First week of teaching at Claddagh National School

Claddagh National School

This past week was this first official week of teaching at Claddagh National School in Galway, Ireland. I can't even consider it a full week because we started on Tuesday and Friday was a half day, so it came down to 3.5 days of teaching. The school day is from 8:50-2:30pm. I have to arrive at 8:20am to monitor the students in the hall, which is like the gymnasium. The students wait in the hall until 8:50am and then the principle or vice principle comes into the hall and guides the students through a prayer before starting the school day. The teachers do not arrive until 8:45am. This is something that is completely different compared to the US. Many teachers in the US arrive at least a half hour before school starts to prep for the day or get their classroom set up. At Claddagh, the first break or as we know it as recess, is from 11:00-11:15am. The students get 15 minutes to play outside. Before going outside at 11 o'clock, the students have a small snack. The second break is from 12:00-12:30pm, the students get 30 minutes to play outside. Before going outside at noon, the students eat lunch. There is no cafeteria. The students are required to bring their own snacks and lunch from home and they eat in the classroom. During both breaks, I stand outside and monitor the students. I kind of feel like a playground or hall monitor because my day consists of 1 hour and 30 minutes of monitoring students behavior. It is also different because since I monitor the students during their breaks, I have to take my own breaks during the time the students are learning in the classroom. Therefore it is cutting into my time that I am actually in the classroom and could be teaching. This first week was a little chaotic. There were a couple reasons for this. St. Patrick's Day was this past weekend and students at Claddagh, marched in the parade. It sounds like all of last week the students practiced their instruments and marching. Also this week was only a 3.5 day week and now the students are off for 2 weeks because of Easter Holiday. My students were a little rambunctious all week. On Thursday, I worked with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) students all day. We took the students to the cinema and saw a movie. There are only 5 students in the ASD classroom but when going on outings, there needs to be one adult for every child so I was asked to come along. It was a fun day and very interesting. I have only worked with one autistic student in the US. Working with these children every Thursday will be a great experience. It was overall a good week. Completely different than any school I have been in. It is weird because I finally started seeing some structure to the day and now we have a two week Easter Holiday and won't be back into the classroom until April 8.

Next week Jay, Nicole, Kari, Brittney, Nate, and I are running the Easter Camp at Claddagh. There are about 20 students signed up to come to the camp. It should be fun. We are doing activities such as dance, drama, art, sports, and cooking. The camp is Monday through Friday and goes from 10:00-2:00pm.

We also booked our spring break trip! Next Saturday, March 30, we are leaving Ireland and flying to Rome, Italy. We will spend a couple days in Rome, travel by train to Florence and Venice, and again travel by train to Germany. We will fly out of Germany and back to Ireland on Friday, April 5. I am so excited! I am excited to go back to Italy. I went to Rome about two summers ago but I never saw northern Italy so Florence and Venice will be something new to see! It will be a quick and busy trip! I'm sure we will be exhausted by the end of it. 

This weekend had been a lazy one. I am not complaining though. Ever since we got to Ireland, we have been go, go, go. Everyone was exhausted after St. Patrick's Day weekend in Dublin and teaching all week. It was nice to be able to sleep in and do nothing all day. Tomorrow we are having an early Easter dinner. Everyone is cooking their favorite Easter dish. We will be in Italy for Easter so we decided to do it early. Jay is cooking a honey glazed ham, Kari is cooking potatoes of some sort, Brittney is making a traditional Irish cabbage dish, Nate is making a broccoli salad, Nicole is preparing dessert, and I am going to attempt to make honey rolls. It should be delicious! I am going to go to bed now and enjoy sleeping in again! Goodnight! :)