Out of school? Ask teachers questions (LC and JC students)

spurious

Please post here if you have a subject specific question to ask the many teachers on here. I think we have all subjects covered.

Exam related questions welcome too.

Teacher-bashers can stay away from this thread too.

sullivlo

spurious wrote: »

Please post here if you have a subject specific question to ask the many teachers on here. I think we have all subjects covered.

Exam related questions welcome too.

Teacher-bashers can stay away from this thread too.

I can answer questions on:
Maths
Science
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Ag Science

Happy to help out

thegreatescape

Home Ec and Biology here. Ask away.

scrubs33

Leaving Cert Geography Teacher and examiner for longer than I care to remember...ask away

banie01

To all the teachers contributing here.
Thank you.

Don't have a kid in exam year, but as a mature student I know how important being able to ask a question is.

It's these little flashes of solidarity that will keep us sane through this.

Well done all.

Qwerty?

Excellent idea.

Just wondering, for ease of following threads, would it be a good idea to create threads for separate subjects?

spurious

Qwerty? wrote: »

Excellent idea.

Just wondering, for ease of following threads, would it be a good idea to create threads for separate subjects?

We will see how we go. If it gets too unwieldy we will do that.

sullivlo

Could we cross post a link in the LC/JC forum?

Treppen

Music here.

Stewie Griffin

I'm an English teacher.

dory

Great idea! I teach Irish. Happy to answer questions. I agree, a thread for each subject would be great (but would it be better to have it in the LC / JC forum?)

Fleetwoodmac

No questions but moved by this initiative.. well done teachers

History Queen

English and History teacher here, happy to help

mirrorwall14

Music and Maths here!

Redser87

I will defer to Kerrydiva's superior experience!

Alqua

Music here, there's a glut of us! With no update on the practicals as of yet.

TheValeyard

Happy to answer all History Q.

djemba djemba

Business and business studies if needed

MacGyver007

Maths and science. Happy to help!

05eaftqbrs9jlh

Very quiet on the student front here so far but it's great to see so many teachers. I reckon right now, a lot of students are taking a well-earned break!

Just thinking back on my own LC, it was such a happy carefree time (even though I thought, back then, that my life was fraught with problems!!). Students currently have much bigger issues than any of the silly stuff I was worried about. I'm really hopeful that the young people affected by this will emerge stronger and more resilient than ever.

Looptheloop30

Help away.

Between the hours of 8.45am and 4pm

Monday to Friday

Caquas

It is generous of teachers to volunteer their help here but that is no substitute for the students' contact with their own teachers.

Are schools making alternative arrangements to help their students from home? For example, are teachers setting assignments and correcting homework online?

I see that public libraries are now closed. Where are students supposed to study if their siblings are also at home?

Unless effective action is taken immediately, how can the State Exams be completed this year?

sullivlo

Looptheloop30 wrote: »

Help away.

Between the hours of 8.45am and 4pm

Monday to Friday

:rolleyes:

Caquas wrote: »

It is generous of teachers to volunteer their help here but that is no substitute for the students' contact with their own teachers.

Are schools making alternative arrangements to help their students from home? For example, are teachers setting assignments and correcting homework online?

I see that public libraries are now closed. Where are students supposed to study if their siblings are also at home?

Unless effective action is taken immediately, how can the State Exams be completed this year?

Nobody is saying it is a substitute for your own teacher. All we are trying to do is ease the stress on JC and LC students.

Each school has their own policy and arrangements. In my school we are emailing work to students and they are emailing the work to us to correct.

I am recording myself doing examples in maths and emailing my students these. Whatever they send me I will correct.

I will be responding to them during school hours, but so that the students themselves have a break. I will continue to work if required. I am working today on solutions for the mock exams so that they can correct them themselves at home.

Kerrydiva

French and German teacher here.

Enright

Business, LCVP, & Business Studies here - stay safe everyone

Shn99

LC student here.
Would anyone have advice on how to self discipline and stay motivated during the 2 (or possibly 5) weeks of closure. Have never really worked well at home in regards to study and work. Usually do supervised study after school and at weekends but all out the window now. Tried following the timetable on Friday but failed miserably. Have all my classes on MS teams(4 teachers havent used them) but just overall stressed out and mildly panicking.

Caquas

sullivlo wrote: »

:rolleyes:



Nobody is saying it is a substitute for your own teacher. All we are trying to do is ease the stress on JC and LC students.

Each school has their own policy and arrangements. In my school we are emailing work to students and they are emailing the work to us to correct.

I am recording myself doing examples in maths and emailing my students these. Whatever they send me I will correct.

I will be responding to them during school hours, but so that the students themselves have a break. I will continue to work if required. I am working today on solutions for the mock exams so that they can correct them themselves at home.

Thanks, that’s what I hoped would happen but I’m hearing different stories, including students being left to fend for themselves. It seems to depend on the school (or perhaps the students are telling the parents whatever suits them )

mirrorwall14

Shn99 wrote: »

LC student here.
Would anyone have advice on how to self discipline and stay motivated during the 2 (or possibly 5) weeks of closure. Have never really worked well at home in regards to study and work. Usually do supervised study after school and at weekends but all out the window now. Tried following the timetable on Friday but failed miserably. Have all my classes on MS teams but just overall stressed out and mildly panicking.

Routine routine routine. Up at 8am. Wear your uniform if you have one and it helps the set up. Get a quiet area set up. Leave your phone in another room if possible. Enable do not disturb if you need to do device work. Set bells or alarms for end of class and follow your timetable standing up on the ‘class change’ for a good stretch

Self motivation is a skill for life and you have the perfect opportunity here to develop it.

sullivlo

Shn99 wrote: »

LC student here.
Would anyone have advice on how to self discipline and stay motivated during the 2 (or possibly 5) weeks of closure. Have never really worked well at home in regards to study and work. Usually do supervised study after school and at weekends but all out the window now. Tried following the timetable on Friday but failed miserably. Have all my classes on MS teams(4 teachers havent used them) but just overall stressed out and mildly panicking.

Just to echo what mirror said...

Routine is key. Set an alarm. Get up. Get dressed. Find a quiet corner in the house. Walk up and down the stairs every 40 mins. Take a mini break at your usual time. Take your lunch at the usual time. Be disciplined - phone in airplane mode or in a different room - you can check it between classes like normal.

Important - finish your day at a normal time. Don't burn yourself out.

Following a timetable is a good idea but not really reflective of an actual day. For example, how much time would you actually spend on a subject in the 40 minute class? By the time you arrive, get out books, do the roll, correct homework etc, there's probably only about 25-30 mins of work. And of this 30 mins, how much are you actually engaged for? You probably listen for a while, maybe take down notes, but you won't do full concentrated study. And remember - you will have pastoral care/SPHE/religion/PE in a day too, so factor that in. Schedule a break at the end of the day. Go for a walk. Have a snack. Then do your homework - exam papers or similar.

Follow the advice of your teacher - do whatever work they set. For me, my students are doing mock corrections until Wednesday, and then they will be given videos to watch on how to approach a sum. They will be doing a few examples "in class" and then some "for homework". I'll give solutions the next day for them to correct.

If you don't get set work from a teacher, pick a topic and look for a video on YouTube. Rather than passively watching, set yourself a challenge of identifying 5 key points / new vocabulary / whatever is relevant to the subject, and then read the corresponding section in the book.

Send any work to your teacher - even if they don't correct it all, having some routine will help and it will show you are eager to learn.

Keep asking questions.

And don't panic.

Lc2020

Thanks to all the teachers for offering their help and expertise-we really appreciate it.

For maths teachers:
Just wondering what your opinion of the DEB maths mock exam is? Having done it, is it fair to say it's more difficult than the real thing? I know we can't predict the difficulty of the paper, but it seems that the marking scheme in the LC affords a lot more leeway/attempt marks. I got a lot of 0s for work that in imo should have merited some credit. I know it depends on a lot of factors, but would going from a H5 to a H2 be unheard of, or attainable ?

Thanks

BTW: Just wondering are teacher as clueless as students as regards when schools will reopen etc..

Lc2020

Treppen wrote: »

Music here.

Hi!
Just have a query regarding the music exam:

In your opinion, what should students be focusing on over the coming weeks. I put so much time and effort into studying the likes of Berlioz, for it only to be worth 10 marks in the mocks. It's really disheartening, and it's almost not worth my while to be studying the score for the sake of 10 marks

Also, just regarding the composition paper, I scored 78/100 in the mocks and looking for a H1 , I can't afford to be losing too many marks. What do you have to do to do well in the composition paper particularly the melody (24/40), cause I hope they don't expect us all to be little Mozarts.

I'm not too worried about the practical (though it would be nice to have a date lol).
What generally tends to bring students down ? Aiming for a H1, but the SEC make it so difficult with the low H1 rate year in year out

Thank you