Primary CPD Newsletter Issue 8

Fáilte!

Welcome to the eighth issue of Primary CPD Newsletter!

https://sites.google.com/site/primarycpd/home

This newsletter aims to provide teachers with regular updates on items relevant to the teaching and learning taking place in Irish Primary Schools,

and in particular, those items relevant to Mathematics.

A chara,

Wow! What a busy two months! Maths week in October, then Science week in November, parent teacher meetings, Croke Park hours, preparation for Christmas productions etc, etc. I'm sure you're looking forward to the break as much as I am!

Speaking of Croke Park hours, we spent two, very worthwhile hours, on Monday evening in the company of Seán Fallon of http://www.antibullyingcampaign.ie . The site has lots of great free resources and tools, suitable for 1st & 2nd level - all you have to do is register to access them. One in particular that caught my eye was that of the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the bullies that used to laugh, call him names, exclude him etc., which highlights how much bullying can be a part of lives and how we can be unaware of it's prevalence and impact. Interestingly, I had also come across this related story on Twitter of how a teacher's demonstration to her class about how pictures spread on the internet, had gone viral http://bit.ly/18nZnrE

I, too, have been quite busy with evening courses and courses in schools as part of Croke Park hours, where, by the way, the most sought after input was in the areas of Problem-Solving as well as Mental & Oral Maths; keep an eye out for a post on Mental Maths in the New Year. I also decided to finally give my website a mush needed freshen up - take a look if you get a chance!

Some of my most recent posts focussed on fractions, displays and a more indepth look at the Spelling City site; if you want to keep up with these posts as they are published you can follow me on twitter or facebook.

This is also the final newsletter of 2013. It has been a very busy but productive year; the first newsletter went out in January, and since then I started tweeting in earnest, pinning on Pinterest, as well as adding a Facebook page and Teachers Pay Teachers profile to the Primary CPD family. I sincerely hope that these sites, along with the newsletter, have been of some use to you this year. As always, if there's any area that you would like to see developed in more detail in a post and/or the coming newsletters, please let me know.

Nollaig shona agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!

Le gach dea-ghuí

Claire

Spelling City I know I mentioned this before but I think this is a little gem and so I wanted to share more info about it in this post.