Teachers' Corner

The Maths curriculum does not change much of ‘what’ children learn, but it aims to improve ‘how’ children learn maths. This includes more learning through play and problem solving. It also provides more opportunities for children to be creative, take risks and be challenged. Here are ten ways you might put those ideas into action.

Playful learning not only helps children to grasp complex ideas but also helps to foster a love for the subject. With the new focus on 'Maths Talk', key ideas and concepts can also be explored playfully in other topics and areas of the curriculum. Teacher author, Gillian, shares her ideas on making maths more playful.

The 100th day in school will arrive around now for most students. To celebrate this milestone, here are some great, easy to implement ideas with a mathematics spin from guest author, Roisin.

These activities and ideas can help turn your classroom into a dynamic space where learning feels like play, play feels like learning and where engagement, attainment, creativity and collaboration are boosted and celebrated! 

January can be a particularly challenging month due to shorter daylight hours and colder weather, which may impact energy levels and motivation. Thankfully, playful activities can help to stimulate energy and curiosity, countering those mid-winter doldrums and helping to kick start a new year.

Assessing and evaluating play can sometimes be challenging because it often involves unconventional learning experiences that are less structured than traditional methods. However, much like using a less traditional method of teaching, assessment methods can take many forms and include a variety of techniques.

Successfully integrating playful learning into teaching involves creating an environment where both teachers and children can engage with content in an interactive, enjoyable and hands-on way. Here are some of the approaches I have been exploring with my senior classes.

"Play should be in every classroom, for every child, every day." That’s the ideal and the theory in the new Primary Curriculum Framework but how do we make it a reality in every classroom – especially in upper primary?

The research into play and learning consistently highlights the profound role of play in fostering cognitive, social, emotional and physical development in young children. Assistant Principal and Play and Learning Specialist, Gillian Corbally, outlines what we know, and what she learned in her own older classes, about this powerful connection.

There is certainly an abundance of wonderful and compelling research that shows the potential of the powerful connection between play and learning but for me, the most actionable and useful findings came from getting hands on and exploring ideas with the children in my own class who were in the midst of it.

Teacher author Aoife, shares her reflections on how various forms of play are approached in her classroom, from teacher led, to self-directed play.

There has been plenty of chatter and change around play and its re-examined place in our classrooms recently. As teachers, we’re constantly evolving and adapting our classrooms and our delivery of teaching to improve practice but it can be difficult to keep up to date with changes while keeping an eye on everything else. Here is how Roisin has been coping.

Here’s a few ideas I have used for P.E. Each has a little Christmas spin. These will hopefully make your lessons a little more focussed and retain attention and engagement levels... and perhaps help the children to burn off some of that excited energy!

Finally we have some Spring in our steps and are, hopefully, getting rid of grey skies and storms! There’s always plenty of discussion of when Spring begins - does it begin with St. Brigid on February 1st, when as the song goes ‘Brigid brings the spring’ or does it begin as we approach March when the days get longer and the time changes? You choose your own interpretation of it! Either way, here’s a few ways to bring it to life with your class this year.

With Halloween just around the corner, it is a great time of year to put a spooky slant on your P.E. lessons! Read on for some easily adaptable Halloween themed games to try over the next couple of weeks. By teacher author, Aoife.

A simple to manage resource with boundless activity potential. What's not to like? Teacher author, Roisin, shares some of the ways she uses one of her favourite practical resource discoveries.

All schools engaged with the new Maths Curriculum via Oide training in the 2023-2024 school year. It's now time to start putting the theory and ideas into practice for guest teacher author, Aoife.

Teacher author, Aoife, explains how she has used Discovery Tables in her classroom to approach some of the key ideas laid out in the new Primary Language Framework.

This is great activity to spread over the months of a school year. Guest teacher author, Aoife, shares her approach to this effective and engaging way to develop home and school links.

Children absolutely love the adventure aspect of this task and it is a cheap and fun alternative to an expensive school tour.   

The mini dry wipe board with its intrinsic impermanence, can balance out a reliance on worksheets and submitting ideas for marking in maths, instead allowing children to explore 'what could it be?' and 'what if?' ideas with less risk, boosting their confidence.

A shared log of what has been learned helps children connect ideas and lessons across time and fosters a collaborative environment to help children construct more meaningful knowledge. Guest author, Roisín, reflects on a 'reflection tool' she has been exploring in her class.

As teachers, it is important to know if the tools and approaches we use are having the effect we want. The humble dry wipe board can provide a simple and convenient tool to quickly get into the minds of children and for the whole class to provide and share their input and feedback. So what impact can they have?

Dry wipe boards are versatile tools that can greatly enhance learning in the classroom. Their interactive and erasable nature makes them ideal for a variety of activities. Here are a bunch of practical ideas to use dry wipe boards to boost student engagement and participation.