Kerry Community of Practice

The following is an outline of events and activities which took place in the Kerry region during the last academic year

A Health Relates Activity – Action For Life in-service took place on Oct 16^th  in Scoil Eoin, Balloonagh, Tralee. This in-service was facilitated by the JCPE. A large number of Kerry teachers attended this very successful session. The large turnout at this event enabled the expansion of a database of PE teachers in Kerry, which is maintain and updated annually.

March 11^th  - Orienteering in-service too place in, Knockreer, in Killarney which again was facilitated by the JCPE. Following on from the orienteering a further session focusing on Team Challenges took place later that evening. The Team Challenges session took place in Killarney Community College, which was run in conjunction with the Kerry Community of Practice and was facilitated by staff from UL.

May 6^th - A Dance workshop was held at the Institute of Technology Tralee, the workshop was facilitated by Ursual McCarthy (UL). This session focused on the development of movement sequences/compositions.

The next event taking place is a further session focusing on Dance, but, with a specific emphasis on Exercise to Music as per requested by the PE teachers. This session will take place on Oct 13^th and will be hosted by the Institute of Technology Tralee.

It is hoped to build on the work completed to date and continue to facilitate the work and commitment of the PE teachers within the Kerry Community of Practice

Jackie Ni Muireacheartaigh

Kerry Report 2007-2008

The Kerry region had a very busy Community of Practice agenda for the year past. 

Adventure Activities

A 2-hour Adventure Activities workshop was organised in Killarney Community College for all PE teachers in March.  A special thank you to DeborahTannehill and Michelle Dillon for providing such an informative and enjoyable session. Their dedication in driving from Limerick to Killarney on a dark winter’s night is appreciated.

Dance

In May, we were also indebted to Ursula Barrett UL for travelling to Tralee ITT to give a workshop on Dance.  All the participants received resources to help them teach the JCPE Dance Module in their schools. The participants found the session to be very worthwhile.  We are indeed fortunate that our colleagues in the University of Limerick are so willing to share with us.

Kerry Education Service PE Project Community of Practice

As well as County Kerry Community of Practice organised activities, 2007 saw the beginning of the Kerry Education Service/Junior Cycle Physical Education/ University of Limerick Physical Education Project 2007-2009.  Primarily focusing on KES schools, a Project Community of Practice was formed inviting Anne Moran County Kerry Community of Practice as a guest participant at our monthly meetings.

A 2-day Induction was held in October 2007, attended by all participating KES teachers, JCPE and University of Limerick representatives. Following the induction, monthly Community of Practice (COP) meetings were organised in the Education Centre in Tralee.  There was almost 100 per cent attendance at all the meetings throughout the year. The meetings dealt with issues of concern to us. We planned and up-skilled in Adventure Activities. We simultaneously taught the Adventure Activity Module in the 8 KES schools and held a very successful and enjoyable Rich Task culminating orienteering event in Ballyseedy Wood for all the first year students who had completed the module in their school. This will be an annual event from now on and plans are underway to organise an event for students who complete Level 2 Orienteering this year. A DVD on Orienteering, targeting students and intended as a teaching aid for teachers is currently being developed using FAS expertise in association with KES and JCPE.  This is intended to be a resource for all teachers throughout the country.

Dance

The Kerry Education Service/ Kerry Local Sports Partnership dance pilot project funded by a €15000 Irish sports Council Grant is beginning on 24 September.  It is open to all PE teachers in Kerry and will be organised into 2 cohorts of teachers for logistical purposes.  Up skilling teachers in Dance and the promotion of Dance as a performing art is the primary focus of the dance pilot and it is envisaged that resources compiled over the lifetime of this pilot will be made available to all teachers.

Wiki

Kerry Education Service, with the help of personnel in US Universities, has developed a Wiki for the members of the PE Project.  Quite simply, a wiki is an interactive web page where collaboration can occur. (For information on creating a WIKI please google pb wiki.com  We will be having an in-service for all KES teachers on 13 October on aspects of the wiki.  KES has also introduced a pilot laptop purchase scheme for the PE teachers and teachers will be taking delivery of their laptops on that day.  We hope to use the wiki to share information, post lesson plans and assessments for all to share, keep up to date with the latest developments relevant to our own particular contexts.

We hope to share what we have learned throughout the whole PE Project with other teachers to help replicate and duplicate what has worked well for us.

Kate O’Donovan, Kerry PEAI Community of Practice