Daily Summary
Today, our visits took us to the childcare and business administration disciplines. First stop was to Samantha and Sabrina, who are working in a bilingual school for 0-3-year-olds. What struck me was how good these kids could speak in both Spanish and English at this young age. Another big difference was the teacher to student ratio, with these young kids it could be as many as 20 to 1. The school follows a curriculum and have a book called the “monster”, in this kids follow various play activities, and different colours have different feelings. Today, the children were focused on the colour “yellow”, which symbolises happiness. It was a new experience for me to see play activities as a method of teaching, it was enjoyable to watch, and I can now understand why my accountancy learners back in Mallow College are so bored in classes.
Our second call of the day was to Nest Hotel where Patrick is working in the back office. Patrick hails from the business discipline and has been studying at Mallow College for the last 3 years. Patrick is no stranger to hotels, have worked in various European destinations as a chef for the last 25 years. Patrick’s primary task for his internship will be creating a slideshow for the hotel in English, that the business can utilise for online marketing.
Learning & Positive Aspects of the Day
The most post aspect of the day for me was seeing the 0-3-year-old children engaging in play therapy. This is something I haven’t seen in Ireland, and the business itself is like a Pre-Pre-School. I hope to share my experiences with Mallow Colleges childcare department on my return.
Cultural
Today, I was on hand to watch a student protest at government buildings, in Granda this is a weekly occurrence. It was also beautiful to see the snowy mountains of Sierra Nevada in the hinterlands of Granda. This evening the focus will be on a tour of the Arabic district, where local tapas will be sampled.
