Spotlight #6 - Fintan O’Mahony
Welcome to the sixth ITB Spotlight. This time we’re finding out more about Fintan O’Mahony (@levdavidovic on Twitter) who blogs at levdavidovic.wordpress.com.
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in education.
I teach English and History in Scoil Mhuire, Carrick-on-Suir. I’ve been there for 19 years, I was lucky to go straight into a job, that was the way in the early 90s. After a career break in 1999 I became heavily involved in the ASTI, becoming Secretary to the Waterford Branch. I was elected to Standing Committee last Autumn. In the last few years I’ve added social media and edtech to my teaching using twitter in the classroom and blogging mainly about the current state of Irish education.
2. Please tell us about your blog.
My blog is just one year old, it began as an experiment in letting off steam but has developed into a sounding board for what I practice in school and the issues that arise out of my ASTI involvement. When my posts are not about good practice that worked for me theytend to come out of an emotional response to the way teachers are perceived.
3. Have you written/Do you write other blogs?
I’ve written a few guest posts and plan on trying to blog with my English classes. I’m researching the right platform at the moment.
4. Are there any other blogs (educational or otherwise) that you would recommend reading?
The blogs I follow most keenly are justtryingtobebetter.com by Kenny Pieper which is a brilliant reflection on the whys and hows of teaching, English in particular, http://www.leavingcertenglish.net by Evelyn O’Connor is very good too. I love http://irishelectionliterature.wordpress.com/ too, some great History resources there. Some others I always read are maggiemulrine.wordpress.com and http://bellitumsblog.wordpress.com/ are really good reflective blogs too. http://www.campaignforchildren.ie has a blog I’ve contributed to and it’s good for different perspectives on children’s rights. http://teachers.guardian.co.uk is very good at collecting a community of contributors. Have a look at http://www.ablogaboutcrisps.com for a bit of fun. I found all these through twitter by the way. I read a lot online so I’ve concentrated on the education blogs and spared you the political ones!
I’d like to thank Fintan for agreeing to take part in this feature and for his valuable contribution to ITB.
