Featured in December 2017 Teaching & Learning Newsletter

Mary Hickey is a primary school teacher based in Co. Kerry. She is currently teaching in a job share position in North Cork, in order to facilitate further studies in the area of Art Psychotherapy. Mary has nine years teaching experience and has completed a Masters in Education and the Arts. She also holds an Associate position with the National Induction Programme for newly qualified primary school teachers. Mary travelled to India in the Summer of 2016 with an Irish initiative called ‘Global Schoolroom’.

My alarm goes off…

It’s hot already, extremely hot and it’s only 7:30 a.m. The electricity current which comes and goes sporadically throughout the day is definitely on a break, and the only solace from the heat, aka my beloved fan, hangs from the ceiling sad and still. I spend some time wrestling with my mosquito net, that is full holes which I have expertly filled with duct tape in order to fend off any little criminals who might sneak in to sting me in the middle of the night. A careful peak round the door of the wash room, confirms there are no lizard or cockroach friends awaiting to greet me ‘good morning’. A quick bucket shower and half a bottle of talcum powder later, I emerge dry, which will last for at least fifteen minutes before I am sticky with heat again. I knock on my comrades door, who sleeps in the room beside mine and we amble down for breakfast with the priests. Prayers are said, malaria tablets are munched, all types of unusual cuisine are tentatively tasted, folders are collected and away we venture to our make shift classroom, which is also the library and the church (while the community church is being restored).

I was responsible for…

As part of a team of three, we were responsible for the facilitation of year three of the Global Schoolroom teacher education syllabus, which incorporated a number of differing topics. I was responsible for the Special Education module of the course. For the first two weeks in Bodhjungnagar I worked with almost 40 teachers, assisting them in exploring the different Special Educational Needs they may find in their own classrooms, how to identify these and most importantly how to cater for these students and create an inclusive learning environment for everyone. In the second half of the month long programme, the student teachers returned to their positions, teaching in schools. The team and I visited every teacher, becoming the ‘dreaded inspector’, no doubt instilling ludicrous levels of fear and anxiety on the poor teaching practice students. They had nothing to worry about and it was a pleasure to watch them teaching and developing their own style and confidence. We assessed the standards of teaching and each student was rewarded a grade, following two school visits.

I got my job…

A close friend of mine had been to India with the same initiative two years previously and spoke very fondly of her experience. She felt it would be something that I too would enjoy and so began the journey. I applied online and then was called for interview. It was all very professional and I felt those same familiar interview nerves before I walked in to the room in Dublin in the Autumn of 2015. I got offered a position on the programme and an intensive preparatory course of training began soon after.

My first day…

Armed with notes, lesson plans, flashcards, visual resources and tummy butterflies, I walked up the steps to the classroom on that first day in India, and I was reminded of those fearful days during teaching practice. Except back then I wasn’t contending with intense heat, the hum of building contractors, and the constant threat of the electricity current starting and stopping sporadically throughout the day. Back when I started teaching practice I was grappling hard with the impressions of what I thought a teacher should be and with the type of teacher I was becoming, trying hard to develop a sense of myself as well as my role as a professional. Interestingly on those mornings when I stood in front of my peers in India, I felt that same sense of self-discovery, expect the question was even more terrifying – what sort of a teacher had I become now?

The best part of my job…

When I sat among my professional counterparts in India, constrained by the stresses of life, the lack of resources available to them and the current attitudes towards Special Education in India, I was completely overwhelmed by the good practice they displayed and the boundaries they were knocking in doing their upmost to assist the children in their care to access the curriculum to the best of their abilities. Open and willing to try new practices and approaches to teaching children with Special Educational Needs, they could identify the children’s needs that were not being met and adapt their teaching in order to facilitate as many learners as possible. Those teachers who were making many sacrifices in order to develop their professional careers and the difference they made, taught me more than I could ever have taught them. They have so little, yet they have so much.

After work…

It was like an intensive month of teaching practice, after dinner each evening, we took over the sitting room of the priests house and we spent at least 3-4 hours planning, correctly, writing lesson plans, making posters, brainstorming and discussing goals. It was actually wonderful, I felt a huge responsibility to provide the best possible standard of teaching and learning I could. After planning, we would sit on the balcony, listen to the critters, soak in the cooler heat of the night, share a drink and send wishes out into the sky for another successful day tomorrow.

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