Teachers and pupils taking to school online
COLÁISTE TREASA PRINCIPAL JOHN MURPHY TELLS REPORTER, CONCUBHAR Ó LIATHÁIN
EVEN though people are working from home, this is not a school holiday and this is especially true for the principal of Kanturk’s Coláiste Treasa, John Murphy.
Proof of this is how difficult he was to contact as efforts to reach him were stymied as the headmaster of the 550 pupil academy was engaged in phone calls and conference calls in recent days.
When The Corkman finally caught up with him, he observed: “It’s no holiday, that’s for sure. “It’s nearly worse.
“This is a very difficult and unprecedented situation that we all find ourselves in, presently. We at Coláiste Treasa are very concerned for the welfare of all our students,” he said. “We are endeavouring to maintain continuity of teaching and learning through the use of technology.”
However, Coláiste Treasa had prepared well and found itself in good stead when the schools were closed due to the current crisis. A crucial starting point in this process was the decision in 2011 to use iPads as a teaching aid. “All the teachers and pupils use iPads.
“They’re not the be all and end all but they are a great educational tool,” said John. “While some of the teachers were reluctant to use them initially, now they’d sooner have their right hand chopped off than part with them.”
Over the years teachers have used platforms such as Edmodo to set work for students who might be absent due to participation in school events such as matches or through illness or the like.
“All students have ebooks for each subject as well as physical textbooks and notes to work with,” said Mr Murphy. “We are using all the resources at our disposal. Teachers are setting work for students through our Microsoft Office 365 emails system,” he said. “Some, are using Microsoft Teams very effectively, some are using Edmodo, Goggle Classroom and YouTube, or a mix of these.
“Both teachers and Leaving Certificate students also have access to Studyclix.
“All these platforms are helping teachers support students during the school closure. It is vitally important that we all follow the HSE guidelines, in particular, social distancing and hand hygiene. “By working together we will get through this.”
Morale is high among the 550 pupil and 44 teacher school community, “People are in good spirits,” he said.
Parents, as always, can stay abreast of their childrens’ progress, through the VSHARE app where their timetable, reports and attendance sheets are updated regularly.
“We haven’t been sending out reports by post for a while, except on request, and this way, parents
Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald
can log in and see for themselves if their children are keeping up satisfactorily with their assigned work.”
As the system has been up and running for a number of years, technical and access issues have been ironed out, he said, though a small minority of cases existed where there were broadband access issues.