Roisin pens new Junior cycle book
WITH all the excitement of the last Junior Cert results last week it is easy to forget that slowly but surely the landscape for secondary school children is changing and year by year new Junior Cycle is taking over.
The second subject to morph into Junior Cycle is Business Studies.
All first years in the country are following the new syllabus with its emphasis on students being active learners through research, pair and group work.
Local teacher Róisín Mallon, a native of Ravensdale who works in St Louis Secondary School has embraced these changes, producing a book which a huge number of schools nationwide have already chosen for their Business Studies students.
Róisín explained that she was approached by Educate.ie to write a textbook for the New Junior Cycle Business Studies course.
‘I thought long and hard about the challenge and understood how much work was involved.’
‘However, it is such a privilege to be asked and I recognised an opportunity that I could not pass up.
I am passionate about the subject I teach and I wanted to make sure my book was user friendly, interesting and engaging for students and that they could relate the subject to the world around them.’
She explained that the new book – NETWORK, which comes with a workbook, ‘ has content similar to the old course but with a whole shift in emphasis to the student’s active learning.’
Roisin pointed out the changes in the new Junior cycle programmes.
‘ The new course embraces more recent business concepts in line with the world today such as consumer responsibilities, and sustainability, and a there is also a greater focus on Economics, so perhaps the bankers of tomorrow may be wiser than those of the past!’
Delighted to see the first copy of the book in print, she said: ‘I am thrilled to have the book finally published and in schools around the country.’
And she has already begun to practice what she preaches, adding: ‘I have just started to use it with my first year class and look forward to teaching the subject in the future.’
St. Louis principal Lorraine Quigley congratulated Roisin on the success of her new book: ‘It is heartening to see Dundalk leading the way in the education sector.’