For me this was a weekend of remembering those who are no longer with us. The annual putting up of the Christmas tree brought a poignant memory of Bianca Ni Ghrógáin ….
… and hearing my dad’s favourite song on what would have been his 74th birthday brought it’s own memories.
I’m blessed to be surrounded by women who encourage, support and inspire me. On this Ada Lovelace day I’d like to acknowledge some of these women and pass on my gratitude for all that they do. Women like Mags Amond, Susan Nic Réamoinn, Catherine Cronin, Mary Loftus, Leigh Graves Wolf, Pam Moran and Hellie Bullock. What started as an online connection with all of these people has, over the past few years, developed into real friendships that have sustained me through good times and bad.
I’ve been involved in CoderDojo and the Youth Media Team over the past few years. In both of these groups I have come across girls who inspire me with their sense of enthusiasm, fun and a dedication to get the job done.
I think it’s fair to say the future is in safe hands … 🙂
Of course a blog post about inspiring women wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the one and only Bianca Ni Ghrógáin. It’s a bit surreal to be referring to Bianca as someone who is no longer with us, because over the past few weeks I have felt her impact in so many events that I have attended, from DojoCon to Féilte to MegaDojo. Her legacy lives on in so much of what we do …
![IMG_7837[1]](https://pamobriensblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/img_78371.jpg)
As Amy came to the end of her time in Primary school
in June, our conversations turned to her favourite moments from her 8 years in the school. What surprised me was the simple natiure of her favourite memory – her teddy bear’s picnic in senior infants. When I probed why this stood out she told me that Mrs. Fahy brought in a blanket, they got to go in ‘the field’ (previously forbidden territory), and they got jellies for themselves and their teddies. The icing on the cake was that she got to bring in ‘Trudi’ – her favourite bear 🙂
I’ve written this post as part of Julia Skinner’s 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups. You can find out more about the challenge here.
One of my favourite treats when I was a kid was a Dip Dab. I loved the combination of the small, flat, red lollipop teamed with the impossibly fine sherbet sugar that fizzed on my tongue. They seemed to have disappeared over the years but a while back I noticed that they were back in the shops again. Should I just savour the memories or should I try one again? With my daughter as the perfect cover I bought us one each. Worried it would disappoint I settled down to try it … but it made my tongue tingle 🙂
I’ve written this post as part of Julia Skinner’s 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups. You can find out more about the challenge here.
Prompted by Catherine Cronin’s #blimage post last week I’ve decided to take up the challenge and share an image that embodies so much about learning for me. The idea behind #blimage is to blog in response to an image. When it came to picking the image, the one that kept coming to mind was …
There is so much about this image that I love. It was taken at the ICT in Education conference in April this year and it includes Ciaran Cannon TD and Bianca Ní Ghrógáin as well as my daughter and some of her friends. I’m using the image here with the kind permission of Ciaran.
There are so many layers to this image that make it such a powerful one for me; the sheer joy that jumps out, the casual inclusion of technology and finally the bringing together of the powerful triumvirate of an inspiring, fire starter of an educator, a group of enthusiastic, inquisitive students and a member of parliament who is truly interested and passionate about the use of technology in education. What is most poignant about the image, is that since it was taken, we have lost the truly unique educator that Bianca was. On a personal level I’ve also lost a good friend, who along with others has shaped my ever evolving thinking on teaching and learning.
This image perfectly captures Bianca’s style of leading from the back. She had a knack of not getting in the way of the learning that goes on. So many of us, myself included, can often fall into the trap of over directing how and when students learn. Having observed Bianca in many educational settings, from her own classroom, to CoderDojo sessions, to workshops at conferences among others, what always struck me was that she was prepared to take chances by not over prescribing how things were going to work. She trusted that learning would happen and she was willing to let it evolve with a carefully placed nudge here and there. On the day before the conference in April, Bianca and Susan Nic Reamoinn did a workshop with the girls using technology such as BeeBots, Kano and Makey Makey. These were technologies that the girls hadn’t used before, and yet by the following day the girls were happily demonstrating what they’d learned with a confidence that didn’t even hint at the very short length of time that they had actually used them for.
I’m going to cheat a little by using a second image in this post.
This picture was also taken at the conference and captures the fun that was so much a part of that 24 hours. It’s a timely reminder of the joy to be found in learning …
This question has been on my mind for the past while. When I started this blog almost four years ago I was a frequent poster and I really enjoyed writing them. Over the past few years I’ve found it more difficult to find the time to blog because I’ve taken on new modules to teach which have taken up a lot of time. What’s been frustrating, is that when I’ve subsequently had the time to write, the question has been … but what will I write! It’s time to reconnect so watch this space as there are a few ideas bubbling …
I’ve written this post as part of Julia Skinner’s 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups. You can find out more about the challenge here.
Today was an emotional one as Amy had her graduation assembly from Primary School this morning. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost eight years since she started her formal education as a shy, quiet four year old. Now, in front of me, I see a quietly confident young girl ready for the move to secondary school.
It was lovely to be invited in to the school today, to be part of the celebrations as Amy and her friends looked backed on their years together, through the lovely version of the ‘You’re going to miss us when we’re gone’ song they performed and the fantastic slideshow their teacher put together of the happy times they’d shared.
Emotions were running high in the girls, their mums and their teachers as they bade farewell to their time in Primary.
For me, today was also about saying goodbye to this fantastic group of girls I’ve gotten to know over the years, through my visits to their class to help them to use technology. In the first few years our times together involved using content that had already been created by others, but over the years this developed into us creating our own content through applications such as Animoto, Glogster, Scratch, HTML and so much more. I was so delighted to have some of the girls over for the ICT in Education conference back in April. The played a blinder as expected and really seemed to take to the task of showcasing their work.
My wish for the girls, as they go their separate ways, is that the strong bonds of friendship that have been forged over the past eight years will stand the test of time …
My week involved spending lots of time with family and friends 🙂
Tuesday March 4th saw me in the Dublin HQ of Microsoft for the Imagine Cup National Finals. Imagine Cup is a global student competition run by Microsoft. Two Games students from Limerick Institute of Technology, Joseph Bentley and Ger Stone, had entered the competition and asked me to be their mentor. To our delight they were chosen for the National Finals in the Games category. On the day, there were finalists in three categories – Games, Innovation and World Citizenship. First up the team had to demo their product to attendees on the day. This seemed to go really well with people really liking Cavernauts, their cave based game.
Next up was the presentation to the judges. Despite a few technical difficulties, this too went well, with Joe and Ger dealing with both the tech difficulties as well as any questions from the judges. We were delighted to be deemed the winners in the Games category later that evening.
So, now we’re through to the World Semi Finals – woohoo 🙂 This involves producing a 10 minute video presentation and a proposal document to be completed by this coming Wednesday, 30th April. Over the last few weeks the lads have moved the game on from a prototype to a more rounded game with additional functionality. It’s now available for download on itch.io. Wish us well in the next phase of the competition (oh and download the game please 🙂 ).
On New Years Day 2013 I took a notion that I would take a picture every day in 2013. As a non photographer, I’m not sure where this notion came from, but I’m so glad that I decided to do it, and even more glad that I put it out on Twitter that I was going to do it. By the end of the day I was part of a Flickr group of more than 50 people, all of whom were taking on the 1 picture a day challenge. It was an eclectic mix of people spread across the globe. Through the pictures uploaded by the members of the group we got a window into each others lives which I personally loved. For me, being part of a group helped me to keep taking pictures every day and I’m delighted to have taken a picture every day during the year. There was more than one occasion where I realised after 10pm that I had no picture taken for that day so I found myself taking pictures of some of the regular items around my house! Notwithstanding the poor quality of some of these pictures I’m happy to have a series of summary pictures which evoke some very happy memories of :
– a very sunny summer spent traipsing the country
– the conferences I attended, spoke at and organised during the year
– my interactions with CoderDojo during the year
– some of the beautiful sunrises and sunsets that have obviously happened in previous years but which I wasn’t really that aware of
– the trips to the movies and other places I went went to with my son, daughter and nieces and nephews
… and so much more.
I’ve already signed up for the 2014 1 picture a day challenge which I am really looking forward to 🙂
You can see a snapshot of my 2013 below or you can browse the individual pictures at my year in pictures page.
January Summary
February Summary
March Summary
April Summary
May Summary
June Summary
July Summary
August summary
September Summary
October Summary
November Summary
December Summary
Pam O'Brien's blog 