Careers talk

In December, we started to study careers in work experience classes on a Thursday afternoon. We went onto careers portal and first filled out the personality test. This test was made up of 30 questions that we had to answer honestly about ourselves. The first time I did it, my highest section was theorist, but when I did it again, it came up as stabiliser. Both personalities are very logically minded personalities that like order and routine. I also scored highly in the idealist area which is the personality that is more thoughtful towards others and cares for other people’s opinions.  We also did the career interests profiler which made us rate statements in order of relevance to ourselves. The results showed that I was -1 realist and 37 naturalist. I was 14 enterprising, 29 social, 12 investigative, 21 administrative, 25 creative and 27 linguistic. When I searched the careers that would suit me with these results I got things like lecturer, teacher of English as a foreign language and special needs assistant.These are all similar to what I hope to be when I leave school. The career research was interesting and helped me find out about my personality and what career paths would be suitable for me.

Career Investigation

Title: Career investigation of secondary level teaching of a language

Description of career: Secondary level teaching is also called post primary teaching and will normally specialise in one or two subjects and will teach them to students from first to sixth year.A teacher can often teach up to eight lessons a day to different classes of around 30 students, all with different ability levels.

Skills and qualities: The skills needed are ability to talk for a length of time and sound confident and authoritative when talking and to be fluent in the language that you have chosen to be able to answer any questions about the language. The qualities needed for teaching are confidence and patience as you will need to be able to talk in front of a group of people and patience as not everyone will learn things at the same pace.

Qualifications and training:

Pathway 1:

Bachelor of Arts

NUI Galway

Minimum Grade HC3 in two subjects and passes in four other subjects at H or O Level in the Leaving Certificate, including: Irish, English, another language, and three other subjects recognised for entry purposes.Entry Points (2015) range 300 – 615

As well as;

Professional Master of Education

NUI Galway

The minimum requirement is a primary degree, Level 8. Garda vetting/police clearance is required for this programme.Duration – 2 years, full-time.

Pathway 2:

University College Cork

Arts BA (Hons)

H5 in two subjects, and O6/H7 in four other subjects in the Leaving Certificate from Irish, English, another language, and three other subjects recognised for entry purposes.

Entry Points: 2015: 350. Points may vary from year to year.

As well as;

Professional Master of Education

NUI Galway

The minimum requirement is a primary degree, Level 8. Garda vetting/police clearance is required for this programme.Duration – 2 years, full-time.

Options:

These courses offer a wide range of skills as you can choose a variety of two subject combinations.You study three subjects in First Arts. You then pursue two of the subjects that you pass in first year to degree level – in Second and Final Arts.

Additional Requirements: None
Duration; 3 yrs: BA, 4 yrs: BA international
Next start date; September 2016
A Level Grades (2015)
CCC (A-Level) or equivalent combination
Average intake; 1000
CAO; GY101

Course Outline

The Bachelor of Arts (Joint-Honours) Entry has subject groupings. Students choose THREE subjects, not more than ONE from any of the following groups.

Group 1

Archaeology
French 5, 7
Mathematics8

Group2

Law4
Psychology3,4
Celtic Civilization

Group 3

Classics
Geography
German2,5
Léann na Cumarsáide
Irish Studies (Literature and Music)

Group 4

English
Economics

Group 5

Sociological & Political Studies
Information Technology
Léann an Aistriúcháin

Group 6

History
Spanish2,5

Group 7

Gaeilge
Italian2,5
Philosophy

 

Professional Master of Education

In preparing teachers for the post primary sector, the programme aims to guide and facilitate student teachers initial entry into teaching and provide a solid theoretical foundation to support and aid their preparation for professional practice within the classroom.

Course Outline

Course Content

Year 1 modules:

Professional Studies
Educational Sciences
Professional Practice/School Placement
Subject Teaching Methodologies

Year 2 modules:

Practitioner Based Research
Professional Practice/School Placement
Subject Teaching Methodologies

Interaction:

As part of my work experience, I spent three days from Wednesday 4th to Friday 6th in Kilbarron National School, a local primary school to experience what teaching was like and to experience the classroom from the teacher’s perspective. There I asked the teachers what was involved in teaching and about the different requirements needed. I asked Ms Shelley Anderson and Mrs Priscilla Leslie what was involved in teaching and the sort of paperwork that had to be filled out.

Evaluation:

I think that teaching languages are suitable for me as I have a good grasp of the languages finding them easy to get used to. I also enjoy English and French and also get good grades in these subjects. I also enjoy the idea of teaching as I like helping people. The work experience as well helped to cement my interest in teaching as I found the classroom experience interesting and fun. However, I did find my career investigation a bit inconclusive as it was challenging finding the correct courses for the work that I would like to undertake and I may need to ask around more to the teachers in the school to find out more about my career path.

 

 

 

Work Experience as Gaeilge

For our Irish class on Tuesday 12th and Wenesday 13th April, we had to write up a summary of our work experience from questions that had been given to us from Ms McElwaine. She then asked each of us up and we had to answer questions that she gave us orally. I got 90% in the test which I was really happy with. This is the question sheet that we were given;

Mo Thaithí Oibre

1. Cá raibh tú ag obair?– Bhí mé ag obair san oifig “B&B Eireann”. Tá an oifig i mBaile Átha Seannaigh.
2. Cén t-am a thosaigh tú ag obair gach lá?– Thosaigh mé ag obair ar a naoi a chlog gach lá. Fuair mé leathuair do mo lón.
3. Cén t-am a chríochnaigh tú an obair gach lá?– Chríochnaigh mé an obair ar a ceathar a chlog gach lá.
4. Cé mhéad lá sa tseachtain a raibh tú ag obair?– Bhí mé ag obair ar feadh cuig lá; Luain, Mairt, Ceadaoin, Deardaoin agus Aoine.
5. Conas a ndeachaigh tú chuig an obair gach lá?– Thóg mo mháthair mé chuig an obair tar eis a thóg sí mo dheirfiur chuig scoile.
6. Ar chaith tú éide oibre nó gnátheadaí?– Chaith mé éide néata; leine, brógaí néata agus briste dubh.
7. Cén sórt oibre a bhí a dheanamh agat?– Bhí mé ag obair ag an ríomhaire ag deanamh le Microsoft Excel. Bhí mé ag obair le huimhreacha.
8. Ar réitigh tú go maith le do chomhoibrithe?– Réitigh mé an-mhaith le mo chomcoibrithe. Bhí siad cairdiúil agus deasa.
9. Conas a réitigh tú le do bhainisteoir/ treoraí? Cén sort duine é/í?– Réitigh mé le mo bhainisteoir. Bhí sí failteach agus cabhrach agus thaispeain sí mé an oifig.
10. Ar thaitin do thaithí oibre leat? Cén fáth?– Thaitin mo thaithí oibre liom mar bhí sé an-suimuil agus chonaic mé saor an oifige. Thaitin mé ag obair san oifig agus bhí mé ag deanamh oibre. D’fhoghlaim scilleana gnó agus bhí na daoine cairdiúil.

Work Experience at B&B Ireland

For my second week of work experience, I was at B&B Ireland on the Belleek Road. It was really interesting as I spent most of my week in the vouchers department and the accounts department. I also saw how many phone call queries the business had!

Monday: I was in the voucher department in the morning viewing the credit card lodgings. I was then observing in the accounting department. I thought that being in the voucher department interesting as it showed how complex the system is and how many different processes there are. I thought it was difficult at first to work out how to sort out last year’s voucher payments but once I got into a routine it was interesting.

Tuesday: I started out by sorting out something for the administration department writing up a list of potential clients. I then watched Fiona in the vouchers department as she sorted through the redeemed vouchers.

Wednesday: I had to type up an agreement for someone and also search for contact details for all the b&bs in Ireland that are signed up to booking.com but not b&b Ireland. I found it interesting finding all the details about the b&bs and having to input them. I also enjoyed typing up the contract.

Thursday: I began the day observing the accounts department as they did up the accounts. I then sorted the mail and did some work on the computers sorting out the b&b names for each county. I enjoyed seeing what the people in the accounts department did and how the accounts system was set up.

Friday: I started off by sorting out payments and then inputting them into Excel. I spent the afternoon observing Fiona sending the invoices to travel agents. I enjoyed sorting out the payments for the accounts department as it was something different and showed how organised each of the departments were.

This type of work need good maths skills and you had to be organised as you got so many emails and requests during the day that if you are not organised, it all piled up. You also have to have good conversational skills as you get lots of phone calls and you always have to be friendly and helpful on the calls. I really enjoyed helping out in the vouchers department, especially when I was given my own work to do as I felt like I was helping, yet I think I preferred my first week of work experience in the primary school as I didn’t enjoy as much sitting in the office on my own doing the work and preferred being able to move around and have more people to talk to.

Work Experience in Kilbarron NS

From Monday 22nd February to 26th February, I had work experience in Kilbarron National School in Ballyshannon. I didn’t realise it till the day, but Sarah Lipsett also had work experience there for the week. For the week, I was in the senior classroom which was made up of the ten pupils of 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class. I mainly spent the week helping third and fourth class.

Monday: I had to help 3rd and 4th class with their mental maths and English comprehensions. I also had to help them with their English discussion activity. I found helping the younger classes interesting as it was fun to have the group talk together about their English activity. It was difficult at the beginning of the day, though as I was unsure what the class would make of me, although they all were very friendly.

Tuesday: I helped 3rd and 4th class with their mental English and maths. I then gave a tables game to all the classes to help them revise their times tables. In the afternoon, I helped 3rd and 4th class with their history activity on Norman castles. I thought that the maths game was interesting as it showed me how to make learning the times tables fun for kids. It was sometimes difficult in the mental maths activities to explain why you had to do a maths procedure.

Wednesday: I helped 3rd and 4th class with their mental maths and English. I also played the times tables game with them. It was interesting to see how the teacher planned out her day so that when other teachers were coming in for a specific subject, she marked work.

Thursday: I was with 3rd and 4th class for the morning reading their Irish story with them and going over all the questions with them. I enjoyed dissecting the squid with the senior classroom as I got to learn something new and also see what the different reactions to the squid were.

Friday: I helped out 3rd and 4th class with their mental maths and english exercises. I then played boggle and the times tables game with all the classes. I also helped them with their dolphin artwork. I liked helping the classes with their artwork as it was interesting to see how each of the different ages interpreted the instructions given to them.

I really enjoyed my week in Kilbarron National School. I got to see the classroom from the teacher’s perspective. I really enjoyed helping out with the younger class’ artwork. This experience showed me that you need to be confident and willing to help others all the time. You also have to be observant so that you can see if any student needs help or is upset over something. You also have to be friendly and approachable but also slightly authoritative so that people listen to the instructions and help that you give.