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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Junior Spider Awards

Congratulations once again for the girls of 3rd, 4th and 5th.   Our Birds of Bray project has been shortlisted in the Junior Spider Awards.  The award winners will be announced on 13th December.

Good Luck Girls,


You can view the list of shortlisted finalists here.


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Winners in Washington

Well done to Ms McHale and to 5th, 4th and 3rd class in St Philomena's.  We were prize winners in Washington, at the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum.

We came second in the "Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom" Category.

We are very popular in the media these days.

Read this article about us on siliconrepublic.com

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

What a busy week...

Well ladies and gents, 


It has been a hectic week so far here in Washington DC.  We have been kept busy by Microsoft with workshops, excursions, presentations and projects.  There is so much to see here and so much to learn from other teachers who are working hard with their classes from around the world.  I have finally managed to find some time to share all that's been happening.


 
Yesterday a group of us were taken out to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre to have a look at all the work they do there, studying the environment, looking at water and trees and the animals and plants that live around them.  It was a wonderful afternoon.

After that we came back to the hotel for the beginning of our presentations.  It was our first chance to show off our projects to other teachers and also, to get a chance to walk around and talk to other teachers about their work.  We also had our first juding interviews. 

I've put some photos up on our Picassa albums to give you a quick look at where I am and what is happening.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Ms McHale in Washington

Hi blog followers,

I've arrived in Washington after a long flight from  Dublin to London and then on to Washington DC.  (You should find a map and see how far I've had to fly.)  We arrived at our very beautiful hotel, the JW Mariott last night.  It's right beside the White House, so we went out for a walk to have a look at how lovely it is at night.  It's hard to see in the photo, but it's a very impressive building.  I felt like I was in a movie.


We have started this morning with our meetings and presentations.  There are hundreds of people here from around the world, all with different skills and backgrounds, but all involved in education.  You can imagine how many ideas are here to make classrooms exciting and interesting for kids around the world.
Be sure to check back again later.  I'll keep you all updated on the exciting things that happen during the week.  

Friday, November 4, 2011

A Maths Challenge...

Since we started our Blog in January we have had lots of visitors from around the world.  Our flag counter is on the right hand side of the page.  Have a look at all the different nationalities that have visited our page. 
Can you name all the flags?   (Have you been to any of those countries?)
How many visitors have we had all together?
How many visitors have we had from Europe?
How many visitors have we had from outside Europe?

(This picture will help you with some of these questions.  Click on the picture to see a larger version.)

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Share a Birdwatching Story with us

Do you have birds that visit your garden?  Do you see birds around your area?  If you have any interesting stories about the birds you see we'd love to hear them.

Add a comment below telling us about the birds you see every day.

If you have any photos you would like to share you can e-mail them to: stphilomenas4@hotmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.

Birds of Bray make National News

We were delighted to be featured on the National 6 o'clock news on Tuesday.  We are very proud of all our hard work and this was a great opportunity to share our work with the rest of Ireland.

You can see the news report at: RTÉ News Watch and Listen, Six One News, 1st November, 2011.

Our report is at 43 mins and 50 seconds.

Well done to all the girls for doing such a wonderful job during the morning of recording.