GAELGORY

CÉN CHAOI AR THOSAIGH SÉ?
HOW DID IT START?

Haigh a chairde,

Tá súil agam go bhfuil sibh go maith. Is mise Séamus Ó Fionnagáin. Is múinteoir Gaeilge mé agus seo é mo scéal.

I am an Irish teacher and this is my story.

Fadó fadó fadó (around 2011) I was teaching a group of 6th year students that were not one bit interested in learning Irish. They hated Irish with a passion. I was very worried that alot of them would fail. Yet they went on to do their Irish Leaving Certificate exam and to my relief all of them passed. So how did this happen? It hapenned because of a dinosaur !!

I had a meeting with them and I asked them why were they so uncooperative. They told me that Irish boring and no fun. It was of no use to them because it was a dead language.

It got me thinking. I knew I needed to change my whole teaching approach to try and get them engaged. But how?

The oral exam was fast approaching and I needed them to start  speaking as Gaeilge. One day I saw my 8-year-old son playing with his toy dinosaurs. He was videoing T-Rex who was talking to Sponge Bob. I had a eureka moment. What if I made a video of T-Rex speaking as Gaeilge as if he was doing his Irish oral exam. I made the video and brought it into the class. They thought it was hilarious and they wanted to make similar videos in class. It all kicked off.

We created a YouTube channel called 'Gaelgory'. We started posting music videos and vlogs. We had so much fun making the videos. I got the class using puppets and we made several videos using the puppets. They began preparing their scripts for the puppet shows. It transformed their learning experience. They were having 'fun' while learning Irish - Gaeilge le spraoi. Buíochas le Dia they all passed their Irish exam.

Miracles do happen.

I hope you enjoy browsing my site and all of the unique content I have to offer. Take a look around; perhaps you’ll discover what fuels you as well. Read on and enjoy!

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Le gach dea-ghuí,

Séamus Ó Fionnagáin