Peer learning in CBC

Fourth Years teaching first years!

TEACHING THE ART OF WRITING STORIES TO FIRST YEARS

"Eoin and I were chosen by Mr.Fitzmaurice to teach English, primarily story writing, to the 1^st years. We were picked because we have been involved with Fighting Words every Thursday afternoon so we have done a lot of work with story writing. There were five of us picked Eoin Vaughan, Morgan Moore, Owen Johnston, Brian Barry and I. We started off brainstorming ideas of what to do during the class, what we wanted them to learn and how they can get better at story writing. We came up with some good ideas for an enjoyable class but had to get the right balance between fun and learning. We also had to keep in mind the 40 minute time constraint of the class.

In the class itself, we gave them a sheet that we did out on the ‘Ingredients of Story-writing’ and then told them to write a story based on four titles – Ocean, Fear, Nature, Future."

Reflections

 Throughout our teaching experience we found that there are many skills involved in teaching. We found that we enjoyed working in a team. We also discovered that there are many things to organise but we would love to do it again!  Thanks very much to Mr. O'Sullivan for giving us the opportunity to teach his class
.

( More great details on Fighting Words workshop run by Roddy Doyle  and many others can be found in website address below!) 

Written  by John O’Mahony and Eoin Vaughan.

ENTHUSIASTIC FIRST YEARS ARE MENTORED BY JOHN O'MAHONY!

EOIN VAUGHAN KEEPS FIRST YEARS BUSY!

MORGAN MOORE GETS FIRST YEARS TO IGNITE THEIR IMAGINATION!

STUDENTS INVOLVED WITH FIGHTING WORDS PROJECT IN FOURTH YEAR PASSING ON THEIR KNOWLEDGE….

4^th years involved; Owen Johnston, Morgan Moore, John O’Mahony, Eoin Vaughan, Brian Barry.

Last week, we did a short story Workshop with the first years. After days of planning we were finally ready. At first we were nervous, but soon we started enjoying ourselves. After a short introduction we split them into groups. In the groups, we asked them what their favourite book is and why. We drew a mind map on the board with 4 story topics; Ocean, Nature, Future, Fear. We asked the class to give ideas for stories on each of these topics. Soon the ideas started pooling in. We then gave them paper to draw their idea for their story. After that we gave them homework which was to write 1A4 page minimum of a Story based on their picture. The next day they read out their stories and we were all very impressed. They really outdid themselves!

Reflection

We think that the first years really learned a lot from our workshop and overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable workshop for everyone involved.

Written by OWEN JOHNSTON

www.fightingwords.ie

Building Personal Responsibility with our Students

"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of." -Jim Rohn

Ms Linda Dempsey and Mr Gregg O'Neill recently talked about the subject of personal and communal responsibility in our school. Two key areas as identified by Gregg were Responsibility in our class rooms and demonstrating responsibility in our wider CBC community. It was commented by Gregg that developing a sense of responsibility in our students would promote greater engagement, improve behaviour, create a sense of pride in self and the group and improve quality of work. Some of the actions currently undertaken by teachers to promote responsibility in the class room are:

(1) Students designing their own posters and you tube videos for learning (2) More autonomy given to students over project work (3) Peer to peer learning between students (4) Designing spaces in our school using Communication, collaborating, designing and organising to see a finished outcome.

Ms Dempsey talked about developing a greater sense of responsibility with students throughout the school by giving key roles of responsibility to students. These roles included:

Environmental issues, canteen duties, looking after locker rooms and taking class rolls.

She believed that students need to apply in writing and go through an interview process to attain these roles. Also students would need training days to help them in their roles. These roles can be developed from first to sixth year in our school! These rolls need to given great importance and prestige within our school in order for them to be developed and respected fully within our school community.

Personal and Communal Responsibility is a topic currently under discussion in the Learning Revolution. If you have thoughts on this subject please feel free to let us know!

Introduction to the Restorative Process

Ms Alice O'Connor recently gave a talk to our group on "Restorative Practices" (RP). The aim of RP is "to develop community and to manage conflict and tensions by repairing harm and building relationships."

Alice spoke to us about how RP is a way of being and the intention is for us to use it as a guide for the way we act in all our dealings within our families, schools and communities.

The practice involves the building of relationships within groups, addressing challenging behaviour and using tools to pro-actively build relationships as well as manage conflict. Alice shared one tool that teachers can use straight away which was to use the acronym to FRESH to foster a RP approach to our classroom:

Fair
Respect
Engaging
Safe
Honest.

For more information regarding Restorative Practices talk to Ms Alice O'Connor.

New "Merit Card System"

This new idea of a merit card system as suggested by Ms Kate Lorigan aims at rewarding students for demonstrating personal and communal responsibility, positive behaviour and respect for themselves and other students/teachers in CBC. We already have "Red Cards" given for negative behaviour.

The "Green Card", aims to reinforce positive behaviour and character traits among our students from first to sixth year. These are life skills that are important to encourage in todays world.

Design Thinking in Action



The Design Thinking Process was introduced and used by the teachers of CBC Monkstown in a CPD day organised by The Learning Revolution.

The Design Thinking Process is a methodology created by David Kelley (IDEO) in Stanford University and is used by Industry to foster creativity and innovation .

The purpose of the day was to use the Design Process to look at ways in which we could apply this process into the Education system. The core purpose of this was to look at ways to enhance our own learning environment and spaces.

This was an alternative method of brainstorming ideas. It focused on small groups collaborating to come up with solutions to specific areas that were agreed by the teachers.

These are a selection of images from our fab CPD on Design thinking held recently and facilitated by esteemed facilitators Professor Suzi Jarvis and Dr. Colman Farrell from the Innovation Academy in U.C.D.

 

 

The day was a great success and the staff have subsequently been implementing the changes discussed into the school.

Cross Collaboration in Action

History and Geography teacher Mr. Stephen O'Brien and two of his second year students Orson O'Sullivan and Gareth Hughes who made a great presentation to the Learning Revolution last Friday on their Cross-Curricular project using the Caravel ship. The project involved History, Geography and Technical Graphics and was a great success! Thanks to all involved for the great work done!
Report written below!

Cross Curricular Exercise
(History, Geography and Technical Graphics)

The second year group 2 ASM completed a cross curricular lesson exercise that encompassed history, geography and technical graphics.

The Project:
The project was based on the Caravel ship, used in the 15^th century during the Age of Exploration. The first aspect of the exercise was Mr Murnane’s transition year students designing a Caravel during their graphics class, which culminated in them supplying a step by step guide to the design process, which was put together in a 3 minute presentation, and a number of stills. The work produced was to the highest order and a credit to the class.

Once the Caravel was designed the class was planned, the start of which was the students being given a brief overview of what was to happen, they were assigned some research and to come up with some questions. On the day the class went to the graphics room, and Mr Corcoran started us off with a talk on his crossing of the Atlantic, the presentation consisted of a PowerPoint presentation and talk, with the students taking notes. After the talk there was an opportunity for questions and answers.

Mr Murnane then proceeded to give the students some background on the design of the Caravel and some excellent historical background to the ship. Mr Murnane focussed his presentation on the mast and the difficulties of the day in acquiring and placing it, with the actual tool used to smooth it, which again heightened the students interest.  The class then attempted to design a mast and sail on the computers, which while they found difficult, they successfully completed the task in the main. This section of the exercise was the first time many of the students had experienced graphics and was a key tool of the cross curricular in pulling together their various learning skills.

The following class was devoted to group work were we brought the various aspects of the class together on the whiteboard, and the students agreed upon the structure for their reports. The reports consisted of the students tracing the Caravel, which was a still supplied by Mr Murnane, and labelling it, and a section on Mr Corcoran’s talk, the Caravel and finally a paragraph on what they taught were the benefits of the class.

Reporting the Process
The reports handed back were of an excellent standard, and the students really enjoyed and benefitted from the exercise. The students were able to put into context the difficulties experienced crossing the Atlantic by Mr Corcoran and they showed a better understanding of what the actual experience of crossing in a Caravel would have been like. The design section gave them a concept of the design process and an experience into the subject of graphics. They managed to relate all of their learning to the caravel and into an historical context, with a lot of geography used as well.

Two of the students presented their finished reports to the Learning Revolution, at lunch on Friday, and all teachers present were highly impressed with the finished reports. The students reported that they enjoyed the experience, of using different subjects to learn and found the various learning methods helpful.

Outcomes
There were some very interesting outcomes from the exercise, firstly the students were clearly invigorated and drawn into the learning experience. They also reported that the different learning methods were enjoyable, with the cross curricular, and three different teachers involvement extremely interesting and giving a greater learning experience. Secondly, while looking at the finished reports, they were a number of students that preformed far better than they usually would on tests, with one in particular standing out as excellent, which highlighted that the different approach to teaching and learning can really benefit some students.

Thanks
I would like to thank Mr Murnane for putting so much work and effort into the exercise, and his transition year group for the excellent work that they done, which can and will be used as a resource in the future. I would also like to thank Mr Corcoran for the time and effort he put into the presentation which the students found really enjoyable.

-Mr. Stephen O’Brien

More on Empathy.......

Quick to read, short article on empathy in the world around us and the importance of bringing empathy into the classroom 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2014/11/26/why-i-want-my-daughters-to-learn-empathy-rather-than-chinese/