Reserve Defense Forces

I am a Potential NCO. I hope to complete my NCO Course this year and I will become a Corporal, in the Reserve Defense Forces. This will allow me to teach Recruits.....

Take a look at the following website for more information on the Defense Forces. http://www.military.ie/introduction/index.html

Reserve Defense Forces

I spent the weekend in CavanBarracks on a Potential NCO Course.

I hope that I will be a Corporal in the Reserve Defense Forces by the end of the year. This will allow me to teach Recruits footdrill and the training of weapons. I have to attend a two week course to obtain the Corporal Position.
I will undergo intensive training.

During the weekend, I learnt the 'Qualities of Instruction'. I learned that 'nothing is taught, unless something is learned'... The weekend was a revision of what I have learned on the Postgraduate Diploma in Education Course.

For my two weeks,I will have to prepare lesson plans and give lessons in front of officers. I will be obliged to use teaching aids, such as Powerpoint and charts.

This Nco course will be very beneficial.

Croke Park

The GAA has no problem with the playing of the British national anthem at Croke Park next weekend before the Ireland-England Six Nations rugby international.....

In the Sunday Tribune , Barrett, who won an All-Ireland with Kerry in 1962 and whose father, Joe, won six All-Ireland medals in the 1920s and 1930s, said: "I cannot reconcile the provocative words of God Save the Queen being sung in the very stadium where Michael Hogan and others died at the hands of crown forces on Bloody Sunday.

"The arrogant war-mongering words of God Save the Queen ringing out over Croke Park is surely pushing the boundaries of tolerance and common sense beyond what is expected in any republic on earth"(Irish Times; http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/sport/2007/0219/1171575969625.html)

Assignments

Plenty of assignments to work on this week. Made a start on Webquest assignment with Roisin. We got alot done this morning.... We have arranged to meet again the same time tomorrow and work to finish it. We have lots of great ideas...

Work! Work! Work!

I find that I'm really enjoying teaching these past few works... As time goes by and my experience of teaching increases, I find myself becoming more settled into teaching. I am making my classes alot more interesting. I have introduced lots of wall charts as visual aids (acquired from the Resource Library in Department of Education)

Ive loads of assignements to complete in the next few weeks. Its very daunting...

• Special Needs Assignment
• Transition Year (3 modules)
• Further Education Assignment
• Webquest
• Powerpoint Presentation
• Lesson Plans and evaluations (as per usual)
• Lesson Preparations...

I will find the next few weeks very stressful...

Teaching Practice Folder

I have been working very hard on teaching practice all year. I have kept it up-to-date. I learned from another fellow Postgraduate Diploma Student that we had to have a bibliography completed and in our teaching practice folder. The bibliography contains all the references that has used the lessons. This was the first i heard of it.......

I also completed another '2/3 week reflection' today for my folder. Its a really good idea to write all your thoughts and critical evaluations of your classes to date... I feel I am improving my teaching strategies...

Reflection Powerpoint

I have really enjoyed working on the Powerpoint presentation.... I have experimented with animations, transition, sounds, colors and texts. I have adapted the powerpoint numerous times. I intend to use the powerpoint presentation in my class and I am really looking forward to it....

Powerpoint is a visual teaching tool in the classroom and helps to educate the students in an interesting, creative and fun way...

My Powerpoint Presentaion is on a Ringfort I survived in 2005, as part of my MA in Landscape Archaeology. My supervisor advised me to take my history classes on further level and to use my archaeological background to make teaching and learning more interesting in school. I am presently covering the archaeological section in class, so I try to bring the subject alive by sharing my experiences as an archaeologist. I have brought in trowels, brushes, picks, sword replicas, flint and images in my lessons. I have taken my classes a step further by presenting information and images on Powerpoint and I have found the students are intrigued with the new technology, thereby increasing their attention spans in class. I intend to use the powerpoint presentation I have created in Edtech in my lesson.

A teacher in the school asked me to take his first and second year class to discuss archaeology...I hope to use my powerpoint presentaion in these classes.

I'm really looking forward to playing the music with the presentation....it is a sound of a bodhran...I think the sound of the bodhran brings people back to ancient times....perhaps the sounding of Pagan times!!!!

I hope they enjoy it....

Sunset in Carrowniskey Beach

Sunset in Carrowniskey Beach, Louisburgh; Taken this year..... Beautiful!!!!