SPECIAL NEEDSASSISTANTI feel very lucky to beworking in <strong>Cabinteely</strong><strong>Community</strong> <strong>School</strong> and to bepart of a team that works verywell together to support thestudents and each other. It isa lively and friendly schoolwhere all staff is valued forthe work they do.As an S.N.A I have a uniqueposition in the school becausewhile teachers have theirsubjects to teach and studentshave the subjects they chooseto study, during my time in<strong>Cabinteely</strong> I have been toevery classroom and learneda bit of every subject, so I cannow sew a pin cushion, file apiece of metal, drill a hole in apiece of wood, light a Bunsenburner and speak a few wordsof French to name but a few.I think this has given me anunderstanding of the students’needs and how we can supportthem to do the best they can.My main role is one ofsupport - supporting thestudent by understandingtheir needs, clarifying lessons,encouraging them to listen,stay focused and stick to thetask at hand, and supportingthe teachers by working undertheir direction to ensure thestudents get the informationthey require to learn andprogress.I think my work is veryrewarding especially whenI see the pride on the faceof a student when they havemastered a task, produced apiece of work or finished aproject they thought wouldbe too difficult even beforethey got started, but a lot ofencouragement and a little bitof help, such as going to thecomputer room to researchinformation, is usually enoughto get them going.I think the extra help in theclassroom is very beneficial,just recently in a class astudent said to me “If youweren’t here Mary I wouldn’thave been able to do that”these are the little things thatmake my job worthwhile.Mary Keating26 <strong>CCS</strong><strong>Unlimited</strong>Up, up and away ......!I think everyone has onething they enjoy doing! I wasn’treally sure what it was that Iliked doing until recently.The whole thing about flyingand aeroplanes never reallyappealed to me.When I was fourteen years old Iwas driving past an aerodromewhen a small two-seater planerose from over the hedge. Itwas really close - so close Icould see the two pilots in thecockpit! I couldn’t stop lookingat it until it was a dot far in thedistance. I think this is when Itook an interest in aeroplanesand flying! When I went homeI started searching Googlefor information on flying andaircraft. I discovered a websiteabout a flight school in Westonaerodrome.I found out a student has tobe fifteen years old to go fora lesson. I also found out howmuch a lesson was. I startedsaving every bit of money Icould. My birthday was a monthaway so I figured I might getenough to get a lesson with thehelp of the money I had savedalready. I got a part time job intown in a laptop repair centre.The money I earned went intothe flying. When my birthdaycame I was able to afford twolessons with all my money. Igot a flight booked in Octoberand was looking forward tomy first flying experience.The day finally came. I got upand looked out my window. ITaking to the skies with Gareth Mitchell 5A1noticed the weather was slightlybad. I rang the school and theytold me to come out anyway incase the weather improved. Wegot into the car and went to theaerodrome. When we arrived aburst of rain and strong windscame! I was really disappointed.The same thing happened fourtimes! My classes seemed to bealways getting cancelled becauseof the weather!Finally in January four monthsafter my birthday I was able toget my first lesson.I remember sitting in the waitingroom worrying because theweather wasn’t the best forflying. After twenty minutesof waiting a man came in andsaid ‘you’re good to go’. I wentout to the apron where all theplanes were parked. I rememberthinking to myself ‘what onearth is going to happen?’. Iwas nervous because I hadnever flown anything in mylife! I remember walking upto the plane shivering. It wasreally cold and looking at theplane I was thinking ‘this isgoing to be fun’. The planeheld four people; it was abouteight metres long and about twometres tall. I sat in the pilot’sseat and the instructor sat inthe co-pilot’s position. I put apair of head-sets and heard myinstructor talking really fast onthe radio to the control tower,I couldn’t understand what hewas saying. Even worse, whenthe tower replied, it was a quickmumble. I was thinking ‘I amgoing to have learn what thesepeople are saying!’We were on the runway fora few minutes checking theaeroplane for the flight.Then wewere off the ground!<strong>CCS</strong>UNLIMITED2008.indd 26 13/06/2008 10:49:53
.!About fifteen seconds after wewere airborne the instructorsaid ‘it’s your go’. I keptlooking out of the plane, Hetold me if I kept looking outhe was going to throw me out!I had never seen Dublin fromabove before.After an hour (butwhat felt like five minutes) welanded. I thought ‘I want todo that again. I got a certifiedfor my first hour of flyingand booked my second lesson.After that I had to start buyinglots of equipment for flying.I’ve since built up a good fewhours of flying. One downsideof learning to fly is the theoryaspect. There is lots to learn,but I think if you’re interestedin something you catch on veryquickly. Another downside offlying in Ireland is the weather!I am going to Tampa, Floridato a flight school for one monthto study for a private pilot’slicence which will allow me torent out a single engine aircraft.I will be able to take passengersthen.I have been flying aircraft forabout two years in Ireland.I love every part of it frompowering up, to take-off , to theapproach for landing. Feelingin control of an aircraft gentlytouching down onto the runwayis something you really can’tbeat! The only bad thing aboutflying in Ireland is the weatherand the price! I got a job to payfor all my flying, I saved everyeuro I earned and put it in thebank. A lesson in Ireland can beexpensive - €180 is roughly theprice for an hour! I reckon onein every three flights I have iscancelled due to strong windsand bad rain.I heard some of the pilotstalking about how they went toAmerica to get their licence. Ithought about it but never saidit to anybody. The weather ismuch better there than here. Iwas given a present of a trip toTampa Florida this summer forone month’s training in a flightschool. It’s better weather andmuch cheaper then in Ireland!<strong>CCS</strong> <strong>Unlimited</strong>BITS AND PIECESJOHN QUINN - WRITEROn Thursday 13 th March, Mr. McMahonhad organised for a living writer, JohnQuinn, to come in and talk to 4A1 and5A1 about the whole business of writing.I remember our English teacher, Ms. Lee,telling us about it, how a LIVING writerwas coming to talk to us. It took a while toget over that fact that there was actuallya writer who was alive… we study thelikes of Shakespeare who is well andtruly gone… so it was kind of exciting thatwe were going to be meeting an author,especially for the people like myself whohave an interest in writing as a career. Ittook place in the study centre at five pasttwo and he talked to us for about eightyminutes.I think a lot of us were assuming this manwould be a bit on the hefty side of 55, andthat he’d babble on about this, that andthe other for the 80 minutes, but it turnedout to be really interesting. Walking in thedoor of the study centre, my immediateresponse was that he was an old-ish man,who was probably going to be a bit boring.Mr. McMahon introduced him as “a legend”and John quickly brushed this off statingmodestly that – “I am not a legend, just anormal man”. It was at this point, after hebegan to speak, that he seemed a quitehumorous and genuine man. He provedthis, as I remember looking up at him,reading off his page about what topics hewas going to cover this spring afternoonwith us, the students, I remember seeinghis hand shaking with nervousness. Imean can you really blame him? It hasto be very frightening standing up infront of fifty-odd teenagers, not knowingwhat sort of response you were going toget. So I can’t really blame him for beingnervous, it just showed that he was agenuine, normal person and not the novelproducing machine of steel we might haveexpected. It gave me quite an insight intothe type of person he was though, old-ish,SCIENCE AREA WALL MURALexperienced yet still standing here, scared.After a while, he got comfortable with usand there was a very pleasant ambience.He gave us all a handout with some writingtips, basically telling us different ways toimprove our writing and technique. It wasgood of him because it saved us writing itall down, meaning we could give him 100%attention and take in everything he wassaying. He had a very positive attitude,especially talking about his late wife. In mymind I imagined he would dodge the topic,I don’t know why because it was his pointof writing in the past, it was just my initialthought. He read us an extract and told usabout his wife, describing her as the mostbeautiful woman he had ever met. Thiswas also a good insight into the type ofman he was, kind and gentle and honest.He was a very interesting man, telling ussome stories from his life, in a funny yethonest way, from talking about one fanwho was blind among other disabilitiesyet wrote to him, telling him how he lovedhis books, to his first date with his wife,walking around a building sixteen times.He definitely kept me interested for theeighty minutes.He made a great attempt to help us withour writing, and in many ways he did. Theone disadvantage was that his advicewas a little dated, but not everyone isgoing to be up to date with the 21 st centurytechnology I suppose, and I’m suresome of the older generation can relateto what I mean by that. All in all, it was agreat experience and I’m grateful to Mr.McMahon and Ms Lee for arranging it, as itwas very interesting, and it was nice to seesomeone relatively famous, yet still normaland willing to help. He passed on somevery valuable tips which a lot of us will takewith us to the Leaving Cert exam, and forsome, into our careers.Hopefully in Florida I willcomplete my course and receivemy private pilot’s licence. Ineed to have a minimum ofabout forty five hours of flying,complete a number of theoryexams and pass a medical.With my hours of flying andmy knowledge of theory I hopethat will put me at an advantagewith regard to completing mycourse.I hope to do get a job flying anaircraft when I leave school.During the year manystudents noticed strangesymbols and imagesappearing on the entirelength of the G Buildingmain corridor. As the weeksprogressed these turned outto be part of a major newwall mural being paintedon Wednesday afternoonsby three very skilful seniorArt students: Kate Kaliska,Judith Kelly-White and AineKelly.The mural illustrates a wholerange of scientific material,from the operation of aBunsen burner to the locationof sensory areas on a humantongue and the anatomy of avirus.Students queueing up forthe science rooms will nowbe able to do a quick spot ofextra revision just by glancingat the wall beside them!<strong>CCS</strong><strong>Unlimited</strong> 27<strong>CCS</strong>UNLIMITED2008.indd 27 13/06/2008 10:49:55
Change language