Twitter and Primary Education (2)

The first week of the Twitter Experiment ended on Friday and a total of 21 Irish primary schools and 120 tweets were broadcast using the hashtag #twexp1.  I had expected a much smaller uptake for the week so was delighted to see the number of schools tweeting.  The focus of #twexp1 (TWitter EXPeriment 1) was to help children learn about each others’ local area, a key aim of the Geography curriculum at primary level in Irish schools.  Although there were some prompting questions, such as to name the river closest to one’s school, the main aim was to keep conversation flowing so tweets did not necessarily have to have educational merit.  It was my job to sift through the tweets to get the educational stuff and post it up here!

From what I can ascertain from all the tweets, 10 counties were represented, 6 Leinster counties, 3 Munster counties and 1 Connaught county.  No one from Ulster joined us this time.

About a third of the tweets contained some geographical / educational information.  I’ll paste them here under the headings of the tweeters.

Carlow Educate Together NS (@carlowetns)

• There are lots of schools in Carlow Town
• There is a funfair every few months in the GAA club
• Our school has 63 children in it this year. We’ll have 92 next year.
• There are two big parks in Carlow Town – Oak Park and the Town Park. Oak park is very famous
• One of the trees in Oak Park is one of the oldest trees in Ireland
• Carlow is famous for hurling but we only win minor championships
• The River Barrow runs through Carlow Town
• Just back from the swimming pool – that’s probably the closest we have to getting near the sea in Carlow!
• Another fact about Carlow: the colours of the Carlow flag are green, yellow & red – the same as the colours on the Lithuanian flag

Dysart NS (@DysartNS )

• Scoil Pádraig Naofa, Dysart, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath are happy to join the project. We are looking forward to tweeting!!

Lisavaird NS (@lisavaird51)

• my school is Lisavaird N.S. our website is http://www.lisavairdns.com we’re a small village near clonakilty west cork
• Michael Collins came from Lisavaird and he is a past pupil from our school we have a role book that has his name in it
• In English Lisavaird means fort of the bard

Athy Model School (@athymodel)

• we have a lovely new swimming pool in Athy.

CBS Tralee (@CBSTralee)

• Our school is called CBS Primary, Tralee, Co Kerry. We are in 4th Class
• Tralee (from the Irish: Trá Lí meaning “strand of the Lee (river)” is the largest town in Co Kerry.
• The highest mountain in Ireland is in Kerry. It is called Carrauntoohil and is 3,406 feet tall
• Famous past pupils of our school include Paschal Sheehy, Dick Spring, Ger Power and Mikey Sheehy
• Football is very important in Tralee. Kerry have 36 All-Ireland Football titles, and we hope to make it 37 this year
• Our school blog can be found at www.scoilmhuirenambraithre.blogspot.com

Newmarket N.S. (@BaileRoibin)

• Our school is called St. Brendan’s N.S. but is also known as Newmarket N.S.

Broughall NS (@ breachoill)

• We love sport especially hurling. Our club is Kilcormac/ Killoughey. Offaly won 3 football all Ireland final 4 hurling
• Hello from Broughall Ns in Offaly. We have 27 pupils and 2 teachers. We are doing an engineering project.It is an eco village
• pop of Offaly c.75000 mountains are the Slieve Blooms the biggest river is the Shannon. we have lots of bog land the Grand Canals
• we live in kilcormac Offaly can you find it on a map… we live near the bog we have lots of fields and trees
• the colours of our flag is green white and yellow.

St Patrick’s GNS (@stpatricksgnslk)

• Hi from St Patrick’s Girls school. This is from 6th class girls. our school is in Limerick city.

St Martin de Porres (@smdp_ns)

• We have nearly 430 children in our school!
• Only our 4th Classes can go swimming. Other classes do basketball, GAA & football as well as PE. We love sport!
• From 1888 to 1932 a tram ran through Tallaght (Terenure to Blessington). It carried 68 passengers, 30 in & 38 out, even on the roof.
• we have a River called the Dodder running near our school.
• There is a pop. of over 100,000 people in Tallaght. Our nearest canal is the Grand Canal
• We have no beach near us!
• Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne are from near our school

St. Marnock’s NS (@mscurtinsclass)

• We are junior infants in a school called St Marnocks in Portmarnock. There are 22 children in our class.
• Portmarnock is beside the sea. It has a beautiful beach to build sand castles. We have lots of ducks here.
• The beach is very near our school. We have a senior infants and 1st class together
• Portmarnock has a famous golf course that is very sandy

Castledrum NS (@castledrumns)

• The Slieve Mish mntns are behind our school.Our closest river is: river Maine.We are only about 5 miles from Inch Strand
• The Slieve Mish mntns are behind our school.Our closest river is: river Maine.We are only about 10km from beach

Ransboro NS (@mrquinnsclass)

• This is 1st and 2nd class in Ransboro NS in Sligo. There are 28 pupils in our class.
• There is a mountain near our school called Knocknarea. There is a cairn at the top of the mountain where Queen Maeve is buried.
• We live beside a church called Star of the Sea Church, Ransboro. 2nd class made their First Communion there on May 22nd.
• We have two beaches near us. They are called Strandhill and Culleenamore. You are not allowed to swim in Strandhill.
• You cannot swim in Strandhiil because the currents are too strong. However it is a good beach for surfing.
• Did you know that Kian Egan from Westlife lives in and surfs in Strandhill?

Galbally NS (@Galballyns)

• Galbally National School, Co. Limerick
• Situated at the foot of the Galtee mountains
• Girls taking part in B Camogie final in Knocklong today. Come on Galbally!!!:)

St. Finian’s NS (@StFiniansNS)

• Hi From everyone at St. Finian’s NS, Dillonstown, Co. Louth. We have Confirmation for fifth and sixth classes tomorrow
• We have 77 pupils and five teachers in St. Finian’s, Co. Louth
• Our school is near Annagassan in Co. Louth. The Vikings landed here.
• the Vikings built one of their first settlements near Annagassan

For one week’s worth of tweeting, there is a lot here that can be used for comparing and contrasting local areas.  We have tweets about lots of different things from Viking landings to famous past pupils.  Another great thing was how the experiment was able to encompass all age groups and class levels.  There were Junior Infants and 6th class children tweeting each other, which was lovely to see!

In the next article, I’ll be investigating what we have learned from the first week’s Twitter project and getting ready for a second wave of tweeting.