Teaching Insights

A teacher must differentiate the curriculum in a meaningful, relevant way, adopting teaching strategies based on three ‘pedagogical needs’: common to all learners, specific to groups of learners. and unique to individual learners (Lewis and Norwich, 2005). As I gained more confidence in my teaching and classroom management, I started to focus also on forecasting…

An interesting experience as a PME1 is to be involved in the Oide (teacher in Irish) school meetings. Oide is the new support centre for teachers that unites the Centre for School Leadership (CSL), Junior Cycle for Teachers (JCT), the National Induction Programme for Teachers (NIPT) and the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). Fresh in the teaching profession, I am just becoming…

Communication is one of the common skills to be developed in students from elementary to post-primary. It is a key element that we teachers need to have in our curricula too. In order for our students to retain knowledge, we need to find ways to align our curriculum and share tools and methodologies. A great…

In class, I usually write the learning intentions on the whiteboard and don’t look at success criteria more than the result of the learning intentions. After watching Con Hurley’s (Sligo Education Center, 2024) presentation on how to Make formative assessment work for me and my students, I gathered that there are smart ways to use…

Opening up the new STEAM theme to 1st graders, I was asked, “Why are we doing this?” My answer was too quick: “To increase your critical thinking?”. Question back: “What is critical thinking?”. Pam pam! My mistake was evident. Too much, too soon? Or is it? I had to face my own answer, and how…

So far, I experienced different ranges of quality teaching experiences as a PME student teacher. Some felt very low in terms of classroom management and fighting with post-traumatic stress, and some felt extremely high, reaching the rockstar teacher level where everything and more worked like a dream. These highs will always keep me going as…

When planning for units of learning, I find that finding a relevant theme and the disciplines that form it gives you the best start in planning and preparation. For a class that I would know for the first time, I would start with nature themes. This way, I was able to direct the students into…

I have two EAL students, Romanian and Spanish, in different classes. Out of class, the two students became friends, and they are communicating in Spanish. In class, they are both in the “silent” phase, where they are paying attention; they understand and are appropriate, but can’t express themselves. Both first languages being of Latin origin,…

Two of the key skills of teaching are effective questioning and feedback strategies, but the way a teacher interrelates them, using questioning as feedback or feedback through questioning, prompts students into thinking and increases their metacognition skills, or how to think for themselves. Questioning through discussion and dialogue is the most common form of interaction…

There is an unanimous demand for relevant primary sources on every observational drawing or modelling task in visual art in secondary schools, but few art rooms would have a well thought selection of primary sources inspired from nature that would enhance the student’s observational drawing skills or modelling skills for realistic outputs. When I was…