The ICCI youth department held a webinar on Saturday January 23rd at 7pm for youth, parents and anyone with an interest in teaching and education. This will be the first of many, as we hope to encourage more of our community to enter in to the teaching profession; be it primary, secondary or further education.
Our guest speakers for the evening were two student primary school teachers, Br Ceelan Simon (Maynooth) and Sr Ryma Halfaoui (St. Pats). We also had the company of Sr Asiyah Altawash who sits on the teacher registration and education committees on the teaching council and on the Department of Education teacher supply working group.
Ceelan and Ryma gave a brief presentation about why they decided to study to become primary school teachers and their experiences. Ceelan gave some lovely examples of project work that he had done with some of his students. We had a question and answer session at the end.
One of the main worries for students who are thinking of primary school teaching, is the Irish language, and having to do higher level for the leaving certificate. It can be done, and if there are students who are in need of help with this, please let us know and we will link in with Sr Asiyah to see what can be facilitated. Anyone thinking of secondary school teaching or becoming a teacher for futher education courses, do not need to have the Irish language.
We look forward to continuing this discussion and have more webinars including other students in our community who have gone on to study primary school teaching.
Please see the attachment for pathways to teaching that was shared with us by Sr Asiyah.
