Never Give Kids The Pass Code

I am a member of the CESI- email list. Teachers, parents, IT people email this list with relevant techie information, advice and help. I came across this article and I needed to share it here. 

I have seen so many parents. uncles, aunts (me included) give bored children their smart devices. During a party, five year old Danny used his parents iPad and spent over EUR 1,900 in ten minuets!

'Sharon Kitchen said “Danny was pestering us to let him have a go on the iPad. He kept saying it was a free game so my husband put in the passcode and handed it to him. It worried me when he asked for the password, but I had a look at the game. It said it was free so I didn’t think there would be a problem. We had lots of visitors in the house and were both a little preoccupied.”

image source

Read more about this expensive app-ish misadventure click here.

I would suggest that you ensure you have the higest of security on your smart devices, that way you can still share them with your children. After all, you the more they are exposed to technology the more responsible they become with it. Banning technology is not the best solution.

How to set up restrictions on your iPad:

 Prevent Apps From Being Installed Or Deleted

You can use guided access to allow access to only one app 

Education/School Apps

And last but not least; Educational Apps

Mindstorm

LEGO MINDSTORMS have combined coding and Lego to enable you to build and program robots to follow your command. 

I want a Lego Mindstorm, now!

Sli Nua and Awesomeness

It is tough to get a job without help. Help from previous employers, help from references, help from connections and, help from professionials.

If you are writing your CV, you need help.


I am sure you remember Caren Kennedy from this post - Carren Kennedy Teaches, well now she is using her 25 years of writing experience to sharpen up your dull CV!


Caren Kennedy is actually her pen name, her real name being Elizabeth Hutcheson. Elizabeth has been appointed by Sli Nua Careers to establish its first Dublin city office.

image source

Sil Nua have produced a book with advice and tips in all aspects job related. You can download this book for free. I downloaded it and found it to be of immense help.


ELizabeth can help you with all your job-searching requirements – CV Preparation, Interview Training and Mock Interviews.



Contact Elizabeth Hutcheson, Tel: 01 667 3189, elizabeth@slinuacareers.com

Office: Fisherman’s Wharf, Dublin 4

The motto of Sli Nua is, If you take your career seriously, so will we.

Blog Awards Ireland 2012 – Long-listed for Four Nominations!

taken from Blog Awards Ireland

I would just like to say thank you to everyone who pops by this blog, comments, reads, follows and who nominated my blog.

I am just a teacher who loves technology, books, writing, random interesting info and who loves having a bit of an audience.


Seriously…..thanks!

The Categories in which I am nominated:

1.   Best Blog Of An SME – Long List - sponsored by Sage. We are using Sage One Accounts which is an online accounting software to manage our accounts for the blog awards, keep track of income and costs and produce invoices.

2.     Best Personal Blog – Long List - sponsored by Red Oak Tax Refunds.

3.     Best Science / Education Blog – Long List

4.     Best Mobile Compatible Blog – Long List

The below information is taken from http://www.blogawardsireland.com

taken from Pinterest

‘With 1400 nominations in so far for hundreds of blogs and with Grafton Media as the headline sponsor, the organisers of Blog Awards Ireland are delighted that so many share their enthusiasm and passion for good blogging. The Blog Awards will become an important event in the social media and awards calendars playing its part in celebrating the best in Irish blogging and bringing online communities together in its gala event on 13th October 2012 at the Osprey in Naas.

The headline sponsors, Grafton Media, are an award-winning, full-service, creative digital agency, ranked 24/100 in the recommended agencies register. With offices in Dublin, Manchester and London, they are proving to be a dynamic and growing company with their finger on the pulse for all things web and digital related.

Judging Criteria

This is the judging criteria that will be used by the judging panel when assessing each blog:

·        Is it knowledgeable about the subject area?

taken from Pinterest

·        Is it written in a compelling, engaging, entertaining and/or informative style?

·        Does it have good spelling, punctuation and grammar?

·        Is the content unique?

·        Are the photographs/images of good quality? Are they attributed to their source?

·        Are blog posts written consistently/updated regularly?

·        Does the style of writing stay constant and is it appropriate to the subject?

·        Are the call to actions appropriate?

·        Links, when appropriate, to other blogs and websites.

·        Interaction on the blog in the form of responding to comments and engaging in conversations.

·        Attractive design and ease of navigating.

·        Standard of the ’About Us’ and ‘Contact’ details/pages.’

How to Make it in the future...

It was inevitable; bound to happen so it was. 'Twas only ever a question of time....we are being replaced by computers. How do we survive in this new world? Learn how to programme the computer - of course.


I will be teaching a five day course about Scratch (coding software) in Kilkenny Education Centre July 2nd to 6th. There are only two places left, if you are interested then google Kilkenny Education Centre and email 'em.


The below is an update from LERO (The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre)


'Scratch Training:
In conjunction with CoderDojo Athlone, Clare McInerney will run an introductory Scratch workshop in Athlone IT on Saturday July 7th from 9:30 to 3:00pm (for adults). Places are available for this event. For more details and to register for this free event click here.

Taken from Silicon Republic(Left to right) Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn, TD, Harriett Walsh of Alexandra College, Clare McInerney, education and outreach officer for Lero and Jim Friars, CEO of the Irish Computer Society

Scratch as Gaeilge:
LERO are delighted to announce that Rory McGann PDST and Íde Ruaidh have made an Irish version of the Scratch interface available.  Instructions for the update to use the Irish Scratch interface are  available here.


We are really excited about having an Irish version of the interface - thanks Rory - and we hope many of the gaelscoileanna will enjoy this.


Scratch Competition Photos:
We finally uploaded the Scratch competition 2012 photos. Please see here.'

CV Makeovers and Free Career Resource Pack - Sli Nua

My creative writing teacher, Caren Kennedy , has been appointed by a leading Mayo based career training company to establish its first Dublin city office.

This has been takes from Sli Nua:  “Demand for our CV preparation and interviewing training services is such that opening a Dublin-based office was the logical next step to meet the needs of our clients nationwide,” says Sli Nua Careers proprietor Liam Horan, who runs the company’s Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo, office.

Apart from being a careers advisor, writing under the name of Caren Kennedy, Elizabeth is also the creator of a television series currently in development with Warner Bros TV, co-author of Fake Alibis (BenBella Books, 2009), a screenwriting tutor with The Inkwell Group, and guest blogger for Ireland’s leading writing resources website, writing.ie.  “Understanding and anticipating our clients’ needs is our key success factor. Elizabeth has a solid track record of distilling information into brief, accurate and engaging written statements. This skill, combined with a history of successful career advancement in property management, financial services, retail, and the legal profession, puts in her unique position to advise, mentor, and interview train job seekers with a wide variety of needs,” said Liam.

   

Elizabeth will operate the company’s Dublin office in Ringsend, Dublin 4. Sli Nua Careers also have an office in Galway city. “Despite current job loss announcements, companies are still recruiting,” said Elizabeth. “Yes, applications often run into the hundreds but companies still face the same problem they’ve always faced – finding the right candidate. My job is to help Sli Nua’s clients be the solution that stands out from the crowd.”

More details on Sli Nua Careers’ services – including CV preparation, mock interviews, interview training and career guidance – can be obtained on our site, or by contacting Elizabeth directly on (01) 667 3189, elizabeth @ slinuacareers dot com

To mark the opening of their Dublin office, Sli Nua Careers is offering free Career Resource Packs to all who email getthatjob@slinuacareers.com with Career Resource Pack in the subject line.   Sli Nua Careers’ have provide a free Career Resource Pack. The Pack includes:

1.      15 Steps to a Winning CV

2.      CV Checklist:  helps you polish your own CV.

3.      Key Issues Form: a guide to preparing for any forthcoming interviews.

4.      Our slideshow: How to Make Job Interviews Work for You.

5.      Audio & video files to assist in your job search.

6.      An e-book Get That Job!

To download this free Career Resource Pack, simply go here

Elizabeth will provide the full range of Sli Nua Careers' services in Dublin:

•       CV Preparation

•       Mock Interviews

•       Interview Training

Full details of why we believe Elizabeth to be such an excellent appointment for Sli Nua Careers are contained here.  

FOR MORE DETAILS, or to arrange an interview, contact:   Elizabeth Hutcheson, Sli Nua Careers, Tel: 01 667 3189 Mobile: 086 723 8858, Email: elizabeth@slinuacareers.com   LIAM HORAN, Sli Nua Careers, Tel: 094 95 42965 Mobile: 087 9185 867, Email: liam.horan@slinuacareers.com  

Dualla National School

I was lucky enough to be sitting beside @Duiche Eallaigh, a teaching principal from Tipperary. He teaches in Dualla National School. They have a wonderful school blog And they were luck enough to receive a visit from The Pam and Ira of the ICT in Education Conference 2012 fame. I would highly recommend that you give their school blog a visit. I will be doing another post on the ICT in Ed Conference post next week, and I will be posting about the amazing Children's Books Ireland Conference 2012 at some stage. Sure, I had a busy weekend....but wow! Seriously....wow!

Learning Spaces ICT Conf in LIT Thurles 2012

I won’t yap on for ages here. For those of you who were at my presentation at the ICT in Education Conference in Thurles have already gleamed all the necessary information. Here are the main points from my presentation. The ICT in Education - Learning Spaces in LIT Thurles was an amazing day, I hope the other the other presenters will post theirs too. My, this was written on my ipdad in a few minutes so let me know if you see errors.   The presentation I use -  Moloney King Prezi Here are a list of some of the main and great resources: To make your own   carton Directory of Learning & Performance Tools Over 2,000 tools for learning and working in education and the workplace -  tools Edutopia -  video Edutopia teacher development -  video ICT in 60 -  ideas Mind map – classroom management of   pc use Mind map – the possibilities of   ICT in your class Mind map –  reading across the circulicium How to -  care for your pc How to thrive in a -  one pc classroom Know your systems -  site The Windows desktop -  here Files and Folders -  explained Storage on your pc -  here No to the  cyber bully How to know when you can trust a website –  here   bits and bytes -  here • KB = kilobyte = about 1,000 (one thousand) bytes, (1024 or 2^10) • MB = megabyte = about 1,000,000 (one million) bytes, (1,048,576 or 2^20) • GB= gigabyte = about 1,000,000,000 (one billion) bytes (1,073,741,824 or 2^30)   Hardware on the inside -  here Hardware on the outside -  here ePals – WOW! Love this site They even have some fantastic lesson plans with resources  here Skills builder library -  here Teacher Guide for epals -  here A lovely email learning guide from epals -  here I am sure you all have heard of think, pair, share...well now we have; think, pain, email -  here Fiction Character Email Exchange -  here     On a separate note – I found this great site about setting up a class routine. I wish I had found it before TP but hey....it can be of use to other teachers.  here Loved my day at; Learning Spaces in LIT Thurles 2012 ICT Education Conference

You Children Write Illiterate Letters

I found this letter on letters of Note.

In 1958, a schoolboy named Robert Leifert wrote to the author and humourist, James Thurber, and asked for some assistance with a school project. Sadly for Robert (or luckily for Robert, depending on your viewpoint) it seems he caught Thurber on a bad day, and before long the youngster was the proud owner of the following delightfully grumpy response.

Let's hope it was of some use.

(Source: Selected Letters of James Thurber; Image: James Thurber in 1954, via Wikipedia.)

Mr Robert Leifert
New York City, New York

January 4, 1958

Dear Robert,

Since a hundred schoolchildren a year write me letters like yours—some writers get a thousand—the problem of what to do about such classroom "projects" has become a serious one for all of us. If a writer answered all of you he would get nothing else done. When I was a baby goat I had to do my own research on projects, and I enjoyed doing it. I never wrote an author for his autograph or photograph in my life. Photographs are for movie actors to send to girls. Tell your teacher I said so, and please send me her name.

One of the things that discourage us writers is the fact that 90 per cent of you children write wholly, or partly, illiterate letters, carelessly typed. You yourself write "clarr" for "class" and that's a honey, Robert, since s is next to a, and r is on the line above. Most schoolchildren in America would do a dedication like the following (please find the mistakes in it and write to me about them):

To Miss Effa G Burns
Without who's help
this book could never
of been finished it,
is dedicated with
gartitude by it's
arthur.

Show that to your teacher and tell her to show it to her principal, and see if they can find the mistakes.

Just yesterday a letter came in from a girl your age in South Carolina asking for biographical material and photograph. That is not the kind of education they have in Russia, we are told, because it's too much like a hobby or waste of time. What do you and your classmates want to be when you grow up—collectors? Then who is going to help keep the United States ahead of Russia in science engineering, and the arts?

Please answer this letter. If you don't I'll write to another pupil.

Sincerely yours,

JAMES THURBER

Bealtaine Festival 2012 for 50+

I received this press release from the South Tipperary Arts Council. This festival is for the over 50's and aims to encourage creativity. Please pass on info on this festival to anyone who would benefit from it.


"The Bealtaine Festival is Ireland’s largest collaborative Arts festival. It celebrates creativity as we age during the month of May every year. In association with Age & Opportunity, Tipperary Bealtaine festival presents a month long programme inviting people aged 50+ to engage with arts and cultural activity and offers opportunities to reignite the flame of creativity and unlock hidden talents through theatre, the visual arts, music and literature.

The Arts Services of South and North Tipperary County Council together with Tipperary Libraries have once again co-ordinated the Tipperary Bealtaine Festival, celebrating creativity as we age.   The launch of the 2012 Tipperary Bealtaine Festival takes place on Tuesday 1st May at 2.30pm in The Source Arts Centre, Thurles. This is a free event and will feature performances by Internationally renowned storyteller Niall de Burca and close harmony vocal trio Swingabella, followed by refreshments. Admission is free and bookings are currently being taken by the Box Office at The Source Arts Centre, telephone: 0504 - 90204 to reserve your seat!


 Active Retirement Groups and Care Centres should advise of numbers attending.  

Niall de Burca will also be performing at South Tipperary County Museum, Clonmel on 2nd May at 7pm – Admission is free but places are limited so booking is essential. Contact 052 6134565 / 052 6134552 to book. Niall de Burca is one of Ireland’s finest traditional storytellers performing Nationally in theatre’s, on radio and at many festivals including Féile Earrai, the CS Lewis Festival and the National Children’s Book Festival.

The Bealtaine Festival is described by Age and Opportunity as an invitation ‘to try something new, to explore something creative this Bealtaine in recognition of the life enhancing joys of constant learning and our capacity for creativity at all stages of our lives.’

 The theme for this year’s festival “What kind of old do you want to be” recognises that, as older people, we are not one homogenous group; we are individuals with widely different talents, interests and needs. In the spirit of this we are encouraging people to experience new art forms, and to try something new this May. Events range from dance workshops to ceramics and from film to visual arts and we hope that by the end of the festival you might have had a chance to discover new skills and talents in the arts.   For further information, please contact:  

South Tipperary Arts Office, 052 34565, email sally.oleary@southtippcoco.ie  or www.southtipparts.ie   North Tipperary Arts Office, 067-44860 artsoffice@northtippcoco.ie  or www.tipperarynorth.ie/arts   ;    Emer O’Brien, Library Headquarters, 0504 21555, email eobrien@tipperarylibraries.ie  or www.tipperarylibraries.ie  "

Scratch News

I am subbing in a Gaelscoil this week, and I had to edit this post like 5 times. Which is funny cause I only had to write 2 lines!! I noticed that I wrote the sentances in a format of noun then follwed by the verb....that's what I like about Irish; it changes your sentence structure and helps when writing pomes! Yes, I also write pomes....don't think they will ever see the light of day on this blog......I'd be morto to share 'em!!

OK 6th time lucky:


I received this press release from Lero, Ireland. I won't be able to make it so I am depending on those of you who do go to keep me updated!


"Mitch Resnick (LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and head of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab) and Natalie Rusk (Research Specialist in the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Laboratory developing creative learning technologies) are coming to Dublin on May 1st for an event titled:
 
"What are people creating and learning with Scratch? An evening with Mitch Resnick and Natalie Rusk of the MIT Media Lab"
I would like to invite you to attend this event on Tuesday evening May 1st from 6:30-8:30pm at the County Library, Tallaght.  The programme of events  is as follows:

6:30
 
Welcome by Deputy Mayor Cllr. Pamela Kearns of South Dublin County
 
Presentation by  Mitch Resnick - MIT Media Laboratory and Natalie Rusk - MIT Media Laboratory
 
7:15
 
Panel Discussion
 
Mitch Resnick, Natalie Rusk, Stephen Howell – IT Tallaght, Clare McInerney - Lero
 
7:45
 
Open Forum – Questions from the audience.

8.30 Close
 
 
 
 
There is a 45 slot allocated for questions from the audience, so please bring any Scratch questions you may have!  
 
For more details (directions etc…)  and to sign up for this event, please visit this link for more information (space is limited)"

MacGyver

Hello bloggers and readers,

Out of interest what did you guys do for World Book Day? I have pieced together some writing tips here. Oh and two weeks ago a pysic told me some interting information.

The beautiful people over at Cildren's Books Ireland, have a lovely piece about Children's Laureates and a review of Janruary. (my bad, meant to put it in here ages ago!)


Hope you enjoy some MacGyver tips and tricks
M


Ahh MacGyver, let me count the ways in which I love you. If there is a way that I can do something myself I will try it. It’s not so much DIY more LMT, let Me Try. So I compiled a few little tips of MacGyver things I do.

• If, like me, you would love to do a masters but (A) they are all up in Dublin and or (B) are full time, then why not go to the iUniversities app? You can download some ace lectures (free) in your field of interest!

• Don't cha just love Good Will Hunting? From what I can remember the young sir didn't go to college; he got reading lists of the course he wanted to and applied some criticial analysis of and got the same education. Well that's what I am doing! (At least for now, before the masters I want to do runs in Limerick!!) Have a look at my GoodReads and you will see the fun study I intend on doing.
• Gather all the ends of crayons but them into a cupcake case and bake at 200 degrees Celsius, for 10 minutes. You are left with a multicoloured crayon.
• Have bits of lipstick left over? Use a small empty container or buy one in a pound shop, smash up the lipsticks add a dash of Vaseline, pierce a vitamin E tablet and hey presto you have personalised cool new lip-gloss.

• Like shiny hair? Simply put conditioner in your hair the night before you wash it, do this at least once a week. Want extra TLC? Put some mayonnaise in it an hour before you wash it, you can put in condition also (mayo can smell) and heat it with a hair dryer, wrap in a towel and leave it for an hour. Simpels.

• Do you have a glass table? Are you bored of it? Well I just scanned some pictures and using my ipad app I made a few cool collages and printed them and put them under the glass table! It now looks aces. (You don’t need any technology to do this, just get pictures and place them under it...whatever you want. You could even make your own picture/magazine/newspaper/comic collage.)

• Want to look great forever? Don’t bother waiting loads of money on expensive creams, simply mix sun screen into your day cream, pierce a vitamin E table and put that into both your night and day cream. Put a small bit of false tan into your day cream so you will always have a nice glow.

This is where it gets like real fun starts:

• If you are reading this blog then you obviously have internet access, so why don’t you try doing some car maintenance. Top up the water, oil, coolant levels in your car. Change the air filter and wipers. Just type your car make and what you want to do into YouTube and go for it! Also, check out Driverside.

-

Did you know?

EDIT: Due to a change in layout some blog posts have been moved. I will have the original post back here soon.

My Edublog Awards 2011 Nominations

 Here are my nominations for the Edublogs. To make your own nominations, click here.

■Best individual blog - Bernie Goldbach has been blogging forever, his blog has a lot of varied information and it really made me want to be a better blogger.

■Best individual tweeter - The one and only Fred Boss. He started #edchatie

■Best group blog - Irish Teachers

■Best new blog Pamela O'Brien started this blog after joining the #edchatie. It is well worth a read

■Best class blog - I just love this Ms Gil Martins Class Blog

 ■Best student blog - This is a great TY student blog by Caitriona.

■Best ed tech / resource sharing blog - These are the guys behinde the virtual classroom - MissionV

■Most influential blog post - We are given an insight to e-learning policy in Irish schools by Ddonal O Mahony. 

■Best twitter hashtag This has got to be #EdChatIe

■Best teacher blog Without a shadow of a doubt this has to go to Anseo.net.  

■Best librarian / library blog - Tipperary Libraries

■Best School Administrator blog - Clontuskert School.

■Best free web tool -  Class Dojo This helps you to manage behavior and boost engagement in class really quickly and easily. 

■Best open PD / unconference / webinar series - Gifted Kids

■Best educational use of a social network - Nigel Lane has all areas of social media covered.

■Lifetime achievement - Without this site, not one teacher could get through TP, Seomra Ranga - thank you!

                               “A man's errors are his portals of discovery.”  James Joyce