Reflection

Hi all, and welcome back to my work experience blog for the last time. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my week at Gaelscoil Shliabh Rua. It truly was a fun experience, with plenty to do and plenty of variation. The only thing that I would change is that if it were at all possible I would have loved to work in a couple of the special help classes. That disappointed me slightly. Other than that, I loved it. Another important aspect was that it gave me a good taste of all of the roles of a primary school teacher. In this post, I will discuss and evaluate my week in the gaelscoil.

Firstly, I’d like to talk about the skills that I needed and developed during this work experience. Most jobs required mainly people skills such as teaching others and sorting out disputes, and verbal communication in explaining things to others. I had most of these skills already, but this week helped me to further develop them as I realised that different techniques must be used for different personalities. Some children needed gentle persuasion while others needed strict, firm instructions in order to carry out a task. While on my work experience I also learned several smaller skills such as the best and fastest way to cover school books, and other small, handy little skills.

I did face a few challenges on this work experience. One of the main challenges was speaking through Irish the entire time. Everybody else spoke Irish so naturally that at first, I felt very uncomfortable. However, the staff were very welcoming and insisted that if I didn’t understand anything I should just ask, and they’d explain. Even as the week went on, however, I found my spoken Irish improving. I became more confident. Even as I wrote my blog entries later in the week, I began thinking in Irish. I’ve never been to a Gaeltacht before, so I was completely astounded by the improvement this week made. I found this was an extra challenge for me, but in the end, it turned out to be an added bonus. Another challenge I faced was getting the children to listen to me. By nature, I don’t enjoy demanding people do something, but through the week I learned that some need a strict person to push them. I feel that I did improve through the week, however, and it became less and less challenging as time went on.

Perhaps I would like to be a primary school teacher in the future. I love teaching others to help them reach their full potential, and this week proved to me that I find that fulfilling. Also, I loved to work with the kids. I’d most likely teach infants though, because I found those classes far more enjoyable. I think the infants are far happier to be in school than older kids, and this improves the general atmosphere. However, I did not find this as interesting as my experience in speech and language therapy. As well as teaching I’d love to keep learning, and I have a passion for science. Speech and language therapy involves both, so I think teaching would be a backup for me.

Credit: upload.wikimedia.org

I really would recommend this work experience to everybody. Even if you’re apprehensive about the Irish, so was I. Believe me, it’s worth it. Ideally a person who is considering teaching would find this work experience suitable, but even if you’re not there’s plenty to do and there is something for everyone, even if it’s not what you want to do for the rest of your life. There is a lot to learn from it, from working with children to organisation. This work experience showed me every aspect of primary school teaching, and I enjoyed it. There’s not much more you could ask for from a work experience. So, if you are looking for work experience, or have a friend considering teaching, do consider this or recommend it to them. You won’t regret it.

I really hope you enjoyed reading my blog. And hopefully my story also helped if you’re thinking about work experience for the future.

As “na Gaeilgeoirí” would say, slán go fóill.

Ceri