A Wednesday full of Work

By the end of the day I had paint all over me and I was singing nursery rhythms. Is that what happens each day when you’re a teacher? For my first term of work experience I went to Scoile Naomh Bríd in Celbridge and was helping my third class teacher with her junior infant class. I can’t remember much of being in junior infants but I thought in junior infants everyone was all quiet and cried at the start of the day because they didnt want to leave their parents but it looks like I was wrong! None of the girls cried when they came in and from the minute the class door opened and they came in until the minute they all left the class room always had a least one kid talking. It was like reliving my childhood if I have to be honest. The worst part of the day was by far the tiny chair that I had to sit on for the day.

Once the class came in I was introduced to the class and the teacher told the girls that I was going to be helping them with their art and work for the day. All of them were so fascinated and interested to see me sitting on the tiny chair at the back of the room in their "art corner" as they called it. Once the class was settled I was given A3 pages, the role, paint brushes,l tissues and the basic colours of paint. I wrote each girls name on the top right hand corner and then poured the paint into the pots and put a paint brush in each pot. Once the table was set up and ready for the girls to paint I looked at the list of where each girl sat and got them to come down two by two to paint a picture of themselves. I made them trace what they would draw with their finger so I knew they would fill the page. Watching them paint and helping them hold the paint brush was surprisingly fun. It wasn’t all fun and games though with the painting. Some of them didn’t want to stop painting because they liked it so much so to make sure they didn’t have too much paint on the page and you could see their paintings I had to take the paint brush off them. As mean as I felt telling them “all gone” when they asked for more paint I had to or else there would really be no paint left. I had the pleasure of cleaning some them because you can’t expect a five year old to paint without getting it on their uniforms, hands and even their faces. God knows how they got it on their faces but one minute they were clean and next they had orange paint straight down their jumpers. Painting was fun but I must say being a teacher would be hard because as they painted I had to get them to try say the colours they wanted not just point at them because they wouldn't learn anything if they just pointed at a pot full of paint. I had lunch and then continued painting with them after.

Once everyone did a painting I cleaned up all the paint and wiped down the table. I then helped them with the cutting and then got all the worksheets they had done in the past while and put them into their folders. While I did this I got to listen to them singing and a story being told.Then I had another lunch and then when back to the class and did that again until they went home. When they went home I put the chairs on the desks, made sure they had one of every colour crayon in their crayon bowls and then out the colouring books onto the desks for the morning.

I’m just a teenage girl who hates the thought of growing up but I’m doing it with a smile on my face and a positive attitude. Hope you liked reading about my first day of work experience  – Miss.Galligan x