Choosing a Career

My Work Experience;

Revisiting Timoleague National School

For my week of Work Experience I decided to contact Timoleague National school as I have an interest in primary school teaching. I’m a past pupil of this school, along with the three other Transition Year students who chose this workplace; Isobel Crowley, Rachel Bevan and Sinéad Walsh. I was pretty nervous the night before the placement started: How would the students react to me? Would they listen or just ignore what I'm saying in favour of their teacher or friends? Will I enjoy working with kids or just end up feeling frustrated? But then I remembered how I felt when past pupils came or work experience in the school. It was fun figuring out who their siblings and relatives were and learning about the “Big School” ahead of us. In the end I needn't have been so worried as I enjoyed my time in the classroom and I believe the kids felt the same.

Seeing the school again felt strange and nostalgic. We got a tour on the first day and saw the staffroom had moved. A completely new staff room had been built and even the little art cupboard was gone, now being placed in the Staff Room. They also added a sensory room with beanbags, fairy lights and a small trampoline which we all agreed was very cool and wished it had been there in our time.

Along with the tour, we were also given timetables for the week for which classes we are with and when. We all got a chance to be with each class at sometime during the week. I couldn't wait until Tuesday morning for my double class with the Junior Infants! In each class I mainly sat at the side/ back of the room and watched how the teacher taught the class or helped the SNA in each class with some students. I also helped with a lot of cutting and sticking during the week especially with the Junior and Senior Infants. Every class was doing some form of art this week as well, more than usual, as Valentine's Day was on Friday! Throughout the school, pink and red paper along with the scissors block were constantly in demand, and the printer seemed to never stop sputtering out pages of hearts and flowers. 

I really enjoyed working with the students on their art, dancing English and Maths… though Maths was a little strange as the Fourth class up were using a new method of learning decimals and division which I tried to quickly get used to. I loved when the little kids asked questions like, “ Claire? Are you from county Clare?” or “when are you with us again? Will i see you tomorrow?” A couple of 5th class students asked how S econdary school was and is it scary being in “such a big school with loads of people?”  My favourite time was when I got to work with students one on one with their Maths and English as I could see how excited they got when they finally understood something or got the right answer. 

I learned from this work experience that I do indeed love working with kids though sometimes you need ALOT of patience when explaining something you might think as simple. All the teachers seemed really enthusiastic in their classes and looked like they really enjoyed teaching which added to the fantastic warm atmosphere in the school. So, primary school teaching is still definitely a possibility as a future career… though so is art, or business, or graphic design so I’m still very uncertain for now. I also had a second Work Experience set up over the Easter Holidays in the Cope Foundation Residential house in Clogheen but unfortunately this fell through due to Covid-19. This would have helped me see if I liked working in the medical sector and helping people with Intellectual Disabilities.

Claire Murphy