Best teacher : Richard Feynman

  

In this video clip, I love the way Feynman explains how fire works. He takes such obvious delight in teaching others. You can see how happy he is as his face lights up. And he makes it so clear that anyone can understand it. Students know when you like your subject or not.

If you are passionate about your subject, you encourage the students to love it too. If you hate your subject, why should your students like it?

Feynman has a lot in common with all the amazing teachers out there. You walk into their classroom and immediately feel their positive atmosphere in their classroom, the way they interact with and engage their students and their passion for whatever subject they are teaching. These teachers are not famous, but they deserve just as much awe and respect as someone like Feynman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Junior Certificate: Section D: Religion in a changing world

 

Learning outcomes:

1. The students will be able to recognise Pope John XXIII.
2. The students will be able to discuss Pope John’s XXIII aim for the church.
3. The pupils will be able to recognise the Second Vatican Council.
4. The pupils will be able to identify some of the changes that occurred because of Vatican II.
5. The students will be able to identify some areas in our world today that need to be changed by a third Vatican Council.

Assessment of Learning outcomes:

1. The students will recognise Pope John XXIII, discuss Pope John’s XXIII aim for the church and recognise the Second Vatican Council by participating in a class discussion.
2. The pupils will identify some of the changes that occurred because of Vatican II by working in groups and drawing a window and writing down some of the changes that occurred.
3. The students will identify some areas in our world today that need to be changed a third Vatican Council by writing a letter to Pope Francis.

Homework task

I will give students the homework task of imagining you have attended the first mass since the Vatican II changes came in. The students must imagine how they would feel watching the new changes in mass? Do they think the changes improved the experience of mass? The students will then write a diary entry about how they felt. The diary entry must be one copy page long.

Phase 1: Introduction

Click here for the handouts for this lesson – Religion in a changing world handouts.

Phase 2: Handout- Changes from Vatican II.

I will give each student a handout which will discuss many of the changes that occurred because of Vatican II.

I will ask a number of pupils to read out the changes on the handout.

I will discuss the changes with the class.

Phase 3: Pair work- Poster of the changes 

I will explain to the students that Pope John XXIII said that Vatican II was like opening a window as winds of change blew through the Catholic Church.

I will put the students into pairs.

I will give each pair a card of coloured paper.

I ask each group to design a poster by drawing window and writing down some of the ideas that blew into the Catholic Church as a result of Vatican II.

I will give the students’ five minutes for this task and I will ask the students to make sure their names are on their poster.

I will ask the pairs to display their work to the class.

The students really enjoyed this task and they made fantastic posters!

Phase 4:Group work: Write a letter to Pope Francis explaining why there should be a third Vatican Council 

I will put the students into groups.

I will give each group a worksheet.

I will tell the groups to imagine a third Vatican Council is going to be held.

Each group must imagine that their group is contacted and asked for their ideas about the church in the modern world.

The students must think about:

What is life like in the world today?

What is it like for young people in the church today?

What works well in the church?

What could be improved?

 

Using the worksheet, each group must write a letter to Rome.

The groups will get five minutes for this task.

After the time is up, I will ask each group  for their answers.

I will discuss each groups answer with the class.

 

Another task

I will tell speak to the students about how the amount of people becoming nuns and priests has dropped drastically.  I will tell the students that in August 2013, Saint Patrick’s College Maynooth welcomed twenty new seminarians, who will commence their formation for the priesthood at the National Seminary. 

I will explain to the students the term seminary: A seminary is a training college for priests or rabbis.

I will tell the students that when welcoming the new candidates, their families and friends to Maynooth, the President of the College, Monsignor Hugh Connolly, recalled the recent words of Pope Francis in Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in July:  “Dear seminarians who are preparing for ministry: have the courage to go against the tide of the culture of pragmatism and efficiency. Be courageous! Be servants of communion and of the culture of encounter.”Monsignor Connolly continued: “As the Church continues to celebrate this Year of Faith may the year ahead be an opportunity for all of us to appreciate the gift of our faith, deepen our relationship with God and strengthen our commitment to sharing our faith with others.”

Task: Group work: Design a Facebook page to encourage young people to join the vocations.

You can use Fakebook on Class Tools or I made my own Facebook template for use in the classroom. 

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Essential ICT resources for teachers

Wordle

Using Wordle, you can generate word clouds that show prominent words in any body of text. It is really simple to use.It is free too! Just enter any text that you have gathered from a website, textbook or from your students work. It basically summarises what the text is about! Wordle also allows you to change the appearance of your word cloud by the font, shape, colour and organisation.

This is a great video clip which conveys an introduction to Wordle. 

 

Wordle can be used as an introduction to a topic or to as a final conclusion of a topic. You can use Wordle in ANY subject!

For example for Poetry in English you can give the students a Wordle and ask them to guess what the poem is about from looking at the words on the Wordle.

Wordle can also be used as a homework task the students must put each word into a sentence.

This video clip portrays different ways to use Wordle in the classroom. 

 

Armoured Penguin

I love this website. It is free to use. It allows you to make your own crosswords, word searches, word scrambles, secret codes and word matches. It allows you to print your tasks straight from the website and also you can save your puzzles for future use. Armoured Penguin has a list of puzzles made by other users that you can use yourself. It is very fast and easy to use.

tes

I never used TES while I was on teaching practice as I always made my own resources. However, now that I am working and doing a Masters I have started to use resources from TES to save time. TES is a fanastic website which allows you to share your resources with other teachers and you can use resources made by others. This website basically has resources on nearly EVERYTHING! You can use the resources straight off the bait or you can edit them yourself to suit your needs.

Sparknotes

Sparknotes is the Holy Grail for teachers especially English teachers! Sparknotes contains a library of novels. Many which you may be using in your classroom.

For each novel  Sparknotes offers a:

Context

Plot Overview

Character List

Analysis of Major Characters

Themes, Motifs and Symbols

A summary and analysis of each chapter

Important quotations explained

Key Facts

Study Questions and Essay Topics

Quiz

It is a great resource that is free! It also contains video clips!

What would the world do without Google? What would English teachers do without Sparknotes?

Studyclix

You can join this website for free. Studyclix has over 5000 discussion boards which teachers can learn a lot from. You can view exam papers and marking schemes. Or you can download free Junior and Senior Cycle notes/video clips to help to deepen the students understanding of a topic. You can view the 2016 timetable for the Junior and Leaving Cert.

Class tools

This is a great resource which lets you develop fun resources for use in the classroom. You can create your games, activities, quizzes and diagrams! It is a free and you do not have to sign up to use this website. The game generator lets you design an interactive quiz. You can create a Fake Facebook page (Fakebook) for a fictional or historical character. I always use the countdown timer when I am doing group work in a class to motivate the students and to keep them aware of the time restraints. The random name picker or fruit machine is great for  when you need to pick a student or a group for a task or even when you are asking lower and higher order questions.

 

Quizlet 

Quizlet is an American online learning tool created by Andrew Sutherland. You can either use the free version or a paid version. I use the free version and I think it is great!  You can sign up using your Facebook page, Google or your email. I signed up using my email and it took 1 minute! So fast and efficient! The homepage illustrates a world map and portrays a live map ofwhat each person is studying on Quizlet at any given time. The website allows you to make flashcards, tests and study games on any topic! You can organise all of your class groups. You can browse or you can create your own! Quizlet has unlimited classes! There are also discussion boards where you can get an answer to a question right away. And your students can record their own voices to remember what they are learning.

 

Studystack

Studystack is a bit like Quizlet.  Like Quizlet you can create Free flashcards for studying.  You can create your own or use sets shared by other students and teachers. It is really easy to use and it is free to sign up! Like Quizlet, you can sign up using your Facebook page or your email.

Here is a video clip which shows you how to use Studystack.

Bressie speaks out about the ‘epidemic of this generation’.

I am very passionate about mental health. It has been a passion of mine for a number of years now. For my thesis for my Masters I decided to design a Well-being short course for students. I am currently writing it and I will hand it up to my supervisor in August for correction. I really admire Bressie for advocating for mental health. A few months ago I wrote a blog post about him. You can read it by clicking here.

Bressie is right when he says that mental health is the ‘epidemic of this generation’.  Walk into a school and try and find one person who has not been affected by mental health. You cannot!

Everyone in Ireland is affected by mental health either themselves or through a family member or a friend. Last Thursday, Bressie gave a passionate speech about mental heath and well-being at a meeting of the Oireachtas health committee. He said the government needs to act to help young people dealing with mental health issues.The youth of today feel immense pressure from the world they live in today. They are living in the digital age where they face pressure from media and social media. They think they must have perfect lives and they cannot deal with this pressure. Young people in Ireland need more  help. They need more support.

Bressie: ‘The reality is our youth, the future of this country, need help. They are exposed to too much, so much is expected from them, and both the external and internal pressures they are being asked to cope with are simply not sustainable, and the result is the great epidemic of this generation.’

Bressie pointed out the high anxiety, depression and suicide rates among young people in Ireland. He really made the Oireachas and everyone in Ireland think when he ask ‘Truly are doing enough?’.

Bressie: ‘Agonising suicide rates, disturbingly high anxiety and depression rates, self-harm, eating disorders, OCD … We simply cannot ignore this anymore. We have to be honest and ask ourselves, ‘Truly are we doing enough?’

Bressie  was not overly negative. He positively pointed out that Ireland has improved in recent years. He said the country is currently in a period of transition, noting the ‘stigma that has ravaged families throughout Ireland for generations is slowly eroding’. We are slowly beating the stigma against mental health. Change is not easy. It is not something that happens overnight. We are on the right path. He said schools, students and organisations across the country are doing ‘powerful work’ in this area. I ask you now to think and ask yourself what can I do to improve this? Everybody needs to do something in order to make a change. Do not just leave it up to other person. YOU need to do something too!

Bressie proposed a number of measures, including that mental health and well-being are implemented into the education curriculum, and an increase in funding and support to organisations helping people with mental health issues. Well-being is the ‘epidemic of our generation’ and we must do more for young people than we currently are. This issue must be addressed in healthcare and in schools and the government needs to support hospitals and schools and provide them both with resources for this.

‘Bressie speaking about someone close to him committing suicide-‘He was anyone’s brother. We need to ask hard questions. Those stories are too common. So many people wanted to help this young man, but their hands were tied by bureaucracy and lack of resource and they should never be put in that position.’

 Helplines:

Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie – (suicide, self-harm)

Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org

Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18)

Console  1800 247 247 – (suicide prevention, self-harm, bereavement)

Aware 1890 303 302 (depression, anxiety)

Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)

Bressie speaks about his experience of having anxiety in school: ‘Some days I would sit in my classroom on the verge of fainting as I hyperventilated and fought for air while my teachers continued to teach the class, oblivious to the fact that one of their students was in the midst of a living nightmare. I spent so many of my school days praying that some of our teachers may talk about this, or just say something so I didn’t feel so isolated and terrified. They never did.’

Wright’s Law: A Unique Teacher Imparts Real Life Lessons

A case study of a great teacher from The New York Times.

Open Educational Resources

 

 

So what are open education  resources? 

 

 

 

‘Open education is changing lives’.

   ‘Equal access to knowledge means equal opportunities in life’.

 

 

Famous global examples of OER

Using OER (Open Educational Resources) in the classroom:

žOpen educational resources (OER) are growing in breadth and quality, as is the use of these materials in classrooms, networks, and school communities.

žžThe use and adoption of OER materials is increasingly a matter of policy in schools, especially in the many disciplines in which high quality educational content is more abundant than ever.

A big mistake about OER.

žOften mistaken to simply mean “free of charge” .

žAdvocates of OER have worked towards a common vision that defines it more broadly — not just free in economic terms, but also in terms of ownership and usage rights.

 

The goal of OER is:

žThe goal is that OER materials are:

ž 1. Freely copiable

ž2. Freely remixable

ž3. Culturally sensitive – žFree of barriers to access, sharing, and educational use.

 

In 2013

žIn 2013, the EU identified the development of OER as:

žOne of three actions of the “Opening Up Education”.

žIt was an initiative proposed to bring the digital revolution to schools and universities.

žAs part of this initiative, a web portal called “Open Education Europa” was launched.

 

The focus now today is:

žThe focus is increasingly moving to the process of learning than on the body of information conveyed.

What is the appeal?

žPart of the appeal of OER is that they are a response to:

ž1. The rising costs of traditionally published resources.

ž2. The related lack of educational resources in some regions.

Benefits of OER

žA major consideration of OER initiatives lies in resolving intellectual property issues to ensure that the resources:

žShared for free

žAdaptable for anyone

žFor any purpose.

 

How is OER verified?

žThere are three ways in which OER quality is commonly verified:

ž1. The users and/or community.

ž2. By a peer review process.

ž3. By adherence to an established quality assurance criterion.

 

What is available to aid teachers?

žTo aid teachers with integrating OER into their classroom practices, the “OER Commons” is an online hub for:

ž1. Content curation

ž2. Training –that was developed by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education.

žThe “OER Commons” provides teacher education on the use and creation of learning materials with:

ž1. Open Author, a three-step online publisher that licences and shares the content with the “OER Commons” community.

ž2. In addition to offering face-to-face training

ž3. Sessions with the “Teachers as Makers Academy”.

žThe project also provides a year-long mentorship programme and webinar trainings as part of the “OER Fellowship Programme.”

 

An example: Klascement in Germany

žStarted in 1998 as a resource website for primary and secondary teachers in Belgium to share teacher generated content.

žAs of 2014, it is part of the Ministry of Education. The site now includes OER suitable forcrossborder usage and examples of best practices.

To evaluate OER

žOER Commons is a model for teacher education that transcends national boundaries and provides a variety of training options to teachers everywhere.

It is an amazing educational resource that all teachers should utilise!

 

 

 

Junior Certificate RE: Section D: Sundays in the past

Here are some lesson ideas for teaching Sunday’s in the past!

Phase 1: Introduction

I will greet the class. I will take the class roll call.

I will introduce the lesson topic of ‘Religion in the past’ to the students.

I will state my learning objectives for this class.

I will review what I have taught the students in the last two classes.

-Religious belief

-Religious practice

I will give the students the homework task of a questionnaire. The students will ask their parents about their religious experience when they were younger.

Phase 2: Think-Pair-Share-Worksheet-What do you do on Sundays now?

I will ask the students to think about ‘What do you do on Sundays now?’.

I will give the students a worksheet and I ask the students to write down what

they do on Sunday’s now and what they think their parents did on Sunday’s years ago.

I will give the students four minutes for this task.

After the time is up, I will ask a number of students for their answers and I

will discuss the pupils’ answers with the class.

Worksheet-What do you do on Sundays worksheet.

Phase 3: ‘A Question of Faith’ Textbook page 174- Lower and higher order questions

I will ask the students to open their textbooks on page one hundred and

seventy four. I will ask a number of pupils to read.

I will use the technique of popcorn reading where the students do not know

who I will ask to read next. This makes sure that the students are fully

engaged with the text at all times. I will then ask the students higher and lower order

questions about the content of the text.

Lower order questions:

Reena had statues of whom in her house when she was

younger? (Our Lady

and Joseph)

What would the whole family do after dinner? (The whole family would kneel

in the front room while we said the rosary)

What did Reena do every Saturday? (Went to confession)

What does Reena say one of the most important changes for her was? (Return

to scripture)

Higher order questions:

Why do you think Reena thinks the changes that came

because of Vatican II are positive changes?

Why do you think some of these changes were difficult for older people?

What do you think about the changes Vatican II made?

Would you have liked to have grown up in Reena’s time?

Phase 4: Handout on ‘The Station’- Group work: Worksheet on ‘The Station’. 

I will give the students a handout which will discuss the stations in 1940s/1950s Ireland.

I will ask a number of pupils to read the handout.

I will then give the students a worksheet which will assess the students learning of the handout on ‘The Station’.

The students will get four minutes for this task.

I will then collect the worksheets for correction.

Handout – Stations handout

Worksheet- Re in the past-Sundays

Phase 5: Conclusion 

I will sum up what I have taught the students in class today.

I will thank the students for their co-operation in today’s class.

I will remind the students of the homework task which I set at the beginning

of today’s class.

I will tell the students that I look forward to working with them tomorrow.

Lesson 2

In the next lesson, I put the students into groups.

I gave each group a sheet of paper and I asked each group to think of 2 questions that they would ask an older person about what how they spent Sundays when they were young.

I will give the students 5 minutes for this task.

After the time is up, I will ask each group for their questions. I will make sure that each group has different questions. By getting the students to come up with their own questions, I am really involving the students. By developing their own questions the students will be really interested in the lesson!

Then I will invite my guest speaker in.(In the past I invited my Deputy Principal in as a guest speaker).

Each group will then ask the guest speaker their questions.

The students really enjoyed this lesson and they all evaluated that they learnt a lot from it. More than they would have learnt from a textbook!

What would you write to yourself?

Inspirational video- Lessons from a Teacher

I love this video! It is great advice from an exceptional teacher. 

Here are some of the lessons that she has taught me!

1. ‘Teaching is the best job because of the relationships you establish and the influence you can have. That is what you are there for’.

2. ‘A lot of time you can learn as much from the kids as they do from you’.

3. The highs are so much better than the lows you are going to experience’.

4. ‘It is a learning experience for you and its going to be every year that you teach’.

 

‘The power of teaching is that you can and do influence so many other  lives. You are not there to impart facts and figures. The whole thing is to foster relationships with people’.

 

 

Habit of the week

 

 

This is a follow up blog from my reward systems blog. This is my own personal creation that I created just before I started my first teaching placement. Before I started my first placement, I thought about what kind of teacher I wanted to be. And I also thought about what I expected off the students. I remembered my own school days and teachers telling my peers and I that we need to get in the ‘habit’ of this and that. The word ‘habit’ wrecked my head so much during school that it has stuck with me. I now understand what my teachers were saying.

I wanted my own pupils to get into certain habits such as:

• Being motivated

• Being organised (Having all copies, books, pencil cases and other classroom materials that are needed).

• Working hard

• Coming to class on time

• Being passionate about the subject

• Encouraging others

• Achieving targets 

 

There are so many different habits that we want the students to get into. These are just some examples.

I set a different ‘Habit’ each week. I stick a poster of the ‘Habit of the Week’ on my notice board. I stick it here so my students are constantly reminded and motivated for the week. At the end of the week, I then pick one student that I think really worked hard at achieving the ‘Habit of the Week. I give that student a certificate that I made myself using Power point and a prize such as sweets.

‘Habit of the Week’ has really worked well for me throughout my four teaching practices and now in my first job as a teacher.

It actually motivates the disruptive students and it gives the quiet students confidence. It motivates ALL students and the students get quite competitive with each other. They ALL want to win it. Many parents have given me fantastic feedback about using this reward system. I plan to keep using this reward system throughout my career.

Here is my Habit of the Week Certificate. You can edit it yourself to add in your name and your Habit of the Week. Habit of the week.