Dearbhla O'Sullivanhas found her vocation. The UL graduate is training to be a primary school teacher with Hibernia College. So what has she made of the online training course? And is she ready for the classroom? This is her story.
Hibernia College's H Dip in primary education offers working teachers a chance to complete their qualification over the internet without having to give up their post, and students like me an opportunity to continue earning while studying on the side.
After graduating from the University of Limerick, where I did a four-year degree in history, politics and social studies, I spent time in Washington, DC interning for a congressman before pursuing a career as a radio producer with UTV and later Radio New Zealand, where I presented the odd show as well. I gradually realised that teaching was my true vocation, but the idea of going back to being a full-time student gave me pause for thought. Scraping around for pot noodles and a clean fork is not appealing when you've led a comfortable existence since graduating all those years ago.
St Pat's, Mary I and the rest have great reputations, but you're permitted to apply to only one. If you miss out, that's just hard luck - you'll have to reapply for next year's intake. Hibernia, which is Hetac-approved, has two intakes a year (February and October) with an enrolment of 250 students each time.
I'm based in Dublin now and the flexibility of studying online meant that the odd trip home to Kerry would be possible. All I needed was my laptop and an internet connection. Hibernia ticked all the boxes for me, so I went ahead and applied.
The course requirements are a primary degree and a certain level of Irish. Many of those applying to Hibernia left secondary school years, even decades ago, so their Irish wouldn't be rolling off the top of their tongues. Luckily, I went to Coláiste Íde in Dingle and my primary education was all as Gaeilge as well, so I can hold a conversation, although I wouldn't exactly be An Seabhac when it comes to the written word.
I was the last person on the final day to be interviewed and when I closed Hibernia's blue door on Clare St, I suddenly realised how much I wanted to be part of this "unique learning experience".
As soon as I was accepted on to the February 2007 course, the wheels were in motion and I found myself at the bank getting a draft for €6,850. That was my first issue with the institute: you can't pay this fee in instalments like most other courses. Thankfully my SSIA ship had sailed in, so I didn't have to start borrowing. (The course has since gone up to €7,565.)
The next step was an induction in Maynooth, where I was surrounded by the other 249 teaching hopefuls - I haven't seen most of them since. When asked who was already teaching, more than 200 hands shot up. I suddenly felt very out of the educational loop.
The course director gave a moving speech about how we are "ambassadors for Hibernia", a new kind of learning. The same spiel has been fed back to us in dribs and drabs in our weekly Wednesday e-mails ever since. At this stage it's almost like a receiving a message from a cult leader, although of course the speech has less impact when you're scanning it quickly it on a computer screen.
One of the lecturers gave us some sound advice: if you feel like you are not cut out for teaching, walk out the door now because it will be like living in a straightjacket, trapped in a vocation you can't stand for the next 30 years or so.
Sitting in that lecture hall was a lot different than my induction to UL at the tender age of 17. Then I was surrounded by other young people out for the university lifestyle, searching for the Stables student bar on the campus maps. This time I was in a room full of people with plenty of life experience, who had travelled, worked in different occupations, some married, some parents. All of them had presumably tasted enough of life to know what they truly wanted out of it, which in our case is a career in teaching. Can a 17-year-old filling out the CAO form to apply for teaching honestly say the same? Are they also prepared to handle the commitments required for this important occupation? Or are they applying for two specific reasons - July and August?
Shortly after our induction day, we had our first onsite tutorial. This is when our virtual student existence sees some reality. We are all in different groups according to where we live and although I'm in Dublin B, there are people in my class from Co Wexford, Co Mayo, Co Galway and Co Kerry. Our lecturers on the course are all experienced teachers and university professors who have been involved in Hibernia since its inception in 2003.
During the week we get a plethora of e-mails alerting us to updates taking place on "HELMS". That's our education nerve centre, the website we log in and out of to pick up lecture notes, download them to our iPods (if we are so inclined), check the calendar for the forthcoming semester, chat or gripe on the student forum, load up any assignments we have due, find grades and feedback and where we "go" to attend our online tutorials.
I despised tutorials in university, the intimate setting, the questions, the theorising about the lectures we had just had. These tutorials are different; with my secretarial earphones and microphone I can snuggle under a duvet with a cup of tea and attend class without a scrap of make-up on and my hair in a makeshift bun. There's technical support online every evening as well, in case anyone experiences problems.
If you want to participate you click a button, which alerts the tutor to a virtual hand being raised. The dinging in the headphones means they're quick to respond!
Hibernia mean business. When you upload your assignment, the time of entry is clocked and a late submission by minutes or hours means a deduction of 10 per cent. No excuses. We do three teaching practices. The lesson plans must be typed, printed and uploaded online on a daily basis for our inspector to view. You are expected to find your own Teaching Practise (TP), and for many it's hard because some schools still have reservations about students coming from an online course.
I decided to go home to Tralee for my first TP and, to be honest, if it wasn't for the support and guidance from the teachers at Scoil Mhuire na mBráithre, Clounalour, I would have been sunk. The key to a successful TP is landing in a school where the staff are willing to give advice. TP really opens your eyes to what the whole business is about, and I used to collapse on the couch wrecked with a sore throat in the evening.
Because I'm used to working until six, I would start my lesson plans for the following day straight after the closing bell and made sure they were done by 6pm so I could spend the rest of the evening crepe-papering my fingers together, or rummaging around the house for props and resources with which to engage the children.
Now I'm back to onsite classes and online tutorials and I'm actually quite glad. We virtual students rarely see each other, which is a downside, but our required three weeks in the Gaeltacht next summer should bring us closer together - just as the course draws to a close. My closest friend on the course is the girl I was sitting beside at the induction day in Maynooth all those months ago.
I have my busiest year ahead with two more TPs in the pipeline, but - fingers crossed - this time next year I will be qualified and officially Miss O'Sullivan.
