Students from Our Lady's Templemore have successful Erasmus Trip to Sicily

What a wonderful successful Erasmus Trip we had in Agrigento in Sicily. We completed the final Mobility of our Erasmus Programme, based on the theme of “Flipped Classroom Teaching and Learning”.

Five students and three teachers travelled to Sicily, completing this exciting and innovative programme. Our school was very lucky to be part of such a progressive educational team, who had a common goal to develop and expand digital teaching and learning in the classroom. The motto was to flip the students and not the classroom. The students would prepare the lesson making video recordings which were then observed and edited, sharing the final recorded lesson with other students both in Ireland and abroad. The students are placed at the centre of the lesson.

For example, Ciara Ryan a student in Transition year completed an amazing video on the dissection of a heart. She was guided by her science teacher, Mr Daire Quinn. This video was very popular in Sicily, as it is unusual to have a practical science class in this manner. Mr Finn O'Hara prepared a pottery making lesson, placing the senior international students at the centre of the lesson, where they discussed their experience of education in Ireland.

Ms Eimear O'Callaghan assisted a group of second year students making a video on the cultural background of the tin whistle in Ireland and created an explanation on how to learn the tin whistle. The students created an accompanying booklet with beginner’s tin whistle tunes. Students from all partner countries received a gift of a tin whistle each. This was a successful sharing of our musical culture and heritage.

Many videos were made by the partner countries based on history, archaeology, baking, learning a foreign language etc. Following our evaluation of the Flipped Classroom style of teaching and learning, we agreed that it was a very successful method of introducing a topic in the classroom.

Our second year students Caroline Johnston, Meadhbh Mulrooney, Lucy Barton, John Cleere and Gearoid Campion took part in the programme. They were fabulous representatives of our school. They proudly took part in all activities. Nothing was too big a challenge for them. They performed a beautiful musical piece representing Irish traditional music and culture. Lucy sang a lovely Irish song “Siuil a Run”and Gearoid sang “The Fields of Athenry”. Caroline played the fiddle as Meadhbh played the consartin. Caroline did the Brush dance joined by John Cleere, who learned the dance two weeks before, and now is definitely proving to be a promising Sean Nos dancer!

The Bulgarians and Slovenians showed their traditional dances. They each taught the visiting students the steps, which was great fun. The Austrians taught us the Wiener Waltz, which has beautiful, elegant steps. Finally, we watched the fabulous Sicilian dance in their colourful traditional costumes. It was a lovely exchange of culture song and dance.

They Irish shocked the Sicilians by how easily they swam each evening in the Mediterranean Sea, which proved to be quite cold in March. We explained that we are well used to cold seas in Ireland even in Summer, but they still failed to understand.

We visited the Valley of the Temples, which is the most important testimony of the ancient classical culture of Sicily. It brings together the temples of gods and goddesses, as well as the area of the Necropolis and sanctuaries outside the walls. The Hellenic architecture is embedded in an enchanted valley, full of almond trees. The students did an archaeological workshop here.

We visited “La Scala dei Turchi” known as the Turkish Steps. They are white cliffs made of Marlstone that pour into the sea. The students did a marine workshop here.

We had a lovely walking tour of the old town of Agrigento, where we visited a monastery, churches and catacombs, an amazing library with preserved books and a beautiful old theatre, where Lucy was given the opportunity to sing on stage.

The students completed fantastic workshops. They were divided into working groups with students from different countries to complete their activities. Principals and co-ordinating teachers carried out workshops and evaluations on aspects of the project. They also completed the Mobility Tool.

Many thanks to Ms Emily Bergin and Ms Norma Galvin who travelled and supported the programme. As co-ordinator of the programme, I would sincerely like to thank Ms Higgins and Mr Paul Fogarty for their complete support of the programme. Thanks to all the teachers and students who helped out making Flipped Classroom videos. A special thank you to the parents who have supported the programme and especially to all the teachers and students who were involved in the mobility in Templemore last December.

We have made wonderful connections with our friends from Varna in Bulgaria, Krizevci in Slovenia, Kohfidisch in Austria and of course Agrigento in Sicily. We have completed mobilities in Austria, Slovenia, Ireland and Sicily. We have provided opportunities to teachers and students to travel and learn abroad.