Category Archives: Teachers

Some posts aimed directly at teachers rather than students.

CPD

Posted on March 2, 2014 by | Comments Off on CPD

Edited edsoc 2

I’m a bit addicted to CPD but I wasn’t always! For the first seven years of my teaching career I did that clichéd thing of treating my classroom as my kingdom. I only ever really learnt about teaching practices from immediate colleagues who taught the same subject as me in the same physical building as me.

I went to the odd event in my local education centre, but it was usually in the evening after work, and I was usually wrecked. Even when it was good, my attention was never fully in the room, as part of my brain was always pre-occupied by what I’d still need to do when I got home for tomorrow’s classes and the nagging guilt of the copies that hadn’t been corrected but that would NEED to be corrected. Soon. Somehow. These were the days I’d skip dinner, chowing down a bag of crisps and maybe a few biscuits, then staying up until midnight (or later) to complete what I needed to have prepared for the next day. The in-service that was provided during school days I refused to go to, unless it was compulsory, because I didn’t want to miss valuable class contact time. It just always felt like we didn’t have enough time with our classes! It still feels like that now, but having my blog as online support for my students makes me feel less stressed about it all.

Occasionally we had utterly brilliant CPD. In the early days of the Croke Park hours, back when I was still teaching in St. Flannan’s College in Ennis, I’ll never forget the day Professor Tom Collins came all the way from Maynooth to speak to us. He blew our minds open with his passionate argument in favour of the messiness of learning. I emailed him to find out more and he kindly posted me a booklet of research examining the teaching of English in Irish Secondary Schools. It provided many flashes of inspiration and insight but I think back then I was still waiting for the CPD to come to my door. I didn’t seek it out, I wanted it handed to me on a plate, preferably during school time. I was the first one to roll my eyes if we had CPD that I considered a ‘waste of time’ and my attitude to up-skilling could be described at best as reluctant (‘I don’t really have time for this‘) and at worst surly (‘Oh for God’s sake, can we just get out of here?‘).

So what changed?

I started a blog and attended a conference.

The ICT in Education conference in Tipperary in May 2011 was my first experience of mixing with teachers from across all levels – primary, secondary and third level – and learning directly from them in nano-presentations of about 5 minutes each at my first ever CESI meet. The conference the next day made my brain fizz and melt and explode with the possibilities (you can read about that here).

Fast forward 3 years and I’ve been invited to keynote at the same ICT in Education conference this May and my brain cannot quite compute how I got here?!? I’m flattered, I’m overawed and I’m a little bit terrified, but don’t tell the organisers that or they might retract their offer 😉

Edited edsoc photo

Now, my CPD schedule looks very different. Every year, barring an unforeseen calamity, at an absolute minimum I attend the INOTE conference for teachers of English in October, the CESI conference for edtech beginners and enthusiasts in February, the ICT in Education conference in May and during the summer I’ll sign up for whatever I can that’ll keep the fires of learning burning. I attended a three day Digital Bootcamp in 2012, did a five day ADE institute in 2013 and am currently plotting and scheming what I can blag my way into in summer 2014!

And I love it! I’m not going so my CV will look good, I’m going because I love learning what other people are up to and seeing how I can steal their ideas and adapt them to my own classroom.

As an English teacher, I also now regard a trip to London to see some theatre at least once a year as crucial (again, this is a change from how I used to approach my teaching, which for a long time I thought was all about giving good notes!). This is not to see the plays that are on the curriculum, it’s to remind myself why I became an English teacher in the first place. The same goes for reading books (the shortlist for the Booker prize is always a priority) and blogs and poetry and really great journalism; the same goes for attending TEDxDublin. Remembering why you love your subject, why you want to communicate that love to others is a must. Yes, it’s challenging finding the time (but it’s also bloody enjoyable) and yes, sometimes kids in your class will look at you like you’re an alien from another dimension, but that’s ok. As long as the passion remains, that’s ok.

But perhaps most importantly of all, my very best CPD comes from the fact that every day I connect with educators nationally and globally via twitter to inform my teaching, to challenge my perceptions, to shake me out of my comfort zone, to share resources and to try – and believe me I often fail – to get better at what I do.

Yesterday at the CESI conference, I spoke to so many passionate teachers. The idea that there are swarms of teachers out there who never do anything beyond what’s absolutely compulsory is utterly untrue. There were lots and lots of teachers using their Saturday yesterday to debate, discuss and deliver better teaching (in fact educators had to choose between the CESI conference in Galway, an Education & Research conference in Limerick, a School Planners conference in Laois, an Educational Leadership Symposium in Maynooth, the IPPEA conference in Carlingford Adventure Centre, a TY co-ordinators meeting in Athlone, a Young Critics and Film event in Monaghan Garage Theatre and volunteering at CoderDojo clubs nationwide) but I also know that once upon a time I was so caught up in prep and corrections that I felt I didn’t have time to engage in CPD. Now I realise what a wonderful motivator it can be. Really great CPD is invaluable because it encourages you to stop doing the same thing the same way yet expecting a different result. On the flip side, really crap CPD is unforgivable because it discourages you from ever doing any CPD ever again!

I also got teased yesterday (I’m looking at you John Heeney!) for giving the powers that be / the JCT a hard time for not providing enough CPD for the introduction of the new Junior Cycle (I deserved that one – I have been fairly mouthy on this issue!) and a few minutes later I spoke to Ben Murray from the NCCA about ePortfolios and about the connections that have been established with the Arts Council, the Abbey, the National Association for Youth Drama and the Irish Film Institute to provide supplementary workshops (click here for the timetable) for English teachers. Yes, it means giving up a Saturday, but, frankly, so what? As educators, we need to love learning. If we don’t we’re in the wrong game. I know life can sometimes get in the way and the locations and dates might not suit everyone, but it’s no longer fair or accurate to claim there isn’t CPD available, even if does feel a tad rushed and last minute. So for the record, I’m no longer whinging about the lack of CPD – a change indeed!

Everyone at the conference was also given the opportunity to offer their two cents as to what priorities should be at the forefront for educators in the National Digital Strategy. You can add your own thoughts and read what other educators view as important here: http://padlet.com/wall/cesinds

So what next?

1. I need to see if I can make it to some of the Saturday workshops for English teachers.

Like all of us, I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment but the feedback so far has been really positive. I’m following @JuniorCycleArts and @JCforTeachers on twitter to keep in the loop on this and apparently you just ring the education centres to book. I think some of the courses are booked out already so I’d better get my ass in gear!

2. I need to prepare my (first ever) keynote for ICTedu – eek!

However, scary and all as that seemed a week ago, a conversation with Simon Lewis on Friday night clarified a lot for me on this score, so thanks Simon. I went to bed, full of ideas (and red wine!) and typed like a mad yoke before I fell asleep so the ideas wouldn’t have disappeared when I woke up.

3. And, as usual, I need to go do some corrections!

 

 

 

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Descriptive Writing Tip 4

Posted on February 1, 2014 by | Comments Off on Descriptive Writing Tip 4

Moment by moment description of events is a key feature of descriptive writing.

So instead of saying

“I walked into the dentist’s office and sat on the chair”

you describe the event so that the reader feels drawn into the experience:

The clink of instruments falling into metal trays and the cloying smell of drills and disinfectant filled me with despair. I was back here again, in the place from all of my nightmares, but this time was real. Now I shimmied onto the cold blue leather and the whirr as the motorised chair came to life added to my rising panic. As it stretched out beneath me, I too opened my jaws until they ached with the effort; tasted the powder of the tight white gloved hand as it pulled at the corner of my mouth; squeezed my eyes shut and dug my fingernails into the soft palm of my trembling hand to distract myself from the pain. Here it comes, here it comes, the prick and the sting and the cold cold kiss of the needle, then the flooding numbness, and the feeling of temporary relief, all too soon destroyed by the searing screech of the drill as it spins hideously closer. Save me, I want to scream, but I’m already almost choking on my own spit, pooling at the back of my mouth. I wiggle my eyebrows at the nurse and she obligingly slips in the suction tube to stop me from drowning. Why is it, I ask myself, as I stare at the ceiling, weary and numb and exhausted, that a visit to the dentist always feels like a brush with death?”

However, if this is part of a longer story, it needs to go somewhere. It needs to have a point. Perhaps it turns into an unexpected love story where the next thing the narrator notices is how lovely the dentist’s eyes are, and how gentle his hands are, and how kind his laughter. Perhaps it turns into an actual brush with death when the dentist notices a growth on her neck, grabs a blade and slices it off. Psychopath alert!!! Perhaps this is a character study and the narrator is attempting to explain how she became addicted to prescription painkillers – maybe it all began with this visit to the dentist.

In storytelling, it doesn’t matter where it’s going but each event that’s included must be leading somewhere, capturing some truth, revealing something previously hidden.

Of course, if you are just writing a descriptive essay, but there is no demand for it to become a short story, then a series of seemingly unrelated word pictures (like this one) with an overarching theme (“Moments I would rather forget“) would work fine. In this case I would recommend a mix of tones – funny, embarrassing, uncomfortable, sad, shocking. Otherwise it might turn into a whinge, which no-body likes!!! (I’m the mum of a smallie, believe me when I say, no-body likes listening to a whinge!).

Writing has a rhythm.

You can write like you’re listening to a lullaby, can allow events to slowly unfold, with a gentle soothing pace and a flow that mirrors a lazy Sunday afternoon. Writing like this often embraces the beauty and the tragedy of the ordinary and can have a philosophical depth that will creep slowly into your heart and leave you pining when the reading is done.

You can write at a canter, clipping along nicely from event to event, not pausing to admire the roses but seeing them briefly as you pass them by on your way to the next big moment in your story.

You can write like a fire-breathing dragon is hot on your heels, speeding from cliffhanger to cliffhanger, transforming your reader into a crazed adrenaline junkie!

Of course there’s nothing wrong with mixing it up! Your writing, like a piece of music, can change pace and tone midstream and multiple times during the piece. But be aware of your pace, not so slow that the reader gets bored, not so fast that the reader hasn’t time to get into the story, to care about the characters and to feel like they buy into the world being described.

 

 

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Posted in Composing, Teachers

Descriptive Writing Tip 3

Posted on February 1, 2014 by | Comments Off on Descriptive Writing Tip 3

5 senses =  3 S’s – sight, sound, smell & 2 T’s – taste & touch.

Blind people experience the world as a rich tapestry of sounds, smells, textures and tastes. Just because they are blind does not mean their life is any less intense but they have tuned in to a way of seeing the world that does not need eyes.

This is what you need to do as a writer. If you are describing a place, imagine that you walked into that space blindfolded. Would you still know where you were? How? Close your eyes and imagine the sounds and smells, the taste of the air, the fabrics and gels and the feel of the furniture that would indicate to you where you were even if you could not see…

Here’s an example of descriptive writing which relies on sound, smell, texture & taste.

“The clink of instruments falling into metal trays and the cloying smell of drills and disinfectant filled me with despair. I was back here again, in the place from all of my nightmares, but this time was real. Now I shimmied onto the cold blue leather and the whirr as the motorised chair came to life added to my rising panic. As it stretched out beneath me, I too opened my jaws until they ached with the effort; tasted the powder of the tight white gloved hand as it pulled at the corner of my mouth; squeezed my eyes shut and dug my fingernails into the soft palm of my trembling hand to distract myself from the pain. Here it comes, here it comes, the prick and the sting and the cold cold kiss of the needle, then the flooding numbness, and the feeling of temporary relief, all too soon destroyed by the searing screech of the drill as it spins hideously closer. Save me, I want to scream, but I’m already almost choking on my own spit, pooling at the back of my mouth. I wiggle my eyebrows at the nurse and she obligingly slips in the suction tube to stop me from drowning. Why is it, I ask myself, as I stare at the ceiling, weary and numb and exhausted, that a visit to the dentist always feels like a brush with death?”

Right, not here it is again, but this time colour coded:

sounds = blue    smells = green    taste = pink    touch = orange 

“The clink of instruments falling into metal trays and the cloying smell of drills and disinfectant filled me with despair. I was back here again, in the place from all of my nightmares, but this time was real. Now I shimmied onto the cold blue leather and the whirr as the motorised chair came to life added to my rising panic. As it stretched out beneath me, I too opened my jaws until they ached with the effort; tasted the powder of the tight white gloved hand as it pulled at the corner of my mouth; squeezed my eyes shut and dug my fingernails into the soft palm of my trembling hand to distract myself from the pain. Here it comes, here it comes, the prick and the sting and the cold cold kiss of the needle, then the flooding numbness, and the feeling of temporary relief, all too soon destroyed by the searing screech of the drill as it spins hideously closer. The smell of powdered rubble as my mouth becomes a war zone chokes my nostrils. Save me, I want to scream, but I’m already almost drowning in my own spit, pooling at the back of my mouth. I wiggle my eyebrows at the nurse and she obligingly slips in the suction tube. Why is it, I ask myself, as I stare at the ceiling, weary and numb and exhausted, that a visit to the dentist always feels like a brush with death?”

[***Note: there is some overlap between taste and touch. For example, you taste the cold but it’s also a sensation, so you can touch something and know it’s cold – it doesn’t have to be a taste!]

If I take out the sounds, smells, tastes, and touch sensations, this is what the description becomes:

As I walked in I saw metal trays and instruments, drills and bottles of disinfectant. I was back here again, in the place from all of my nightmares, but this time it was real. I saw the cold blue leather of the motorised chair and my panic began to rise. As it stretched out, I too opened my jaws, saw the tight white gloved hand as it moved towards my mouth; shut my eyes to distract myself from the pain. Here it comes, here it comes, the long needle, then the feeling of temporary relief, all too soon destroyed by the sight the drill as it spins hideously closer. I see powder rising from my open mouth as the drill digs deeper. Save me, I want to scream, but as I glance down I can see spit dribbling out of the corner of my mouth. I open my eyes wide to catch the nurse’s attention and she obligingly slips in the suction tube. Why is it, I ask myself, as I stare at the ceiling, weary and numb and exhausted, that a visit to the dentist always feels like a brush with death?”

There’s nothing wrong with this sight-only description but it doesn’t draw you in as convincingly because the focus is ONLY on what I can see, rather than giving the full five senses experience, which is what most of us are lucky enough to experience on a daily basis.

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Posted in Composing, Teachers

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New Junior Cycle English

Posted on January 28, 2014 by | 4 comments

I’m still wrapping my head around the New Junior Cycle, as are lots of teachers I’m sure. I had my in-service day today (28/1/14) and I created these at a glance visuals for when we get to plan together as a department. There are six key skills:

Junior Cert key skills

 

but when you add in literacy and numeracy, I guess you could really say there are eight.

There are 24 statements of learning, 7 of which directly relate to English (I’m sure there’s overlap with some other subjects too):

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Once we know what knowledge & skills we want students to develop (key skills across all subjects and statements of learning which relate to English as a subject) we then need to get to grips with the 39 specific learning outcomes for English (God help us!). However, only 22 of these 39 learning outcomes need to be focused on for incoming first years, so because my head kind of hurt with all the jargon, and because we have to start somewhere, I’ve just taken out the 22 learning outcomes that relate to First Year English. Here they are:

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Lastly, here are the range and number of texts we’ll be expected to explore with first years:

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 I know these graphs are tiny but they warped when I put them in full size. You should be able to click on them and print them off if you want to…

My fear is that, with only 4 classes a week in first year, it will be very difficult to achieve both the breath this spec demands (lots & lots of texts, poems, novels etc…) and also get any kind of depth, which this spec also demands (plan, draft, edit, re-edit… oral presentations). I reckon if I was timetabled for 6 classes a week it might be possible, so if the Minister will just announce that English matters more than pretty much any other subject (which I’ve always suspected anyway) and make 6 classes a week compulsory for first years, it’ll all be grand 😉

More on this anon I’m sure…

In the meantime, click on this wonderful post by Conor Murphy, a lurking smurf on twitter and a brilliant mind in reality, fully aware of the danger these ‘learning outcomes’ represent! http://thevideotrolley.blogspot.ie/2014/01/the-39-steps-to-what.html

Finally, if you haven’t had your fill, there’s a brilliant analysis here of why English teachers are so frustrated with the current in-service provision http://newenglishirl.blogspot.ie/2014/01/jcsa-change-why-miyagi-method-is.html

 

UPDATE:

When we started planning for first year using the visuals I’ve posted above, we realised that the numbers on my sheets didn’t match the numbers in the spec. That was grand for now but it might get confusing when we start planning for second and third year so we decided to stick with the numbers in the spec to kind of future proof our planning.

Anyway, here are the updated posters (or ‘graphic organisers’ if you prefer!)

Reading strand

Writing strand

Oral language

 

 

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Lesson Plan Compelling Drama

Posted on January 19, 2014 by | Comments Off on Lesson Plan Compelling Drama

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Step 1: Distribute this list:

Definition of compelling drama: captivating, irresistible, commanding attention.

10 Features of Compelling Drama:

  1. Atmosphere – tension – suspense – foreshadowing

  2. Momentum. Sense of inevitability as the plot unfolds.

  3. High stakes – characters stand to win & lose a lot.

  4. Honestly from the central characters. Confiding darkest secrets in us.

  5. Emotional & psychological conflict & complexity. Divided self?

  6. Battle between good & evil (internal as well as external)

  7. Audience in privileged position – we know more than other characters?!?

  8. Dramatic irony

  9. Poetic justice

  10. Catharsis

[This list is not exhaustive. After I’d written it I began to think about other reasons we might find the play fascinating and dramatic….

So my no.11 = relevance (e.g. Macbeth’s a tyrant. We’ve still got a few of them in the modern world; we’re still seeing innocents murdered in Syria & back in 2011 we witnessed the toppling of the Egyptian dictator Mubarak in the Arab Spring, thanks to a popular uprising – not unlike the events described in Macbeth, except Mubarak is still alive – not in prison but under house arrest. They didn’t chop his head off! So, watching a drama but connecting what’s happening on stage to what’s happening in the real world – or personally in your own life – is a really powerful reason a person might find a play compelling/fascinating & dramatic).

My no. 12 = emotional resonance (often with a character we connect to what they are going through. This resonance creates empathy – a much stronger emotion than sympathy – and we feel compelled to continue watching as events unfold because we are now invested in their emotional journey. I guess a weaker version of this explains why we often keep watching ‘the X-factor’, or ‘I’m a Celebrity’ long after it’s even remotely interesting, because we feel we’ve gotten to know the ‘characters’ on the show and want to see how it all works out for them). Anyway, my point is, my list of 10 features of Compelling Drama could easily be 12, and there are probably more I haven’t even thought of!]

UPDATE: In the interests of differentiation, I asked students to think about whether they feel they work better alone, in pairs or in groups of 3. I got them to put their hand over their eyes and vote for their preference. Then those who prefer to work alone moved to one part of the room, those who work better in pairs & threes moved forward to the front clusters of desks and we proceeded like this. I’m always a bit sad when very knowledgable students choose to work alone. I know it’s good for them cause they can go at a faster pace, but then the peer-to-peer aspect of the pair/group work loses their valuable contribution. Ah well, swings & roundabouts I guess!

Step 2: Give students, (in groups of 3) ten minutes to define (a) what each of these means & (b) why they appeal to the audience. That’s ONE minute per term so they’d better work fast (or else you can give them a little longer).

Use an online stopwatch on the whiteboard to let them know time is a ticking!

UPDATE: This took 35 minutes! For each term we changed it to 1. Definition 2. Example 3. Effect on audience. It took way longer than I had anticipated & turned into a whole class discussion to clarify each of the terms.

Step 3: Each group must now select what they consider to be the three most compelling scenes in the play. They should prepare some notes, bullet point style, as no-one is bullet proof. Any one of them may be called on to present to the class at the end of the exercise. Allow 15 -25 minutes for this part (I don’t know how long it’ll take, I’m trying it out for the first time tomorrow but we’ve got a double class so there won’t be any rush)

UPDATE: As we were running out of time I asked each student/pair/threesome to just analyse ONE scene and identify which  features from the list of 10 were evident in this particular scene.

Step 4: Using some method of random selection (I’ve got bingo balls 1 – 30 in a bag and if the number that comes out corresponds to the number in my roll book, you’re up!), select 4-5 students to present their “most compelling scene” to the class. If you want to raise the stakes higher, tell them you’ll be videoing it. Be warned, however, this may lead to all out mutiny!

Update: Did this – but discussing just ONE scene, not three.

Step 5: Get them to write the essay. There’s no point haven the craic and not following it up with an extended piece of written work if you ask me – but then I’m such a badass…. (yeah… like those flying pigs over my head…)

Well, that’s one double class prepared. It only took me like… 5 hours?…. sigh. Time for bed!

 

 

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