Episodes
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Podcast 404, Teaching and Learning Outdoors with Paddy Madden (21-9-20)
Monday Sep 21, 2020
Monday Sep 21, 2020
On this week's programme I speak to Paddy Madden about teaching and learning outdoors. Among the topics we discuss are:
- How weather engages the senses when we learn outdoors
- Benefits of teaching outdoors
- Forest bathing
- Noticing Nature
- Cloud watching, listening to the sound of birds, smelling flowers.
- Daily 15-minute walkabout
- Teaching outdoors across the curriculum
- Book: Sue Waite Children Learning Outside the classroom
- A silly symphony
- Preparing for outdoor learning
- Learning outcomes
- Ways of Knowing by John Quinn
- A spiral curriculum – revisiting topics at a more complex level
- Teaching outdoors in September
- What to do when a wasp enters your classroom
- Spiders
- Planting a square metre of wheat
- Integration across the curriculum using topic of wheat
- Painting – called The Gleaners (I mistakenly called it “The Garners” in the recording)
- Places to visit at this time of year
- Fruit and seed walk: Dry fruit (e.g. helicopters, nuts) and succulent fruit (blackberries, rowan berries, sloes)
- How school grounds can sometimes be barren
- Paddy’s vision of ideal school grounds
- Creating raised beds in a school grounds
- Furniture for outdoors learning
- Making a pond safe for a school setting
- Making clipboards from recycled corroboard
- How to position a bird box correctly
- The value of a compass in school for showing directions
- Why he dislikes terms such as a “bug hotel” or a “bug viewer”
- Working outdoors in an urban environment
- Using window boxes to grow food
- Using binoculars with early finishers
- The “Engage with Nature” website
- Nature as a stage
- The value of unstructured play
- Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
- John Feehan’s books
- Richard Louv: "The more high-tech we become, the more nature we need."
- Sacha Hamilton, the Duchess of Abercorn and activities of the Pushkin Trust
Wednesday Jun 19, 2019
Programme 370, School Tours - Practitioners' Perspectives (19-6-19)
Wednesday Jun 19, 2019
Wednesday Jun 19, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
This week I follow up on last week's programme where I shared some of my own ideas about school tours by talking to two practitioners who have lots of experience of organising school tours and field trips - as teacher and as principal. Caitriona Cosgrave teaches second class in Scoil Áine Girls School in Raheny and Martin Kennedy is principal of Scoil Cholmcille in Skryne, Co. Meath.
Among the topics discussed on the programme are:
- School Tour venues and activities
- Choosing a school-wide theme for school tours; variety and continuity in tours
- Bringing parents on a school tour with children
- Creating memories on school tours
- Learning on school tours
- Going abroad for primary school tours
- Preparing for school tours
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
Programme 369, Making School Tours Educational (10-6-19)
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
Wednesday Jun 12, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
On this week's programme I talk about school tours and how to make them more educational. Among the topics discussed on the programme are:
- Where to go
- Health and safety
- Risk Assessment
- Cost
- Planning the tour
- Bringing the route to life
- Communicating with parents about the school tour
- Other venues
- Resources
Here is a link to ships and boats certified by the Marine Survey Office of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. Educational materials that can be used to support school tours are available from the National Museum here and here and from the National Gallery.
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
Programme 349, Wild Teaching with Paul O'Donnell (16-1-19)
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
Wednesday Jan 16, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
On this week's programme I speak to Paul O'Donnell who is principal of St. Patrick's National School in Slane, Co. Meath. He is the author of Wild Teaching: Cross-curricular Lessons Outdoors for Agoraphobic Teachers which is published by Meath County Council. Among the topics we discussed are:
- How his upbringing fostered a love of the outdoors
- The influence of Paddy Madden on his work as a teacher
- How tempting it is to teach indoors all the time
- Having students gather resources for lessons
- Specific lessons in Wild Teaching
- Making the transition from teaching to being principal
- Challenges of principalship
- Eliciting voices of children in running the school
- Learning about life and death through keeping hens in school
- The school garden
- Minimising rubbish in the school
- Earning six green flags for the school
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Programme 332, Karen Hammerness and the Educational Potential of Museums (13-6-18)
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's programme I am joined again by Dr. Karen Hammerness who is the Director of Edcuational research and Evaluation at the American Museum of Natural History. This week we talk about the Museum as a site for education, including teacher education and we hear about the innovative programmes the museum has in place for educating people in and about science. Among the topics discussed this week are:
- The education programmes of the Museum
- Museum-based teacher education
- Learning about teaching and teacher education in Norway
- Outdoor education in Norway
- Building community in school
- What school is for
- What inspires her
- Books that have influenced her (The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures and Metaphors We Live By)
Wednesday Dec 20, 2017
Programme 310, The Role of Questions in Teaching (20-12-17)
Wednesday Dec 20, 2017
Wednesday Dec 20, 2017
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I am joined once again by philosopher and retired primary school teacher, John Doyle. In the interview, John reflects on the role of questions in teaching.
Wednesday Oct 11, 2017
Programme 300, Sandra Austin on Garden-based Learning 2 (11-10-17)
Wednesday Oct 11, 2017
Wednesday Oct 11, 2017
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
This week I bring you the second part of my interview with Dr. Sandra Austin from the Marino Institute of Education on garden-based learning.
Wednesday Oct 04, 2017
Programme 299, Sandra Austin on Garden-based Learning (4-10-17)
Wednesday Oct 04, 2017
Wednesday Oct 04, 2017
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
This week I speak to scientist, horticulturalist, and educator Dr. Sandra Austin about her research on school gardens. Sandra Austin lectures in social, environmental, and scientific education in the Marino Institute of Education.
Wednesday Apr 06, 2016
Programme 250, Orla Kelly on Teaching Science pt 2 (6-4-16)
Wednesday Apr 06, 2016
Wednesday Apr 06, 2016
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I continue my discussion with Orla Kelly on the teaching of science in the primary school. Orla Kelly lectures in the Church of Ireland College of Education and she co-authored the book Creative Teaching in Primary Science with Roger Cutting of Plymouth University.
Wednesday Mar 30, 2016
Programme 249, Orla Kelly on Teaching Science, pt 1 (30 March 2016)
Wednesday Mar 30, 2016
Wednesday Mar 30, 2016
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme my guest is Dr Orla Kelly from the Church of Ireland College of Education. She recently co-authored the book Creative Teaching in Primary Science with Roger Cutting from Plymouth University.