The First Week: Part 2/Final Thoughts and Going Home
Having the opportunity to spend time in this special school was a privilege I will never be able to replicate. At first, I was unsure; firstly (and this is kind of a big one) I speak absolutely no Gaelic. I tried to learn a little on DuoLingo before we arrived and only managed to retain the translations for And, Man, Girl, and Apple. Secondly, I haven’t observed in an elementary school for years. I absolutely love kids, but having not worked with them in a classroom for quite some time, I was nervous that I wasn’t going to be very useful. And finally, we were going in knowing little-to- nothing about what our roles would be other than interacting with the kids.
The Gaelic language (though they simply refer to it as Irish) did come as an initial adjustment for sure. The only time it isn’t spoken throughout the school day is when the kids are working on English. Occasionally a teacher would pop into the classroom for a minute to address the class, the students would nod, and that teacher would exit the room. Or the kids would gather in the main hall for an assembly of some kind and the principal would talk to the students for a while before sending them back to class. Did I know what was being said? Absolutely not, but sometimes I could get the general gist (the kids need to read more books, students are needed for fiddle practice, the hurling team won something, etc...). Everyone at the school was so helpful, though, and never once made us feel silly for not knowing Irish. The students were allowed to speak to us in English whenever they wanted, though despite being code-switching pros, some of the kids did occasionally come running up to us with questions in Irish. Whenever this happened they would catch their mistake with a little head shake and a giggle, like they’d just been poked on the nose, and restate their question in English. They took great delight in the fact that I didn’t know what they were saying; they could talk to each other about me at full volume while looking me dead in the eyes and I would still have no clue as to what they were talking about. They also liked to hear me try to speak the language. Many of their names were traditional Irish names, and are therefore not pronounced how they are spelled. We played a game in which one of the classes gave a few of us their workbooks and we had to try to read the name written in the corner; it was obviously a whole mess and the kids laughed so hard I swear they had tears in their eyes. But they did teach me how to count to 10 in Irish (which ended up being weirdly similar to Spanish) and that was so fun for them.
As for working in the elementary school and finding my role there, my worries were very much alleviated on day one. The teacher I was paired with (AMAZING woman by the way) gave me several jobs throughout the week and allowed me to take time to work with the students one-on-one. First, she had me go through a lot of the students old assignments, which allowed me to get a feel for what the students do all year, and allowed me to become familiar with their names. For the rest of the week, I worked daily with the students on their reading. There were two different groups reading two different books; I would take each group into another room in the school, sit them in a circle, and have them take turns reading. They all very much had what I like to call “substitute teacher syndrome”, so it was hard at times to get them to focus and to seriously do their reading, but it was great to get to work with these students and hear how they read. I also helped them with their daily workbook work as well. I noticed a lot of differences between American and Irish schools, but one of the biggest differences in the courses was the reliance on these workbooks. The students had a different workbook for each lesson, and each one was split up in a very specific, scheduled pace for every day of the year. Besides the English workbook, these were all in Irish, so any time I worked with a student on their work they had to translate the pages for me first. This was always really interesting because sometimes there was no direct and literal translation, so they really had to explain it, which I found actually helped their comprehension of the question. They even had to help me understand some of their math, as they were working on adding coins and bills, and they use Euro and I still have no idea what kinds of coins they have (a whole “help me help you” situation). I was able to teach them about Kentucky, and they even colored their own Derby jockey silks.
Their colorful silks and silly horse names
I was so lucky to have the opportunity to work with these super cool students, but it was also fantastic to get to speak with the teachers. We had a lot of questions for them, but they also had a lot of questions for us. We discussed the importance of physical fitness and nurturing of interest in schools, teacher compensation and responsibility, lesson planning- really there are so many differences, but I felt like it all boiled down to the focus on nurture. I don’t know how things work at other Irish schools, but at the Gaelscoil the students are happy and don’t seem stressed or pressured about their work. They are encouraged to take advantage of their snack and lunch breaks to get outside and play with their friends. This time is also used for the sports teams to practice. They also have a cast of rotating teachers and demonstrators that come in several times a month to teach French, traditional Irish music, Irish dancing, hurling- all of which are done at school and during class time. The teachers really stressed the idea of sending students on to secondary school with a love of learning, but also for their interests
Final Thoughts and Going Home
I loved spending time at this school. Our last day was so emotional; despite our short time together, the students made a lasting impact on me. They also chased us all down to collect all of our signatures like some kind of minor celebs. At the end of the day, I left the kids with a little Big Red for them to keep, they littered me with glittery cards, and surrounded me in hugs. Leaving them, the school, and the country was so much harder than expected. I was just getting used to life in Westport and the routine of the school when I had to say goodbye. The time I spent there, though, was invaluable. I want to be sure that my future classroom is nurturing and focuses on my students’ learning and happiness equally. I also want to pass on what I have learned, as it is so important to learn from the successes of other education systems, and their growth.
Goodbye, Gaelscoil!
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