[Pat Brennan]

Hi Ciara,

It’s refreshing to hear the practical steps you’ve taken in your school to combat engrained societal stereotypes. Both the gender neutral toys and toilets in the junior end are both important changes that combat preconceived biases from an early age. More of the same practical steps I think is the way to go. I can also understand how not having a school uniform creates it’s own challenges here as there will always be huge pressure to conform among boys and girls.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Laura,

Lot’s of good suggestions there and I particularly like the idea of organising field trips so the children can see first hand the damage being done by climate change in the locality and this should then dovetail nicely with the in-school initiatives you’ve outlined as you will certainly have buy-in from the students. Ownership of the process is key here. The outside classroom and garden too are really practical and engaging ideas. Worth exploring here would be arranging a visit from a Heritage Specialist through the Heritage in Schools programme. You can find a list of specialist near you at Search for a Specialist | Heritage in Schools

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Mary and welcome to the course.

I agree, children make unconscious assumptions based on gender and it is remarkable just how early children start to internalise such assumptions so the sooner we can start to question such notions the better. Your anecdote about the Robotics project is a case in point Even before children begin school they already have preconceptions, identifying certain characteristics and roles as belonging only to boys or girls because of gender preconceptions engrained in our society. We need to think outside the box and use teaching approaches that encourage pupils to debate, challenge and question existing beliefs and intervene as you did when we see gender stereotyping at play in our classrooms.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Catherine,

The ‘Living conditions’ lesson which is showcased in this module is particularly powerful and really highlights inequality in a way that resonates with students. I was lucky to be in Eimear’s class the day it was filmed and was really taken the impact it had on students and indeed how engaged they were, the candid discussions were really interesting. This, I think was down to the focus on active learning throughout, as you mooted the musical chairs  activity to highlight inequality in particular was really effective.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Grace,

That’s a comprehensive action plan for your school, the  Green School’s Committee will be busy next academic year and agree you should start with the simple things like switching off lights and using more efficient lighting. Particularly commendable is your drive for sustainable transportation, car pooling, cycling and walking to school. Again very achievable and impactful.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Oliver,

I like the your idea of students creating their own quizzes, reverse engineering the assessment process and this kind of thinking outside the box is required in our classrooms as technology becomes more and more ubiquitous. I’m reminded of another teacher I spoke with recently, who had (Despite a lot of skepticism in school) had started using AI image creation tools for literacy but instead of the student’s creating the images, a series of pre-created images were shared and the students were tasked with matching the prompts that generated them and then suggesting their own prompts that would achieve better results…

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Orla,

What you’ve outlined here about the adverse effects of climate change in your locality are worryingly reflected across the country from other experiences shared on this forum. The reality is uncharacteristic and/or extreme weather conditions are now common place in Ireland and globally.

The actions you’ve outlined here are practical and achievable. The procurement of polly tunnels is a novel one and will certainly give you much greater scope for homegrown produce. The school’s Green Team is going great work too, around composting and recycling and interesting to hear that from their research, the teachers are doing less well then the students. BTW, we are always learning, I didn’t realise either that wet paper cannot be recycled…

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Grace,

I agree, Immersive Reader can be an immensely powerful tool for promoting greater accessibility to text for students who have difficulties with reading and language but again as you suggested when used appropriately and not as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution or panacea for all literacy challenges our students encounter. However, what it does do is enable all text to be accessible to all students, particularly EAL students, and those with visual impairments and dyslexia as mooted. Functionality like the ability to adjust text size and spacing, break words into syllables and the talk to text features provide a scaffold for these students and as a result directly improves student confidence and increases their opportunities to work independently.

In addition to Immersive Reader, Dictate is a great tool in MS 365, particularly for students who struggle with keyboard input.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Sinéad,

Welcome to the course. I would agree wholeheartedly that a perception exists out there that AT is intrinsically connected t0 educational psychologist’s recommendations and what the SENO is happy to sanction, and such a narrow/limited view of AT inhibits real embedding of a host of digital technologies (Low, medium and high) that are extremely effective in the SET classroom and your example of using tools like Book Creator and Adobe Spark in the writing process and for creative writing demonstrates this. Not AT specifically but nonetheless tools that can scaffold and support the student with in-built functionality like text-to-speech, spell checkers, prompts, dictation and more.  Allowing students to focus on the content rather than the mechanics of getting their ideas down on paper. The free (And brilliant) Immersive Reader from Microsoft is another powerful example of such tools, covered in detail in the next module…

 

 

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Jacqueline,

Great to hear that you found the course beneficial and you have a number new tools and apps to bring back to the classroom in September. I agree the inbuilt accessibility features in both Windows and iOS are significant supports for student’s struggling with literacy and there’s the added bonus for teachers/schools already using MS 365.  MS’s suite of learning tools like  Immersive Reader. Dictate, Reading Progress that integrate seamlessly across the the 365 apps offering some really powerful AT tools for the SET classroom. SET classroom.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Tara,
Thanks for sharing your SETT plan to support a child with dyslexia which utilises a good mix of low, medium, and high tech AT tools. Good use of Lens, Immersive Reader and Dictate here to support and scaffold the summarising task. I particularly like the idea of using Dictate to record the child’s responses and then listening back to self-evaluate. I’m also drawn to your reference to audio books in the plan, a format sometimes overlooked and a personal favourite of mine. When I worked in SET, I used audiobooks extensively as I found them in some cases liberating as they helped separate the narrative from the physical text, which invariably held negative connotations for students with significant reading difficulties.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Kevin,

I agree, Google Classroom is an extremely powerful learning management tool, for many teachers their first experience of Classroom was exclusively as a tool for remote teaching in Covid times where it was extremely effective. However, it can do much more and as you’ve mooted can be just as useful when used to compliment face-to-face lessons or as part of a blended offering. I note too your point about being able t0 differentiate work on a group-by-group basis rather than just individually making it a really efficient and time-saving tool for this purpose.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Jacqueline,

Thanks for sharing your sample SETT plan, I’ve not had the experience of teaching a student who is pre/non verbal having been in SET in a senior mainstream but can imagine it can be challenging when you are dependent gestures and facial expressions to communicate. Also thanks for sharing the specialist Proloquo app, I’d not heard of it before but sounds like an extremely powerful tool for augmentative and alternative communication. I’ve taken the liberty of adding a link to it here for other participants who maybe interested in discovering more.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Eamonn.

I agree Assistive technology is becoming increasingly more embedded in daily learning experiences of students and when used appropriately increases a student’s educational opportunities and social interaction. It also supports a student’s participation in learning experiences in the least restrictive environment. However, as you have alluded to AT only has the power to be effective/transformative for the child if it is deployed and used in a meaningful way. Teachers being aware of the purpose and confident in its use/application are key to effective pedagogically-led use.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Helen,

Thanks for sharing such a comprehensive sample plan which uses a number of digital tools that enable the student in question to focus on content (and his creativity) rather then the mechanics of writing. That’s really what assistive technology is all about enabling students to work at their own pace and experience success regularly with the scaffold provided.

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