In quarantine there was nothing to do.  I was just playing football and playing my Xbox. When I left school I brought all my books and I was tired of the work at home. So my mother let me stop doing it.

I got an email from school because I was watching my mother’s phone. The message was from my teacher so I gave it to my mother and she read it. She said there would be online school using Zoom.  It was alright but my internet was bad so it wasn’t that good for me. It was to chat will all the 5th class boys in the breakout rooms. It was every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

We finished Zoom for the summer and it zoomed by! Before we knew it we were going back to school. We are now in school in Garrymore Hall because a new classroom is being built in Gortskehy. It’s great to see all my friends and playing on the astroturf is great.

At the end of our last Zoom lesson the girls in the Senior Room read notes they had written for Aoife, Kellyann and Ruby while the boys sent best wishes to Abdul, Bradley, Cathal and Evan. During your time in Gortskehy you brought a smile to school every day and will be such an asset to Mount St. Michael and St. Colman’s. Beir bua agus beannacht go deo. We’ll miss you.

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This is the story of Noel Joyce an unfortunate hurler who, following a bang to the head, managed to score an own goal and lose the county final for his team. We planned it as part of our weekly Zoom lessons. The pupils recorded their allocated lines at home and we stitched the clips together to create this final video.

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This short video is a snapshot of how we used Zoom during the Covid-19 lockdown.

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From our experience over the past few weeks, here are some practical tips which may be helpful to other schools.

– Set up one recurring Zoom meeting for all sessions and have pupils register before joining. In this way, the same link and meeting ID works for all sessions. Having pupils register also means that the results from Zoom meeting polls are linked to each pupil in your class.

– Set up breakout rooms by class (boys/girls). Before most of our Zoom lessons pupils log in early so they can chat to each other privately in the group breakout rooms. Some also chat together after each lesson and it’s a great social aspect to the Zoom Education platform.

– At the start of each lesson click on the ‘Participants’ button and ask pupils to raise their virtual hand to make sure they all can hear you.

– Mute all microphones at the start of the lesson. Pupils can unmute their own microphones as required.

– Use the Chat feature for feedback and to check for understanding. This is useful on a number of levels:
1) everyone is engaged at the same time;
2) feedback is private so pupils don’t have to worry about being unsure of the answer;
3) the teacher can accurately assess who understands the particular concept and who doesn’t.

– Bring in a guest speaker. Almost every community has some friend or family members living abroad so there’s great excitement in interviewing them on Zoom.

– Sharing video can have mixed results depending on the quality of the pupils’ internet connection. Maybe, try podcasts instead. Get the children to write two or three questions in their copies as they listen. Have a Q & A session after every 10 minutes using the pupil questions to keep the lesson interactive. Check out Imagined Life and American Innovations

– In a multi-class setting, maths lessons are best held in individual class groups. All other subject lessons work fine in common.

– Team teaching on Zoom with the SEN teacher works great.

To complete our Christmas concert in @Garrymore the pupils sang Daidí na Nollag, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Do You Hear What I Hear?, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Merry Christmas Everyone. The children performed so well and we are all very proud of them.

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Gortskehy Drama: December 2019 Programme