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Re-sitting LC Honours Irish - VEC's, Grinds or distance learning

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  • 28-07-2015 5:18pm
    #1
    RoversRudie
    Registered Users Posts: 39 ✭


    Hi all,

    I'd just like to gauge people's opinions taking grinds as opposed to classes in a local VEC as a means of re-sitting honours Irish for the Leaving Cert in order to gain entry to a primary teaching PME. Having just finished my degree, I'm looking to sit the subject again next June.

    The nights on which the classes offered in some of my local VEC's look like they won't fit in with other commitments I have so I'm looking at alternatives. A reputable local grinds school offers weekly hour-and-a-half small classes covering both the oral and written sections of the exam which one of their staff maintains would be equally helpful to the VEC run classes in helping me to reach the minimum C3 requirement.

    Does anyone agree/disagree with him? I'm a bit unsure considering the VEC course consists of two-and-a-half hour classes (one for oral and one for written) each week whereas the one in the grinds school is just an-hour-and-a-half a week.

    Also (I've asked this in another forum so apologies for repeating myself) – just to see if it'd be an option – does anyone have opinions on the distance learning course Kilroy's College run?

    All feedback is much appreciated.

    Thanks


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    #2
    dory
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 4,483 Mod ✭✭✭✭dory


    I've helped a few people do the LC now. Most people do a three hour class, and they're not very efficient to be honest. They spend a lot of time translating the book from what I see. But it's another way to get exposure to the language and that's what you need right now. I've known people to get through it with just grinds or a mixture of grinds and those classes. Between now and the course look up the stories, poem and play/book and try figure out what is happening in all of them, even in English. It's important that you can describe in English first what's happening in them all.
    Also, aim higher than a C3 as you'll need a higher level to get through the course. You'll have a lot of other subjects during the course so take this year to really work on your Irish, start simple with how to put sentences together.


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    #3
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,139 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Five hours instruction compared to one and a half?
    Are they similar in price?

    Personally, I would take a class based course over individual lessons, for a number of reasons, but at the end of the day, it's you that has to put in the work. If you're happy learning in isolation one to one, then go for it.


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    #4
    RealJohn
    Registered Users Posts: 2,099 ✭✭✭RealJohn


    RoversRudie wrote: »
    ... helping me to reach the minimum C3 requirement.
    ...
    If this is your attitude then you shouldn't be going into primary teaching because you'll pass this attitude on to the students. The Irish language requirement is not a bureaucratic inconvenience. It's there because teaching Irish is part of the job and you shouldn't be aiming for the bare minimum in any area of the job, not for your sake but for the sake of your students.

    If learning Irish properly is too much of an inconvenience then you're not going in with the right attitude and you should probably think about whether primary teaching is really what you want to do.


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