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I really like the idea of a “Low Carbon Week”. It’s something I would really like to try in our school.
Climate Change is impacting Ireland at a fast rate and also at local level, through increased extreme weather events, shifts in rainfall patterns and potential impacts on agriculture. Locally, the most significant event related to climate change has been the extensive flooding of the River Shannon in 2015, which has led to many homes being destroyed due to flooding. Many of the students in our school had been effected by this event. To effectively engage students in exploring the effects of climate change in the local area, I would use engaging and interactive resources which will foster discussion. We would explore newspaper articles from that time and clips from the News. We would then investigate what has been done to improve things since 2015 and what we can do to slow down climate change.
Three suggestions that will make our school more sustainable and slow down climate change:
- Implement energy saving measures-encourage staff and students to turn off lights when not in use and conduct an energy saving audit to identify areas for improvement in our school.
- Install water saving devices and encourage everyone not to waste water.
- Develop a butterfly or wildlife garden to support local biodiversity.
Hi Laura, I really like your ideas around integrating the local community with Ukrainian parents and forming friendships through hosting a bake sale. This is something we might try in our school this year.
There are several organisations in my local community who are actively working with refugees and asylum seekers. Westmeath Community Development (WCD) and LAIT Westmeath (part of westmeath County Council) are key local entities providing resettlement support and connecting refugees with essential services. LAIT (Local Area Integration Team) within Westmeath County Council, focuses on assisting people in International Protection Accomodation Services (IPAS).
Additionally , the Irish Refugee Council and New Horizon Refugee Support collaborate to offer services specifically to those in the international protection system in the Midlands.
There are many ways that we as a school can take action to welcome refugees into our school community. We can create a classroom that celebrates diversity and helps refugee students feel represented. Displaying “Hello” greetings in various languages to represent the students in our school, create a “buddy system” and buddy refugee students with another student that they can create a connection with, to help them in their first few weeks of setting in. Engaging in class projects so that we can learn about their country, customs and culture.
Hi Jackie, I really like the idea of looking at your own schools water supply as a starting point to raise awareness. We too are in a similar situation in our school for the last year, we are unable to drink our water but we are fortunate that we can bring water from home. I think that using or own issue with our water supply would be a great starting point to address Goal 6.
Climate Change (SDG13) is one of the most relevant topics for children today. Children are seeing the effects of climate change such as extreme weather events (Storm Eowyn) on a regular basis as a result of climate change.
Adopting sustainable practices in their everyday lives and supporting local initiatives is a way the children can do their part as a global citizen in the fight against climate change. As a school, we have formed ties with the local Tidy Towns committee and we take part in regular community clean ups. In our classrooms, we have adopted a set of “eco-rules” that the children came up with themselves, turn off lights, use reusable bottles and recycle when we can. We have recently installed a Bike Shed in our school and the children are encouraged to cycle to school when they can.
By taking actions at local level, we can contribute to the global effort to combat climate change and create a more sustainable future.
Hi Alyson, I had a similar situation in my classroom with regard to stereotypes and colour. In the infants classroom, I handed out some playdough to each group and some of the boys would not go near the pink playdough at their table. Stereotypes are very evident from a young age.
Gender stereotypes are rooted and reinforced from a young age and can have negative and damaging impact on children’s future. We as teachers are in a position to challenge these stereotypes and I feel that the lesson plans on this module are a great support. It was great to see the video lesson on “rights” in action and the topic explored with the class. It was really insightful and something that I will do with my own students.
Gender stereotypes in the classroom can limit the students potential by reinforcing narrow views of what boys and girls can do. To challenge these stereotypes, teachers can promote inclusive language, provide diverse role models, and encourage students to explore interests without gender constraints.
Examples of typical stereotyping evident in my classroom is the assumption that females and males do certain jobs. This became evident when we were exploring the topic “People at Work”. For example, the assumption that nurses are female and when I got them to draw a picture of a mechanic, all children drew a male.
Development Education in our schools will help to change children’s assumptions around gender roles and create a space for open discussion around stereotypes.
Hi Daniel, I really like how you explored fair trade with your second class. This is definitely something I will try with my own class.
I found this module to be very informative and I decided that I would do this course as I was not sure as to what Development Education was about and it is something that I would like to introduce in my own school. After completing the module, my understanding is that the aim is to ensure that teachers and children are aware of what is happening around the world and to enable us as teachers to empower our pupils to take action and show them how they can make positive changes in the world.
In the article it says “Change is the mantra of the global citizen” and how the task of improving ourselves and taking small social actions is a sufficient starting point in embracing our role as a global citizen. I think that this is an important message to bring back to my school if we are to engage in Development Education.
I really found the input from schools in the module that are engaging in Development Education very interesting. Even though they were from post primary schools I could see how we could develop it in our own school. It was clear from the schools participating in Development Education that it was a positive experience and enabled students to understand and respond to challenges of global injustices. It promotes critical thinking. On one of the video clips, the teacher said the pupils were asking questions such as “why do we have things and they don’t”..looking at it locally, why in some parts of Dublin have they more and looking at social inequality.
I like that there is a resource to use at primary level from 1st to 6th that allows for differentiation and integration into other subject areas. As a teacher of 1st and 2nd class, I like the idea of using games to explore fairness and social inequalities.
In SSE , we will definitely look at how we can improve our teaching of SPHE in our school by introducing Development Education and taking small actions in our school to promote change as global citizensHi Andrea, I really like the ideas that you have to work alongside the Tidy Towns. I think making that link would be very beneficial to the students in embedding sustainability in our school and local area. I particularly like the idea of getting the students to map local sustainability features.
We are very lucky where our school is situated to have access to a Greenway which we use regularly. We were recently involved in a Biodiversity Trail with the local County Council and the children learned so much about bees and pollination. They were given the task to decorate the area with their lovely artwork around the theme of Biodiversity.
Our local tidy towns committee is very active in the area and we as a school organise regular clean up days, keeping the area around our school clean and litter free.
Creating “eco-rules” is a great starting point for talking to pupils about being more sustainable. At the start of the year we create “eco rules” for our classroom. We discussed the rules that we wanted for our classroom-turning lights off, using reusable water bottles and using recycled materials for art.
We also looked around our school to see what needs to be done to make it more sustainable. Like most schools, we participate in the Green Schools Initiative and we are recycling and composting. We have decided to install a water butt to help our school become more sustainable.
I really like the idea of “food tasting”. It gives the students the opportunity to taste different types of seafood that they may never have had the opportunity to taste before if their household doesn’t eat seafood.
Understanding the health and nutritional values of different seafood will strengthen the children’s knowledge around the key nutrients we get from seafood and make informed decisions around healthy eating. It also offers teachers the opportunity to incorporate health and nutrition education into maths, science and the Arts.
The Seafood Nutrition Handbook is a great resource for teachers and gives in depth information around the nutritional values of different seafood. Getting the students to share their seafood eating patterns at home, their favourite fish dinner and reflect on where they think their parent’s buy their seafood from is a great way to introduce a lesson such as “Eye Spy in the Supermarket”. Getting the children to investigate labels on seafood starts the conversation around nutritional values and looking at the different labels and certification that represent sustainability.