Kev Dowling

@conorsmurf @mkent9900 Was at a SC 'PLE' yesterday and their response to AI was frightening - as long as its referenced its fine. Also, why not teach them to reference ChatGpt using Harvard Referencing!

Oide, the Government funded organisation that gives CPD (now PLEs) to teachers, is promoting the use of ChatGPT to write poems for students and pieces of Drama, that the students can then rewrite. It's over. AI has won. thevideotrolley.blogspot.com/2026/03/its-ov…

(New). An end of year assessment of the state of secondary school English as a subject in Ireland. juliangirdham.com/blog/english-a…

@sccenglish 😂😂😂

@KevDowling90 You're a young wan!

A reminder of the Leaving Certificate fuss over Paper 2 in 2009: juliangirdham.com/blog/h7j6fjq5s…

@books_academy @conorsmurf Being faced with a paper like that isn't likely to encourage them of any value in it.

@conorsmurf I want to know why so many students don’t read outside their school prescribed novels. It’s like they stop reading at second level. It’s hurting students composing at lc level because they don’t read enough.

We really need to decide why we are teaching English at second level. I have my own thoughts but they seem to be at odds with the SEC people setting the exam, and at odds with the Department of Education. I want a clear sentence from them telling me why we teach English.

@conorsmurf Yes, exactly this. No choice, a breakneck speed required to answer questions barley related to what would have been covered at all. The Five Act Structure Shakespeare question is so pompous and smug when you consider how much they've reduced that area of study already

@KevDowling90 I'm angry. What is the point of that kind of paper? Where is the ethos of choice, creativity, critical thinking, self expression? The meanness of the paper, the cruel smugness of the paper, drips from every question.

So, how many English teachers are going to admit that short stories took a back seat due to the overwhelming content of the JC? I know many teachers that simply don't have the time to fit them in. And now we get a 15 mark question on the exam Time to surface cover everything!

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine marks this year’s International May Day with a powerful new poster: “Free peoples of the world, unite against barbarism.”

Massive Attack 👏👏👏👏👏

@VodafoneIreland customer service. Is there anyone who can call and assist me immediately. I can only access customer service located in Egypt. Disgraceful

@conorsmurf It really would be such a waste of the work that went in to get it to the standard it's at. Will feedback the same

@KevDowling90 It'll be a backward step in film studies to lose it. After all the work put in over decades to get it close to where it should be this would be a disaster.

I'm increasingly hopeful about the English Oral in 5th year but, as @KevDowling90 has noted, I'm worried about the place of film writing if it goes ahead in its present form. This blog doesn't discuss that issue, but I will be mentioning it in my feedback. thevideotrolley.blogspot.com/2025/03/oral-a…

How to avoid AI? Have a chat with a real person. How to make the LC more equitable? Have a chat. I'm hopeful for the new oral AAC in the English Leaving Cert. thevideotrolley.blogspot.com/2025/03/oral-a…

@conorsmurf The Third Man 🙌 unbelievable film

The films for the LC English students coming into 5th year in September. And the last list for this version of the LC course. Has a film I hate. An overhyped hyped film. Two films whose inclusions confuse me. Four I really like One that I love.

Tributes are being paid to Irish musician Graham 'Milky' Mitchell, who died on Thursday, February 20. hotpress.com/music/tributes…

What an incredible loss. Here was an artist that stayed true to his voice, his integrity, his art. Yet I have never read a negative thing about him. Never read a pretentious comment. Never read that he treated someone poorly. His art was for all and for all to interpret.

My open 'letter' to the Chair of the NCCA LC English Development Group. thevideotrolley.blogspot.com/2024/12/open-l…

What If... What if the English Leaving Cert AAC (project) was completed in an exam as it would be at home? I try to imagine that in this blog. thevideotrolley.blogspot.com/2024/11/what-i…