We love using technology to aid us with our learning in Esker. We use laptops and interactive whiteboards in every class in the school from junior infants to 6th class. We Skype professionals to find out more about their jobs and ask them questions. We use websites like DuoLingo and Khan Academy to help us learn. We use Twitter and our school website to show our parents what we get up to in school. We use Edmodo and Class Dojo to communicate with each other and our teachers and to turn in homework. We use the internet for research, learn about online safety and even use websites like GoNoodle to keep active when the weather is too bad to go outside and play. Our teachers go on courses to learn about using technology such as Microbits and share what they have learnt with us and other teachers. Technology is a big part of school life at Esker, come take a look at!
Technology 2018-2019
Coding, scratch & Microbits
In 5th Class we have been learning how to code using Scratch and Microbits. One of our daily Maths stations always includes coding of some kind. When we have successfully created a game or animation, we are encouraged by our teacher to present our work to the class. Of course, it is great fun to play the games our friends have made, but it is also interesting to examine the code they have used in order to make the game work!
One of our favourite Microbit projects so far has been making a pedometer or a 'Fitbit,' which we then used to track the steps we took when partaking in our daily 1k jog.
We also liked transforming our Microbit into a 'Magic 8 Ball.' There seems to be some bug in this one's code, however, as it seems to be suggesting that teachers aren't nice!
Electronic circuits - Makey makeys
We experimented with Makey Makeys to see how to complete circuits in unusual ways! We played the piano with bananas!
Then it got really interesting...as we investigated how we could combine our skills on Scratch with the Makey Makey. Have a look at this amazing (and functional!) control pad, made with cardboard and thumb tacks!
sHARING OUR STEM WORK WITH TWITTER
We make sure to tweet when we do exciting things in STEM so that we can fill our parents in on our learning!
tECHNOLOGY TO HELP WITH HOMEWORK
In order to get the most learning possible out of our homework, we use a site called Edmodo. We all have a username and password. When we log in, we can ask for assistance from our classmates if we are finding anything a bit tricky. Our teacher then uploads a picture of people's answers when she looks at our work so that we can use these examples to make any necessary corrections.
bEE BOT PROGRAMMING
We love playing games on our interactive white boards and programming Bee Bot and creating a maze for him to navigate in Junior and Senior Infants. It is one of our first steps on our technology journey in Esker. As we move up the school we will be learning scratch and how to use Microbits and lots of other cool things just like you have seen from 5th and 6th Class. We hope when we go to secondary school we will be ready to learn coding with Python thanks to all we have learnt.
Junior Infants.
Junior Infants.
Senior Infants
mORE MICROBIT FUN
6th Class have been learning how to programme and use Microbits this year. We have made thermometers, pedometers and all sorts of things take a look at our photos and videos.
Making thermometer from a Microbit.
scratch
We also love the chance to make and play a game on Scratch in 6th Class! We design games and then challeneg another person in the class to play it.
Twitter We love using technology to showcase our Science and other STEM work at Esker. Our classes use our school website and Twitter to update our families. Check out some posts from 1st Class! https://twitter.com/1stErica?protected_redirect=true
Technology 2017-2018
We love using technology to aid us with our learning in Esker. We use laptops and interactive whiteboards in every class in the school from junior infants to 6th class. We Skype professionals to find out more about their jobs and ask them questions. We use websites like DuoLingo and Khan Academy to help us learn. We use Twitter and our school website to show our parents what we get up to in school. We use Edmodo and Class Dojo to communicate with each other and our teacher and to turn in homework. We use our school email addresses to email TD's to discuss Green Schools and Global Citizenship concerns. We use the internet for research, learn about online safety and even use websites like GoNoodle to keep active when the weather is too bad to go outside and play. Technology is a big part of school life at Esker, come take a look at!
Look at Beebot! Beebot is a special robot that lives in senior infants that helps us with our numbers and sounds. We must tell Beebot where to go by programming him with the correct directions!
We also love learning how to code in Scratch Club after school with Niamh. We have made our own computer games that we play with our friends.
You don't have to be in our after school club to learn Scratch. 3rd class spent six weeks this year learning how to use Scratch!
We have an interactive white board in every class, we love using it for Gaeilge Games in 6th class, watching maths videos on Khan Academy and New2Day on TRTE. In our junior classes whiteboards are great for story time, and helping us to have fun with Maths.
Everyone in Esker loves a Go Noodle brain break !
In 5th class we used our class laptops to make Prezi presentations of our projects. We thought they looked very professional!
In 6th class we were very lucky to use technology to help us learn more about Engineering, due to the snow storm an engineer couldn't come and speak with us but we were able to Skype Jason Whyte a Chemical and Electrical engineer from Pfizer.
We use laptops to help us with research when we work on Genius Hour projects. We also used them during Engineering Week to look at the Engineers Week website to help us gain ideas for our projects. We accessed and watched Steve Spangler Science videos, You Tube, Space Week website and the Discover Primary Science website to help us gain ideas for investigations. Below you can see 5th class researching engineering projects and 6th class working on Mangahigh problems for the Maths Week competition.
Of course we also use our technology for communication. Our school has a wonderful website that is updated by teachers and pupils, each class and our school has a Twitter page and in 6th Class we use Edmodo to communicate with each other and turn in homework. Our 6th class Twitter page spread our good work on noise pollution and had it recognised by the Dublin Airport Authority and we were able to go on a trip to Dublin Airport. Read more about this and see the photos in the science section of this website. We also use other resources such as Duo Lingo, and Khan Academy.
In 6th class we have our own school email addresses. We are learning how to communicate professionally through email and how to stay safe online. As part of our schools Global Citizenship work we emailed local politicians to ask them what they were doing for climate action in the Lucan area and to offer our suggestions.