Author Archives: johnkilleagh

Google in school

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This year we decided to take on a new project in school – adapting Google Apps for Education.

Wha?

It works like this.  Google offer schools the facility to have a corporate email structure with cloud storage, shared calendars, internal websites and other bits & pieces.  And, if you’re a school, the cost is free.  Obviously, this is a big plus for any school – I don’t know of any that complain of having too many resources.

And what’s on offer?

  • Each user gets a gmail account (for us, student@mayfieldcs.net)
  • Create groups so that you can share resources or email them.
  • Each account comes with 30GB of cloud storage via Google Drive
  • Each account comes with Google docs (the ability to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms)
  • Google Classroom (it’s new & I haven’t figured out its potential or pitfalls yet)
  • Google Sites (the ability to create websites internally or viewable externally)

So.  How do you actually tap into this resource?

If you go to this link, you can apply to Google to take on their Apps for Education suite.

Step 1 was to get registered.  This can be done using the existing domain for the school.  Google can then move your email to a gmail account.  The alternative is to create a new domain, but you need to jump through an extra hoop or two while Google verifies that you are acting on behalf of your school.

Step 2 is to get accounts set up within the school.  If you have a lot of students then what you do is to get the names of the students on a CSV file and allocate them all email identities and passwords.  This does take a bit of time – but that’s nothing compared to step 3

Step 3: take students to the computer room and get them all to open up their accounts.  this is best described as bedlam.  Chaos is a good alternative word at this point.

Step 4: get students to accomplish basic tasks such as opening drive, creating a document, or uploading files and sending an email.

Step 5: email the group you just signed up giving them instructions on how to add their account to their phone/tablet. (they like this bit)

A few teachers have started using the Classroom app, and seem to be happy with the ability to email notes and assignments to groups of students.

It’s early days yet, but there’s a lot of potential.

There’s a lot o resources out there from people who are a lot more experienced than I – but hopefully this will help someone get a start!

 

Now You See It…

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If you’re anything like me, you love Derren Brown.  He’s a bit of a genius, illusionist, mentalist, clever and challenging.

He’s also a bit of a trickster.

He has one particular move I like, he gets the unsuspecting victim to willingly hand over his wallet.  Just like this:

Which brings me to this RTE headline yesterday.  On the face of it, things look great.  1,700 new teachers and SNAs (Special Needs Assistants) to be employed in Irish Schools.  All good, yes?

Well, as always, it’s a little more complicated.  While the headline does grab your attention, the details of the article take a lot of the shine away:

  • 10,000 new students entering primary level each year
  • 4,000 new students entering second level each year
  • The cost of college registration to increase.  Again.
  • The budget for new schools (needed for the extra numbers) is to be cut by €10,000,000
  • Funding for second level schools (Capitation, the grant per student in school) is being reduced again.  This time by 1%
  • Funding for third level colleges also to be reduced by 1%

That’s the new cuts.

There’s still no reverse on the reprehensible decision to remove guidance counsellors from secondary schools.  No decision to restore middle management in schools.

For years now the budget for education has been cut. The new posts in the headline don’t do anything to change the pupil/teacher ratio – it only maintains the current crazy level.  Schools have been forced to cut subjects, options, programmes and supports for students.

These are not cuts in education. They are attacks on education.

Minister Joan Burton was on Matt Cooper’s show a few weeks ago and said something like ‘Austerity is over’.

Austerity is not over.  Certainly not if you’re in education.  And just like Derren Brown, the government has managed to dip into the pocket of the education sector once more.

Lets discuss the Teaching Council

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I’m conflicted.

The Teaching Council is the body that is charged with overseeing the profession of teaching in Ireland.  So, you would imagine that I would be all in favour of this.  After all, I’m a School Chaplain.  I spend my working days in schools and I witness the professionalism of my colleagues on a daily basis.  I see their hard work, dedication, inspiration.  I should be glad of anything that promotes that professionalism and recognises the hard work of so many teachers.

The Teaching Council is tasked with protecting the integrity of teaching.  It regulates “the teaching profession and promotes professional standards in teaching”.  Why then are so many of us angry with it?

My first taste of disillusionment with the Teaching Council came a few years ago, when the attacks on education (AKA the austerity budgets) were slashing resources and pay across the sector.  Many teachers wrote to the council asking them to speak up on their behalf.  In response we got the response that the council was all for protecting standards, yes.  But had no role in budget discussions.  I never kept a copy of the letter, but I’d love to be able to show it to you.

As the past few years have advanced, the Teaching Council has flexed its muscles more and more.

First, teachers who didn’t pay the €65 per annum registration would not be paid by the Department of Education & Skills.  This became an open threat with this press release stating that over 1,000 teachers could lose their pay.

Then we hear that the council has the power to investigate teachers.  Have our registration fees added up to become a war chest?  On what basis would teachers be investigated?

Most recently, the idea was proposed that teachers would have to engage in CPD in order to maintain their registration.  Admittedly CPD is very, very important.  But when technology changes so fast, and there are so many different ways in which to learn, who decides what is valid CPD, and who certifies it?  My interaction on Monday evenings #edchatie over on the tweet machine is something that is incredibly valuable.  I have learnt a lot by looking at what so, so many other teachers do.

My fears are not new, and they are not unique to me.  Have  a look here and here to see others’ concerns regarding the Teaching Council.

One problem is that many teachers have no faith in the Teaching Council, or see it as irrelevant.  If you do a twitter search for #teaching council you get one screen of results.  One screen for a body that has been in existence since March 2006.

So what is to be done?

  1. Be more flexible in recognising qualifications.  Engineers are good, very good, at maths.  People who qualified as teachers in other countries are teachers.  Don’t make it impossible for them to register here.
  2. Look at the registration fee.  Currently the Teaching Council is running a surplus of millions of Euro.  Use it or don’t charge it.
  3. Provide more courses that people want to engage in (or need to engage in, or would benefit from engaging in)
  4. Talk to the DES about getting course days and subject association days covered for substitution.
  5. Trust teachers.  Allow teachers to work together to create their own CPD.  Online interactions are very fruitful, but difficult to quantify for certification purposes.
  6. Do more to engage with teachers and see what we want for the development of our profession. There is little engagement at the moment.
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The day my son went viral

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Parents, think twice before posting to much about your kids online
This is worth a read

Pete Williams's avatarPut the book back on the shelf

UntitledA couple of months ago my son, who is six years old, performed a solo routine at his school talent competition. I couldn’t attend but my wife filmed it on her mobile phone so I could watch it later. She also put it on Facebook for friends and relatives to see. Unfortunately, we hadn’t given any thought to the privacy settings and it was ‘shared’ amongst people we didn’t know. When we became aware of this we quickly changed the permissions and forgot all about it.

However, one morning, a few days later, we received a text from a friend telling us that the video was ‘trending’ on Buzzfeed and, as we hastily conducted some Google searches, it became apparent that we had a problem. There were bizarre stories about it on sites such as Huffington Post and Mail Online and these were being replicated around the world. Additionally, the…

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Potrait

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Last Friday night we had a retirement party for a number of the staff in my school.  We had a great time, and I’m not going putting up photos here!

Except for this one.

IMG_3821

 

This is Soraya, one of our SNAs.  She kindly gave permission to publish this photo.

We all need to help each other to prevent suicide

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Ann Marie says it beautifully. Let those of us who are healthy be brave enough to reach out to those who need help, support, or a listening ear

ancailinrua's avatarAn Cailín Rua

Wednesday 10th September was World Suicide Prevention Day. There are now lots of days and weeks designated for mental health awareness, so much so that it’s starting to become a bit confusing, but I reckon there’s probably never a bad time to be reminded to mind your mind.Next Friday October 10th is World Mental Health Day. With these two dates in mind, I wrote this column for the Mayo News on Tuesday 16th September.

Last Wednesday was World Suicide Prevention Day, a global day designated for raising awareness of suicide and suicide prevention. Traditionally shrouded in silence and shame, the stigma with which suicide was traditionally regarded in Ireland is being slowly cast aside. But as welcome as that is, it makes the consequences no less devastating, and indeed it is an occurrence with which many of us are all too painfully familiar. Recent statistics from the World Health Organisation…

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Through The Cracks

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There has been a lot of talk in the media over the past few days about the crisis in the health system in Ireland.  Things are pretty grim.

According to the Irish Examiner, waiting lists have soared 968%.  In other words, if you are on a waiting list, you wait almost 10 times as long now to be seen.

And this is scary.  But it is not the full picture.

As a culture we are still hesitant to discuss mental health. As a result, we don’t get the full picture of the difficulties faced by so many people in crisis.

According to Aware, up to 10% of young people suffer from depression at any one time (my emphasis)

According to this document from the CSO, in 2005/2006 there were 335,134 students in second level education (see p.115)

If we put these numbers together, you have approximately 35,000 second level students suffering from depression at any given time.  I find this a very upsetting statistic.  Not just for the fact of the depression that the students are battling, but for the fact that we have so few resources to help the students in need.

Schools themselves have limited resources.  In an incredibly callous display of disregard for students, our former minister, Rurai Quinn removed guidance counsellors from schools.  (It remains to be seen whether our new minister, Jan O’Sullivan will reverse this decision)

I don’t want to give the impression that schools should be the place to fix these issues.  A school’s function is to educate students.  Schools are not places to treat issues around mental health, just as schools are not places to treat broken bones or other physical ailments.  Schools can run programmes to promote mental health, but if you’re sick – then you need a doctor.

However, just as schools can provide support for students with broken bones and other physical ailments, they are also places that can provide support for those in pain.

Or at least they could if they had the resources in place.  With all the staff cutbacks (especially that to guidance counsellors) schools are hard pressed to do all that is expected of them.

No.

More is needed in supporting our teenagers in trouble.

We do have some excellent groups in Ireland, for example:

  • Aware is working to help those suffering from depression.
  • Pieta House works to help those who are suffering from suicidal thoughts or deliberate self harm
  • Console helps those suffering, either because they are thinking of suicide, or because someone close to them has died by suicide.

But our health system is not able to cope.  We don’t have enough psychiatric beds to help those in serious pain.  Our social workers are understaffed and overworked.  Counselling via the health service has a huge waiting list.

In short, our mental health services are not serving our teenagers effectively.

It’s not just the teenagers who are left fall through the cracks.

In this article the Irish Times highlights that 554 people in Ireland died from suicide in 2011.  We all know families who have been devastated by the loss of someone they love.

As a society we need to do a lot more to look out for those around us.  We need to do a lot more to look out for those who fall through the cracks.

SIGNSnobleeds

iPads vs. Macs & PCs in Education: Pros & Cons

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Interesting comparison on the choices in tech in the classroom.

jonathanwylie's avatarJonathan Wylie

It’s a question you will often hear debated when schools look to buy new devices. iPads? Macs? PCs? Chromebooks? Which is best? The short answer is, it depends. None of them are bad devices, at least not any more, so it usually comes down to what is the best fit for students, teachers, and the ways that a school is looking to advance teaching and learning with technology.

For this post, I joined forces with Stephen Lai, from teachingwithipad.org. Together we compiled some of the more popular advantages and disadvantages associated with using an iPad when compared to a Mac or Windows laptop.

Why iPads?

1. Speed – We have all become accustomed to how fast our iOS devices wake from sleep. They rarely need powered off and the instant on gratification you get is hard to beat. In fact, if your laptop doesn’t have an SSD drive, the iPad will beat it…

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