An Irish perspective on education for all who value teaching
Episodes
Wednesday Jun 26, 2019
Wednesday Jun 26, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
This week's programme is the last for the school year 2018-19. We look at topics relating to the end of the primary school year: school tours (in a continuation of my conversation with Caitriona Cosgrave and Martin Kennedy from last week's programme), summer courses for teachers (with my colleague, Dr. Gene Mehigan), and presents for teachers (again with Martin Kennedy and Caitriona Cosgrave).
I wish all listeners to the podcast a great summer. I always love to get your feedback on it by e-mail (insideeducation@dublincityfm.ie) or through Twitter. Similarly suggestions for future topics or guests are always welcome.
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 Feb 20, 2019
Wednesday Feb 20, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
On this week's programme I continue my conversation on teaching literacy in the early years with Dr. Tara Concannon-Gibney from Dublin City University. The occasion was to mark the publication by Routledge of Tara's book Teaching Essential Literacy Skills in the Early Years Classroom: A Guide for Students and Teachers. Among the topics we discuss on this week's programme are:
- Her definition of literacy
- Digital texts and literacy
- Why some children struggle with reading
- How parents can help their child to read
- How a parent should react to a child reading when the child comes to a word that is not known
- Advice for choosing a book for a child
- The benefits of repetitive reading of texts
- Poetry and literacy skills
- How she became interested in the area of literacy
- How she went about writing the book
In the course of our interview Tara mentioned texts by the following writers: Mem Fox, Georgia Heard, Lucy Calkins, Oliver Jeffers, Hervé Tullet, and Julia Donaldson.
Wednesday Feb 13, 2019
Wednesday Feb 13, 2019
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme tune by David Vesey
The guest on this week's programme is Dr. Tara Concannon Gibney who is an assistant professor in Dublin City University. The interview is to mark the launch of Tara's new book Teaching Essential Literacy Skills in the Early Years Classroom: A Guide for Students and Teachers, which is published by Routledge. Among the topics we discuss this week are the following:
- Why she wrote the book
- Phonological awareness and how to develop it using games
- Using big books to teach literacy (e.g. Owl Babies)
- How to teach phonics
- Sequence for teaching phonics
- Developing fluency
- Teaching concepts of print
- Tier 2 vocabulary
- Comprehension strategies – Gradual release of responsibility model
- High frequency – Dolch - words
- Guided reading literacy centres
- Role of play in developing language and literacy
Wednesday Dec 05, 2018
Wednesday Dec 05, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
Theme music composed and arranged by David Vesey
On this week's programme I bring you the second part of my interview with Professor Anne O'Gara, former President of Marino Institute of Education and current board member of Tusla. Among the topics we cover in this part of the interview are:
- The role for inspectors in our education system
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Recognising learning
- The Home School Community Liaison Scheme – Establishment and Purpose
- Dr Concepta Conaty’s vision for the Home School Community Liaison Scheme
- Her primary teaching experience
- What schools are for
- A teacher who had a significant impact on her
Wednesday Oct 17, 2018
Wednesday Oct 17, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney
This week I'm delighted to bring you the second part of my interview with Niamh Dunphy, the teacher behind the blog and social media resource Irish Primary Teacher. Among the topics we talk about on the programme this week are:
- Plans for developing Irish Primary Teacher
- Where she gets her lesson ideas
- Using the store to encourage users to remain on the website
- How she reviews products for the Reviews section
- Clothing and teaching
- What she likes most and finds most challenging about teaching
- Differences between teaching in England and teaching in Ireland
- Her favourite subject to teach
- What she has learned from teaching to date
- What are schools for?
- A teacher who had a significant impact on her
- Who inspires her
- Why she finds Instagram better than books
- A change she would make in her current school
- And much more!
Wednesday Oct 10, 2018
Wednesday Oct 10, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I speak to Niamh Dunphy, the person behind the hugely popular Irish Primary Teacher, blog, Facebook page and Instagram account.
Among the topics we discuss in this first part of our interview are:
- Why she set up the blog, and pages on Instagram and Facebook
- Her positive and negative experiences of teaching in England
- What she knows about her audience
- Dividing content among various social media platforms
- How teachers support each other through social media
- What posts are most popular
- Dealing with trolls and negative comments
- How much time it takes
Wednesday Feb 28, 2018
Wednesday Feb 28, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I bring you the second part of my interview with primary teacher and mathematics teacher educator, Claire Corroon. You can access resources and opinions about mathematics teaching on her website, Primary CPD. Among the topics we discuss this week are the following:
- Her Views on Curriculum Revision in primary mathematics
- Differentiation in mathematics
- Assessment in mathematics
- Mathematics curricula in other countries
- Jerome Bruner
- Singapore Maths
- Sherry Parrish (https://twitter.com/numbertalks?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)
- Jo Boaler
- Marilyn Burns
- Christina Tondevold
- Graham Fletcher (three act tasks for maths)
- The usefulness of mini-whiteboards
Wednesday Feb 21, 2018
Wednesday Feb 21, 2018
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
This week my guest on the programme is Claire Corroon a primary teacher and teacher educator with a particular interest in mathematics education. She has many resources on her website, Primary CPD, where she also blogs. In this, the first part of our interview, among the topics discussed are:
- How she got involved in mathematics education
- Courses she gives for teachers in summer and at evenings
- Number talks
- Concrete, pictorial and abstract representations in mathematics
- Her approach to teaching tables
Wednesday Dec 06, 2017
Wednesday Dec 06, 2017
Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.
On this week's programme I welcome back a guest who was on the programme before, Brendan Culligan. Brendan was a keynote speaker at the 2017 annual conference of the Literacy Association of Ireland. His presentation was titled “More than one hundred and twenty five years of Crushing ‘Garlic’!" - in which he honours the memory of an educator who had insightful ideas about teaching spelling.