research, maps and memory

We had our first Virtual Meeting!

in the week that I was away the teacher and the class went off and researched the old schools and the things that happened and discovered things that were different and still the same.

they showed me the work they had done in the lovely notebooks

we imagined where the chimneys might have been for their turf fires and wether or not there might have been an upstairs or not…..

the class also had used the throndel wheel to find out how big the new school is and showed me the drawing. we traced it on the whiteboard and located the different parts including their classroom.

(apologies for quality of images we are working on improving this.)

And told me as many things as they could remember from their findings. like how many rooms, children, teachers, when things happened and how. what the children ate, how they heated the school, how strict the teachers were and lots lots more.

After the break we looked at the map of Ardfert

and where the old school that we visited was and where the new school is. and we traced our path and tried to remember all the things in between, like shops, the fountain and peoples houses.

So lots of discussion of facts and findings (research) as well as imaginings and speculations about what might have been (guessing) or what we could remember (different for everyone!) this is proving quite interesting. History being something that is made up of a bit of all the above……

When we had our meeting in the education centre a while back a few children described a few objects to us all, which we drew then without knowing what it was. This time the children drew the front of my house just with my description, better still only with my words and memory and imagining. with lovely result and not an easy task!