shine

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Happy Easter!


Hope you all have a lovely Easter and enjoy a well deserved break!

We finally finished our Webquest! It is such a relief to have it completed as i found parts of it quite difficult to set up. The easiest section was probably coming up with an idea for the webquest in the first place. I am looking forward to seeing the other webquests in our group as most of the students in group 10 are modern languages students and it will be great to get some new ideas.

I have one class to teach tomorrow in school and then we're off for two weeks which i'm really looking forward to!

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Only two days to go until the Easter holidays!

Tomorrow is our last lecture in EdTech so there's a last minute rush on to get everything completed! Other than that college is quiet for the moment although i'm sure once the Easter holidays end exam fever will set in.

School is going well at the moment particularly with the junior cycle classes. The students are in great form as the holidays are approaching. The leaving cert students are getting a little apprehensive as can be expected with oral exams coming up immediately after the holidays.

Since the clocks changed last weekend, the evenings are brighter for longer and everyone seems to be embracing the summer atmosphere. Here's hoping the summer of 2007 will be a good one!

Monday, March 26, 2007

Almost there!!

After a busy weekend, it was back to college today to continue working on our webquest. We spent six hours on it so it is really starting to take shape. I think the most difficult part of the webquest is the technical side - simply making everything link up and look good. I'm really looking forward to finishing up on Thursday!

School is busy at the moment so i'm still very much looking forward to the Easter holidays. Thankfully we still have no lectures in college this week as the block students continue to do their teaching practice.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Today has been really busy! One of the teachers asked me to correct mocks at school so i went in early to collect the exam scripts. I spent two hours correcting some of them this morning and they don't seem too difficult to correct.

I spent the rest of the morning and this afternoon working on the webquest for Edtech with Nicola. We have all our ideas gathered and between todays session and meeting up yesterday afternoon we managed to complete quite a bit. I like the idea of doing a webquest and definitely feel i could use it as a method for teaching French in the future, although i have to admit there is alot of work involved in making one.

The timetable for our summer exams came out earlier this week. We will be examined in five subjects/modules in the space of two days. It is a similar timetable to the first semester. It's a shame they couldn't give us a day off in between each exam to recuperate though !

This weekend i'm going to Dublin to do an interview for a summer job. I'm also going to meet up with some old friends from UCC which i'm really looking forward to. For the moment though, i have to head home and correct the rest of the mock exams!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

I went back to school today after a lovely relaxing weekend at home. Having spoken to a number of parents at the parent - teacher meeting on Friday, i agreed to take some of the students for extra lessons which i started today. Hopefully they will be beneficial to the students.

I am also hoping to start a basketball club at lunchtime on Fridays with an another PGDE student and one of the first year classes which i'm looking forward to doing even though it's been a while since i played basketball!

This week the block students are out on teaching practice which is great as sequential students have the opportunity to catch up on Edtech assignments and lesson plans. I also have a project to do for Modern Language Methodology so it's just as well we have no lectures! Luckily it's only two weeks until the Easter holidays. And they say teachers have it tough!!!...

Friday, March 16, 2007

St. Patrick's weekend is here!


Finally St Patrick's weekend is here! After a busy week of interviews and preparing for my first parent teacher meeting i am looking forward to relaxing over the weekend.

I had my first parent teacher meeting this afternoon which went well. It was nice to meet the students parents as i feel it helps to get to know the students a little bit more.

I had an interview for teaching in London on Wednesday and another one for teaching in Quebec yesterday. I would love to get the job in Canada and have the opportunity to discover another francophone region, particularly as i had such a good time in switzerland last year. I'll have to wait and see if i get the job.

I'm going to sign off now and enjoy the weekend!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

As usual the weeks are flying in and it's Wednesday already - nearly St. Patrick's weekend! School is going well this week. I had a leaving cert. oral language class yesterday and it went well. We were discussing the benefits of doing Transition Year. Having completed the year myself as it was compulsory in my former school, i think it's a great idea and definitely benefits students in many ways. We also discussed the new proposal by the minister for Education to increase the weighting of the leaving cert. Irish oral to 40% by 2012. I can understand why this proposal is being made. As i am a language teacher i realise the importance of practicing a language. I think Irish is a fantastic language and most definitely should be kept alive! I wonder if the same proposals will be introduced for modern languages?

I have an interview at 12.00 so i'm going to finish up. It will be interesting to hear about the job prospects and opportunities available for teachers in London.

Monday, March 12, 2007

The week ahead is going to be a busy one with interviews and parent teacher meetings lined up.
I'm hoping the interviews go well but at the very least i'll get some interview experience.

We had another talk on interviews and writing up CV's today. The gentlemen from the careers office running the talk did not really add anything new to last Thursday mornings lecture however they did answer some individual queries i had for my interviews this week which was useful.

This week is our last week of lectures before the block students go out on teaching practice and then we have two weeks holidays for Easter after that which i'm really looking forward to. Before that though we have St Patrick's day... and they say teachers have it hard? At least we have great holidays to recuperate!

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

I started early this morning with a class at 9am which went quite well. After that i came to college and had the opportunity to view my exam scripts. I found it quite helpful, particularly the Education and Society paper as the lecturer had included a sheet with the criteria needed to gain full marks. Hopefully i will be able to improve my marks in the second semester.

I'm doing voluntary French oral classes with the sixth years in my school as part of the Alive programme in college. In order to get the certificate you need to fill out a log book and submit it. I need to get my act together this week and fill out the log book. I enjoyed taking these extra classes. It has given me a great insight into the Leaving Cert French curriculum and also student's levels at both ordinary and higher level.

I have a number of interviews next week for teaching jobs next year. Hopefully i will get through them ok and at least i will get an idea of what is asked in interviews for teaching posts.

That's all for the moment as i have to get back to my lesson plans!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Yesterday proved to be another interesting day in college with another guest speaker in the Special Educational Needs lecture. She spoke to us about our course project and gave us a few ideas on methodologies to focus on when completing the project. I think i will complete the project with my second year language class in mind.

Everything is quiet in school at the moment. I am hoping to start basketball practice with first years on Friday at lunchtime with one of the other teachers. We will certainly give it a go for a couple of weeks and see what attendance is like. It's been years since i played basketball but it should be fun!

This week i'm going to concentrate on my WebQuest with Nicola and hopefully get that completed in the next few weeks. We also have to hand in our SPHE projects tomorrow night. It will be our last SPHE methodology class. I have to say i really enjoyed the SPHE lectures. They were very informal while at the same time informative. I feel it is a very important subject to have on the curriculum and helps students to develop many skills.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

March already!

I can't believe today is the 1st of March! As i said before, the term is going really quickly. Lectures are over for another week and i have to admit i'm wrecked! I had quite a few assignments to hand in this week. It's a great feeling when you actually finish an assignment and finally submit it.
We had another really good guestspeaker speaking about the travelling community in Education and society today. She was very refreshing to listen to and gave a good insight into inequalities which students from the travelling community can experience in education. I was particularly interested in the topic as there are a number of students from the travelling community in the school i am teaching in.
We had a number of career talks and fairs this week. At the teaching career fair on Tuesday i signed up to do an interview for two secondary schools in London. I thought it would be a good idea to attend the interview to see what kind of questions schools ask when employing prospective staff.
Tomorrow Bill Cullen is visiting our school to give the students a talk on motivation. It should be particularly interesting, especially as he is arriving in his helicopter and apparently will be bringing students for a spin!