really enjoyed reading your post. I think that is a great idea to do with any class in school, adapting to suit the specific group. Group work will make this so much more successful given the type of project that it is.
Brendan
I am a big fan of developing sundials, although the weather in the west of Ireland can have a pretty negative impact on its effectiveness. With my SEN pupils, who often have an issue with learning time, I have done this as an integrated project for Maths and Literacy. We have a concrete area in the school which has sun hitting it all day (when it is sunny that is!). We worked very similarly to the video, where we set up a static bamboo stick and marked at hours through the week (depending on the session times). Pupils had to take notes with their clipboards, make predictions as to what would happen and take photos with their iPads.
As the pupils discovered how the sun dial actually worked, they then, in pairs, developed their own plans for building their own sundials, identifying materials that would be useful and practical for the project. Photos were taken at every point in the project and notes written. As the project developed, pupils asked questions, did some research using Scoilnet Learning Paths and ultimately created their sundials, using anything from paper plates and a pencil, to Lego. The pupils then put all of their photos and notes together to do a Book Creator project which presented their project to their peers.Hi everyone,
The 21st Century Skill that I have chosen is Collaboration. My Sway link is: https://sway.office.com/nYv2spPlWLadDIx0?ref=Link
The way in which I will get my class involved in a Mystery Skype project. Mystery Skype/Zoom is a 45-60 minute challenge that the class takes part in while Skyping/Zooming with another class in a school somewhere else in the world. Through only asking yes or no questions, the pupils have to use their critical thinking skills, communication skills, map-reading skills, and above all collaboration skills to guess where the other school is located (country, city, school name) before they guess your own school’s location. The class is divided into groups of 4 or 5 pupils and each pupil is assigned a role, whether that is leader, runner (they ‘run’ to the whiteboard to ask questions to the other school), a map-reader (or 2), or note-taker. It is an excellent lesson in collaboration as pupils need to collaborate and communicate effectively in order to find out the location of the school. I have done this for a long time now and my pupils have been in contact with schools from Mexico, Sweden, England, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, USA and others. It is an amazing and free project. My pupils have really learned how to collaborate as a result.
For me, Digital Technology can enhance students’ learning in a wide variety of ways. From using content as a teaching tool, to creating content as a pupil, the spectrum of potential uses is broad and integrates directly with active learning methodologies for elements of digital learning such as Digital Storytelling. The School Self-Evaluation process empowers a school to look at their own situation and school context and make key decisions with the outcomes of their research. From this process, identifying the key priorities for digital learning in the classroom, the digital tools that one wants to use, and the hardware needed t0 implement all of these elements is crucial and realistically requires a whole school approach to implementation. This is where the Digital Learning Framework comes in useful and enables the school to plan effectively for how best to develop digital learning on a whole school basis.
In my class, the impact of Digital Technology has been significant with the pupils using multiple tools regularly to develop digital skills, both as consumer and as creator. The pupils use tools such as Symbaloo Learning Paths and Google Classroom for conducting research or flipped classroom lessons, Kahoot, Mentimeter and Padlet for whole class discussions and assessments, GetEpic and ReadTheory for helping develop reading and comprehension skills, Book Creator, Screencastify and Adobe Express for developing creative writing and presentation skills, Audacity and iMovie for creating Podcasts/Vodcasts and tools such as IXL, Khan Academy and TimesTables.co.uk for developing Numeracy skills. The impact on the pupils’ learning is significant and develops autonomous learning skills, as well as collaborative learning skills, gives self-assessment opportunities and gives the chance to pupils to work at their own pace.
One of the key areas of SSE is the development of staff CPD and allowing staff members to showcase what is working in their own classrooms, which benefits all involved.
Hi all,
I have to say I was not an avid user of OneNote before, however it looks the definitive version of an e-Portfolio. It has an absolute plethora of uses for pupils and teachers across the educational spectrum from primary to tertiary education. Firstly, I thought it would be an amazing way to organise yourself as a teacher: lesson plans, termly plans, resources, weblinks, Symbaloo links to wider Bookmarking sites. Additionally, it would also be a great way to supplement a blended learning approach, or even the flipped classroom method, assigning and sharing tasks and activities with/among pupils in order to complete work on a given topic. Annotation can be done, inserting photos, videos etc and other elements of interactivity for the learner. This would be a fantastic and interactive way of developing learner autonomy for the pupils, developing what are essentially Learning Paths for the pupils to follow. I love the massive potential for collaboration that One Note also offers, again whether that is teacher/pupil, pupil/pupil or teacher/teacher. I agree with one of the participants earlier, that this links to Universal Design for Learning, providing an excellent framework for learning for all of the pupils.
I have used Microsoft Teams for the past two years, both teaching in primary and university. It is a fantastic resource which can lead to next level teaching and learning, helping to establish flipped classroom and blended learning in a variety of educational environments. I really enjoyed presenting side by side with Prezi and Teams which was very successful and allowed me to be seen alongside my presentation. This was a point that I taught to colleagues which was then used to great success.
Additionally, I find the sharing of resources and the accessibility of Teams across various platforms, such as phone, tablet and laptop as particuarly useful whether this is chat, file-sharing or homework assignments etc.
There are considerable challenges to implementing such a tool across school staff as there is a spectrum of abilities among staff members and hoping for all colleagues to use the resource may be something of a ‘pipe dream’ given the lack of confidence of some members of staff. I agree that starting small and making some positive progress which can then be shared with colleagues can be benficial.
In my own school, we have used a variety of digital tools and some staff have preferences for Google Classroom, while others are Office users. We have a volume licensing agreement that gives all staff and pupils access to Office 365 and it is really interesting how this could be implemented in the classroom and the school as a whole. From using PowerPoint in Digital Storytelling, to creating school/class newsletters using Publisher or Sway are all great, interactive, group projects. Sway, in particular would be really useful to share information with the wider school community and allow pupils to share their work with parents etc, whether on the school website or blog, or simply by sharing the link by email or text message.
Using Forms as an effective tool to survey both pupils and staff as part of the school’s SSE/DEIS Action Planning process is great and produces a clear and informative end product that is very useful to bring to the action plan.
