One to Follow: Ms Forde's Classroom

Many of you may already know Ms. Forde's Classroom from her Facebook page. Well, during the summer she started a blog to share even more ideas and resources. She has some fantastic resources, many specifically for Irish teachers but others that are useful further afield (in fact, I often wander into my colleague's classroom in Italy and recognise Ms. Forde's creations on her walls!).

She has a TPT store which has lots of freebies along with the paid resources. It's definitely worth checking out! One of her most notable freebies is the All-Ireland Final Resource Pack which was downloaded by hundreds of Irish teachers!

Another favourite is her thematic planning template which she shared for free at the end of last month with lots of ideas on how to integrate subjects under the theme of "All Things Irish." Have a look at her blog post outlining how it could be done here.  This was very topical considering September is All-Ireland month and the Irish team are on the road to the Rugby World Cup.

Judging by the quality of resources and ideas Ms. Forde has already shared, I'm really looking forward to see how her blog continues. 

Primary Teaching Bloggers Ireland Blog Hop

Hello there and welcome to the Primary Teaching Bloggers Ireland first ever blog hop! You may have noticed an influx of Irish primary school teachers filling up your Facebook news feeds of late. Well, we've decided to get together and help one another to share our ideas and resources and to help you easily find resources specifically for the Irish classroom. 

At the bottom of this post, you'll be able to find links to other Irish teachers' blogs and Facebook pages. Have fun checking them out!

......................................

So, to start, here's a bit about me!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your teaching experience:
I'm Emer, from the depths of West Cork. I did my dip year in Ireland and then moved to Italy where I've been teaching in an international school for the last three years. I've taught 5th class in Ireland and I've taught children aged 5-8 in Italy.

What class level are your resources/ideas aimed at?
It varies hugely. A lot of my newest resources are specifically for IB schools but I make classroom decoration kits and behaviour management resources that apply to various schools and age levels. Also, if I see a great idea related to the Irish curriculum or another class level to mine, I'll happily share it. 

What made you want to start blogging?
I started this blog back in 2011 when there wasn't a big online presence from Irish teachers in the blogosphere. I loved how Seomra Ranga and Anseo.net shared up to date resources, ideas and teaching news specifically for primary school teachers. I was also really inspired by some American bloggers like Clutter Free Classroom and Step into Second Grade With Amy Lemons. I wanted to share resources specifically related to the Irish primary school curriculum as it's often hard to find stuff, especially in Irish. It's great to see people like Réalta Ranga, Ms Forde's Classroom and Ríona Kelly sharing quality resources as Gaeilge.

Would you advise other Irish teachers to start a blog?
YES! Go for it! I'm delighted to see so many new blogs in the last year or two. The more of us there are out there, the bigger the bank of resources and ideas for the Irish curriculum will be created. People ask if it's time-consuming. Yes, it can be but it's very addictive! 

What's your favourite free resource that you have shared?
These WALT and WILF posters for putting on or near your board. It's a great way to share learning objectives and success criteria with the children. I find it really helps them to focus on why we are doing certain activities.

What's your favourite paid resource that you have shared?
As excitement is building for the Rugby World Cup, this brand new resource pack is my current favourite! Come on Team Ireland!

To join in:
1. Create your own ID - Right click and save this ID template. Add in your details (You can use PowerPoint for this. Just add in text boxes and your image, highlight it all, right click and "group," then right click and "save as picture." Use whatever fonts and colours your please!)
2. Write a blog post using the same questions I have answered. If there's anything you don't want to answer publicly, just skip the question!
3. Make sure you include the "Primary Teaching Bloggers Ireland Blog Hop" image and link it back to this post.
4. Go to the bottom of this post and paste in the URL to your blog. Make sure the URL is directly to the relevant post and not just a general link to your blog's homepage.

If you have a teaching-related Facebook page but no blog, feel free to add a link to your FB page in the link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

One to follow: Réalta Ranga

Hi all,

I had to share this blog with you. Réalta Ranga is a brand new source of teaching resources and ideas from a teacher in a gaelscoil. This teacher has experience with both the upper end of primary school as well as the infants. Posts are written as Gaeilge and in English so it's great for those of you who want to do some light reading to keep up your scileanna as Gaeilge. They (sorry, I don't know your name!) also have a TPT store, Facebook page and a Pinterest profile for you to check out.

This new blog has gotten off to a very promising start!

One to follow: Nollaig Shona.ie

I've previously posted about my love of the wonderful Seomra Ranga site, on which many of my classroom resources were found! 

Once again, Seomra Ranga's sister site, Nollaig Shona (that means "Merry Christmas" to any non-Irish people reading this!) is back in full swing for the festive season. There, you'll find plenty of printables, PowerPoints, quizzes, links to other online resources, Christmas craft ideas, lined paper and much more! You can download some quality resources as Gaeilge. For anyone out there who's not from Ireland, don't be misguided. Most of the resources are in English or universal!

Here are some of my favourites from the site:

Letter to Santa vocabulary flashcards.

The gazillion Christmas-themed lined pages for creative writing.

The "If You Don't Believe You Don't Receive" poster for children who may be inclined to voice suspicions which are best not heard by all pupils. 

Christmas Origami including Santa Claus, a reindeer, a bell, a Christmas wreath and a star.


Also, if you're a fan of either of these sites, please click here to vote for Seomra Ranga in the Best Individual Blog category of the Edublog Awards. Today is the last day to vote and it only takes a minute to do so!

One to follow: Anseo a Mhuinteoir

Hellie at Anseo a Mhuinteoir is my latest recommendation for blogs to follow. She is currently hosting a series of guest posts entitled "How I Learn." Here, anybody is free to submit their thoughts on how they go about learning. The teacher side of me finds it really interesting to read about different learning styles while the reading addict side of me loves seeing the different ways that people approach a post on the same topic.  You can view my "How I Learn Post" by clicking here.

As you're at it (if you haven't already done so), check out the rest of Hellie's blog. She started writing this blog as a trainee teacher and continued on into her qualified teaching life. Hellie also tweets regularly as @AnseoAMuinteoir with lots of interesting education-related (not to mention baking-themed) things.

One to follow: Subkit.eu

As the new school year approaches, I know that many teachers are looking at doing some substitution work (hopefully only for a short while!). If you are one of these people, Deirdre at Subkit.eu runs a fantastic website that you should definitely check out. There, you'll find a blog with lesson ideas, a Delicious account with links (well-organised by category), detailed information on what you need to know if you are a first-time sub and lots of helpful tips for jobseeking and interviews. 

Have a look at her September checklist here.

One to follow: Sciencebob.com

After a friend told me about a science lesson where the children made simple lava lamps (using justcooking oil, food colouring, water, and effervescent tablets in bottles), I went hunting for a video and came across this one from the Sciencebob website:

Delving further into the site, I found loads of child-friendly fun and simple experiments. Most are really visual and some are edible too. I particularly like this one where the children make diagrams of the moon phases using Oreos.

Two gooey and fun ones are making slime and making bouncy (rubber-like) balls. These both require Borax powder. It can be found in SOME supermarkets in the washing section but, if you can't find it there, it's often stocked in pharmacies.

One to follow: Seomra Ranga

Words cannot express how much I love SeomraRanga.com. It's full of fantastic resources, ready-made for teachers. My classroom walls are filled with Seomra Ranga posters and flashcards and I have gotten some great lesson ideas and links to other teaching resources. All resources are free to download but you can make a donation if you wish. 


Although, I think I've yet to meet a teacher who doesn't know about Seomra Ranga, perhaps there are some out here in the blogosphere. If you have never been, go there at once! I can guarantee that you will find some terrific resources/ideas.


Anois, mar tá Seachtain (COICÍS!!!) na Gaeilge fós ar siúl, téigh go dtí Seomra Ranga agus déan íoslódáil ar Tráth na gCeist atá anseo. Is áis sármhaith í!

Schools in the past

My class have been studying the history of schools in Ireland recently. If you are near Dublin, it may be worth bringing your class to the Small Lives photographic exhibition at the National Library's Photographic Archive in Temple Bar. It's running until June 2012. If not, you can view photographs from it on their Flickr site.

The NLI have provided some lesson ideas based on photographs of a classroom in Waterford. Click here to download them. 


I also stumbled upon the wonderful AskAboutIreland.ie which is very child-friendly. I set the children the task of researching the history of schools in the country using this site. They loved using it. It's bright, packed with information, activities, illustrations and pictures. 


Upon further delving into the site, I found some great resources for SESE and Gaeilge. I particularly like the eBooks of Irish myths and legends. There's an audio option for differentiation too. One reservation I have about the site is that the standard of Gaeilge is quite high and that it may be more suited to scoileanna T1 and only senior classes in scoileanna T2. 

One to follow: ABC with Miss D

I came across this blog recently: ABC with Miss D. It has got fantastic ideas for ways in which to use literacy and numeracy centres. There are brilliant ideas on resources to use in each one. If you teach infants/kindergarteners, this is definitely one to check out.

One to follow: Mash.ie

And I'm back, though I doubt I'll be posting as regularly as before. The workload required for doing the diploma in primary education is tough. That, combined with being new to having my own class is all pretty overwhelming.


Anyway, today's post is to highlight the fantastic website that is www.mash.ie 


It's a recently re-vamped, Irish website that's really useful for thematic planning. Once you sign up (for free), you can add and download resources. In the teaching world, sharing resources is hugely important. Teachers can learn from one another and ignite a spark of creativity in each other. Definitely check this out. I will be posting links to some of my resources that are now on this site.


So why not up your teaching karma and upload some of your resources now? ...What goes around comes around!

One to follow: Ladybug Teacher Files

I was delighted to hear that Kristen (Ladybug's Teacher Files) has reached an impressive 1000 followers.

Her blog is wonderful. It has loads of teacher-related treats - organisation tips, ideas, resources and technology tips. What more could you want?! It would quench the bloggy thirst of even the most serious teaching blog addict's wet dream! This was the first blog that really caught my eye and made me want to start my own teaching blog. It's got some great ideas and resources, is really easy to navigate and is easy on the eye too!


Kristen also runs the Ladybug Teaching Resources blog (click on the button to explore).

In order to celebrate the momentous occasion of surpassing 1,000 followers, Kristen is having a fantastic giveaway where followers and bloggers have the chance to win one of her AMAZING templates. If you would like to enter, just click on the link above!