Stories/Lived Experience
Author: Kathleen Cunningham, Undergraduate Arts Student at Maynooth University
I am a first year Undergraduate Arts Student at Maynooth University, studying English, Sociology, Psychology and Law.
Last year I completed the Turn to Teaching programme at Maynooth, on the Foundation Certificate in the Initial Teacher Education course. During this programme, I learned that my own lived experience in education gives me a beneficial skillset and great insight that I can bring back to a career in the field of education. On the Turn to Teaching (TTT) programme we also learned about key concepts affecting teaching in Ireland today. We learned ways in which the school experience can be improved for students of all backgrounds, especially for students coming from backgrounds similar to my own – from DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) designated schools, from the flats, from council estates.
Last year, as part of the TTT programme, I went on practical placement to a secondary school. Placement gave me a snapshot of what a future in teaching can look like for me, and I really enjoyed it.
I want to be a teacher who can understand the lived experiences of the students. If they can see me succeeding in education and thriving in my professional career, they can see the same for themselves and for their own futures, on whichever path they choose.
If we can see it, we can become it.
My connection to the Turn to Teaching programme didn’t end upon my completion of the course. I regularly benefit from mentorship, insight and encouragement from the TTT team. Mentorship was the missing piece for me in school and I think that I would have really benefitted from having a mentor my first time around in education.
In turn, I have been asked to take part in the AI for Good Programme as a mentor. I have been awarded a Micro-Internship which is offered through the ALL institute and is a result of a partnership between ALL, College Connect, Microsoft Data Center and Microsoft DreamSpace. The programme is made up of College Connect staff, Microsoft educators, and a group of Micro-Interns who are mostly Turn To Teaching graduates. We are delivering a 12 week STEM focused program to groups of Transition Year and Leaving Cert Applied students in a DEIS school. We hope to develop an app together that creates positive social change. Our mentees are learning about important social issues, and are working to create an app that can have positive impact for people with medical considerations, or people who deal with homelessness in their lives.
Together we do activities to design and enter our app concept into the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition and possibly win big. Even if we don’t win, we will have had the opportunity to develop important STEM skills, and learn about ways that we can create positive social impact. We as mentors are there answering questions the students have about college, higher education, life after school, and supporting their personal development and future career choices.
We are providing technology and mentorship to the students, and in turn they are helping us practice, teaching by doing. I am gaining so much from this project- learning how to work with these great young people and also trying to communicate what it is like to be a college student. They are showing us how resilient, brave and conscientious the next generation is. Teaching us that the future is bright, and it is in very good hands.
The students have had the global Covid-19 pandemic impact them at a pivotal time in their lives and they are practicing resilience every school day, showing up in the face of changing conditions and constant updates, in a world where many adults aren’t managing as well. They have missed out on social interactions, important milestones and rites of passage, and they still show up and still they take part in the Microsoft project with enthusiasm. It is no easy task to maintain engagement through the masks, through Zoom calls and while keeping physical distance but they show up, they wear their masks and they will have learned through this experience and this period of great adversity.
My name is Kathy and I am from Dublin 8. I am a single parent. I am the daughter of a single parent. I am a student, an aspiring teacher and a mentor for the ALL Institute, College Connect, Microsoft and Dreamspace.
If you can see it, you can believe it. If you believe it, you will see it.