Coaching for Teachers?

Posted on 19/02/2012 by essdee| 1 Comment

I want to be the best teacher and teacher educator I can be. To try and do this I sign up for professional development opportunities when I can, read books and articles about teaching and learning, attend conferences, and engage in further study. But there is one opportunity to improve my teaching that I’ve never tried – partly because it’s difficult to set up, but mostly because I didn’t think of it: coaching. Continue reading →

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Posted in Continuing Professional Development, Teacher Education

Changes in Irish Education – Opportunities and Risks

Posted on 31/01/2012 by essdee| Leave a comment

As we reach the end of the first month of 2012, the education landscape in Ireland looks more poised for change than it has for several years. Many fixtures of the system which have been in place for some time, or which have evolved relatively slowly, all now seem set for renewal. Just think about some of the changes that we know lie ahead: Continue reading →

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Posted in Education Policy, Teaching

Time to “Rediscover” MSW Logo, the Child-Friendly Programming Language?

Posted on 03/01/2012 by essdee| 2 Comments

Over the Christmas period, four children I know in senior primary school classes received presents of laptop computers. More and more children now have access to powerful computers. Although many of them want to use the laptops to surf the internet and to play games, other educational uses of computers are available to them.  For example, it seems like a good opportunity for children in senior primary school classes to learn about Seymour Papert and his colleagues’ wonderful computer programming language, Logo. Although few schools teach it anymore, children can learn a lot from trying it out. And once they get started, some children will be able to teach themselves (and others) the next steps with only occasional teacher or parent intervention needed. Continue reading →

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Posted in Teaching Maths

School League Tables and Improving Teaching

Posted on 29/11/2011 by essdee| 1 Comment

Teacher unions are critical of league tables. When tables of college entry linked to schools were published in national newspapers last week, the general secretary of the ASTI said that “It is important to recognise that these tables do not tell us about the real performance of schools. In fact they present a shallow, incomplete and distorted picture of the work of schools.” Although many educators might agree with this view, it can sometimes be helpful to look at the other side.

Let’s just suppose that league tables are useful. At their very best, what good are they? Here are some possible benefits that I can think of. Continue reading →

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Posted in Assessment, Continuing Professional Development, Education Policy, Teacher Education, Teaching

How Parents can Help their Child Learn Maths

Posted on 15/11/2011 by essdee| 2 Comments

I occasionally get requests from schools inviting me to address parents about how to support their children’s learning in mathematics. Unfortunately, for practical purposes, I usually have to decline such invitations but here are ten things I would say to parents who are interested in helping their child learn more maths. Continue reading →

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Posted in Teaching Maths

A better way of deciding who’s fit to be president … or fit to teach

Posted on 25/10/2011 by essdee| Leave a comment

After watching the final TV debate among presidential candidates, I have to agree with my colleague on Inside Education, Barry Hennessy, who says that the debate format is not best the best way to decide who is fit to be president of Ireland. One limitation, according to Barry, is that the order in which you are asked the questions determines how original your answer sounds to the audience and how much time you have to think of a response to a particular question. Continue reading →

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Posted in Assessment, Teacher Education

Teaching Practice changes will help bridge schools and colleges

Posted on 20/10/2011 by essdee| Leave a comment

Changes are afoot in how schools and teacher education institutions interact with one another. The changes are set out in the Teaching Council’s document on Initial Teacher Education: Criteria and Guidelines for Programme Providers  and they are intended to benefit schools, student teachers and colleges. Highlights of the required changes are as follows: Continue reading →

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Posted in Continuing Professional Development, Teacher Education

10 Questions about influences on Irish Education

Posted on 12/10/2011 by essdee| Leave a comment

Last week The Irish Times claimed to be “the first to identify and rank the main movers in Irish education” in its list of the fifty most influential people in education. This is indeed an interesting task to take on because if we know who shapes education, we know who influences the next generation of Irish citizens and who thereby leaves a substantial legacy behind them. Continue reading →

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Posted in Education Policy, Practice of Teaching

Differentiating instruction in mathematics class (3)

Posted on 10/10/2011 by essdee| Leave a comment

In the last two posts I made suggestions for differentiating instruction in maths class. In this final post for now on the topic of differentiation, I present a third approach. Unlike the other two, which were whole-class suggestions for differentiating instruction, this one requires particular knowledge of individual students and obstacles and strengths to learning that they possess. Continue reading →

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Posted in Practice of Teaching, Teaching Maths

Differentiating instruction in mathematics class (2)

Posted on 24/09/2011 by essdee| Leave a comment

In the last blog entry I described some concrete strategies for differentiating instruction in mathematics class. That entry described how a teacher can differentiate instruction when teaching the whole class, by placing responsibility on the whole class to work collaboratively to share mathematical ideas and strategies.

A second way to promote differentiation in the maths classroom is through the use of suitable maths problems. Continue reading →

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Posted in Practice of Teaching, Teaching Maths