Hi everyone!

My name is Aimee Flynn or for the purposes of Instagram, Aistear in Action.

September will be my tenth year teaching.  I have taught in learning support (as it was known then), 5^th, 2^nd/3^rd, 1^st, Junior Infants, Senior Infants and Junior/Senior Infants. I am currently teaching Junior Infants this year and hope to have either Junior or Senior Infants in the new school year. I started my third level education in D.I.T. and studied Early Childhood Education. Following this I worked in a community crèche and as a S.N.A. I got my H.Dip in Education in Froebel. In 2018, I finished my MA. in Early Childhood in M.I.E.

 

My alarm goes off…

Well, actually it doesn’t! I wake up by nine at the latest and if I don’t my daughter will ensure I am awake. I start my school work immediately and she plays. I have a break around half ten or eleven for some breakfast.

 

I am responsible for…

At school I am a member of the senior management and am on the Droichead PST in my school. My post includes looking after the playful learning boxes in our school. I am also the manager of the pre-school in our school building.

At home, I was responsible for my daughters school work too. But her dad has taken over now and does it with her. It means we can both concentrate on our work. It will be back to me when he returns to work in construction.

 

My typical day in lockdown…

Up, school work, breakfast and more school work. I have been uploading the work daily to Aladdin since we finished up in March. Following a survey, I also upload it for the week. I think this helps parents who are working. Then I upload videos of instructions on how to do the work onto our Class Dojo. Parents are invited to send me pictures of the completed work. Children get a point as an incentive for each piece of work they submit. I also call the children once a fortnight and have sent them two of the An Post postcards.

At the beginning, I assigned too much work. I had to remember this is not school, children are at home, parents are under pressure, many have siblings. Through talking to parents, reflecting myself and two survey monkey’s we have agreed on an acceptable amount for everyone! The children do one piece of maths and English everyday and one other thing. Monday is cutting and P.E., Tuesday is S.E.S.E., Wednesday is Gaeilge, Thursday is Religion and Friday is art. As a parent, I find the worksheets and books work easier. As a teacher, I know the hands-on learning is best. So I am trying to find a happy medium. As well as this I upload a story or a task for the children to do, this is optional.

On Thursdays, some of the staff in my school deliver the food from the School Lunch Scheme. I deliver the school lunches to ten homes and get to have a little chat with some children and their parents. We all look forward to this outing every week. I treat myself to a nice lunch on the way home, supporting a local business.

 

The best part of my job in lockdown…

Is probably seeing the children’s work, reading their news and watching their videos. I like sending them comments back about their work and I feel this motivates them. I know my own daughter loves the comments her teacher gives on her work and likes me to screen shot them so she can re-read them. I miss the children but I suppose this really makes me think about ways to keep them engaged. Next week, I am going to make a video of me calling the roll, something familiar for them.

 

The most challenging part of my job in lockdown is…

Keeping the children motivated and minding their mental health. I have told parents if they or their children are having a bad or stressful day to mind themselves and not worry about the work. Then start fresh the next day. I try to keep the children interested by using video and pictures. I also try to make sure tasks are not too long.

 

I am inspired by…

Our frontline workers who doing a great job. Both my sister and my mam are nurses. I am doing my best to keep my family safe, helping the heroes by staying at home.

 

After work…

After the school work I stop for Home and Away or Telly Bingo. I am a corona virus Telly Bingo fan. This is also good for my daughters maths! Then I plan the school work for the following day. After lunch, we go for a walk, obviously within the 5km. My daughter usually brings a dolls pram, scooter or a football. After dinner, sometimes we have another walk, or I go on my own or we have a movie night.

 

The motto I live by in lockdown…

‘Take each day as it comes.’

 

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