Hi all, Sorry about the lack of posts but its the busy end of the season and I’ve been doing a lot of online tuition through Exam Village and Skype. Best of luck to everyone for the remainder of the exams, especially any of my Business students this afternoon. I’ll be travelling Europe for a [...]

Read Full Post »

The Independent reports on a study that shows students from blue-collar backgrounds achieve lower leaving certificate results than students from white-collar backgrounds. Where’s the surprise?? It only makes sense that those in white-collar are going to get better support from friends and family. I constantly sought advice from my brothers, friends and parents whenever I had questions on subjects I was studying [...]

Read Full Post »

It has been announced that up to 1000 new jobs in taeching will be available for the beginning of the new school year with a further 1,000 to follow in 2011. These will mainly support the growing demand in the primary section of education although the news will be greatly recieved by everyone. Of the [...]

Read Full Post »

Reports today announced the minister for education Mary Coughlan has submitted a letter to leading colleges asking them to admit students who fail honours Maths at leaving certificate level. Her opinion is that the present system discourages students from attempting the honours paper in fear of failing and that an E in honours is equivalant to [...]

Read Full Post »

The Late Late Show did a section on enterprise and innovation on friday night. Dragon’s Den duo Sean Gallagher & Gavan Duffy were on board and spoke of the importance of innovation and job creation by Irish people during times of economic recession as well as encouraging enterprise education in schools. Well worth a watch by clicking this link!

Read Full Post »

Today was my first Exam Village experience. To those who didn’t catch my last blog on them, Exam Village provide online tuition for Irish students. It’s a great opportunity for those who can’t for whatever reason make it to school or want strengthen subject areas from the comfort of their home. It is not an [...]

Read Full Post »

Hey, Just back from a week in Kerry. Amazing county, with great sights. Back in college teaching today. A lot has happened during the week, most notably the teaching conferences and Mary Coughlans first exposure to her new role. I’ll be touching on that, the developments with Exam Village online tutorials and questioning whether certain secondary teachers [...]

Read Full Post »

While completing my PGCE in the UK we’d been told about an initiative which could involve any potential interviews being supported by students. This week NASUWT, the major teaching union in the UK published its criticism of the campaign claiming it is “littered with examples of demeaning, embarrassing and humiliating practice”. The most extreme case is of [...]

Read Full Post »

I spoke with a close friend last night who informed me that her school is using HDip students to fill vacant substitute positions in the school. After much criticism regarding schools decisions to hire retired teachers to such positions one can only wonder what the new minister for education would make of such actions. I [...]

Read Full Post »

I’ve long been a fan of educational tv. Shows like the West Wing,  Location Location Location and of course the News (if you can count that as tv). I think a lot can be said for discussing an episode and applying the concepts to real life. I am trying to figure out the best tv shows that [...]

Read Full Post »