Author Archives: msloreilly

The Good Samaritan

My Parable of the Good Samaritan hand out

A modern story version of the Good Samaritan can be viewed by clicking here. 

Click here for other modern day stories. 

And another one here. 

This video clip is great. It has full running commentary. 

 

Other video clips: 

 

 

Modern day video clips:

 

Acts of kindness

Articles

Nigeria: A modern day Good Samaritan 

10 modern day Samaritans 

Good Samaritan: Random act of goodness 

Pope Francis and the Good Samaritan 

Modern day ‘regular dude’

 

Irish Good Samaritan articles 

Irish girl helps an old lady on Cork train. 

Woman raises ten thousand euro for homeless man who helped her.

Cyclist 

Irish student loses her wallet in New York

Good Samaritan novelist

Good Samaritan killed by drunk driver 

Priest wins Good Samaritan medal 

 

 

Activities

Put the students into groups. Give each group play dough. Ask the groups to recreate the parable of the Good Samaritan using the play dough. Play dough is better than drawing a picture as the students don’t have to worry if they cannot draw and they can add in facial features an body language.

 

 

Write a modern version of the parable of the Good Samaritan.

 

Each student must retell a story when they were a Good Samaritan.

 

Act out the parable of the Good Samaritan.

 

Act out a modern day version of the Good Samaritan.

 

Make sentences using the words from the above Wordle.

Share a kindness story on the Random Acts of Kindness website. 

Complete a number of the random kindness acts of kindness ideas from the Random Acts of Kindness  website. 

 

Discuss images which show kindness and helping others. Each group gets one or two images. They must analyse them an then tell the other teams about their images.

 

 

 

English: Class blogging and Future Me letter writing

I am teaching TY English since the middle of November. In my school, TY is an academic year. Even if it was not, I hate when people say ‘Oh teaching TY is easy,  I do not have to do anything for them’. Why do these students deserve less of your time and attention than other years? I have a lovely group of students and we do a lot of work but yet we still have fun! 🙂

So far  I have taught the students poetry, short stories, debating, blogging, biography and book reviews. On Wednesdays we go to the computer room to blog. At the start of the year, I got all of my students to each set up their own blog on WordPress. Some of the students were apprehensive at first. However, they now all LOVE blogging!! Huge success! Blogging is terrific as it encourages the students to write, to enjoy writing and it improves their digital literacy skills.

Each week the students have two blogging assignments to complete.

I give all of the students a set blogging topic each week and then they must also come up with a blog topic themselves and write about it. The girls have really excelled at this. I love reading their unique topics every week! I give the students past Leaving Cert HL English exam paper Qs and also Qs I have made myself that are based on the Leaving Cert course. This is important as it will prepare them for next year. However, sometimes the students have random tasks such as ‘Why should people blog?’ and ‘Look up one Web 2.0 tool that you would like to see used in your school’.

Today I introduced the students to Future me.

Future Me is a website where you can write a message to your future self. How cool is that?! It is free and all you need is an email address. You simply type your message and then you pick a date to deliver the email. You can set it for tomorrow if you are not very daring or go all out and set it for 50 years time.You can set it for private or else public. If you select public then your letter will appear on their website.  You can add a photo of yourself if you wish. It is so simple to use.

I got the girls to brainstorm ideas first. Then we read some of the letters on the website for inspiration. All of the girls wrote a letter to themselves. For homework, I asked the girls to go home and pick one letter from the website that they found inspirational. The girls also had to write down three reasons why they found  inspirational. 

  

English novel activities

 

All of the activities below help to develop the 6 key skills for Junior Cycle. 

  1. Working with others

  2. Communicating

  3. Managing information and thinking

  4. Staying well

  5.  Managing myself

  6. Being creative 

 Novel activities

 

1.Family tree

2. Venn diagram- How is everyone connected in the story. 

3. Map- of all the places mentioned.

4. Write an acrostic poem based on each characters name. 

5. A storyboard of the novel. 

6. Use speech bubbles to imagine a conversation between 2 characters. 

7. Change the ending of the story.

8. Diary entries

9. Interview a character

10. Write 10 questions you would like to ask the author after reading the entire novel.

Technology: 11. Use the “In A World …. Drama” app to create a movie promo for a film based on the book.

Technology: 12. Create a Voki  and get the character to speak their thoughts at a certain point in the novel.

13. Draw the illustration for the front cover of the novel or else the billboard for the film version. 

Technology: 13. Tweet from one of the character’s perspectives. 

Technology: 14. Set up a Fakebook account for one of the character’s. 

15. Get a character to write a letter to a character from another novel that you have read.

16. Write a “What If ….” poem about an event that took place in the novel.

17. Write “3 Truths and a Lie” about a character in the novel and see if other pupils can guess which one was the lie.

18. Use the SMS Generator to create a text message conversation between two characters in the novel.

 

19. Draw an illustration of a description of the setting that is in the novel.

 

20. Design a news paper article about an incident in the novel. 

 

21.Use Wordle to summarise each chapter. 

 

22. Group work – Draw each character in the novel and write words around each character to describe their characteristics.

 

23. Create a radio ad for your book. Write out the script and tape record it as it would be presented. Don’t forget background music!

 

24. Create a wanted poster for a character in your novel.

25. I got first years to write a Private Peaceful 2 and then we acted out the best one in class. Therefore we did creative writing and drama from one task!
26. Write a formal letter to the author of your novel and explain how you feel about the book.
27. Create a newspaper for your book. Summarize the plot in one article, cover the weather in another, do a feature story on one of the more interesting characters in another. Include an editorial and a collection of ads that would be pertinent to the story. 
28. Pretend that you are going to join the characters in the story. What things will you need to pack? Think carefully, for you will be there for a week, and there is no going back home to get something!
29. Choose a job for one of the characters in the book and write letter of application.
30.  Write about one of the character’s life twenty years from now.
31. Write a Tinder advert for one of the characters.
32. Add another character to the book. Why would she/he be put there? What part would she/he serve?

Girl with a Pearl Earring resources  

I am currently reading Girl with a Pearl Earring with my Transition Year students. It are halfway through it at the moment. I have included some resources I have made. I will update this blog post in a few weeks with some more resources 🙂

We are also preparing for our TY spelling bee challenge next week.

As the students have not looked at the novel since before Easter, I will review what they have done in the novel so far by asking students to pick a scrambled piece of paper out of a bowl. Each scrambled piece of paper will feature a name/word that is related to the novel. The words will be Griet, Painter, Catholic, Frans, Blind, Sixteen years old, Seventeen years old, Catharina, Agnes, Tile painter, Papists’ corner, Griet’s chores as a maid, Tanneke, Cornelia, Papist’s corner, Griet’s chores, 1665, Van Ruijven, Sunday, Griet’s bed, Maria Thins, Maid.

I will walk around the classroom and I will ask each student to pick out a word from the bowl. When every student has a word, I will go around in sequence and ask each pupil to call out their word and to discuss their word in relation to the novel. I will ask the students to help each other.

 

 Click on these tabs below to download my worksheets.

Girl with a Pearl Earring-Letter from Johannes to Griet

Girl with a Pearl Earring- Gossip about Griet workshop

Girl with a Pearl Earring. Debate feel sorry-do not feel sorry for Griet.

 Group work- Coloured paper- Draw Griet with the cloth on her head. Discussion- How has she changed physically and metaphorically.

Group work: Coloured paper: Draw what you think the finished painting would look like.

Group work:  Rewrite the climax of the novel.

Class discussion- Why did Griet not beg Johannes not to ruin her?

Debating-Speeches-Oral Presentations

     

I love teaching  debating, speeches and oral presentations. It really prepares the students for the oral presentations and to write speeches for the functional writing section on paper 1 of the English Junior Cert. It helps the students to foster their creativity, confidence, vocabulary, grammar, communication skills, organisational skills and to think critically.

As my school is ASTI, I have not been able to go to any of the English Junior Cycle induction days.  However, I have self-taught myself using a range of websites. English in the Junior Cycle aims to expand a students’ knowledge of language and literature, deepen their literacy skills and make them more self-aware as learners, creativity and teach them to think critically. Debating, speeches and oral presentations help students to foster ‘control over English using it and responding to it with purpose and effect through the interconnected literacy skills of oral language, reading and writing’.

The six Key Skills of the Junior Cycle are evident in debating, speeches and oral presentations. You must be creative as debating demands you to think on your feet. Debating develops literacy as you are practicing oral presentations and you are using a solid vocabulary. You are being numerate as you are keeping track of time. You are communicating with others and also working with others as you must communicate with your team members to prepare a good argument and then debate against members of the opposition or by delivering a speech/oral presentation in front of your peers. ‘The English classroom is a place of talk and discussion. Students enjoy frequent opportunities to debate, to adopt a point of view and defend it. They learn to communicate by writing in a range of forms and for many purposes.’ [1] You are managing information and thinking as you must structure your argument.  You are staying well as you are communicating with others and by participating in an oral presentation, you are growing in confidence.

There are many activities you can do for these topics!

  1. Walking debate

Students no matter what age love this activity. Write ‘Strongly agree’, ‘Agree’, ‘Strongly disagree’ and ‘Disagree’ on different sheets of paper. Stick the sheets of paper on different sides of the room.  Get all the students to stand up. Now call out statements and tell the students to go and stand beside the poster that portrays their view.  Give the students a minute to decide where they are going. Once the students are in front of their chosen statement. Ask a number of students why they have picked that statement.

  1. Traffic light debate

This works the same as the walking debate above except you must put the colours red, green and orange on different walls in the classroom.  You must explain to the students that green means agree, orange means neutral and red means disagree. Like the walking debate, you call out statements and the students stand beside the colour which matches their opinion.

  1. Statements

You write a statement on the whiteboard and then you ask the students to agree or disagree with this statement and to write down 5 reasons to back up their point. This is a really good exercise as it helps the students to develop opinions and also to develop reasons thus meaning they fully understand why they agree or why they do not agree with a given statement. It is a great starter exercise to prepare the students for debating.

  1. Class debating

 

     

Make two groups of 4 students each. Pick  a chairperson, three adjudicators and one timekeeper.  The rest of the class will be the audience. Rotate this daily so each student gets a turn. Write a statement on the whiteboard such as ‘Should all schools be single sex?’. Tell each group to decide who in their group is going to go:

1st– Introduction

2nd- Middle

3rd. Middle

4th-Conclusion

Each speaker in the group will speak for 2 minutes each which means that each group will speak for 8 minutes.

The adjudicator will control the meeting. The timekeeper will time the students. They must make the students aware of the first 30 minutes and the last 30 seconds.

 

 

  1. School debating competition

You can either invite other schools to come into your school and thus have a debating competition with one school or many schools. Get the students to help you organise it, this will improve their communication and organisational skills.

6. Speeches

 

Tell the students that each of them must write a speech and present it in front of the class. Topics can be

  • ‘Imagine you are the new principal of your school, write your first speech welcoming everyone and outlining what your leadership will be like.
  • ‘Imagine you are the running for class president, write a speech outlining what you will implement if you win.
  • ‘Imagine you are a second year student who has been chosen to give advice to 1styear pupils about how to survive 1st Write the speech you would give the first years.
  • ‘Imagine you are setting up a new extracurricular activity in school. Write the speech you would give to the students in your school to encourage them to join’.
  • ‘You want a half day on Wednesdays at school, write the speech you would give to encourage your principal to implement this change’.
  • ‘We should be allowed wear whatever we want.’ (Caityn Jenner and the transgender community are topical news stories).

  • ‘The importance of school uniforms for equality’.

 

 

WHAT NOT TO DO- INTERRUPT SOMEONE DURING THEIR SPEECH

  1. Grammar 

 

 

Split the students into groups and give each group an envelope of statements. In each envelope there will be 15 statements.  I will give each group 2 boxes. The 1stbox will say ‘Debating statements’ and the second box will say ‘Grammar errors’.

The students must work together in their group and decide what box each statement goes in. This is a really good activity to test the students’ grammar. Some of the statements will feature slang as I want the students to learn that they must not use slang. The Junior Cycle aims ‘to gain an understanding of the grammar and conventions of English and how they might be used to promote clear and effective communication’.

 

     

  

 

8. Oral presentations

Do this one day a week so the students will have a routine. For example every Friday. Each week give the students a topic to research, write about and then present in front of their class. Sample topics are my favourite animal, my favourite hobby, an inspirational person, a book review, a film review, a music album review, my favourite singer, my favourite band, my favourite sports team, my favourite celebrity, a great charity, a news story from a newspaper, why it is good to live in Ireland, what it means to be Irish, a student presents on country of their choice, its culture and literature and the stereotypes we need to cast off to truly understand the country, the students conduct interviews on others, the benefits of using technology in education and the student writes their own poem and presents it to the class.

 

9. Unseen pictures

Split the students into groups. Using unseen pictures, each group will argue a point. Each group must use each picture, thinking of a way it can support their argument.

[1] file:///C:/Users/lisa-_000/Downloads/JCEnglish-Spec_Oct-4_2015-(1)_2.pdf

RESOURCES

    

 

 

Debating power point Introduction- Debating power point 1

Debating power point 2–Debating power point two

Agree/Disagree/Strongly Agree/Strongly Disagree statements for walking debate–Agree disagree strongly agree strongly disagree statements for walls

Debating worksheet– Debating for or against template

Debating topics handout–Debating topics

Debating motions handout- Motions

Ship debate handout– Ship Debate

Speech tips handouts–SPEECHES tips

Scoring sheet for a debate–Debate scoring sheet

Speech planning sheet-Planning Sheet for speeches

Persuasive speech worksheet–Planning Speech Persuasive Speeches

Biography power point–Writing a Biography power point.

Glossary handout for inspirational person oral presentation- Glossary for inspirational person oral presentation.

Differences between a autobiography and biography handout- Differences between a biography and an autobiography.

Biography sheet for inspirational person oral presentation–Inspirational person handout

Biography features handout for oral presentation- Features of biography.

Biography template for oral presentation- Biography template

Roald Dahl oral presentation example– A Biography of Roald Dahl

Book review oral presentation–Book review

Film review for oral presentation–Writing_a_Film_Review

I HOPE THIS BLOG WILL HELP YOU.  IT WILL DEVELOP ORAL LITERACY, CONFIDENCE, CLARITY OF THINKING, RESEARCH SKILLS AND PERFORMANCE. 

The Search for Meaning and Values

     

  

The Search for Meaning and Values is a really important topic that features on both the Junior (Section D: The Question of Faith) and also Senior Religious Education syllabus.(Section A: The Search for Meaning and Values) It can also be used in non- exam religion.

   

Before you start off this question, you must make the students think does everything question? What does questioning mean? Why do we question?

Here is a questioner handout to start off this discussion– Introduction to the questioner worksheet.

This little nine year boy sums up life. Many of us qustion ‘What is life?’. He sums it up perfectly when he states that it is a ‘endless quest without knowing what the quest is’. Sometimes children teach us more than we teach them! 

This video clip illustrates 3rd graders teaching us about the meaning of life and resilience. 

In this thought-provoking and eye opening video,  a variety of speakers, hailing from a diverse range of racial and cultural backgrounds, perform a spoken word piece.

‘They make an important point: WE ARE NOT WHAT WE LOOK LIKE.’

There is more to us as individuals than what we look like, where we were born, what religion we practice, underneath all these layers we are the same. We are human.

‘Who would you be if the world never gave you a label? No, we would be one!! Together!  These labels blind us from seeing someone as who they really are.’

Another great video clip by Prince Ea questions why we are not doing more about climate change. The power is in our hands.   

This video clip will make the pupils think ‘Who really matters in my life’, Who gives my life meaning?’, ‘Who would I be lost without?’. 

Number the biggest influences in our life 1 to 5-Number your influences number 1 to 5

Influences- Religious retreat worksheet–influences religious retreat worksheet

Has technology taken over our lives? This is a great image to show your pupils which shows how the different generations experience life. Which is better?

She is a wonderful example of how to fully live in the moment! She shows us how to be mindful and how to be present!

old woman in a crowd

Music

From time to time we stop and think about our lives and wonder why things are as they are. Human Beings have a need to understand what our life, and life in general, is all about. At such times, we might listen to our favourite music, finding inspiration in the words of a song. People don’t always read between the lines with lyrics when they should because they teach really great life lessons. You may think that some of these songs are not exactly for you but maybe take a chance and listen with your heart instead of just your head, it may make a difference to you.

Write these questions on the whiteboard.

  1. What is the song called?
  2. What is the song about?
  3. What questions of meaning are raised in the song?
  4. What answers does the song give to these fundamental questions? 

Adele- Hello

In Adele’s ‘Hello’, her first single in three years, the British songstress is greeting someone for the first time in years. Who exactly is on the other side of that “hello”? Judging from Adele’s other work, the obvious answer would seem to be an ex-boyfriend. It’s theoretically in the same vein as songs like “Someone Like You” and “Rolling in the Deep” from 21, her second album. The video depicts her calling an old lover. However, the song is far less literal than that. The meaning of ‘Hello’ isn’t about reconnecting with an ex-boyfriend. “Hello” is about Adele reconnecting with herself. Everyone goes through times in their lives when they lose themselves. In her Twitter announcement of 25, her third studio album and first in four years, Adele talked about growing up and finding herself again. She called25 a “make-up record” because, as she put it, “I’m making up with myself. 25 is about getting to know who I’ve become without realizing,” she wrote. So in the opening lines of “Hello,” Adele greets someone. “Hello, it’s me/ I was wondering/ If after all these years/ You’d like to meet/ To go over everything,” she sings. Taking “Hello” as a song addressed to herself, these lines become about a woman looking to rediscover who she is after years of not knowing. That jibes beautifully with 25‘s stated mission. In the chorus, Adele says hello from two different places: “the outside” and “the other side.” The former would seem to refer not to location, but to thinking a bit beyond herself to better understand who she is now. The latter is similar — it’s about a woman who lived through a very difficult relationship, as detailed in21, and the influx of fame and came out on “the other side” of it. Much has been made of the use of a phone in both song and video form of “Hello.” In the song, Adele sings about calling someone at home “a thousand times.” On its surface, that seems odd. Why in 2015 is she calling someone on their land line? Taken as Adele trying to connect to herself, however, it makes sense. “Hello” is not a literal song. The “million miles” she says separates her from the person she’s addressing aren’t physical — they’re emotional. No one who’s been through what Adele has could possibly be in the same place psychologically. In four years, she’s grown leaps and bounds. “Hello,” and by extension 25, are an exploration of what it’s like to come together with yourself after such growth.  With the release of this song, Adele seems to be saying she has met herself. Now, she’s ready to introduce this new Adele to us.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis- ‘Same Love’.

‘Same Love’ is a great song for using for the search for meaning. “Same Love was a song that I wanted to write for a long time but I didn’t know exactly how to address the issue,” he explains. “I knew I wanted to write a song about gay rights and homophobia within the hip-hop community and the world.” Macklemore, whose uncle is gay, said it wasn’t just the issue of marriage equality that fuelled the song, but also the flagrant use of ‘gay’ as a derogative term in the hip-hop industry, and the world.  A couple of years ago, Ryan and I would say ‘that’s gay’ because it’s so embedded in our culture,” he admits. “You have a conversation with a couple of people and they kinda call you out about it and all of a sudden you stop saying it.” The musician believes it’s only a matter of time before rappers and hip-hop artists stop using words like ‘faggot’ and ‘that’s gay’ as just another lyric. I think it’s happening right now… It takes a little while, but eventually you eliminate that type of vocabulary from your everyday life and I think that hopefully that is what a song like Same Love does, that it makes people second guess their language.

“From the people that come to our shows, a lot of feedback from them is, ‘I used to say those words, not I think twice, now I don’t say them any more.’ It’s really about awareness.”  While more and more pro-gay music artists are coming out, Same Love marks the first time a male mainstream hip-hop artist has rapped positively about homosexuality.

Ellen DeGeneres is a fan, saying “no other artists in hip-hop history have ever taken a stand defending marriage equality the way they have.” 

Beyonce- ‘I was here’.

Life is about being remembered for the positive impacts that you have had on others in the world and the things you have done to make it a better place rather than how rich, famous or successful you were. We should live life to the fullest so we do not have any regrets and that means that when we have the chance to do good and choose not to because of its “inconvenience” in our lives, that will remain with us and is not the piece of ourselves that we wish to leave behind on this earth. This song emphasises that Beyonce wants to do positive things in peoples lives.  She has achieved to point of more than what she thought, but she still wants 2 do more. The 2nd verse reminds us that she wants to be remembered for her good deeds. She wants to make a difference and make her mark on the world. It reminds me think of how valuable life is and how we all impact the world somehow. She wants to leave her footprints in the sands of time.

Justin Bieber- ‘Purpose’

“Feeling like I’m breathing my last breath/ Feeling like I’m walking my last steps/ Look at all of these tears I’ve wept/ Look at all the promises that I’ve kept.”

This is probably the deepiest song on his new album as Justin pretty much questions his entire existence. Once Justin confronts his demons and embraces his faith, he realises he’s been given the greatest gift: purpose. Justin ends the song with a spoken word outro where he says that he’s only human and trying the best that he can, but it isn’t always easy to make the right decisions.

All the songs on his new album ‘Purpose’ search for the meaning of life. This is not a suprise as he was giving through a hard time and a time of growth when he was writing the album.

Taylor Swift- ‘Shake it off’.

In this song, Taylor teaches us that people will always critique us in life. However, we must not let it get to us. We must shake it off the past, the hurt and the judgement. No matter what anyone says about you, keep ‘cruising and moving’ through life because ‘it is going to be alright’. In life, there will be haters who bring people down. That is not the purpose of life so ignore them and ‘shake, shake it off’. Like Taylor, if you like dancing then dance. Who cares if everyone is watching? Who cares if you are the only one dancing. Enjoy life and do whatever makes you happy so keep ‘grooving’. Just be yourself and love yourself! Taylor tells us not to let anyone affect us. It will just ruin your life. Ignore them and love life and do not forget to ‘shake it off’.

Selena Gomez- Revival 

The song starts off with “I dive into the future, but I’m blinded by the sun. I’m reborn in every moment, so who knows what I’ll become,” the song begins with a monologue that seems to not have been taken from any pre-existing poem or quote but to be uniquely written for the song. In this song, she is declaring to the world that she dragged herself out of her dark places and came out stronger for it.

“This is my revival, this is a revival,” has so many different meanings to it, and it’s also so true. Not only is this a revival Gomez is back on the musical scene, she’s taking control of her career but it’s also a personal revival — she’s taking control of her life. Gomez is back in control, and it feels good, and it looks good on her as well. She’s happy. She’s better and stronger than ever before. And every person, fan or anti-fan, can learn a lesson from her journey and use this song as their empowering inspiration.

Selena describes this song as ‘everything in one song. Everything that I’ve been feeling the past year or two years. And ultimately, what struck me the most is just wanting to be heard. I’ve grown up in front of people. I’ve grown up in front of the world. One of my favorite lines is, I’ll admit it’s been painful, but I’ll be honest and grateful, because ultimately, it’s led me and pushed me to be where I am today. Nothing has been handed to me. I’ve had to strive for it, and really put my all in it.”

Like Bieber, Selena was going through a period of growth and transition recording this album, she also has many songs on her new album which reflect the search for meaning such as ‘Rise’, ‘Kill Em Wit Kindness’, ‘Nobody’.

‘Nobody’ is about Selena’s relationship with God.

You could also use Selena’s song ‘Who Say’s’. 

Film

The Search for Meaning and Values is clear to see in many films. Such as:

‘Tuesdays wit Morrie’.

Based on a true story. The trailer sums up this move perfectly. It is a beautiful film that everyone needs to watch.

 ‘Wild’

Based on a true story. Reese Witherspoon’s stars Cheryl as who has had a tough life so she goes on a path of destruction until finally she decides to walk 1000 miles to find herself. ‘What if I could forgive myself, what if I was sorry, what if I could go back in time, I would not do a single thing differently, all those things I did were the things that got me here’.

‘Life of Pi’

A young boy searces for the meaning of life and faith.

  

   

‘Silver Linings Playbook’

  

After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own. Together they try to find out the purpose of life.

‘Fight Club’

   

While brutal, this movie touches on interesting themes. Are the narrator and Tyler trying to find meaning through anarchism and violence? Is Fight Club a scathing critique of our consumer-driven culture? How does this film explore the themes of masculinity and/or emasculation?

Disney’s ‘Mulan’

 

A film which illustrates the search for meaning is the popular Disney film “Mulan”. It poses the question “what is justice?” Thrasymachus, a well-known Sophist from the senior Religious Education syllabus course, said “Justice is simply the interest of the stronger.”. Unfortunately this is often true and it is obvious that this is one of the points the movie is trying to make. In our search for meaning we should strive for real justice not just power.

From this action we learn that family has a very important meaning in life. Mulan’s action is not only one of defiance, but also one of love and compassion. In searching for meaning one can’t do it alone and family should be there to help you along the way. I know from personal experience that I would not be where I am today, without the help of my parents and siblings.

In the film, Mulan runs away to make her parents proud because she feels inadequate. Her feelings of inadequacy are expressed in the lines “Look at me, I will never pass for a perfect bride-or a perfect daughter”. We all go through phases of self-doubt in our search for meaning, but I feel it is important to remember that our search is for us, and although other people are important, we should never put anyone before ourselves.

Once we have found our place in the world, we have found meaning. When we are searching for meaning, we must search deep within ourselves. Our ability to conquer obstacles, to come out the other side of suffering stronger and to love even in the hardest of times are all things which I would consider important in the search for meaning

‘I Heart Huckabees’

 

In this comedy, Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin play existential detectives you can hire to investigate the meaning of your life.

The Search for Meaning in film introduction power point– Search-for-Meaning—Film

Donal Walsh

  

Donal’s story is truly inspiring. I have read ‘Donal’sMMountain’. It is a fantasic book that gripped me from the onset and throughout.I love teaching about Donal as I fee he has a lot to offer the students. The studnets love learning about him too!  It really makes you think about life. #livelife

Here is a worksheet for the above video clip about Donal-Donal Walsh video clip worksheet

    

 

How to implement the Key skills in the Junior Cycle whilst using digital technology. 

There are 6 key skills. In this blog post, I will discuss  how to utilise the key skills of the Junior  Cycle and use technology in the classroom.

Key skill 1. Communication.

COMMUNICATING is a skill that helps learners develop good communication skills in all aspects of life, using a variety of media. As well as developing literacy skills it also develops a student’s confidence in:

Communicating

Expressing opinions

Writing

Making oral presentations

Performing

The NCCA describes Communication as:

Listening and expressing myself • Using language • Using numbers and data • Performing and presenting • Discussing and debating • Using digital technology to communicate.

Some people are natural good communicators and some people find communication very difficult. You must help all your students to improve their communication skills regardless of whether the are good communicators or not.

Students need to know how to communicate in school and in life. It is a vital key skill. With an oral presentation becoming a part of the new English Junior Cycle course, communication is of the utmost importantance. 

Last semester for my masters, I studied a module on Mentoring and Leadership. One of the main things I learnt from this module is the importance of being a good communicator and listening emphatically to others.

Students must be encouraged to listen to their teacher and also their peers.There must be a mutual feeling of respect throughout the classroom. The teacher must embody these traits in order for the pupils to follow.

Signposts is a great resource that really helps a teacher to create a ‘safe place’. As schools are now more diverse than ever, this is of the utmost importance. Students must respect each other’s diversity. The teacher should have their opinions and beliefs but they should be impartial.

It is really important to have set rules in your classroom while using web 2.0 tools in order to prevent bullying.

Web 2.0 is also known as the New Web. These tools ‘can provide new methods for teaching and address a variety of learning styles’.[1] Our students today are a different breed as they are ‘digital natives’.[2]  Web 2.0 tools encourage students to think critically and to not simply rote learn. ‘Web 2.0 tools provide instructors with technologies that facilitate learning in the ways that work best for students’. [3] Web 2.0 tools offer great substance as they work for all types of learners. Web 2.0 is using wikis, blogs, social networking and photo and video sharing tools.  However, what does web 2.0 mean for education? Web 2.0 is bringing education into the twenty first century. Web 2.0 tools offer real change as they make collaboration faster and easier as there are no downloads needed. The internet was created to foster communication therefore increasing student engagement.

As our students these days are ‘digital natives’. Web 2.0 should be utilised while we are teaching them. Web 2.0  tools offer exciting opportunities for communication in the classroom.

The web 2.0 tool that I have chosen for communication is Edmodo. Edmodo is an amazing tool which teaches the students the importance of collaboration as the students must communicate with each other while using Edmodo.

 

Edmodo  is a free social learning network for  students and teachers.

It connects more than twelve million teachers and students globally. Edmodo provides a secure network for teachers and students to interact and collaborate online. It combines the elements of a blog, Twitter and Facebook into one platform for learning. Edmodo is available for free on the web and the app is also available for free in the app store.

Edmodo allows teachers to differentiate learning, create a learning environment that cultivates modern learning, receive student performance data and see pupils work and what pupils are not working. Edmodo promotes collaboration, communication, creativity and autonomy as the student is given control of their own learning.  Teachers can give instructions, post pictures, videos, assignments, links and create polls and quizzes through their Edmodo class network.

Teachers can create as many groups as they like. Each group requires a different code. If student shares their class code with others then the teacher can simply just change the code.

My class groups

 

Students can share digital media such as blogs, pictures, videos, notes, documents, presentations and links. Students can also participate in online discussions. Teachers can connect with other teachers around the world who share their passion and interest. Edmodo provides a professional library. If another teacher adds a great resource, you can click ‘library’ and add it to your own library.

Students are able to log on and collaborate with each other. They do not just collaborate on assignments. The students can also share resources and opinions about topics. They can also offer homework advice if one of their peers is confused.

Edmodo has high educational value as it makes the student an active learner thus increasing student engagement.

Edmodo increases a student’s critical thinking skills as the students write comments to each other. Edmodo allows all students involved to contribute. It is of the utmost importance that the students write more to each other than ‘Great job’. Edmodo is not a chat room through posts.  Students need to be taught the difference between a chat room and a social learning tool.

 

2. Managing myself

This key skill requires the students to know themselves, making considered decisions, setting and achieving personal goals, being able to reflect on their learning and using digital technology to manage themselves.

Penzu

Penzu is an online diary and a personal journal that is focused on privacy. With a unique and compelling user experience, it makes writing online as easy and intuitive as writing on a pad of paper. By managing a diary and a personal journal the student is managing their thoughts and feelings thus managing themselves.

Why isn’t there an easy and secure way to record your thoughts online? Well now there is. Penzu makes this possible.  All of the current online solutions are not not suitable for private writing. Some young people are writing their personal feeling son Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook. This is not safe! The alternatives to keeping private information on a desktop computer in a Word Document or in a notepad while effective, aren’t entirely safe either. Anyone could access it!

Penzu offers a safe and secure place to store your thoughts and ideas in the cloud.

Not only are entries password protected in an online account, but individual entries can be locked with military-grade encryption.

With our powerful security also comes extreme ease of use. The core component of the interface is the Pad which is a metaphor for a pad of paper. This universal design element has allowed Penzu to transcend language and cultural barriers as people from 170 countries continue to use the service. We have always made the user experience a top priority and it is one of our main differentiation’s from complicated and confusing competitors.

The name, Penzu, comes from many influences, but mainly it is a derivative of the Latin “pensare” which means to think or be full of thought.

Benefits of Penzu:

Privacy– Designed to focus on privacy, your entries are totally private by default!

Availability- Enjoy Penzu on the move. Available for iOS and Android and totally free! Young people love apps!

Reminders-Custom email reminders help you make sure you never forget to write. This is genius!

Background– Make each journal your own with custom covers, backgrounds, and fonts. How cute! Why would anyone want a paper diary after this? How boring!

Search-Quickly and easily search through your journals, entries, and tags.

Password protected– Also you can further protect your diary with military-grade 256-bit AES encryption.

Penzu also have a range of different journals and diaries! They also have school diaries! They are all completely free!!

It is so easy to sign up. All you need is your name, your email address and a password. It takes one minute!The you click the colour of your diary. Then you get to choose the font. You can then give your mobile number so they can send you a mobile pin code to protect your diary. (You can skip this part). You are now ready to write your first entry!

 

School Diary Template

If you’re new to the school diary world, you may want to know how they look or what you can put in them. A standard template for a school diary post will usually include:

  • Date of entry
  • Term or semester number
  • A place for your school name and your name
  • Post title or topic
  • Plenty of writing space
  • Tasks to take care of in the future

Unlike printed diaries, electronic school diaries are much more customizable and some have multiple categories pre-set for you. You can also upload photographs from your computer, smartphone or tablet directly to your entries. You can choose your own colours and font.

School Diary Samples

A few examples for school diary posts are:

  • Today Ms. O Reilly is totally springing that quiz on us!  I guess I better study tonight. Note to self: Study poetry techniques tonight. Ace the test tomorrow!
  • I was sitting beside John today and Ellen cracked the dumbest joke at lunch.  Before I could start laughing, John split his food all over the table. Note: Never tell John a joke when he is eating (Insert picture food). It was funnier than the joke!

With Penzu, you can type out your daily thoughts and journal your most unforgettable moments at school.

Remember when your friend said that really funny thing and you just couldn’t wait to get home to Facebook it, but then by the time you got home you forgot how it was said? Well, no more of those wasted jokes or secret thoughts. Penzu lets you log in with your password and start typing away whenever you want!

The best part about Penzu is that you can keep track of your homework, essays, projects, exam dates and ideas, so no more forgetful moments.

If you like to keep things in more than one place, you can sync your entries from your app to the web as well! You’ll have privacy, room to express your thoughts and lots of funny things to read back over when you’re bored.

 

Here is a great video clip about how to use Penzu.

 

3. A web 2.0 tool that you can use for managing information and thinking is Livebinders.

This key skill requires the student to be curious ( They can do this by looking up information to put into their tabs), gathering, recording, organising and evaluating information. (They can do this by deciding what putting information into their tabs and organising the content into sub tabs and then evaluating the content then). The students must think critically and creatively. (What fun things can I add to my tabs? Os this suitable for my tab?). Using digital technology to manage information and thinking. Livebinders ticks them all!

Livebinders is a digital 3 ring binder that you can put virtually anything into; webpage, PDF, document, image, or video. Everything is organized by tab and you can even have subtabs within those tabs. It is free and it is really easy to set up.

Students and teachers can use Livebinders! It is a simply way to share knowledge.

 

 

Once in, you set up a binder. You name it and you can use tags, categories and you can make it public or private. You do not have to use tags and if you choose private then you simply just use a password to protect it. In your Livebinder, there will be different tabs for your different subjects. For example, English, Irish, Maths. Click on the tabs to name them. You can put any website address into your binder by adding in the URL address into the tab bar and it will allow you to access that site. Pretty cool huh! In each of your tabs, you can add subtabs. This allows you to become even more organised! Genius! Click on add content to add images and documents. You can add files form your computer and you can even add files from Dropbox. Lifesaver! Unfortunately unless it is PDF format, you will have to download the file to view it. If it is in PDF format, you can just scroll through it! You can customize the layout of your Livebinder. It is really simply yo use!

4. Being creative

For this key skill, students must use their imagination, implement ideas and take action, learn creatively whilst using digital technology. 

The web 2.0 tool I have chosen is Zimmer Twins. It is a creative storytelling site that I love to use in my English lessons. I have used this tool with my first years, 2nd years and 4th years to write stories. Instead of sitting in the classroom and getting the students to write a story, I brought them to the computer room and each student made their own story. It was a great success! The students absolutely love making their own stories. They were happy, hard working and full of creativity! That is what every English classroom should be like!

Students create and share their own animated stories. Pretty cool! I clicked on the educators and school tab. There is also a family version available. Both the teacher and the students have their own profiles. You can edit your account and the students will see this information. Your students can not edit their accounts, only their online profiles. The teacher can subscribe to the regular newsletter with information about Zimmer Twins. Using the my class tab, you can manage and delete your students passwords and information. If you delete a student then you delete all of their class work. To add a student, just click on add student. You can add up to 3 students at a time. You can see when and how many times your students have logged in. You can see all of your students passwords.

The students can write comments to each other under their movies.You manage their comments and you can delete any comment about a movie whenever you wish. You can make a movie for all of your class to view or they can make their own movies. You can either finish a story already made or you can start from scratch and make your own story.

 

By clicking on gallery, you can view videos made by other schools. The site explains really well how to make video clips.  First you choose an animation clip, you can make their characters act a feeling such as anger and you can control the characters movements such as to walk/sing/dance.

You can then add in fun bits such as newspaper headlines, maps, fortune cookies or tickets.The timeline is the ruler at the bottom of the screen which shows the different sections of your movie. By clicking on the sentence, you can change the background, the characters or even the things that they are holding. To lengthen your move, keep adding on clips. Add in talk bubbles and click on the bubbles to add in speech. 

5. Staying Well

This skill requires students to be healthy, social, safe, confident and positive about learning. The students must be responsible and safe when using digital technology.

Scribblar is an online meeting room / white board.

Students can use it to collaborate on projects, teachers can tutor via the computer, and teachers can use it for collaborative meetings and projects. It is really easy to set up! The teacher is can monitor progress which makes it safe. 

Scribblar gives the users a virtual white board on the screen and writing tools to create text, lines and shapes. They can even add images.

There is also a chat window on the side bar so that users can talk to each other while working. There is even a live chat system if you have a microphone and speakers. This allows the student to be social.  

I see students using this to work on homework problems together. This makes the students feel positive about learning. Teachers could use this to help students with homework after school or on the weekends. The great thing about Scibblar is that more than one person can be working/drawing at the same time. You can change the font and colour and you can save the chat transcript. You can also add different pages. You can email it to people or paste the link to a website and someone can enter and edit your page. 

Scribblar can now support PDF files. Free users can upload PDFs with up to 5 pages. Your uploaded PDF will be turned into an editable image in Scribblar. 

 

6. Working with Others

This key skill requires the students to develop good relationships, respect difference co-operate, learn with others and work with others using digital technology.

For this key skill, I choose Collarborize Classroom.

This allows learning to continue beyond the classroom. Teachers can create their own groups. It is protected and private so it is safe. I love this web 2.0 tool.It is free and really easy to use. It takes 2 minutes to set up! It reminded me of Edmodo. It is also like social media especially Facebook thus meaning the students find it easy to use. It is a private and secure site complements classroom instruction and gives all students a voice in classroom discussions. Teachers can make polls/yes or no/multiple choice or just questions and the students answer. The site’s allows teachers to to embed videos, attach PDFs, MS Word documents, and images .

The teacher can also create a discussion between the pupils. This ensures the students are working with each other. At the conclusion of a discussion, teachers and students can access the results for review, reflection, and extension.  Collaborize Classroom also boasts many support features for teachers including a Topic Library, and links for an FAQ section, email contact, as well as webinars. You can see the numbers of comments and activities each student has participated in. It is excellent for keeping track of each student!

 

Sources used: 

[1] Terry T. Kidd, Irene Chan, Wired for Learning: An Educator’s Guide to Web 2.0 (Charlotte: Information Age Publishing, Inc, 2009), p. 298.

[2] Marc Prensky, Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning (California: A Sage Company, 2010), p. Ii.

[3] Kidd, Chan, Wired for Learning: An Educator’s Guide to Web 2.0, p. 295.7

4. NCCA, Key Skills of Junior Cycle: Communicating  (accessed 18-11-15)< http://www.juniorcycle.ie/ncca_juniorcycle/media/ncca/documents/key/communicatingtoolkit_sept2013.pdf>

5. Department of Education and Skills, A Framework for Junior Cycle 2015 (accessed 18-11-15) <http://www.jct.ie/perch/resources/english_pdf/framework-for-junior-cycle-2015.pdf&gt;

6. NCCA, Key Skills of Junior Cycle: Being Creative (accessed 20-11-15) <http://www.juniorcycle.ie/NCCA_JuniorCycle/media/NCCA/Documents/Key/BeingCreativetoolkit_Sept2013.pdf&gt;

7. NCCA, Key Skills of Junior Cycle: Managing Information and Thinking (accessed 26-11-15) <http://www.juniorcycle.ie/ncca_juniorcycle/media/ncca/documents/test/managing-information-and-thinking-toolkit_feb-2013.pdf&gt;

8. NCCA, Key Skills of Junior Cycle: Managing Myself (accessed 1-12-15) <http://www.juniorcycle.ie/NCCA_JuniorCycle/media/NCCA/Documents/test/Managing-Myself-Toolkit_Feb2013.pdf&gt;

9. NCCA, Key Skills of Junior Cycle:Working with Others  (accessed 2-12-15) < http://www.juniorcycle.ie/NCCA_JuniorCycle/media/NCCA/Documents/test/Working-with-others_Toolkit_Feb2013.pdf>

10. NCCA, Key Skills of Junior Cycle: Staying Well (accessed 29-11-15) <http://www.juniorcycle.ie/NCCA_JuniorCycle/media/NCCA/Documents/Key/StayingWelltoolkit_Sept2013.pdf&gt;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thought-provoking video about who are we.

In this thought-provoking and eye opening video,  a variety of speakers, hailing from a diverse range of racial and cultural backgrounds, perform a spoken word piece.

‘They make an important point: WE ARE NOT WHAT WE LOOK LIKE.’

There is more to us as individuals than what we look like, where we were born, what religion we practice, underneath all these layers we are the same. We are human. 

‘Who would you be if the world never gave you a label? No, we would be one!! Together!  These labels blind us from seeing someone as who they really are.’

So when we judge someone based on their appearance, we are missing out on discovering the incredible being who exists under the surface. It is both a lost opportunity on our part and an injustice against the other’s right to be recognized as a whole and complete person.

‘No baby is born racist!’

As the video makes clear, when we judge someone based on his or her race we are subconsciously separating ourselves from them, because they are “different.” It seems quite ridiculous when it’s put that way, doesn’t it? Because of this separation, based solely on labels, we wage war against one another. It’s ignorant, and conveys how the media’s influence in keeping us separated and placing blame and hate on many other races and religions.

When you realize that these are just labels, which society has given to each and every one of us, a profound understanding occurs within you. You begin to question the lines that divide us both psychologically and even physically, on our maps. Maybe there are alternate reasons for the crises that we are facing in the world today and the labels are just a cover because we have been convinced for so long that we are all separate from one another.

‘We were meant to be free and only until we remove them all, and stop living and thinking so small will we be free to see ourselves and each other for who we truly are.’