Flappy Gatsby

Flappy 'Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning ---' flap our way to enough Gatsby dollars to beat your friend.

My first attempt to create a game using Scratch coding. Thanks to @DCallanIT on Twitter for the help.

Hold and release the spacebar to keep Gatsby's dream alive!

TY Poetry Project

TY English Students have been examining some canonical Leaving Certificate poets. Ms. R Kelly's English classes TYA and TYF have created a selection of magazines specific to these poets. Their creations have been compiled into this Issuu publication. We hope you enjoy!

The College Press: Valentine's Day Edition

Have you left getting your loved one's present to the last minute? Don't worry, we have you covered. This month's College Press is available. It's packed full of information about all things romantic for you or your significant other to enjoy for the end o term. Thanks goes as always to Mr Doyle and everyone over at the College Press, led by editors Eveanna Sutton and Amy Farrell.

Macbeth Revision using Nearpod

With the mock season in full swing and the real thing just around the corner for Leaving Cert. English pupils, it's time to revise the Single Text. I always do my Single Text with pupils when they are in Fifth year so I often find it feels a little distant to them by the time mocks arrive in sixth year. I always revise the single text in detail before the actual Leaving Cert. exam but it can still leave them a little lost before their mocks with only fifth year work to rely on. This year I'm creating Nearpod revision activities for my pupils. Nearpod allows teachers to create interactive presentations for pupils to answer in their own time. Nearpod can be used as a live teaching session or for setting homework. I am creating a homework task for each of the five Acts in our single text, Macbeth.

The beauty of Nearpod is that it is available on the Web, Android or iOS (the iOS/iPad version is a particularly slick experience!). It is free for pupils to download as an app to their device or they can just complete their tasks on the Web. There is also no sign up necessary for the pupils which is a great plus (no 'I forgot the password sir'!) . Simply open Nearpod on whatever device you are using and enter the code given by the teacher. Pupils then enter their name and complete the homework task.

There's no need for pupils to set up accounts! Just go to the site, enter the code,
enter your name and away you go!

I would advise pupils to use these activities as an open book test. You have as long as you need to complete the activities so take your time and get them right! Once a homework task has been created by one teacher it can be e-mailed to another teacher to be used or edited as they wish. So if any teachers create a Nearpod account and would like me to e-mail them any of these lessons get in touch at: newenglishirl@gmail.com There is also a starter course on how to use the software that can be found on Nearpod using the code PIHGR .

Here are all five lesson codes. Go to Nearpod on the web , click join session in the top right corner,  or Android/iOS device and enter the code. I will only be able to give feedback to my own pupils so if you are a visitor to the site I hope you find the activities helpful. The activities for all five Acts will be added to and improved over time so be sure to check back here, for changes to individual codes.

Act 1 Code                               Act 4 Code
MFLAH                                   KGVAN

Act 2 Code                               Act 5 Code
MYWBO                                     QFRBY

Act 3 Code
ZTUQL

The Great Gatsby: Revision Quiz

This year I have been studying The Great Gatsby with my Fifth Year English class. They will be using it to answer questions in the Single Text section of their L.C. English exam in 2015. We really enjoyed our study of the novel as a class and feel like we really got to know the characters, their world and their motivations. We found the novel is packed with amazing moments, characters, descriptive writing and symbolism. This week we are creating some revision activities before we attempt some Single Text exam questions. One of our revision activities was to have a class quiz on the novel. Well done to the creatively named in-class winning team of 'Liam and the Other Two' . To keep the competitive action, learning, going I have created this online revision quiz that individual pupils, from anywhere, can attempt to win. You don't need an account to play for fun but you will need one if you want to have your score saved on the leader board. The best of luck to everyone!