The first of the CREDIT courses Exploring skills in CREDIT was delivered on the 9th and 10th November to a group of twenty enthusiastic teachers, from a variety of educational settings, who gathered at St Mary's University College to begin an action-packed two-day programme.
The CREDIT project is funded by the International Fund for Ireland through its Sharing in Education Programme, which is managed by the Department of Education.
During day one the focus was on setting the context in relation to diversity and mutual understanding, and helping the teachers to develop a facilitative classroom setting and appropriate skills when dealing with sensitive issues.
Stranmillis University College was the venue for the second day of the course which provided opportunities for the teachers to review a range of relevant curriculum resources and hear about case studies and examples of good practice in a number of schools.
Active learning was central to the course delivery and teachers enjoyed participating in a range of interactive activities. The puppet session caused great amusement and certainly proved to be very popular with the teachers!
On Thursday 1st December the teachers returned to Stranmillis University College for a follow-up day where they had the opportunity to engage with technology as a tool to develop education and diversity work and they presented their personal reflections and plans for the future with regards to further developing this work in school and beyond.
The course was considered very successful by all involved and comments from participants included: "it was very interesting", "really enjoyable", and "useful to hear of experiences in other schools and share ideas". Indeed one teacher remarked: "I have been inspired to re-imagine my class".