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1 Dec

This year the #eddies13 (EduBlog Awards) are 10 years old. The awards reward educators, students, teachers and educational communities who reach out to inform, include and inspire others. We were absolutely delighted when three of our favourite blogs, www.anseo.netwww.seomraranga.com and www.merrybeau.edublogs.org nominated us for our blogging and podcasting work, and we only felt it appropriate that we give back by nominating those sites that have helped us in the past 11 months on our blogging road. We hope that it reflects the help and guidance we have received from those below, and please be assured that there were many, many others all worthy of a nomination… you know who you are!

The process for nominating is available at edublogawards.com, after which there is a voting process and finally, an awards ceremony.

We hope you enjoy our nominations and you might be inspired to read the incredible work of those linked below!

By Ms Sexton and Ms Brennan

We nominate Seomra Ranga as the best individual blog because on our opinion it is one of the most comprehensive, influential and user-friendly resources. It provides effective, colourful and practical resources and encourages others to collaborate in a non-commercial, free and inclusive manner. 
EdBlogs is a one-stop-shop for the movers and shakers in education in Ireland with an online platform, and was our first port of call when we ourselves began blogging. 
Without a doubt, this is one of the best-run blogs in Ireland at primary level. Merrybeau and her class have a wonderful blog that is consistently updated and showcases some extremely impressive technology and innovative application of the curriculum in 2nd Class. This blog was also particularly encouraging to us when we started blogging this year.
  • Best ed tech / resource sharing blog – Anseo.net
We like Anseo.net because it provides teachers with resources, motivates us to inform ourselves about changes in education in Ireland, and also analyses change by inviting guest posts. It’s a brilliantly inclusive and innovative site run by two extremely impressive teachers in their own right.
Evelyn O’Connor is an inspiration because she manages to not only inspire her class on a daily basis, but her blog posts and musings elevate education matters to the national media. She gives teachers credibility and inspires passionate response from everyone who reads her words and wish they had expressed them themselves.
While our school is not in South Dublin, we have found the staff of South Dublin Libraries to be extremely helpful in encouraging our children to be more proactive in engaging with the library service in our own area. Their site is easy to navigate and makes the borrowing process as easy as possible.
It is most appropriate that the most influential post of the year should come from our nominee for the best teaching blogger of the year. Evelyn’s post called on us all to sit up and face up to practical concerns second-level teachers have. Her passionate display in presenting her arguments was an inspiration to all.
  • Best individual tweeter – @groganbee
Bianca Grogan’s day job is as a 4th Class teacher; however on a daily basis she shares resources without any expectation of reward. Her tweets on the flipped classroom, science and human rights are particularly outstanding, and she is totally inspirational in how she encourages other teachers on Twitter. 
  • Best twitter hashtag – #edchatie
An invaluable hashtag for both new and established  teachers. Perfect for keeping up to date with developments in Irish education during the week and then as the home for topical discussion on education matters on Monday nights. Thanks to @fboss for facilitating these discussions – a fantastic way to interact with other educators.
St Peter’s makes extensive use of podcasts on the blog and Soundcloud is our method of choice! The ease in editing and publishing gives makes it an invaluable tool.
Scoil Mhuire TV is an example of the innovative use of video in education. The sheer volume of videos is impressive, all broken up into channels. It deserves special mention for their excellent animations and wonderful Lockout film!
  • Best open PD / unconference / webinar series – CESImeet
We first attended the CESImeet last October and it won’t be our last! We met some inspiring educators and picked up many ideas, including the MakeyMakey board from @groganbee. We can’t wait to go to the next one!
  • Best educational use of a social network – Science Week
This year’s Science Week Ireland @scienceweek made excellent use of Twitter, in particular the #SciWeek2013 hashtag. They provided links to stimulate interest and help with classroom planning. They also retweeted activities and interacted with schools. An excellent use of Twitter to provide encouragement and support.
Animoto is a fantastic mobile app and we use it regularly on our blog.  Again, its ease of use is the main reason for its nomination – it provides a simple but highly effective and beautiful way to showcase the work of our students.
  • Lifetime achievement  – @MagsAmond
Mags is somebody who has inspired us through her use of blogging, programming and teaching. Her online persona is someone who is deeply experienced, technologically progressive and hugely influential in helping newbies like ourselves to get started. Her tweets have been particularly informative to us about programming, and she has also helped us to get involved in the CESI community
30 Nov

pizap.com13857680370481

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! The countdown has officially begun and we’re all getting very excited.

Here’s a taster of what’s been going on in St. Peter’s in the week’s headlines:

  • Second class have had a very special visitor this week! Polly the Polar Bear arrived on Tuesday and you can watch a very excited second class explain her unexpected entrance here.
  • Mini-Scientist was top of the talked-about list in the senior classes! The date has been changed to Wednesday 4th December – you can help your child to prepare for talking to the judges by asking them lots of questions about their projects, especially questions that begin with ‘why?’ – for example, why did you choose this question? Why did X happen?
  • 4th class have been getting very excited about Christmas. Read all about their preparations here.
  • Thaispeáin Rang A 5 a n-obair le podchraoladh. Éist leo anseo.
  • Student Council have had a very important week. Their weekly podcast, keeping us all up to date on the news of the school, is here. They also received their badges here and launched the 2fm Toy Appeal here. Well done to Kelsey, Codie, Finn, Kian, Jack J, Stephen, Leon, Sam, Jamie and Ian for all their hard work. And of course, thanks very much to Ms Brennan who helps the Student Council with all the great work that they do!
  • Speaking of toys, the Late Late Toy Show takes place tonight. You can listen to us chatting about the Toy Show and more of our Christmas memories here!
  • We were delighted during the week when South Dublin Libraries published a book review from Leon O’Donoghue, one of our fifth class students. You can read all about the link between St Peter’s and the library here and you should definitely read Leon’s review here.
  • 2nd class have packed in a lot of PE into the first term – watch their Animoto video here.
  • The mystery of Mr Foley’s board was solved by Ryan McCormack this week. The answer was New York – find out the question here.
  • This week’s ‘Wednesday for Parents’ focused on getting into the Christmas Spirit. Check out some of our ideas here.

In other news this week: (more…)

30 Nov

This week in St Peter’s, 2nd class have had lots of excitement with the adventures of Polly the Polar Bear. You should definitely check out the video all about her arrival here. For anyone who missed it on Twitter, here’s a short recap of Polly’s adventures this week!

29 Nov

ToyShow-header

Tonight is a magical night for every child in the country, because The Toy Show is on! Today some of the boys and girls in St. Peter’s shared their memories of The Toy Show. Why not listen to what they had to say! Have a wonderful Toy Show night!

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/122435437″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

 

 

28 Nov

2nd Class have gotten off to a fun, active and healthy start in Term 1. Their activities have ranged from weekly Irish Dancing lessons, GAA and football training, weekly relay running and general games and athletics work. On top of all of this they have been eating fruit and veg every day with their Food Dudes planners getting regularly updated! They are example to us all. Check out their fancy footwork and dainty dancing so far this term!

PE in 2nd Class from St Peter’s, Bray on Vimeo.

28 Nov

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the Intel Mini-Scientist showcase will now take place on Wednesday 4th December at 1pm.

4th, 5th and 6th are working really hard on their projects and we can’t wait to see the finished results!

 

28 Nov

Dia dhuit!

Bhíomar ag obair go dian i rang a 5 ar caitheamh aimsire i mí na Shamhna. D’fhéachamar ar físeán as Gaeilge faoi Katie Taylor inniu. Is féidir linn cur síos ar ár gcaitheamh aimsire a dhéanamh. Seo ‘podchraoladh’ uainn. Chuir Adam na ceisteanna orainn.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/122292276″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

27 Nov

WED PARENTS

Am I allowed to talk about it yet?? As of today, there are 28 sleeps to Christmas! Here’s a list of all the things of all things Christmassy in Bray and a bit further away. We’d like to think of this as a starter list, so we can add to it as the month goes on. We will also have a separate post later in the month with all the details of masses, carol services etc in St Peter’s Parish!

  • Obviously, the main date for your diary is the 18th December for St Peter’s Primary’s performances of Roald Dahl’s ‘Cinderella’ – always a popular event and we’re sure this year will be no different! Rehearsals are going really well and we’ve a great show in store for you!
  • Bray has a number of amazing events planned for the Christmas season. The Live Crib takes place in the Design Centre (opposite the Royal Hotel) on December 14th, 15th, 21st and 22nd, with animals from Glenroe Farm. Admission is free! (more…)
27 Nov

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/122145883″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

27 Nov

Hello bloggers, this is 4th class. It’s coming close to Christmas and we’ve been busy over the past few weeks getting ready. In class we each designed our own Christmas card (Mr. Foley also did one). We started practicing our Class Christmas Play, but sorry we can’t tell you what we’re doing it on, it’s a surprise! We have also been practicing our songs for the School Christmas Play in the library with every class. Before we went up to the library we practiced them in our classroom. The lines for the Christmas Play were given out yesterday for the people who wanted one and we also found out who the main characters are, but again we can’t tell you!

We finished our third class novel called “Rover Saves Christmas” by Roddy Doyle. We are doing book reviews at the moment. Some boys are typing it and some boys are writing it out. We also did an interview on the book, the podcast will be up soon.

We hope that our Christmas cards and Play will go well!

By Tommy, Dylan W, Calvin, Carl, Abhishek, Jack B, Luke, Jack J, Alex, Stephen, Dylan M, Mason