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.'

快乐学习

Have you ever tried to talk in French? I have, and guess what keeps happening? I end up talking a mixture of French, English and Irish.

When I teach Irish in school, I stick to my lesson plans and books. Whenever I can, I use informal Irish throughout the day.

When I started the post grad I had better French than Irish! The Gaeltacht was morto mixture of French, Irish and English! I had to remember Irish and forget my French.


I want to learna new language, or at leadt learn a few key phrases. I am doung so much in Irish, the language of maths and computer programming languages that I now demand something completely different.....something like Chinese.


I found these online resources below:

Learn Chineae

More Learn Chinese

iTunes Learning Chinese

Until my next blog post..... 快乐学习
Kuài yuè xuéxí

Irish Song and History

Was anyone watching the RTÉ "Men of Arlington" last week? Well if you missed it, make sure you watch it on the RTÉ player. I loved the song by
Cathy Jordan at the end of the show. The lyrics are below. Read, reflect, remember....

Last night as I lay on my pillow
A vision appeared in my view
Of a ship sailing over the ocean
And The wind it tremendously blew
On the deck stood a handsome young lady
Whose features I'd ne'er seen before

And she sighed for the wrongs of her country
Saying "I'm banished from Erin's green shore"
In thought I approached this young lady
And asked her the cause of her woe
she said I'm only an exile from Eirn
The land where the green shamrock grows

For the want of employment in Ireland
I was forced as an exile to stray
Far away from my home in Killarney
Where in childhood I longed for to play
Far away from each mountain and valley
From Punch Bowl to Gap of Dunloe
All around by the shores of sweet Muckross
And that beautiful spot Aghadoe

My name is Eileen McMahon
My age it is scarcely eighteen
And I thank you, kind sir, for your kindness
For you don't know how lonely I've been
It was then I awoke from my slumber
To look for my Eileen to see
It was only the face of my mother
With a fond smile she gazing upon me
The ship on the ocean had vanished
But in fancy I see her once more
My beautiful Eileen McMahon
The pride of old Erin's green shore

Newbies Make a Short Film

I attended an info hour in FilmBase in Dublin this week where I found out about Lasair. The speakers were Proinsias Ní Ghráinne, Commissioning Editor for TG4, Alan Fitzpatrick, Director of Filmbase along with writer/director Daniel O’Hara and actor/comedian Paddy Courtney. Daniel and Paddy’s Lasair, Yu Ming is Ainm Dom, was one of the standout successes of the scheme winning over 40 international awards.


Deffo watch it guys; it is fantastic, funny, mixture of English and Gaeilge and it's sweet!

Lasair (funded by TG4) has EUR 10,000 to give to new, expienced, inexperienced and even students to make their own short film.


To qualify for this scheme, which is administered by Filmbase, you must write a TV treatment with some Irish dialogue, get short listed and then win the grant to make your short. You will own the rights to it and it will be broadcast at the Cork film festival and on TG4. If you want to get it into film festivals then it is up to you to do so.

You can write the script in English and get help translating some of the dialogue to Irish. They said they are looking for a really great idea, not a monologue on the state of Irish. You can have a combination of dialogue in English and Irish. Another tip was to keep the dialogue short and snappy. It is usually a page for one minuet of air time and the short must be 10 mins. And yes, yes animated shorts are accepted, and they are open to shorting the time (of ten minutes) for an animated short.

So, this scheme is open to ALL, and I don't want to hear, 'after 14 years of learning Gaelige I can't speak it,' cause trust me, everyone has some Irish, beside you can get help if needed.

If you get shortlisted you will be interviewed, so you will have to source your own production team, do a search online, ask your mates, ask film students.....but a tip they gave was that to meet your team before your interview so that you are on the same page with the same focus.

Deadline for Lasair is 5pm Friday 27th January 2012.

As you know, I am a primary school teacher, so I have a bit of Gaeilge! I just completed a TV treatments course....so,yeah, yeah I am going to write up a Tv treatment and enter it for a giggle. Sure, I started this blog for a laugh in April '11 and it is a finalist in the Int EduBlog Awards 11, so who knows!

For more details read below links

Lasair
Lasair Guidelines


.

The Yank, lunch and the radio

There I was, walking down main street in my local town looking for a nice place to eat. I am fussy about where I will eat and with whom I will break bread with. I was with The Yank (uncle who has been living in The States for about 50 years) we both had an idea of what we wanted for lunch but I had no idea where to take him.

I wanted a window seat, a nice salad, no dungeons, not too busy, loads of light, a good view of the street and, of course, super clean.

After 20 minuets of walking around town like a tourist, The Yank swung around and asked "how do you know know your local town, kid?" I chose to ignore it and flicked my long blond hair as I went to open the door of another, probable unsuitable, cafe. I slammed the door shut and said "let's just drive to Dublin for lunch, no-where here".

"Kid", he lowly sung in his wanna be John Wayne accent, "How can you not know your local town?!", that was it, I went for the Maureen O'Hara approach and spat out; "sure what do you know about Cashel, you are an American tourist here for a few weeks" , unlike Maureen, however, my retaliation ended there as he tipped his hat (I kid you not) and drawled the goings on of my home town. I fell silent while I was told put me on the straight and narrow in relation to where's hot and not to eat, which shop burn down, who was burgled, who sold out and most importantly where served the best salad (for me) and the best bacon and cabbage (for him).

It turns out, he has been listening to Tipperary Mid West Radio on-line all day everyday. And now, so do I. They not only tell you about local goings on but play the coolest old school music.

In the end I broke my silence and bread with The Yank and learn a lot. Thanks for being a cool uncle Stephen Maher and glad you are feeling better.











Remember if you like my blog then vote for me here, it is only one click!

William Butler Yeats

I was just reading my bio on writing.ie, it is a strange thing; writing a bio. Lucky for me I know some great people, who know stuff, important stuff so I asked Life Coach extraordinaire Helen Kearney  (find her on LinkedIn and Twitter) for advice, she asked me what was my USP, what made me different, what did I like to read about and what did I think about.

I am a new teacher, I use Socrates method of questioning to understand; yet I had never done this before for me. I realised that I love Irish literature, I have about 30 new books in my room, and the ones I drained are "Original Sins" and "The Quite Quarter" both from New Irish writing. This made me ask why, I mean.....I love pink, rom-coms and my favourite movie is "Mean Girls".

 I went down to where the banshee lives in our yard, and wondered around. I watch the horses play, I imagined the games my dad had played here, I pretended to see Moloneys of the past, (we have been here for generations) and I noticed how I was walking around with my hands clasped behind my back.

This is how my dad, Michael F. Moloney, use to walk around the farm. As he walked he would recite: "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," by William Butler Yeats. Right there I knew my UPS, I am a dreamer, I am nostalgic for the past and my dreamer dad opened my eyes to Irish poetry.

I remember one night, the chemo was pretty heavy and he was a tad delusional as a result. I was about 9, I watched Dallas so I was, or considered myself, mature. He got out his banjo and played to the huge crowd, saying: "did you know my middle name stands for "Famous", and here I am playing to all of you." It was only myself and my sister, but we let him play on and clapped and cheered in all the right places, not out of pity but because we were all dreamers - at his world debut concert.

So, I made the below. It is a photostory with the words, me reciting the poem and some cool pictures. Enjoy.

You also need to check out the man himself, WOW....http://youtu.be/hGoaQ433wnw

 

PS. told you that I would make you famous one day, dad.