The SCC English Blog
The SCC English blog (http://sccenglish.ie/) is the diary, website, and online magazine of the English Department of St Columba’s College, Whitechurch, Dublin 16. It is now four terms old, and is updated almost every day in term-time. It gathers news and examples of drama, poetry, fiction, and in particular highlights pupils’ work. In the last academic
year 25% of all pupils in the school contributed to it through poems, stories, reviews, essays, book recommendations and reportage. It also has over 100 recommended subject-related links. It has featured in the magazines Teaching English, Conference and Common Room and PC Magazine, and is a Scoilnet Star Site and a Teachnet Recommended Resource. It also connects to a newly developed Department wiki. Our presentation will focus on how such a site can contribute to and enhance the work of a subject department in a school.
The presentation can be found at the following link: http://sccenglish.ie/2008/02/half-term.html
Julian Girdham and John Fanagan have been teaching English at St Columba’s since 1984 and 1973 respectively. Julian studied English at St John’s College, Oxford, and started the blog as an experiment; since then it has developed considerably, making extensive use of Web 2.0 tools. John studied English at UCD, and has been head of the SCC English Department since 1983. His technological expertise consists of still using a blackboard in his classroom.