My year in pictures

I decided yesterday morning, without much thought I have to add, to document 2013 in pictures.  My plan was to take a picture a day and upload them to a page on this blog. I duly took my first picture

The beginning of my year in pictures

and the year in pictures was under way.  Tweeting out the link to my page started a chain reaction that has resulted in my joining a Flickr group who are also documenting 2013 in pictures.  The rules are simple: take a photo a day and upload it to Flickr.  There is some leeway on uploading so don’t worry if you can’t commit to uploading every day. The important thing is to take a photo a day that you want to share with others.  If you’re interested in getting involved or want to have a look at the images already uploaded check out the #1photo hashtag on Twitter or the 1 pic a day 2013 Flickr Group.

My favourite present this year

Before Christmas my daughter told me she had made  a present for the family this year and that I would love it.  She wasn’t wrong!  From the outside it doen’t look like much

but inside it holds the thoughts of a 9 year old on Christmas  

She loves Christmas. I hope this love of Christmas will stay with her in the years to come

New additions to the Christmas tree

Every year there are new decorations for the Christmas trees and I have to admit that my favourites this year were made by my daughter.

Knitted Christmas stockings

The stocking on the left was knitted this year and it joins the stocking on the right which was one of the first things she knitted last year when she learned to knit.

Rundown of Christmas 2011

I’m looking forward to reading her rundown of all we did on Christmas Day 2011 in years to come

Interlopers at Christmas time

This post was originally published in December 2011 on Chantelle Wallace’s blog.

I’m sure that lots of people would be horrified to see the contents of our Christmas crib. We have the usual suspects: Mary, Joseph, the Shepherd, the Angel, the three Wise Men, a cow, a sheep, a donkey and of course the baby Jesus. We’ve had this crib for more than 20 years, and for the last 10 years it has had an additional character that some would probably find blasphemous. When my now 13 year old son was 3, we went for a Christmas lunch with my mum and some of my brothers and sisters, to a local Chinese restaurant. At the end of the meal,the waiter brought us the bill, with After Eights for the adults and a lollipop and a box for my son. Inside the box was a little Chinese figure.

When we got home he went to the crib and put the little figure in among the rest of the characters. At the time he had a penchant for moving around the characters in the crib, so every time you looked, the arrangement of characters had changed, but the Chinese figure was always there. That year when we were packing up the crib, he insisted that the figure was wrapped up with everything else. Now every year when the crib is put up, the little Chinese figure always features. It always brings a smile to my face as it reminds me of a magical time

Graduation

http://free-extras.com/images/graduation_diploma-2098.htm

Last Friday saw graduation day at LIT Tipperary.  It’s a day I love in the college year because all you see are beaming smiles: from the graduates, their parents and their loved ones.  You know the blood, sweat and tears that go into getting that piece of parchment for so many.

For me it’s also a day when I think of my Dad.  I graduated with a B. Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Limerick on the 14th of September 1990 and from the carry on of my Dad on the day you’d swear I was the only one graduating!!  Himself and my Mum were so proud that day.  Sadly he died before my M. Sc. graduation in November 2005 but my Mum was proud enough for them both.

I had decided not to go to my Masters graduation.  I started my Masters back in 1998 and completed the exams that followed until May 2000.  Rather than complete my thesis during the summer of 2000 I decided to put it off  for a few months as by then I had a 9 month old who was keeping me busy This turned out to be a very bad decision because ultimately it took me until August 2005 to complete the thesis.  A move down the country, a new job and a new baby got in the way!  As a result I was the only one of my group to graduate when I did.  This coupled with the timing of the graduation ceremony led me to decide not to go.  When I told my Mum I wasn’t going she was so disappointed that I relented and I have to say I’m glad I did.  I would have regretted not going especially as it was such an important day for her.  This really was a case of mother knows best

Neither of my parents got the opportunity to progress much past primary formal education so for them, and particularly for my Mum, it was very important that their children got a good education.  My mum made many sacrifices to ensure that I got the opportunity to go to college and to complete my studies so I have her to thank for where I am today.

Are you a helicopter parent?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wikiworldcomic/1236894043/

For those of you who haven’t heard the term, a ‘helicopter parent’ is so called because they hover around their children and get too involved in their lives, particularly on the educational side.  I would never have considered myself a helicopter parent but the last few months have made me question this.  We have made the transition from primary to secondary school this year.  It has been a successful transition but it hasn’t been without it’s speed bumps along the way!  As a college lecturer I am very aware of the need to make my children independent learners.  As my son worked his way up through primary school I found that we got into a routine where he took on more responsibility for things like getting to and from school and completing his homework.  By sixth class I rarely checked his homework – we employed a spot check system which worked very well.

For his first week in secondary school I was on holidays and was quite shocked at how difficult I found it waiting for him to come in the door to see how it was going.  You can tell so much from the droop of the shoulders as your child walks towards you.  Some days in that first couple of weeks the shoulders were square and other days there was a definite droop! Moving from primary to secondary is such a huge change – children are moving from one teacher, one class and one bag of books that are all in play all of the time to multiples of all three.  One of the biggest problems he had at the start was getting on top of which collection of textbooks, hardback copies and regular copies were needed on any given day – another difficulty was getting the correct collection of books from the locker into the classroom.  A tip from my sister to colour code by subject was such a simple idea and yet you just wouldn’t believe how much it helped  It’s amazing how something small like this can give a child back some control at a time when they feel completely overwhelmed.

The hovering has extended to more rigorous checking of homework which hasn’t always been appreciated!  From my perspective I recognise the need to get into good habits early on which will stand to him as he progresses through secondary and beyond but I can see why he sees it as a retrograde step.  This one is still under negotiation as on many occasions homework is completed in free classes or during lunch break.  It all seems to be going ok so far so we’ll just have to keep an eye on that one.

We’re now two months down the line and he has really settled into secondary school – he told me last week that he loves the variety of subjects and teachers.  He really seems to be connecting with some of the new subjects and to my delight he seems to be re-connecting with some of the ones he had already been exposed to.  There has been a lot of talk about teachers playing such a big part in how students connect with their subjects and I can see this in action already.  As educators we have such an important role to play and we should never forget this.

http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/8742-powerful-quotes-for-teachers-printer-friendly-version

Now that things have settled I’m ready to land the helicopter and I’m looking forward to it

It’s been a year and I’m still here …

One year ago today I wrote my first blog post and so began a journey that I’m really enjoying.  For someone who didn’t regard herself as a writer, I have been bowled over by how much I’ve enjoyed writing my posts and how much of me has come through in the blog.  It’s been a bit neglected at times as other things have taken precedence, but I’ve come back to it every time.

My first post set out my resolutions as I started into a new academic year this time last year.  Some I achieved and some I didn’t, but I’m on the case of those I didn’t so watch this space for future blog posts about screencasting and pencasting.

The most popular posts over the year have been

1. Isn’t it ironic

2. Time to say goodbye

3. I was never good at Maths

The top two have a lot to do with the choice of title, which also happen to be names of popular songs, so that might be a tip to drive views on your blog  I found this out by chance!

The post that took me by surprise most was a very personal one that I never envisaged writing but somehow it seemed to make sense to write.  This post about my dad that I wrote back in February changed how I viewed the blog.  Up to then I saw the blog as more of  a professional blog but over the past few months the lines have become blurred and I’m ok with that.  I’m looking forward to continuing with the blog over the coming months and years.

Time to say goodbye …

image from http://godzgurlz.com/content/time-say-goodbye

Today was my 12 year old’s last day in Primary school.  The occasion was marked with a graduation mass which gave us parents a last chance to go into the school.  As I looked at my son and his friends I was reminded of the first time we went in to school for their nativity play in Junior Infants.  There was great excitement as little boys sought out their mammies and daddies and settled once they saw them.  There wasn’t the same need for reassurance today but I still got the thumbs up just to let me know that my presence was noted

It’s hard to believe that 8 years have passed since he first started in school, and yet, now here we are, finished and facing a whole new world of secondary school.  Today was an emotional day for many parents, this one included, and when one of the boys sang ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ there was a tear or two shed.

Following this with a rendition of ‘The Graduation Song’ sung by all the boys was enough to send us all searching for the tissues!!

There is a real sense of anticipation in the boys.  They’re ready to move on and yet there is a hesitance in saying goodbye.  Most of them have been together all the way through primary school and they have become a very tightly knit group.  Next year will bring changes in that dynamic as they end up in different schools and different classes within the same school.  My wish for them all, as they move into the next phase, is that the strong friendships that they have forged will withstand the changes.

Hanging out

http://www.gapingvoidart.com/gallery/

The last few months at work have been very busy with Programmatic Review, Games Fleadh, preparation for the ICT in Education conference not to mention the actual day job of lecturing!!  Thrown into the mix there’s Coder Dojo – in Limerick and Thurles and in the next few weeks the Nenagh Dojo is coming on stream.  It’s easy in all the hustle and bustle to forget what’s really important.  This has been brought back to me this week – it’s been great just hanging out with my children and not running and racing everywhere.  Don’t get me wrong, we all need some routine, but it’s really good to get out of routine too.  There’s been no uniforms, no packed lunches, late nights, late mornings and it’s been brilliant.  We’ve had friends around, gone to the cinema and the plan for tomorrow is a trip to Turoe Pet Farm (well worth a trip if you’re in the environs of Loughrea ) but mostly we’ve just hung out.

The other thing I’ve really enjoyed this week is being able to interact with people on Twitter in a more meaningful way.  My interactions of late have been of the hit and run variety so it’s been great to be able to get involved in conversations with various people over the week.  I’ve enjoyed having the time to do that.

Credit Union Quiz 2012

Sunday 1st April saw the family travelling to Dublin on a bus at 8.30am.  What had us on the bus was my 12 year old, who along with 3 boys from his school, qualified for the Credit Union Schools Quiz National Final.  There were two competitions on the day – under 11 and under 13.  There were fifty teams in each competition – two from each of the twenty five Credit Union chapters across Ireland.  The boys from Nenagh CBS were the first team from the school to reach the National finals and were competing in the under 13 competition.

We arrived at 10.30 and the boys registered.  While everyone got settled Lorcan Murray got things going with requests for the teams and warm up questions interspersed with lots of music.  Next up was photographs for all of the teams with Marty Whelan, quiz master extraordinaire for the day.

At 1.30 the real work for the teams began with 10 rounds of 6 questions each for the under 11 competition and 12 rounds of 6 questions each for the under 13 competitions.  The standard was just amazing with the teams answering questions that many of their parents and teachers weren’t able to answer (well this parent anyway ).  By the end of the under 13 competition the top eight teams were as follows:

St Patrick’s National School on 64 points representing Enniscorthy Credit Union

Ardfert Central National School on 64 points representing Tralee Credit Union

Scoil Mhuire on 63 points representing Kinvara Credit Union

St Oliver’s National School on 63 points representing Killarney Credit Union

Gaelscoil Ui Riada on 62 points representing Bishopstow Credit Union

St Mary’s Boys National School on 61 points representing Maynooth Credit Union

Nenagh CBS on 60 points representing Nenagh Credit Union

St Patrick’s National School respresenting Donabate & District Credit Union

We had a great day in the RDS, thanks to the boys, and a lovely meal when we got home, thanks to Nenagh Credit Union.  At one point towards the end of the competition, the lads were in joint 3rd place, only 2 points off the lead, so there there was great excitement and much nail biting among the parents and teachers. We were all so proud of them that they did so well in the competition.