De La Salle College
Junior School
Our Activities
My experience at St.Colman’s Catholic Primary School
I want to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for being part of this amazing journey. The generosity and thoughtfulness of the teachers, learning assistants, the head teacher Mr.Martin and our trainer Ms Michelle Owens, were truly remarkable and I am deeply appreciative. The training has not only provided me with more skills and teaching tactics which I will be using with my students, but also I feel more confident and knowledgeable to deliver the Literacy lessons.
The training was quite intense, and after each session, I would simply sit down with my colleagues and discuss the sessions. It is nice and beneficial to share experiences with other teachers who come from different schools. We shared many experiences of our daily school life, but one thing in common is that we all do have the children’s interest at heart. This programme is aimed at helping all children but it does target the spotlight children, which we as teachers sometimes find the most challenging to teach. Throughout the two-day training, I felt that the trainer kept insisted on positive
reinforcement and a positive attitude with the children. I truly believe that when children see that you praise them for even the simplest thing, they perform at their best. The more they are praised, the more they produce good work. I have been a Literacy teacher for the past five years, and this approach helps the children to work serene, and to be more confident within themselves.
The programme has a lot of structure, preparation and good lesson plans which makes it so easy and simple for a teacher to use. What I have learnt throughout this course is that once you believe that all children can achieve their goals, then you can make a difference. It is important to understand as educators that not all children learn at the same pace. They are all individuals with their own needs and they all learn at their own pace. Our job is to help them read and write and do it the proper way, having acquired the best training, using the best resources.
We had ample time to have a good look at the lesson plans tailored for the children’s needs, and also at the blue-print lessons which we will follow and get well acquainted with once we start. For me, this will be the first year that I shall be working with the Read Write Inc programme, however in the past years I used a very similar programme to this with my students. This training has helped me acquire more skills and tactics to keep helping my students in literacy.
Ms Lorraine Pace