Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
The children in my class were engaged with Picked Pals which is a nationwide school based litter picking initiative. Whilst the children were engaging in this process, they noticed the lack of public bins in the local park which meant the park was heavily littered. Daffodils the children planted last year had not grown due to a dumping area former where the bulb bed once was. The children were concerned about the bees pollinating and the lack of their presence in the park this Spring and Summer. We explored this issue by writing separate letters to local councillors and the city council lobbying for more installs of public bins and better monitoring of dumping.
3 actions I suggest are:
1. I would ensure to deliver lessons about how climate change is affecting our locality as well as globally. Educating on local issues will instil a sense of agency to take control to make it a better place for their friends and family.
2. Engage in green school’s initiative to raise awareness within the school community. Children Williams home their ideas and views about making better choices regarding recycling, food waste and use of public transport.
3. Run a school-wide deposit return recycling scheme whereby children will dispose of their bottles and fans in school and the school can use the voucher from the store for food for the breakfast club.Hi Enda, I really like the tree planting idea. I think it is a great incentive for children to look after the local flora in their area too, knowing how long it takes for a tree to grow so it can start absorbing the CO2 from the air. It could be a tradition the school does in an effort to rewild some areas of their ever growing urban community and support the local fauna and minibeasts.
Hi Laura,
I think the idea of holding English classes for parents in the evenings is a great idea. It would be beneficial for them as they would get a chance to meet other parents from the community of EAL children. It is a great opportunity for them to share their skill set with the school and could perhaps take part in helping to coach the school’s football team/ choir, or whatever their interest may be. It will help them feel heard, appreciated and respected again.
Before welcoming the refugees into the community, it is important to create a group contract with your class to set expectations on how they should conduct themselves. It’s equally important to notify parents as some may feel fearful due to preconceived views in the media.
In advance of their arrival, I believe it’s important to do some work on what circumstances can lead some to become a refugee. This will help to contextualize and build empathy towards the people being forced from their homes.
Teachers can prepare the classroom environment by making labels written in their language and visual cues cards to help the student navigate the classroom and communicate simple needs such as the bathroom or needing a drink. The school can create a Buddy system whereby the student can link up with another student for emotional and social support during yard time- ideally paired with a student who speaks the same language. To help unburden refugee families, the school could hold a Coffee Morning where parents donate clothes and can take newly donated clothes and have a chance to chat with other parents within the school community. As we had many Ukrainian refugees in our school, we worked closely with the Irish Red Cross to ensure what we were communicating to the children and parents was factual and supportive of the families.Having engaged in an action project with my class this year to explore the SDG 4: Quality Education, I will discuss what our project entailed and how the children learned Goal 4 quality education impacts at a local and global level.
My class engaged with an organisation called SeeBeyondBoarders which strives to bridge the inequality gaps in education in Cambodia by linking with teachers and school leaders in the Irish education system to provide support and create awareness of the state of education in Cambodia. Firstly, we looked at the differences between Ireland and Cambodia in school leaving ages, progression onto 3rd level education and career choices. As a result of analysing this information, we decided to choose ‘Cambodia’ as our country of choice to do a project on for Multi-Cultural week in our school. The project entailed creating a blogpost on the school’s website about Cambodia and highlighted major areas of inequality- one being Quality Education. By doing this, the children were taking part in supporting area 5: Accelerating Local Level Actions. Although the children were not fundraising and doing charity work involving money, they were engaging with the organisation SeeBeyondBoarders to focus on raising awareness and solidarity and empowering them to take agency of issues at their local level too.
As a result of the findings they made on the inequality of Quality Education in Cambodia- in particular, the poor access to quality resources, it empowered the children to look at access to quality resources for all children in the local community. The children went to our principal with a proposal to hold a book swap where children could bring in a book they no longer wanted in exchange for a book another child had donated. Some children brought in a collection of 10 plus books which compensated for the children who were unable to provide a book for the swap. In this way, every child got a new book and it taught the kids about sustainability in a contextualized and natural manner.
I agree with Enda about the importance of teaching about SDG 4 Quality Education. It is known that one of the biggest keys in releasing on’es self from poverty is through getting a good quality education. Having a good quality education can equip a person to break the poverty wheel that has been running through their family/ neighbourhood for many generations by broadening their skill set to take on higher paying jobs with the ability to progress into other areas or promote to managerial positions.
To ensure equality for all children, educating students on gender equality and how they might choose to act when faced with gender stereotyping is crucial their development as a global citizen. It is important to challenge gender stereotypes from a young age as by the time a child starts primary school, most will already have deeply rooted and reinforced ideas about what things are ‘just for boys’ and ‘just for girls’ due to the toys they play with and behavioural expectation put on them by parents and the media through advertising. Gender stereotypes can have negative impacts from such a young age as it can affect one’s self-esteem which may negatively impact and limit their career choices and life decisions they will make as adults.
I have seen first hand in my own classroom how the children reinforced a gender stereotype during a PE lesson. In the final week of school, I told the children that we would have a class football match. I gave the option for those who didn’t want to take part to pick a piece of equipment (hoola hoop, skipping rope, basketball) to do a small performance practicing a skill during the half time break. Most of the boys thought it would be a boys only football match and were mistaken when some girls opted to be part of the football match and some boys opted to do skipping rope and hoola hoop tricks during the half-time performance instead. It brought about an interesting conversation about inequalities in income for male and female football players. The children were extremely invested in the discussion as the topic of sport os something that was an interest shared by all of the children. It encouraged empathy and appreciation for female sporting athletes and the barriers to success for them.
Teaching global education and using these methodologies can help combat these stereotypes as the children will develop empathy as they engage in work looking into the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and become aware that these rights are universal for all children. Engaging in case studies about challenges faced by girls especially in poverty stricken countries may push students to take agency of their own values. They can make small changes to bring about a more just world where all children’s rights are respected.Hi Orlaith, I totally agree that it is important to introduce development education from a young age as it not only helps in bringing awareness about issues at a global level, but also to highlight to the children that these issues occur in our everyday lives too like gender stereotyping. We need to increase awareness and understanding of the barriers faced by many girls, especially in developing countries where poverty and unequal opportunities are prevalent. Teaching about the negative impacts gender stereotyping has one’s future in relation to career choices and self-esteem should develop empathy from an early age.
I believe that teaching Development Education is important for children in our primary schools from the very beginning in Junior Infants as it helps to conceptualise the fact that we are part of a global society as stated in the article. When children learn of this wider community that they are part of, they can begin to see how interconnected we are as our actions have consequences that are felt world wide, such as buying a bar of chocolate and the positive influence it could have if it had a fair trade cocoa mark on the wrapper. Creating awareness about global issues encourages the critical thinking skills acquired during learning about Development Education as children must learn how to analyse information about issues through different perspectives and variety of sources.
At a class level, Global Education would be at the forefront of the lessons I deliver as part of the Learn Together ethical curriculum as a teacher in an ET school. Schoolwide approaches could be included during assemblies. A small group of students in my school were pushed into action to practice global citizenship as they took on the challenge of completing the Green Schools initiative. A sample project that they conducted this year was an audit of the schools food waste as a result of unwanted hot lunches provided. The Eco team were able to give evidence to the company to change choices on the menu to cut back on food waste. The children felt intrinsically motivated to take on wider issues in the locality to lobby for litter reduction and more consistency in local city council bin collection.