Teacher Talk

I just finished my Friday volunteering in the school. I have been assisting in a Junior Infant class for the last couple of weeks. Junior Infants in the first grade in the Irish school and is a cross between preschool and the beginning of K in our school system. It is really interesting to see the differences in schools here.

All of the students have breaks at the same time. The first break is 10 minutes and the second 30. All the students in the school are in the yard at the same time (almost 300) and there are only 2-3 teachers on duty. The rest of the teachers get these breaks as well, and spend it in the staff room. It seems so crazy to me that the students have that little supervision during their breaks. The yard is large and has several different areas, so there is no way the teachers can see anything going on. It is very different than recess in the states.

Technology-

The school has just recently gotten what they call interactive white boards for the classrooms, but this is really the extent of technology in the classroom. There are no computers for the students, no listening centers, or anything of that nature. The school has 1 maybe two copiers that are very outdated. It is interested to see how the school functions with so little to work with.

Today I was amazed to hear in the staff room that centers are a new concept here. They are just starting centers in 1st class (1st grade). One of the teachers was beginning to explain it to me, and was telling me how it is a very new thing here. I think she realized I knew exactly what she was talking about, so she began to ask if we had centers in America. (For all the education people reading this- I wonder what they would have to say about Daily 5)