Episodes
Wednesday Jan 31, 2018
Programme 314, Páiric Clerkin & IPPN, pt 2
Wednesday Jan 31, 2018
Wednesday Jan 31, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's programme I bring you the second part of my interview with Páiríc Clerkin, the Chief Executive Officer of the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN). In this part of the interview our conversation covers topics such as:
- What the IPPN does
- How he finds the role of CEO of the IPPN
- What teachers should think about before applying for roles as principal or deputy principal
- How will job of principal be different in ten years’ time to what it is today
- What inspires him
- What he likes to read/listen to
- Changes he’d make in the IPPN
- The five minute bench break
- How his own education influences his work as an educator
Wednesday Jan 24, 2018
Programme 313, Páiric Clerkin & IPPN, pt 1 (24-1-18)
Wednesday Jan 24, 2018
Wednesday Jan 24, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's programme I look ahead to the 2018 annual conference of the Irish Primary Principals' Network with the Chief Executive Officer of the Network, Páiric Clerkin. Among the topics we discuss are:
- Priorities for principals at this time
- School funding
- Droichead
- What to expect at the IPPN Conference
Wednesday Jan 17, 2018
Programme 312, Gerry O'Connell on Religious Education, pt 2 (17-1-18)
Wednesday Jan 17, 2018
Wednesday Jan 17, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's programme I bring you the second part of my interview with Dr. Gerry O'Connell from the Marino Institute of Education where we talk about religious education and much more.
Among the topics discussed this week are the following:
- Prayer and religious education and how mindfulness was introduced to Catholic schools over two decades ago
- The power of prayer and mindfulness
- How do you define a practising Catholic if not by their attendance at church?
- The problem with large class sizes
- How to develop one’s religious imagination
- Integrating religious education with other subjects
- Accommodating children who don’t take religious education in a religious school
- How do prospective teachers learn to teach religion? Dr. Gerry O’Connel outlines seven elements that are key to his approach:
- Waiting and wondering
- The threshold experience
- Asking the question
- Gathering around the subject
- Journalling ( What did I learn? What does it say to where I am? What am I going to do about it?)
- Pushing back the horizon
- Concluding ritual
Wednesday Jan 10, 2018
Programme 311, Gerry O'Connell on Religious Education (10-1-18)
Wednesday Jan 10, 2018
Wednesday Jan 10, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
On this week's programme I speak to my colleague in the Marino Institute of Education, Dr. Gerry O'Connell about religious education. Gerry is a primary teacher and a teacher educator with vast experience and his ideas are grounded in this experience and in his scholarly work in the field. Among the topics discussed this week are the following:
- The difference between teaching religion and religious education
- The importance of starting with the students’ experiences
- The challenges of working with diverse student experiences
- The teaching methodology “Godly Play”
- Social media as a force of oppression
- Why contemplative space, depth of conversation or wonder and symbol or story are central to religious education
- Whether sacraments should be taught in school or in parishes
- What makes a teacher?
- Teaching as a vocation
- A perceived secularist agenda in some media organisations