Atlas is located in an area of Dublin called Portobello in the south centre of the city. The school itself sits on the bank of the Grand Canal, a really lovely spot, particularly in the summer. And it’s bursting with points of interest and great stories. Too good an area to miss out on if you’re in Dublin for any length of time.

Seeing that so many of our students head off to St. Stephen’s Green, Grafton Street, Temple Bar, and in some ways overlook much of Portobello, we created an interactive local history tour to add to our portfolio of Walk and Talk activities. To encourage students to go and explore locally we decided to create a very different type of lesson, one that was split across 2 sessions and involved easy-to-access, portable digitised materials. The first part is basically a classroom-based research and language development class, the second part is the walk and talk tour itself where students become the tour guides! Not only does this type of learning activity cover many of the key skills like reading, speaking and listening, it also offers a change of focus by getting the students out and about in the city.

If you’re in Dublin and want to try the walking tour part, why not open the interactive walking tour map on your device, click on the videos as you go to get some background information about points of interest and, if you’re with others, look at the discussion questions to get you and your friends talking while you’re walking.

Enjoy!