Primary

Cormac Cahill of Carrigaline Educate Together National School uses a green screen to extend learning in his classroom. In this video pupils find themselves walking through a famous artwork. They combine looking and responding in Art with descriptive writing in English to create a narrated video. This helps the pupils to delve deeper into the piece of Art, while supporting the use of descriptive language.

Pupils in Carrigaline Educate Together National School use Book Creator to research and demonstrate their knowledge of History topics, eg the Vikings or Ancient Rome. Their teacher, Cormac Cahill, speaks about how creating ebooks supports literacy, problem solving, Music and Art in his classroom. Pupils work in groups to research facts and strong emphasis is put on using creative commons content. The pupils are creating permanent resources that can be used by subsequent classes.

To support his teaching Cormac Cahill sometimes creates eBooks rather than using textbooks. These ebooks can be made relevant to his pupils in Carrigaline Educate Together National School. The eBooks can also be shared wiith the wider teaching community through iTunes. Pupils can add to the ebooks or use other apps such as Explain Everything to demonstrate their learning. This video shows a lesson about volcanoes, combining digital tasks with hands on learning.

6th class pupils from Cregmore NS have been successful in the FÍS film competition. With support from their teacher Stephanie Herwood they have created Stop Motion animations with a cross curricular theme. Each project incorporates a wide variety of tasks including researching, storyboarding, scripting, set designing and producing. Students engage in groupwork with the emphasis on self and peer assessment.

TULCA and the Marine Institute's Explorers Education Programme have collaborated producing an art- marine science installation and short film called "Build your own Unknown" with artist Louise Manifold and with pupils from Cregmore national school, Co. Galway. The project involves a re-enactment of the 2011 discovery of the Moytirra deep-sea hydrothermal vent field. Students, teacher, artist and scientist, learn and work together in the classroom as co-creators and collaborators embedding ICT and creativity throughout the project. The project will also result with the development of education lesson plans and resources for the Explorers Education Programme™ which will be available on www.explorers.ie later this year. The Programme is supported by the Marine Institute, and funded under the Marine Research Programme by the Irish Government. More Info see: http://tulcafestival.com/marine-institute/'

Paul O'Callaghan teaches 1st class in Lucan Community National School. In this Science lesson the pupils made plasticine boats to better understand floating and sinking. They created procedural writing pieces in Book Creator based on the lesson. In addition they used Scratch Jnr to code the results of their Science experiment. Paul uses ICT to support planning of thematic lessons which span the curriculum.

2nd class in Lucan Community National School use tablets to support their learning in English. In this video their teacher, Eoin Flood, outlines several apps he uses including A+ Spelling, Book Creator and Chatterpix. He also uses technology to support planning ad assessment in his classroom, using One Drive to creat ePortfolios, Class Manager to view the children's tablets, and Apple TV for assessment. Through careful planning he has embedded ICT in his lessons.

In Lucan Community National School Róisín Cartwright uses tablets to support Maths learning with her 1st class. In this video the class are divided into stations and are learning about Place Value through a mixture of hands on activities and apps. The apps used in the video are Pieces Basic and Twinkl 100 Square. Peer assessment, self assessment and teacher assessment all feature in this lesson. Róisín emphasis that ICT is a tool to support curricular learning.

Nichola Spokes describes how Beebots are used with Junior Infants in Lucan Community National School. The aim of these lessons is to support pupils' problem-solving, development of instructional language, sequencing, organisational skills, and collaboration skills. The Junior Infant class work on a variety of stations over a six week period. The stations include small world, treasure maps, learning directions, phonics, 2D shapes, construction and Beebot app on tablets.

In this video, Ann Marie Roche, Lucan Community National School, is using tablets for literacy in Junior Infants. The pupils are working at different stations, including blending sounds, letter formation, tricky word practice, and dictation. Three stations use hands on material, while one incorporate tablets. The app being used for letter formation is Hairy Letters app. Pupils are motivated to learn as they engage with each other and the technology.

Learning support teacher Laura Duff, Lucan Community National School, is working on Procedural Writing with children for whom English is an additional language. In this video the 1st and 2nd class pupils have planted some seeds. Their teacher uses Kahoot to assess their knowledge of the necessary vocabulary. They recorded photos and videos using Explain Everything. They then created their procedural writing piece using Book Creator. During the lesson the pupils are developing their vocabulary, oral language, and procedural writing skills. Their work is assessed through a mixture of self assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment.

Lucan Community National School is a developing school under the patronage of Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board. The school was established in 2013 with Junior Infants and has now grown to 2nd class. By 2020 the school will have all classes filled from Junior Infants to 6th class. In this video principal Nichola Sparks outlines how ICT is used in the school. She provides a full overview from the ICT vision in the school to accessing resources to whole school planning.

Senior Infant teacher Áine McGinn, Lucan Community NS, demonstrates how she uses tablets with her class. In this video the pupils have learned about the structure of a story in circle time and must now use the Toontastic App to create their own story. They are engaged in sequencing, creativity and problem-solving. Áine recommends having clear expectations and guidelines for pupils when using ICT. She also suggests using a staged approach when introducing ICT to your classroom.

Iseult Mangan, of Cloghans Hill NS, uses Scratch to support teaching and learning in a multi-grade setting. In this video, the junior pupils have been doing a language scheme of work based on the story Rainbow Fish. Once they have studied the story Scratch and Stop Motion Animation are used as modes of assessment. The senior pupils, in stations, facilitate this work amongst the younger pupils and, in doing so, develop their own oral language skills.

In Cloghans Hill NS, Iseult Mangan uses Scratch to support teaching and learniing in a Music lesson. Her senior pupils translate music notation into Scratch code to play songs in the software. This tasks supports differentiation as all pupils can work to their own level. While Scratch may not feature in every music class, it is a useful tool to include at various times throughout the year.

In this video the pupils of Cloghans Hill NS combine ICT and PE to create a revision lesson. During procedural writing the senior pupils write up Unihoc skills that they have been practising. From this writing they create QR codes. During the PE lesson pupils use devices to scan the QR codes to find out what task is next. This lesson supports integration and differentiation in a one teacher school. It also allows teacher Iseult Mangan to assess several aspects of the curriculum in an effective way.

Cloghans Hill NS is a one teacher school of 15 pupils. In this video teacher Iseult Mangan outlines how she uses ICT to best effect to support teaching and learning. She gives an overview of her planning, the school's Bring Your Own Device policy, as well as explaining some of the ways ICT helps her to integrate, differentiate and assess in an efficient way.

In Cloghans Hill NS teacher Iseult Mangan uses ICT to support teaching and learning in her Maths lessons. In this video she is focused on the topics of tangrams and perimeter. The class is divided into three stations. In the first station pupils are using the Osmo software and equipment to make tangrams with instant feedback. The next station uses Khan Academy, free software where individual tasks can be preset for each pupil to complete, with the teacher receiving feedback. At the final station pupils are drawing tangrams and using these drawings to measure the perimeter of an irregular shape.The teacher makes use of these ICT tools to support differentiation and assessment. Iseult recommends accessing online supports to help with using ICT tools for Maths teaching.

In this video, the senior pupils of Cloghans Hill NS use Stop Motion animation to retell a story from their rang Gaeilge. By integrating with Visual Arts and English their teacher, Iseult Mangan, maximised her time during the busy school day. She used PDST Fís lessons to support her teaching. Pupils used drawings, paintings and Lego to recreate the story. This task demonstrated pupils understanding of the Irish vocabulary. Once completed the video was shown to the junior pupils and thus ensued a lively Oral Language lesson.

John Weir, of St Mary's Parish Primary School, explains how ICT integration works in his school of 1100 pupils. The school has a laptop trolley to share among classes, with additional laptops dispersed among the classrooms and an IWB in each classroom. The school has a strong ethos of sharing, using Google Apps to share between teachers and to create ePortfolios for pupils. In this way teachers, parents and pupils can view their progress as the year continues. ePortfolios also facilitate teacher and peer assessment. To support teachers in using ICT the school trains teachers in small groups and this year is running a PDST Technology in Education summer course within the school.

Teacher Colm Hanlon uses Google Classroom to enhance and support writing lessons with his 6th class in St Mary's Parish Primary School, Drogheda. He creates writing resources which the pupils can access at school or at home. He supplies a variety of support documents including word banks for struggling pupils. This digital writing process includes feedback from a peer and from the teacher. All work is saved to the pupil's Google Drive, as well as the teacher's own Google Drive, in this way creating a detailed ePortfolio. Final drafts of writing are shared on the class blog. Colm has noted a dramatic improvement in pupils' writing since introducing this system.

In this video 6th class teacher Colm Hanlon of St Mary's Parish Primary School, outlines how he uses online tools for collaboration. Pupils create a group project based on a topic, eg A Famous Scientist. The group creates their project from information provided by the teacher. Their project is then submitted to Google Classroom or Google Drive for approval by the teacher. Finally the group present their work to the class. Each pupil has an ePortfolio of their work on Google Drive.

Teresa Kilbane, 1st class teacher in St Mary's Parish Primary School, outlines how she uses Google Classroom for Visual Arts. She and her pupils create a digital rubric that is followed by pupils creating in Art. In this way the pupils are focused on the artistic process rather than the finished product. The completed rubric, as well as photos of the artwork, is saved to each pupil's Google Drive to form an ePortfolio; to be viewed by pupils and their parents. Pupils work in pairs to enable peer assessment. Using ICT in this way has enabled Teresa to become a more reflective teacher; emphasizing the learning objectives in her lessons.

Mark Boggins, Holy Family National School, outlines how to create learning paths using Scoilnet. A learning path is a collection of online resources that share a specific topic e.g. the Famine. The teacher compiles the learning path, which pupils can access at school or at home.

Elaine Lyons, Christ the Saviour NS, demonstrates how to use Scratch to support work on writing genres. In this video 5th and 6th class are working on the final draft of a procedural writing piece using Scratch and other tools. The work demonstrates how Scratch can facilitate integration between different subjects, in this case English and Science.

In this video, Elaine Lyons, a teacher in Christ the Saviour National School, Ballingarry, talks about the use of Scratch to support literacy and numeracy. She describes how using Scratch across the curriculum helps develop pupils' skills in many areas, including problem solving, and also how it supports assessment, in particular self and peer assessment.

In this video, 5th and 6th class children from Christ the Saviour NS are using Scratch as part of a literacy lesson. Scratch supports their comprehension skills while studying the novel Carrie's War. While engaged in Scratch tasks the pupils are problem-solving, communication and brainstorming. The video also demonstrates how Scratch can support self assessment and peer assessment.

In this video Maeve Callery and Eavan Griffin, Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, outline how to use tablets for assessment in Maths. Maeve describes how the tablets enable her to make assessment active, in the same way maths lesson are active. Evan makes the point that using tablets enables teachers to create targeted goals for individual children.

Alma Moran, principal, outlines how her school, Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, uses tablets. Having reviewed literacy and numeracy as part of their School Self Evaluation, tablets were introduced. Initially they were rolled out to teachers who felt comfortable using the technology, and this was expanded through team teaching and modelling. Maeve Callery explains that tablets are used from Junior Infants to 2nd class, using a variety of apps, both content rich and content free e.g. Explain Everything

Ivan Hennigan, Mary Mother of Hope Junior School, outlines how to use tablets in an active Maths lesson. 2nd class are engaged in solving capacity tasks in groups. The groups must record their estimated answers using the Explain Everything app. These recordings are then viewed to assess the children's progress.

In this video Colette Haran, Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, uses tablets to support talk and discussion with a Senior Infant class. Having read the story "It's A Cold Dark Night", the children use Story Creator in Collins Big Cat App to recreate a scene from the story. They then present their work to a partner. This task facilitates differentiation and rich oral language.

Rachael Doyle, Mary Mother of Hope Junior National School, explains how to use tablets for guided discovery with Senior Infants. In this video the pupils are doing sorting activities within the Data strand of the Mathematics curriculum. They use the Explain Everthing app to record their thinking.

Class teacher, Brendan Curtin uses a story builder app on a tablet device and emphasises the process in story development prior to use of any device. The children demonstrate that a variety of media can be incorporated into their stories. The mutual learning that took place is a particularly salient point.

In this video, class teacher Rosheen McGrath outlines how a variety of devices are being used effectively for the teaching of fractions. The IWB, tablet devices, hand-held video recorders and visualiser are all used at various stations. The use of ICT for self and peer assessment is clearly demonstrated and the use of technology for a purpose is stressed.

In this video, school Principal Enda McGorman outlines how tablet devices are being used to develop active learning especially for literacy and numeracy. Class teacher, Declan Lally demonstrates the use of tablet devices as a station activity with children engaged in active learning methods at the other stations. The importance of experimenting with the potential of the technology is stressed.

In this video, primary teacher, Mark Boggins, from Holy Family National School, Rathcoole, uses Scoilnet Maps and other tools in an SESE lesson. The Scoilnet Maps activity is one of five different station activities, some paper-based, some ICT-based, which all support the development of mapping concepts and geographical investigation skills. The lesson integrates numeracy as well as other curricular areas.

In this video, primary teacher Ruth Donald talks about how she uses the free programming language, Scratch, to support the development of her pupils’ numeracy skills.

In this video, primary school Principal, Enda McGorman, talks about why they chose Scratch to support the development of numeracy in their school and how this technology has been integrated on a school-wide basis.

In this video, primary teacher Ruth Donald teaches her 6th class about 2d shapes using a number of different technologies, including the free programming language, Scratch.

In this video, Mary Jo Bell, St Anne’s Primary School, Shankill, shows how she uses Web 2.0 technologies in her infant classroom. Mary Jo uses a variety of tools to support literacy development, including Animoto, Audacity, Skype and Twitter.

In this video, Patrick Halpin, Donabate-Portrane Educate Together National School, shows how he uses the visualiser as part of his maths teaching with 4th class. Patrick records himself completing a long multiplication sum on the board and then plays this on a loop on the interactive whiteboard, while he works with individual pupils and groups around the classroom.

In this video, Patrick Halpin, Donabate-Portrane Educate Together National School, shows how he uses Photostory with 4th class. Working in groups, the pupils create a photostory presentation on how to create origami flowers. They will use this presentation to teach origami to junior classes.

In this video, primary teacher Niamh Ward demonstrates how to create an ‘Odd one out’ language lesson activity on the interactive whiteboard. By running the spotlight over the screen, the teacher can reveal certain elements of it and pupils are asked to say what the scene is, and which items belong or don’t belong. This activity can be adapted for all class levels.

In this video, primary teacher Niamh Ward demonstrates how to create a ‘magic box’ as a resource for teaching opposites. Pupils are asked for the opposite of a word displayed on the interactive whiteboard. By passing the word through the magic box, the opposite appears and pupils can see if they were right! This activity can be adapted for all class levels and applied to numeracy as well as literacy.

In this video, primary teacher Niamh Ward demonstrates how to use the reveal tool to create a ‘Who/What am I?’ lesson activity for the interactive whiteboard. Niamh reveals one sentence at a time and pupils are asked to guess what the answer is. This activity can be adapted for all class levels.

In this video, primary teacher Niamh Ward demonstrates how to create a lesson activity for opposites and word definitions on the interactive whiteboard. Niamh creates balloons with words added to each one and a coloured string attached. Pupils pull a balloon string to reveal the balloon. They are asked to provide the opposite of a word or a definition of the word. This activity can be adapted for all class levels.

In this video, primary teacher Niamh Ward demonstrates a literacy activity based on the story, ‘The Three Little Pigs’. Niamh uses inbuilt backgrounds and resources of her interactive whiteboard to create the story and links items within the story to external resources. This activity can be adapted for all class levels.

In this video, primary teacher Niamh Ward demonstrates how to create a simple sequencing lesson activity for literacy using the interactive whiteboard. Niamh types a number of statements on the interactive whiteboard, which the pupils will sort into the correct order to make a coherent piece of text. This activity can be adapted for all class levels.

In this video, primary teacher Niamh Ward demonstrates how to create a jigsaw ‘Who am I?’ activity for the interactive whiteboard using the camera tool. This activity can be adapted for all class levels.

In this video, Mary Jo Bell, St Anne’s Primary School, Shankill, shows how she organises ICT in her infant classroom. Mary Jo uses the interactive whiteboard, digital camera, visualiser and other technologies. Additional tips are provided by Carmel Smyth, St Cronans JNS, Brackenstown.

In this video Mary Jo Bell, St Anne’s Primary School, Shankill, shows how she uses ICT as a support for literacy development in the infant classroom. Additional tips are provided by Phil Cheetham, Central Model School and Carmel Smyth, St Cronan’s National School.

In this video, primary teacher Niamh Ward demonstrates how to create a cloze test using the pen and eraser tools. This activity can be adapted for all class levels.

Using ICT in the development of Gaeilge – Nuacht ar TG4 website

How ICT can help learning.. Advantages and some advice

Using ICT in the development of Gaeilge – Nuacht ar TG4 website

Using Audacity - Online resources for class

Using the Visualiser and the tablet Laptop