Before the Exchange
I am in my last semester at Bridgewater State University where I have been undergoing my Student Teaching practicum. I am a history and secondary education major with plans to become a high school history teacher. The first 8 weeks, I was fortunate to do my Student Teaching at Middleborough High School. The staff there was incredible and really helped me out to become the best I could be. It was definitely a good amount of work and the perfect amount of challenge. I loved it because I felt stimulated always when I was at the school, always thinking of the next lesson plan. It really helped me get in a teacher’s mindset and get a deep dive into the life of a high school teacher. I wanted to go to Dublin, because I wanted to take a risk and a challenge.

Organization
The organization of this trip really relied on trusting the process. I knew I was accepted to the study aboard program in October but did not know where I was going to live until weeks before I left and even DAYS before I left to learn where I was going to teach. Accommodation is hard in any major city, Dublin is packed. We were originally going to try to stay in the Marino Institute of Education dorms, but they were full. Marino has had a partnership with Bridgewater for many years and they were so kind to me and Danielle when we arrived there. Through the likes of their very kind Dean Julie Uí Choistealbha and her collogue Sylvia McLoughlin we were able to find a home stay. Our first home stay was in Balgriffin, Dublin which was for 11 days. We lived with Gemma Preston. We both had our own rooms, access to the kitchen, and a clean bathroom. Our second home stay we stayed at Conor & Margaret McLoughlin’s house. This was in Coolock, Dublin. This location was convenient because it was a little closer to the school as I was able to take a bus route, rather than a 40-minute walk to the school at the first home stay. The rooms were a little bigger and we had access to everything we needed as well as a small living room which provided a nice tv and couch. It was only 180 Euro (less than $200 USD) a week for the seven weeks so did not end up being bad price either. In the end, it worked out!
The Exchange, Studies & School Experience Placement
On March 27th, I began my school placement at Donahies Community School. I was able to get settled in as they appointed me four classes to teach right when I got there. As you can read in my previous blog posts, the Irish Education System is quite different. I learned a lot from it. Teaching younger students that I did in Middleboro was great experience. It was also great to be able to teach aspects of American and world history. All the teachers I worked with were so welcoming. The school environment is independent. I was surprised when I took over a class my first week and the teacher had full trust and just left me in there. Overall, Donahies was great as it is a friendly environment, and I was able to teach a variety of topics to a variety of age groups.

Living in Dublin
Living here has been easy. For future students considering make sure you get a leap card. You will be taking the bus everywhere. Both my homestays were on the north side of town about a 30-minute ride into the city center. I was extremely lucky to be able to have known some friends while I was here because of connections I had made when I worked at a summer camp and international students worked there. Hanging with them and them showing me around was a great time. The 2-week easter break was nice to explore the city and the country! Living in Dublin, there is so much history. As a history teacher, I loved it. So many great museums and places to go! I would recommend following social media pages that give Ireland suggestions. That helped me a lot. The Hop off Hop on bus is a great way to get to know the city.
Conclusion
I am returning to the U.S. to graduate Bridgewater State! I am extremely grateful for my opportunity. This was a life-changing opportunity, and I cannot thank Dr. MacMillan, Study Abroad, Emma Lynch and Mike Sandy, and BSU’s administration enough for the thought and planning that went into this program. Another thanks to all the people at Marino Institute and the two home stays. I had a great time!

The last two weeks, I had off because of Easter Break. I am returning to school tomorrow for three weeks of teaching and then back to the U.S. This experience is truly flying by.  For the first week I had off, my mom came to visit me. I had a great time with her as we went along on a tour group and got to see the whole country of Ireland. Before my mom had come, I had only had the opportunity to explore around Dublin, but we were able to go all over with this tour group.

The first two days of the tour were doing some things in Dublin I had not done yet. We had a guided tour of Dublin Castle which was great because the history was fascinating, and it was a beautiful building. King Jon of England was responsible for the opening of the castle in 1204! Very smart and interesting tour guides as well. They were also cleaning up the place and we were not allowed to see some parts of the castle because they were preparing for President Biden to visit Dublin the following week. He was coming to Ireland in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement between Northern Ireland and Ireland that stopped the Troubles. I was not able to see President Biden because his location and timing for the public were announced last minute. My mom and I then went and did the Guinness Storehouse experience which was awesome. This is a museum on Arthur Guinness and how the brand became a worldwide phenomenon. At the top of the museum, there is a view of the whole city of Dublin, and they give you a free pint of Guinness which was nice.

The night before departing Dublin, the tour group went to a restaurant where traditional Irish music and step dancing was being played. It was cool to see versions of that and was enjoyable to watch.

We departed the next morning early towards County Cork. On the way we saw the Rocks of Cashel Castle, as well as Blarney Castle. Very cool parts of Irish medieval history. The steps of the castle were so thin and while climbing, the top got thinner and thinner. This is because when first built it was used for a defensive mechanism so no one would invade. After exploring Blarney Castle, we stayed the night in Killarney, a small town in County Kerry where it was beautiful. The next morning, we did a 100 mile scenic drive called the “Ring of Kerry” where you drive around County Kerry and see all the beautiful views. We were also able to get out and go to a museum about an island eight miles off the coast called “Skellig Michael”. In the 6th century monks traveled to this island and set up old monasteries. They wanted to go there to be peaceful and alone for a stronger connection with God. It was an interesting museum. They offer trips to the island but unfortunately, they only do it in the summer months. Maybe one day! This island was also the filming location of the new Star Wars movies that came out in 2015 and 2017. This gave the island a great tourist attraction.

Before finishing the Ring of Kerry, we watched a sheep dog experience at a farm in rural Ireland. This is where they trained a dog to basically chase sheep and gather them in one spot so the owner can do what he needs to do to get wool or etc… It was fascinating to watch, I guess it can take up to a year to train the dog to listen to commands. Like run left, right, center. After that we returned to Killarney for the night and went to a few live music spots.

We then left Killarney the next morning and headed to the “Cliffs of Moher” . It’s a great tourist destination in Ireland where there are 700-foot cliffs above the ocean making for great scenic views. Luckily on this day it was so nice out, and in general the week my mom came the weather was great. Ireland is known for its rain especially western Ireland, so we got lucky.

After spending some time at the Cliffs of Moher, we traveled to Limerick and spent the night there. The next day we headed to Galway and explored there for about three hours. My great- grandmother was born in Galway in 1921. So, it was cool to see where a lot of my family history was. It was funny, because the morning before heading to Galway I got my Ancestry DNA results back and it turns out I’m 84% Irish! After exploring Galway, we headed back to Dublin where I showed my mom a few places she had not seen yet then she flew back home.

That was just the first week! I moved in to my second homestay which is super nice and more spacious. It is also closer to the school I will be teaching at so no more forty-minute walk.  The second week, I developed a game plan of solo traveling to do some things that I wanted to see that I had not yet seen yet. Danielle was traveling the second week with her mom! So, I did a day trip to Kilkenny, which is about an hour and twenty south of Dublin. It was an awesome time, as I got a guided tour of Kilkenny castle which was great. I personally enjoyed Kilkenny Castle more than Dublin Castle. Kilkenny was known as Ireland’s medieval capital in the Middle Ages. I then went to a Medieval Museum, saw a bunch of great architecture of churches and climbed a 100-foot tower that was so steep but had a great view of the town at the top.

A few other things I did this past week was a night in Cork City. My dad’s side of the family comes from here, so I wanted to check it out. It is the second biggest city in the Republic of Ireland, besides Dublin with a population of about 200,000. I just walked around, saw some beautiful churches and architecture, and saw some cool parks like Fitzgerald Park and walked around University College Cork, where my hotel was right next too.

On Wednesday, I did a few things in Dublin I wanted to get too but had not got the chance yet. I went to the Vikings Museum called “Dublinia” which was excellent. The Vikings came and settled in Dublin at the end of the 8th century in 795! I then went and did a guided tour of Trinity College where the weather was so awful but still enjoyed a lot of history. It was built in 1592 ordered by Queen Elizabeth the 1st. I then saw the Old Library of Trinity College which was beautiful and saw the ancient “Book of Kells”. Which is a manuscript of the 4 gospels of the bible that was written by Monks in the year 800. Known to be one of the earliest surviving pieces of writing of the bible. Later that night, I met up with my friend from my camp I worked at in Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvanian and he showed me around some cool pubs.

Yesterday I took a bus to the nearest national park “Wicklow Mountains National Park” and did a two-hour hike. Had gorgeous views and was a great way to wrap up my two-week break. Now I am just lesson planning and getting ready for the week ahead!

Currently, in Dublin, housing is hard to find and at the beginning of the semester, we couldn’t get housing at the Marino Institute. We instead are lucky enough to get a homestay. We first planned to stay and currently staying with a woman named Margaret for most of our time here in Coolock which is a district of Dublin County (which I will explain more about below). But she was on vacation for the first two weeks we were here, so we stayed with Gemma in Balgriffin. Both places were lovely, and the people we stayed with were warm and welcoming. Gemma helped us to figure out the bus and both would check in and ask us about our days. It was actually really nice and in a way I’m glad we weren’t able to stay at Marino. Mostly because it just I think made this experience totally different and was able to develop different connections with people in Ireland. For each homestay, we paid 180 euros a week which included utilities. Below are photos of both of our different homestays.

County Dublin

In Ireland, they have different names for different areas of a city or country. Below is an image of Dublin County, so this whole area highlighted would be considered Dublin. This was something we found to be different. For example, when I think of Boston I think of being directly in the city. Whereas in Dublin areas outside are also considered a part of Dublin. For example, it would be like calling a place like Evret, Saugus, or Braintree a part of Boston. 

Next, the different villages in Dublin have been labeled with a number with the north side all odd numbers and the south side all even

 

In Ireland, they take two weeks off for the Easter holidays. During this time I spent my time traveling around the country trying to see as much as I could. I mostly did day trips to Waterford, Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick, Killarney, Tralee, and Dingle. To get to all these cities I used the computer bus system. The night before I would look up where I wanted to go and look for the fastest public transport routes. For most of the places I went, I used Dublin Coach, 

 

Dublin Coach – https://www.dublincoach.ie

Air Coach – https://www.aircoach.ie

 

These buses helped me to see a good portion of the country and were at a good price. For some of them, they were long bus rides but it was a good time I would use my time on the bus to look up information about the place i was traveling to or just to relax and sleep. I will say I took the bus to Tralee and then went from there to Killarney and Dingle. 

 

Once I arrived at each place I would head to the tourist information center. Here I would grab a map and talk to one of the people there and they would give me great advice on what I should go and visit. With the help of the tourist information center, I had a streak of seeing castles for seven days. I also found a bunch of museums, breweries, restaurants, hikes, and even a boat tour. 

 

During the second week of Easter, my mom came and we rented a car and headed north stopping at Galway, Sligo, Westport, Donegal, Derry, Randallstown, and Belfast. Here we still used the tourist information center and by the end of the two weeks, I had been to all but five countries in Ireland. Through it all I had the best time and got to meet great people while also seeing an amazing country.

This week, I went to my school for the first time. It was great as I was able to get a good schedule right away and get aligned with some teachers to work with while over here at Donahies Community School. I am going to be working with four different teachers and four different classes. Here at Donahies Community School, if you are in Junior Cycle which is equivalent to 7th, 8th, and 9th grade in America you only meet with history class twice a week. If you are in the Senior Cycle which is equivalent to 11th and 12th grade you have history class three times a week. I will be working with three Junior Cycle classes, and one Senior Cycle for a total of ten hours of teaching a week, which is similar to what I was doing at Middleboro High. The classes are shorter than Middleboro as well. At Middleboro my two classes were 94- and 86-minuteslong classes. Here they are all 60 minutes which is honestly nice.

​The classes I will be having go as follow

Two of these classes I was actually able to start in my first week. I was a little thrown off when they said they wanted me to start teaching within my first few days at the school, but it is good because I want to get back in the groove since it’s been a week since Middleboro. The two classes I started teaching were the Vietnam War class and the Communism class. I did three hours of complete instruction this week, while also co-teaching the British Industrial Revolution class for one class.

​I was happy that the topics I am covering I have some familiarity in and it is not Irish history. I know very basic Irish history but am way more comfortable teaching American history and some World history. It is good too that the American history class is the class that I will be teaching the most with three days a week which works out perfectly.

The school environment is very different from Middleboro. I am (like I mentioned in my first reflection) in an inner citydistrict that has a lot more challenges. The school is a lot smaller than Middleboro and way older. It probably hasn’t been rebuilt since it first opened in 1977. It has about a 500 total school population, compared to Middleboro which is around 1,000 kids. You also have to consider that this school has six grades in it compared to four in Middleboro. It also is different here in Ireland. You must apply to primary and secondary school here, and preference is given to the closest location but sometimes school will get filled and there will be kids that go to a school 40 minutes to an hour away from where they live. Everyone here has been super kind and welcoming to me and it’s been a good week. School is from 8:40 – 3:25 everyday besides Wednesdays which is a half day and get out at 12:55.

I have been observing when I am not teaching, and it has been very interesting to watch. The history lessons I have observed almost all of them have been just lectures for an hour with no classwork and then assigned homework. I am changing it up a little by doing things similar to how I did them at Middleboro which I think is better for student engagement. I have been observing the dress code and it is definitely more laid back then Middleboro. Teachers are wearing sneakers and jeans and almost just like sweatshirts every single day. I still am sticking to the more professional look because for one reason those are the only clothes I brought, and second reason I like to wear those clothes in a school setting. Grades are different here as well. Students do not have a gradebook where classwork and homework and quizzes and tests are put in to give them a grade of A,B,C,D,F. They are only assessed three times during the year. Christmas Break, Easter Break, and End of School (Summer). These three exam scores are the only three progress reports that are sent home for a progress report. And then at the end of 3rd year (Junior Cycle) you have a state examination which is huge, same with 6th year (Senior Cycle). I would compare this to midterms and finals but that is the only thing that matters. With this, homework and tests are still given BUT they are given to check in on students’ understanding. (This is all to my understanding as well). Teachers have the autonomy to tell the students they need a certain percentage to pass the test.  If they DON’T pass, they get detention or more work is assigned. So, it is not like their grade would go down like in America.

In terms of strictness, on the first day I noticed how much stricter the school culture is. Kids are not allowed to go to the bathroom during class, they can only go during lunch and hall pass time. There are certain exceptions for this rule, if it is an emergency, they can get a pass signed by the teacher. And if it is during class time a teacher has to unlock the bathroom for the students. The school has uniforms even though it is a public school, along with most schools in Ireland. I watched a student get suspended and told not to show up the next day because they forgot their uniform at home. No warning, just suspended for one day. If you are late for school, you are required to give a reason on why you are late while you walk in. In the case of homework, since there is no grade going up or down, detention is what you get if you don’t do it. My first observation was that a student didn’t do his homework and got detention for that day.

In terms of technology, students do not have Chromebookand they have a projector with an HDMI cord to plug in PowerPoints for teachers. It makes it a little harder for me to think of lesson plans without google classroom or a computer resource, but it is also great to see the Chromebook not as a major distraction in class and it is good because it is getting me to think of great lesson plans without the computer. They are allowed to have cell phones on them, but not allowed to have them in class without a teacher’s permission.  Headphones are not allowed at all.

I started teaching two out of the four classes I will be taking over in this past first week. And will be starting the others right when we get back from Easter Break. Overall, a great experience this first week at Donahies Community School and I’m excited for the opportunity that awaits here over the upcoming weeks!

Just a little update and highlights from week 1 in Ireland. I wrote this the day before my first day at the school for context.

The first day, I just went food shopping for the week and then went and walked around the area. Got settled in and unpacked etc.… Our home stay is nice, and we can be independent there. The three days that followed, me and Danielle went to Marino Institute of Education. We used the bus system, which in Dublin is very handy. I am staying in a village that is north of the city center called Balgriffin for now. To get to Marino, it’s about a 15-minute walk to the bus stop, a 15-minute bus ride, and then another 15-minute walk. I definitely have been walking a lot over the last week. At Marino Institute we had our orientation with Dean Julie who we have been communicating with for a while. She was super nice and welcoming.

The first day she sat us down and explained the Irish Education system in detail for about an hour or so to us. It is different from the U.S. and was cool to learn about. They have this thing called the Leaving Certification Exam which they take in their sixth year. (U.S. equivalent Senior year) This exam is out of 625 points and combines different values of what they learned in school. In order to gain access to university, you have to perform well on this test. So, admission to college is literally just based on what you get on this test. It is very important and from what I learned can be a very stressful time. There is also this thing called “Transition year” which is the equivalent of sophomore year in the U.S. This is an optional year of school as you can skip this ‘transition year ‘and just move on to what they call fifth year (U.S. equivalent junior year). Transition year is when you find out what you’re good at, and you’re not in a classroom every day. You go on field trips frequently, learn life skills and start crafting your future by focusing on something you’re good at. I think I would compare it to a vocational school in terms of that week where you are doing what you picked like electrician, nurse, etc.… I would also compare it to almost like a co-op program. So, learning about that was very interesting. Dean Julie was the one that set up my placement at Donahies Community School where I am starting tomorrow morning.

The second day of orientation we talked about things we need to do before arriving at the placement in terms of dress code, and what documents we need before we arrive. And then we met some study abroad students from Spain. Then we went into the city to explore a little after that Marino day. Just to get our feet wet. I saw some cool monuments like the Garden of Remembrance and got to explore the outsides of Trinity College. And got to see St. Stephens Green Park which was great. It was so funny, my friend that I met this summer at Pocono Springs Camp in Pennsylvania who is from Dublin saw that I was at St. Stephens Green Park from my snapchat location and was getting off the bus there when I was still there. We were able to meet up and talk for a minute. Small world!

On day three, I got a history of the Marino Institute of Education from their property manager which was super interesting. Then we got a tour of the library there and not much besides that. I went to visit Malahide Castle which is near my homestay after that and was beautiful. Was built in the 12^th century! Did not get a tour yet but was cool to see a castle that was built so long ago.  On Friday and Saturday, we went into the city and did the hop on – hop off bus where it took us to many cool historical places around the city. Some of the cool things I did was the Epic Museum which is the Irish Emigration Museum. This told the story of why so many people have left Ireland and how there is so much Irish descent around the world. It told the story of how Irish descent has contributed to the world. It was very interesting. I then checked out Saint Patrick’s Cathedral which was beautiful and awesome. Then the National Gallery of Ireland which had some cool renaissance art as well as the National Gallery of History which was cool because it is considered in Ireland “the dead zoo” it has a bunch of animals and really shares no history of Ireland just animals that have lived there in the form of taxidermy. Last night, I was able to go to the Temple Bar district and meet up with another friend I made from camp this past summer and it was great seeing a familiar face.

Marino Institute of Education is an association of Trinity College which is great because I will be able to say that on my resume. In terms of the school I am placed at, unfortunately a bus route does not line up with where my school is. So, it is a 40 minute walk there. I will get my steps in, and I really don’t mind walking around new areas. I am preparing a quick lesson about myself and about Boston for tomorrow if I am thrown in the spotlight of teaching. I think this week will be mostly observing and then jumping into it the next week. Which will be April 17th, because they have two weeks off school because of Easter Holiday break. That first week of the break my mom is coming to visit, and we are doing a trip across the major cities of the country which is really nice. It is crazy to have two weeks off, but also very nice as I will be able to explore.

I feel as prepared as I can be for tomorrow. Definitely a little nervous but with the experience I had at Middleborough High I know I will be fine. I guess the school I am placed at could be compared to a rougher school district in Massachusetts like Brockton, Lynn, Boston. I guess the Northside of Dublin (where we are staying) is supposedly more of a rough area then the Southside. But like I said I know I should be fine, and excited to start teaching! I am just happy I got into secondary school which is like 8th -12th grade. Anyways that’s an update for now and I am enjoying my stay so far.

 

My School