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Recycling is a great one to focus on. I found that even in 5th class a lot of my students were not recycling properly and being careless with which bins they used. I would love to get a compost bin for our school. We don’t even have on in the staffroom. Definitely prompted me to sort that out next year.
The pupils in my school are already witnessing climate change in action with the increase of severe weather warnings and school closures due to this. For them it can seem exciting to have a day off school but it would be a great talking point for them to explore how in many counties where children are already not having their rights met are also being impacted by climate change meaning they cannot go to school and their education is being disrupted. It would be interesting to delve into water quality and how to test for it. In our area we have had beaches close because the water isn’t deemed clean enough for swimming. We could research the standards our country keeps for us and our water and then research water qualities across the world and what water people are deeming acceptable to drink, cook and wash with in other countries. In our school we had many children who went to the climate march in 2019 and felt very passionate about impacting change. I feel with covid they haven’t had as much of an opportunity to continue with this work so I would like to do these lessons with my 6th class this year and see if they can see how climate change is impacting on their lives already and what they can do as a group to help. We are lucky enough to have a great gardening module in our school so we could incorporate that with our research and see how farmers are being impacted in Ireland.
We as teachers definitely have a huge role to play in ensuring they feel welcome in their new school and communities. I made a big effort to get my student involved in the local GAA team and in Irish music as she showed a keen interest and knew this would be a way of helping her integrate with the community.
When I was teaching in Senior infants 2 years ago our class received a Ukrainian student. The children in my class had previous knowledge on the war and I had heard them chatting about it in class. Before our new student joined the class we had a class discussion to help them process / understand what was happening and ask some questions. It was wonderful to see how caring and empathetic they were. I had all of them wanting to volunteer as her buddy so much so we had to take turns. As a school we made a big effort to put up signs in Ukranian to welcome her and I had Ukranian resources to help her in the transition. She has settled so well into the school and has embraced Irish culture. Joining the GAA team, learning Irish tunes on her violin. She has also brought her culture to her classmates. I have worked in schools where they did a multicultural fair to share different cultures in the school. I would like to promote this in our school next year as I think its great for all the students to learn about different practices, traditions and religions.
I think you’re so right this will really help to open their eyes to the everyday privileges they have and often take for granted and think about the spiral effect this would have on them if it was their reality.
Focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 2 Zero hunger would be one I would love to do with my class. I think often my students would think of hunger as an issue for ‘poor countries’. I don’t believe they would all be aware that there are many children in Ireland who go to school hungry everyday. I think this would be a great issue for them to explore especially with the introduction of hot meals for all. I would love to here their insight on this. Our school is in quite a privileged area and this programme may be viewed as unnecessary by them. I would like to challenge them to think of how they could help at both a local and international level to help with this goal of zero hunger and to think about the impacts this could have on children locally and internationally. By getting them involved in this I think it will lead to them link this goal to others and empowering them to want to make change and be more empathetic and understanding.
This was so similar to my experience but I agree it was great to see I had many girls who were also able to stand up and say that they could do anything the boys could do and encouraged their peers to see it that way too. It is great to be able to have these discussions as young as infants to help with their view of the world.
When I was teaching Senior infants a couple of years ago I found that when we engaged in Aistear a lot of my students were already roleplaying in ‘gender specific roles’. I took it as a priority to encourage a mix roles. When I would ask why is this baby in pink and this one in blue I would often get the answer that ‘pink is for girls and blue is for boys’. I made a big effort to get a variety of picture books that showed a broader understanding and did art activities whereby I would ask them to draw a doctor, a pilot, a scientist, a ballerina, a chef, a nurse, and see what gender they assigned to these roles and delved into their understanding and took this as an opportunity to encourage those who believed that these roles were for boys/girls to reflect on why they thought this.
Completely agree with having more CPD in this area for staff in how to engage students practically with this material. Setting specific goals as a school to reach will really engage the students and I find they get very passionate when given the opportunity and the support to feel like they can make a meaningful change.
I found this article to be really insightful and enlightening. The author explaining to the readers about his perspective of growing up as black and Irish was very interesting and to hear that for him over the years there have been great strides in combating racism in Ireland but that this needs to continue. Education I believe is where real change begins. We can feel that on our own it is impossible to make changes as a citizen but there is great power in the bond and enthusiasm you find in a primary school classroom. I think it is crucial we give time to include DE in our curriculum and I believe children feel empowered when given this opportunity to learn about the world around them and at the same time see what privilege them come from. I would integrate DE through SESE, SPHE and English – giving children opportunities to explore the reality of rights of children around the world and a chance to debate and develop their knowledge of the global goals set out , giving them an opportunity to try to understand empathize with children around the world whos rights aren’t being met.