John Heffernan

Interesting maps of the US presidential election http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/

Does the word discipline in schools need to be changed? I bought Patton on Leadership for my brother a couple of Christmas ago and I recently was flicking through it and one or two articles caught my attention. Patton for those who don't know him was regarded of one of the better generals of the WW2, a strict disciplinarian and tactical genius who was noted for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. This book attempts to relate some of the maxims of Patton into a corporate business environment. Topics such as leadership, planning, decision making are covered well in it but the articles on discipline within the army have some interesting notes for education. He was well known for being very strict on little things such as dress code (for example that all his men would wear clean shirt and tie when not on the front line) as he felt that if they did not feel part of a team, they would not succeed as one. Uniform helped to enforce that sense of belonging. More interestin...

Ways to use weblogs in education You might like to create a reflective, journal type blog to... Must not forget this link http://anvil.gsu.edu/EduBlogInsights/2004/10/05#a668

Good Teachers + Small Classes = Quality Education My current gripe with the education sector is with the excess teaching capacity at second level and soon to be in primary level and no jobs for these teachers in the short term. Why not put the resources into Education give all new teachers a 5 year contracts to see if they are suited to the profession and to allieviate the large class numbers within some schools as the headline states this could be the way to go. "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." ~Attributed to both Andy McIntyre and Derek Bok http://www.quotegarden.com/education.html http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/education/26memo.html?ex=1401508800&en=69b21e2db1d8f847&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND may require free registering

Came across this on the BBC news website. ASTI are you listening......... 'Give new teachers jobs' call Teachers have to complete an induction year Wales' largest teaching union is calling on the assembly's education minister to guarantee all newly-qualified teachers in Wales a job. NUT Cymru says the lack of permanent posts in Wales means many new teachers feel demoralised and even misled into joining the profession rest of the article is here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/3612614.stm

Is Soccer more American than Baseball? http://slate.msn.com/id/2103170/fr/ifr/ some interesting points....

Is Soccer more American than Baseball? http://slate.msn.com/id/2103170/fr/ifr/ some interesting points....

Reading an article in Leask,M "Issues in teaching ICT", one of the contributors, Christine Preston (P190 for those interested) writes that teachers are not guided in the management of change. Papert in one of his books describes a hypothetical situation where a group of surgeons and a group of teachers are transported from the 1900's to the present day. The modern day operating theatre is alien to the surgeons while the modern day classroom more comfortable than a 1900 equivalent is still functionally the same. How would we look at the classroom of today in a 100 years time? Will there be a classroom within a building? Will Children be taught by mechanical nannies? Will they will be called teacher or have a new title knowledge dispensers.? Change always occurs. Maybe teachers need to learn the lesson that to direct the bucking bull of change you need to be on top of it, not to be dragged by it. On a similar vein does anyone remember a story in a sixth class...

The return of Roy Guess who is back, back again? Roy Keane is due to make a return to the Irish squad. Should he be allowed to return or should he be banished for good? The Irish soccer civil war is set to occur again. I reckon Kerr is capable of handling Keane. Kerr knows how to deal with players and get the most out of them. Kerr is the professional manager that Keane wants. I wonder has Keane fallen out with Ferguson. I wonder what odds would you get for Keano to be playing with Celtic next season? The SPL is far less demanding than the Premiership so Keane could squeeze another two seasons in Parkhead.

I hate/love Lego.... One of the more interesting assignments on the Mite course is the Lego Mindstorm project. It has also been one of the more infuriating assignments I think I ever had to do. It did not start too good. 5pm Christmas Day- Kitchen table cleared. Box emptied. The three Heffernan boys start... and take a break to watch telly. My mother warned that if she found any Lego pieces on the floor she would hoover them up. This threat harks back to my childhood where the hoover devoured more than its fair share of Lego pieces. We lose Aidan after Stephen's Day to the pub. My brother Patrick and I, soldiered on through the Christmas period to create "an object to think with" (that was the exact title of the assignment I kid you not.) We decide on a page turner (I will link to pictures from my portfolio site later). We discover that there are a few small pieces missing from the Box and in contact with other Miters, some are having the same problem. ...

Students on the MITE course came from a range of different backgrounds, very few teachers from primary and secondary schools. Wide range of age and experience even a couple of erasmus students I think. Cant believe that I went back to college again, I swore that after the dip I was not going to put myself through that amount of work again. The good thing is that there is no exams. Whopeee......

Was on the 11 bus into work this morning, sitting at the back of the bus upstairs surrounded by students from Muckross, Gonzaga and Sandford park. One of the young lads was stiitng across from me reading Hamlet and one of the girls behind him was messing with him by pushing his head etc. I turned around and I had to bite my tongue to stop myself reprimanding her. Not my school, not my job anymore.

New job in a new area for me. Online learning college Hibernia College. Headed by a Mayo man, I will be working on Postgraduate Diploma in Primary Education. Helping H. Dips in UCD will come in handy. I would have loved to have worked part time for Propylon when I done my H.Dip as taking the year out between fees, expenses and loss of salary would have costed me nearly E30,000, there has to be a way to allow people to keep working and study as well. Teaching Colleges might learn a thing or two.

Had a great weekend in Galway. The National Venturer Forum had organised a n activity weekend based in the Renmore Scout Den. They had organised bouncy castle, Treasure hunt anda trip to the cinema. Ray (the movie extra) was in charge of the beach activities. It is great from a Leaders point of view, all we had to do was turn up, sit down and eat. No organising, no keeping people in line etc as the Forum committee did that themselves. There was a good turn out including a group for Girl guides from Cork whose leader was an ex SAG. The funniest thing of the weekend as coming back after watching the film "Intermission" in the cinema was the reenactment of the Chef brown sauce scene in the kitchen afterwards. You need to see the film to understand this one I am afraid. In my opinion it was not delish....

It has really hit me on the Sept 1st that I am not teaching as I saw the students coming out of Moyne College and Murdeachs at lunch time. All wearing brand new uniforms as they take their first lunch break. Looking forward to going back to college first time as a part time student. The course I am doing is M.Sc IT in Education see http://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/mscitedu/index.htm currently reading Howard Gardners Frames of mind.

Here are my photos from Poland. Enjoy. http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/crossmolinajohn/album?.dir=/Poland+2003

September comes as an afterthought of summer. There is still good weather but as the kids go back to school, the cycle of the year continues. Once you leave a job with only 4 weeks holidays and start teaching, you look forward to holidays with the same enthusiasm as a 10 year old. Also the same foreboding occurs as the copybook ads start to appear on the TV in August. Still no job.

I have come back from a month abroad, two weeks in Poland and two weeks in Spain. I have found out that the Poles have a longer school day than we have. Their classes last 50 mins but they have a 10 recess/break between each class. Their day start at 7:30/8:00 and finish at 3:30/4:00 depending on the school. THis method does have some merit so anyone who is trying to explain something in class as the bell goes and the class by Pavlovian conditioning instantly start packing their bag for next class can identify with.

So school is out for summer. You would have to pity the poor Leaving Certs and the pressure that they are under. Is the pressure that we put them under worthwhile. Do really many LCs really know what they want to do with the rest of their lives at the age of 17. I am a hell of a lot older than those LCs and I don't know what I want to be. The concept of a job for life is gone yet in secondary school we just gear them up for one small but pressurised part of that. Failure at the LC does not equate with failure in life yet to some students the Leaving is their raison etre. I read recently that one in 15 millionaires in the USA is a high school dropout. I suppose instead of teaching about the failures of the league of nations and dihedral angles on the vertical plane should be we be teaching them how to achieve their dreams and help overcome the difficulties and challenges that the real world will throw at them.

So school is out for summer. You would have to pity the poor Leaving Certs and the pressure that they are under. Is the pressure that we put them under worthwhile. Do really many LCs really know what they want to do with the rest of their lives at the age of 17. I am a hell of a lot older than those LCs and I don't know what I want to be. The concept of a job for life is gone yet in secondary school we just gear them up for one small but pressurised part of that. Failure at the LC does not equate with failure in life yet to some students the Leaving is their raison etre. I read recently that one in 15 millionaires in the USA is a high school dropout. I suppose instead of teaching about the failures of the league of nations and dihedral angles on the vertical plane should be we be teaching them how to achieve their dreams and help overcome the difficulties and challenges that the real world will throw at them.