Wow, I cannot believe that only a week ago Kelly and I landed in Dublin! So far, we have done as much exploring as possible and are falling more in love with this beautiful country each day. For our first full day, Kelly and I took a super last minute trip to Galway, and it was absolutely stunning! Figuring out the public transportation that early on in our trip was definitely tricky, but it allowed us to become more familiar with the city. The transportation system here is actually very straightforward, and is in high-demand by everyone living in the city.
During our first few days of the week, Kelly and I had various lectures and meetings to attend in order to become familiar with the Irish education system as well as learn about the expectations of teachers in Ireland. Teachers in Ireland teach every subject such as the core subjects as well as Music, Art, and Physical Education. Many Irish schools do not have specialists or outside help, so the teachers have to teach everything. I also found it interesting that many of the schools do not have special education faculty or school nurses. These discussions were very eye-opening and interesting to reflect on as we began in the schools later on in the week. Thursday was our first day in the school, and it was a very shocking experience. We were placed at the Catholic University School, which is an all-boys private catholic school. I was placed in the senior infants class, which is the equivalent to our first grade in elementary school. Coming from a placement in second grade, I was excited to be working with students that are around the same age as my previous ones. As I walked into my classroom, I noticed that I only had 11 students in total. I was surprised that I had such few students, however I was excited because I would be able to work more closely with these students and really be able to understand how their learning has been progressing.
Due to being with such young students, I found that they really needed a lot of guidance in order to begin on their morning work. It was really interesting to see the structure of the day as well as how much curriculum these students are expected to comprehend. In the Irish curriculum, it is expected that all students learn English and Irish. At CUS, all students learn English and Irish as well as Spanish and Mandarin. I was perplexed to find out that these six-year old students were expected to learn four different languages. Along with this, the students have two 30 minute breaks during the day where they are able to go into the yard and run around. This time outside really allows the students to get out their energy as well as build social skills by working together with different activities. In my previous placement, my students only had 20 minutes a day for recess, and the rest of the time was strictly academics in the classroom. In the two days that I have been in the school, I have recognized that the teachers can design their schedule any way that they want, and can give the students as much time outside as they want. On Friday, my teacher, along with the preschool and junior infants teachers, decided to take the classes on a nature walk through the neighboring park. For this, they did not even need to get permission from the principal, they were just able to leave the school. As I am so used to being in a very structured classroom environment, I was not expecting to have such a laid-back school structure.
Although the school structure is very different than what I am used to, it has been a very exciting experience and I cannot wait to see what the rest of my weeks have in store for me!
-Raya