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"May the luck of the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you." People of Irish descent will be celebrating Saint Patrick's Day on March 17. The popularity of this special day, however, has been embraced by people from a multitude of cultural backgrounds. Parties, concerts, plays and parades will be occurring in towns and cities around the world. Parents, teachers and students will be planning innovative ways to commemorate the Irish contribution to our cultural mosaic. With that in mind, this month's newsletter is our salute to the Irish and their patron, Saint Patrick. So to all our monthly subscribers and daily visitors, we wish one hundred thousand welcomes! Join us in our journey to discover the wonderful stories and resources information technology offers us about Ireland. We are sure the road will rise to meet us, and the wind will be at our backs. In addition to this newsletter, keep checking Rick’s Picks to learn more about these themes and many more. We are looking for you input! We are especially interested in learning about your own "Inspiring Story" related to the use of technology in your classroom. This month we also have a special gift awaiting you and your students in the Activity section of the Mentor Center. Check it out, and if you have activities that you would like to see share with other teachers, please send them along. We'll make sure to post them immediately and to give you credit. Send your ideas to rick@vitalknowledge.com |
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Perhaps it is only fitting we honor the Irish when their country is experiencing an economic boom due, in large part, to the country's embrace of advances in science and technology. Check out these MSNBC stories to find out more about how Ireland has responded to the challenges these advancements present. Are you considering visiting Ireland some day? If so, you may also wish to take some time to visit the official web site of the Government of Ireland where you will find an abundance of information about various government departments. You may also wish to visit Ireland's National Tourism Service. You will find a wealth of resources including an interactive map of the country, vacation packages, genealogical searches, e-cards, music, links to private and public businesses, and more! Similar resources can be found at the web site of the Irish Tourist Board. It is often the media that reflects the pulse, vibrancy, and overall day-to-day life of a country. With this in mind, it may be a good idea to visit a few online Irish newspapers such as The Irish Times, The Irish Voice, or The Irish Examiner. For a listing of online Irish newspapers visit AJR Newslink. To find information about Irish television join an Irish TV web ring. Perhaps you are interested in Irish history. If so, you may wish to click to the country's heritage web site, or find a listing of links at Irish History on the Web. Interested in Irish sports? Try visiting Setanta or the Irish Sports Report. Interested in how the Irish celebrate Saint Patrick's Day? Visit the official web site of Dublin's Saint Patrick's Day Festival. |
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Little did the Grade 7 students know that, when they decided to use technology to assist in the exploration of their Irish roots, they were about to have a tremendous impact on their community. Their school project on shamrocks would eventually develop into a community celebration involving beer suds! Technology not only became a bridge to their community, it also became a link that spanned the Atlantic Ocean! It all began with a phone call from Don Whitty at the local community college. Would there be a class interested in assisting students from St. Flannan's College in Ennis, Ireland, develop a web site for a national Irish Internet competition? The Grade 7 students, who came from Dr. Losier Middle School in Miramichi, touted as being the Irish Capital of Canada, decided that this invitation might provide a unique opportunity for the enhancement of their Social Studies curriculum. They promptly went to work collaborating, via e-mail, with their new Irish friends. "The Shamrock Project" was completed in a month. Students were marked on their contributions to the project and they congratulated themselves on a job well done. Two months later they received another surprise phone call. This was from a gentleman in Dublin who was representing EIRCOM Ireland. He informed them that the web site they had developed with St. Flannan's had made it to the finals of the national competition. They were invited to participate in the EIRCOM awards ceremony via teleconferencing. Two weeks later they found out that their Canadian-Irish collaboration had resulted in a first place award. They were pleasantly surprised shortly thereafter to receive a beautiful Waterford Crystal plate from their Irish friends who had won an all expense paid trip to Sweden for one week. That was not the end, however. Rather, it was just the beginning! The two communities kept in close contact with each other via further teleconferences and e-mail. A delegation of Miramichi city counselors even visited Ennis, Ireland's Smart Community, in person. Eventually, the citizens of Miramichi and Ennis decided to combine their technological expertise to create an Irish Cyber Pub. A grand time was had by all (except, of course, the Grade 7 students, who were too young to participate). However, it appears that they might very well be able to partake in the Irish Cyber Pub when they come of age. Plans are already under way for a repeat performance on an even grander scale this year. For example, the venue will be moving from the community college to the rink, and one of the groups performing live in Miramichi this year will be The Ceili Bandits, direct from Ennis, Ireland! Technology can create bridges for your students in your classroom. It can create links not only to their community, but also to other communities throughout the world. And…with the luck of the Irish…it just might help your unique class project evolve into a special community event. Who knows what oceans the bridge of technology might enable you and your students to cross! |
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In keeping with the theme of Saint Patrick's Day, we thought you might be interested in how people from around the world celebrate their Irish heritage. Find out why more than 20,000 people are attracted to the North Texas Irish Festival. Although the web site for this year's Irish Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark is not yet updated for this year's festival, you can view some of the participants from last year. Even the state of Alaska has an annual Irish Music Festival. You may also be interested in Irish festivals in the states of West Virginia, Illinois, or Ohio. Even Japan has held Irish Festivals! Indeed, people from all corners of the globe celebrate Irish heritage. A listing of international Irish Festivals can be found at Global Irish. One such link will take you to a festival held in the city of Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada, which bills itself as the Irish capital of the Canada! You may also be interested in Saint Patrick's Day parades. Watch the New York parade live with Earthcam! Visit parade web sites for the states of New Jersey, Florida, or Illinois. Toronto has an annual parade, as do the cities of Melbourne, Dublin, and Birmingham. Even Singapore has an annual Saint Patrick's Ball! |
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There are a wide variety of sites on the Internet with a multitude of resources to assist in your planning and implementation of Saint Patrick's Day activities. The following are only some of the sites worth a visit: Billy Bear's Happy Saint Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Fun at Kid's Domain Saint Patrick's Day in the Classroom Saint Patrick's Day Games and Party Ideas The Holiday Zone: Saint Patrick's Day Continue to check out Rick’s Picks where we highlight sites that will be of benefit to all teachers. We feature a different site every day! |
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If the work of some student web sites is any indication, the Irish Tiger could continue its romp across the British Isles for many years to come. Some of the best Irish student sites are entered in EIRCOM Ireland's Spin a Web contest each year. This site has many great ideas about how technology can be used to enrich student explorations of such topics as: carbon, community history, horses, myths, and legends. The collaboration between Irish and American students has produced a couple of very impressive web sites. Make sure you spend some time learning about Roller Coasters at the Internet Fairground, a spectacular web site produced by Robin, a student in Dublin, Kyle, a young man from Illinois, and Angela, a young lady from Yakima, Washington. The three students collaborated via email and chat to put together this highly impressive site. You can accept the Ringmaster's invitation to explore some very interesting lesson plans related to Fairgrounds. Or, you can just have fun exploring the many fascinating venues of this virtual odyssey of fun and exploration. Regardless of your purpose in dropping by, we're sure you'll enjoy the ride! And don't miss Hockey and Hurling: Comparing Two Cultures. This site is a fine example of how technology can bridge the distance between cultures, resulting in a project that exemplifies an appreciation for our differences and an understanding of our similarities. Irish and American students, who never met personally, also developed this project. Technology served as their bridge across the Atlantic Ocean, a bridge that helped them produce a very interesting and insightful product! |
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Irish Toasts St. Patrick was a gentleman who through strategy and stealth drove all the snakes from Ireland. Here's a toasting to his health…but not too many toastings, lest you lose yourself and then forget the good St. Patrick and see all those snakes again! May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings, slow to make enemies, quick to make friends, but rich or poor, quick or slow, may you know nothing but happiness from this day forward! May the face of every good news and the back of every bad news be toward us. May the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends gathered below never fall out. Here's to you and yours and to mine and ours and if mine and ours ever come across you and yours I hope you and yours will do as much for mine and ours as mine and ours have done for you and yours. May you have warm words on a cold evening a full moon on a dark night and the road downhill all the way to your door. May you live to be a hundred years with one extra year to repent. May I see you grey and combing your children's hair. The health of the salmon to you a long life, a full heart and a wet mouth. May the grass grow long on the road to hell for want of use. |
