An Irish perspective on education for all who value teaching
Episodes
Wednesday Jan 23, 2019
Wednesday Jan 23, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
On this week's programme I bring you the second part of my interview with Paul O'Donnell, Principal of St. Patrick's National School in Slane. Among the topics we discuss on this week's programme are:
- His work with the CPSMA
- Numbers applying for principalship
- Principals acting as gatekeepers
- Challenges of being a principal with full teaching duties
- What schools are for (and a sense of place)
- What inspires him
- Being outdoors in poor weather
- Outdoor education in the United States
- Questions to ask yourself before applying for principalship
- Favourite book, writer
Among the books he recommends are The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli and Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday on leadership and Messy Maths by Juliet Robertson. He follows Tom Bennett (@tombennett71) and Pasi Sahlberg (@pasi_sahlberg) on Twitter.
Wednesday Dec 19, 2018
Wednesday Dec 19, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme music composed and arranged by David Vesey
This week I bring you the second part of my interview with Katie Ashford Deputy Head of Michaela Community School in Wembley Park in London. The wide range of topics we discuss include the following:
- Michaela Community School Building
- The Teach First Programme
- Starting a blog, which led to a job offer
- Personalised Instruction and whole class instruction
- Her blog posts
- A typical day
- Family Lunch (at school)
- What she likes most/least about teaching
- Her ideal English lesson
- What schools are for
- Teachers who had a significant impact on her
- Who inspires her
Katie also referred to Tom Bennett's blog and to books by Daisy Christodoulou and Daniel Willingham.
Wednesday Dec 12, 2018
Wednesday Dec 12, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
Theme music composed and arranged by David Vesey.
On this week's programme I speak to Katie Ashford who is Deputy Head and Director of Inclusion at Michaela Community School in Wembley Park London. Her blog is called Tabula Rasa. We talk about school culture and other aspects of teaching. In the course of our discussion Katie mentions how she is inspired by people such as Rafe Esquith and Erin Gruwell.
- Different kinds of school culture
- Identifying problems in a school
- Changing School Culture
- Why teaching is tiring
- The kind of records UK teachers need to keep
- Marking children’s work
- The approach used by teachers in Michaela Community School: teacher as authority
Wednesday Nov 28, 2018
Wednesday Nov 28, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme music composed and arranged by David Vesey
On this week's programme I speak to my friend and former colleague, Professor Anne O'Gara. Professor O'Gara was President of Marino Institute of Education from 2006 to 2018. Prior to that she taught in primary schools for several years before becoming Assistant National Coordinator of the Home-School-Community Liaison Scheme, and subsequently an inspector at the Department of Education and Skills. In this first part of our interview we focused on leadership in education. Among the topics discussed were:
- Entering an institution as a new leader
- Identifying priorities as a leader
- Bringing about Change and Resistance to Change
- Doing courses, lifelong learning and coaching
- Developing new courses
- Changing your leadership style
- 360-degree feedback
- Preparing for difficult conversations
- Partnerships with stakeholders
- What she misses and does not miss about the work
Wednesday Jun 27, 2018
Wednesday Jun 27, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
This week I speak to my colleague in Marino Institute of Education, Dr. Denis Robinson, about leadership in education and specifically leadership in Christian Education. Denis Robinson is the Coordinator of the Masters in Education Studies course, Leadership in Christian Education, a degree accredited by Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin. Among the topics we discuss in the interview are:
- His conception of leadership
- What leader inspires him
- The value of daily reflection for leaders
- The course he offers on Leadership in Christian Education at the Marino Institute of Education
- How he has learned about educational leadership from Parker Palmer
- What is distinctive about leadership in Christian Education
- What school is for
This is the final Inside Education in the current series. A new series will begin in October 2018.
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
Wednesday Jun 20, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
This week I am joined by University College Dublin School of Education Professor, Ciaran Sugrue, to discuss child-centred education, school leadership and educational research in Ireland. Among the topics we discuss are:
- Children-centred education
- Lack of mobility for teachers
- Privileging good relations in school
- Unmasking school leadership
- Continuous professional development – changes over the last two decades
- Despite Ireland's size, how schools vary a lot
- The value of teachers collaborating on projects
- His tenure as editor of Irish Educational Studies
- His thoughts about educational research in Ireland
Wednesday Mar 21, 2018
Wednesday Mar 21, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
This week I speak to the Chairperson of the Computer Education Society of Ireland (CESI), Adrienne Webb, about the new Leaving Certificate course in Computer Science and other matters.
During the interview we discuss how CESI has been working with various players, such as the NCCA and the PDST, to facilitate the smooth introduction of the syllabus; Adrienne tells us about how she became interested in technology; she discusses resources for teaching computer science; and she describes her approach to working with technology in school.