National Portal Day 2023. Image Credit Cian Flynn

Parallel Session 3: 2.20pm – 3.10pm

Presentation and Discussion: The Power of Rap: Integrating the arts, literacy, and social studies. Room: EQ002

In this presentation primary school teacher and lecturer Veronica Ward will demonstrate how rap music and video creation can enrich the primary school curriculum. Attendees will learn how to design a cross-curricular unit where students write their own rap about “Home”, giving them a powerful voice, allowing them to discuss migration and displacement from their perspectives. The session will guide participants in the facilitation of rap-writing that encourages self-expression, critical thinking, and cultural awareness. The process of storyboarding, filming, and editing in the video creation of the raps will also be explored.

Veronica Ward is a primary school teacher with over 20 years’ experience in education and a passion for cross-curricular integration of the Arts. She has lectured in Early Childhood Education and on Bachelor of Education Programmes. For more than 10 years she has worked on the development and facilitation of continuous professional development courses in the area of STEAM and is currently an advisory board member on the EU funded “STEAM Learning Ecologies” project. She has recently been awarded a PhD scholarship from the School of Arts Education and Movement at the Institute of Education, Dublin City University (DCU).

Presentation and Discussion: Portal Documentation Award Recipient Series: Marino 100 Back to The Future: Room EQ211

Artist Heather Gray, teacher Joan Lyne and Junior Cert School Programme Librarian, Robin Stewart from Marino College will share insights from their work on the Creative Minds Marino 100: ‘Back to the Future’ Programme and Festival, now in its fourth year. They will discuss how this initiative, driven by young people in the North East Inner City Dublin, has fostered community engagement, celebrated cultural diversity, and transformed perceptions of the area. Participants will gain an understanding of how collaboration between schools, artists, and the local community has shaped the festival’s growth and how the voice of the child has been central to it all. They will also talk about this year’s programme, and how they have been able to incorporate Creative Minds into the Transition Year timetable, and the lessons learned over the years to ensure smoother planning and implementation into the future.

Heather Gray is a socially engaged interdisciplinary artist based in Dublin 3. Gray has a deep interest in working with Young People in an educational setting. Heather’s areas of expertise are creating large scale public participatory art works as a socially engaged practice and facilitating student led approaches to co-creation. Gray is a founding member of the art collective Hi-Vis Witches who use a range of participatory art strategies including performance and creative workshop elements in their work.

Joan Lyne has been a teacher of Irish and English in Marino College since 2015. She is a Gaeilgeoir from the West Kerry Gaeltacht and an arts and music enthusiast. Joan has been involved in promoting the arts in Marino College since her arrival at the school. Many of her students were finalists in the national Poetry Aloud competition with one student winning the senior category in 2019. She has spent over 10 years as a volunteer committee member organizing Féile na Bealtaine, a Community Arts and Music Festival held annually in her native Dingle. It was this involvement that inspired the beginning of the Creative Minds festival in Marino College. Joan is passionate about collaboration, inclusion, community and creativity. She believes passionately about the arts in education for its enhancement of creative thinking skills and more importantly for the cathartic and therapeutic effect it can have on the individual.

 Robin Stewart is the Junior Cert Schools Programme Librarian in Marino College, Dublin 3, where his work focuses on tackling the literacy, numeracy, social, emotional and communications challenges faced by many young people, particularly those from marginalised and seldom heard backgrounds. His previous work with marginalised public library users was recognised at the Excellence in Local Government Awards. Robin has written for Inis, An Leabharlann and The School Librarian magazines and is the Treasurer of the Library Association of Ireland School Libraries Group. He was shortlisted for the national Library Staff Champion award 2023.

Creative Workshop: Street Art Ink: Room EQ212

Join artists from from Street Art Ink in this workshop that explores street art as a powerful tool for amplifying marginalised voices. Participants will learn about its role in social movements and how it fosters self-expression and community engagement. Dylan and Ciaran will give an overview of street art’s impact in voicing underrepresented communities, with examples from various cultures. Participants will be invited to create street art on portable canvases, focusing on diversity and inclusion. Basic spray and stencil techniques will be taught and participants will use these skills to create their own piece of art. At the end of the workshop, participants will share their art, reflecting on how it represents personal and community stories.

Dylan Hayes has been a spray and stencil workshop facilitator with Street Art Ink since 2017. He is also a secondary school teacher and has vast experience in delivering this workshop programme to various groups across Ireland and abroad.

Ciaran Brady has been a spray and stencil workshop facilitator with Street Art Ink since 2018. He is also a secondary school teacher in Irish language studies and has vast experience in delivering this workshop programme to various groups across Ireland and abroad in English and through Irish.