Temporary Full-Time Teacher of English

English Department

We require a temporary full-time teacher of English Literature and Language from Wednesday 6th January 2016 to Friday 24th June 2016.

Applicants must be fully-qualified teachers, ideally with some experience, must be native English speakers, and have appropriate Garda vetting.

Applications, including a CV and the names and addresses of two referees, should be forwarded as soon as possible, and by 9am on Monday 19th October at the latest, to:

The Warden, St Columba’s College, Whitechurch, Dublin 16, Ireland. e-mail: warden@stcolumbas.ie.

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Further information:

• See the College website at www.stcolumbas.ie.
• See our Department site, www.sccenglish.ie, for much more on the Department.

The person appointed will be a member of a tightly-knit and hard-working team of four teachers, and will teach small sets in the following years (numbers are set sizes) : Primary (12, equivalent of Primary school 6th class), First (11), Third (14), Fourth (15, Transition Year), Fifth (15) and Sixth (16).

Poem of the Week 78

After a hiatus, today we are resuming our 'Poem of the Week' scheme, in which poems are posted around the College, and read out and discussed in English class. The idea was originally prompted by 'Poems on the Underground'.

On resumption, our 78th Poem of the Week is Wendy Cope's 'Names', about her grandmother.

TY Extended Essay 2015: choosing your books

Here are many suggestions for TY selecting their books for their major Extended Essays this term (there is plenty of overlap).

• Below via Issuu (download it directly from this link), the Librarian's list of books categorised into subjects. 
• A booklist of suggestions for the current Fifth Form, with more detail, which should also be helpful.
• The sheets given out to all pupils in class, with still more advice.

'Hamlet' pre-reading

Here is a simple pre-reading activity for Hamlet, which we are currently starting in Fifth Form: six sentences taken from the first scene, without any context or explanation. Either individually or, better still in class discussion, consider them. Each slide moves on after 5 seconds, so pause each for proper thought/discussion or just use the 'forward' arrow.

English 2017

Pupils return today for another school year. When we see our Fifth Form tomorrow, we will be handing out our second self-published Leaving Certificate textbook, English 2017 (front cover above - photography by Pippa Moritz. Click on it for a closer look). We've written before on the excellent self-publishing service Lulu.com, which has again done us proud, with 70 perfect copies arriving a few days after ordering. 

Last year's English 2016 incorporated a fine translation of Antigone by Ian Johnston, Research Associate at Vancouver Island University in Canada, and again Iain has generously given us permission to use his (again, excellent) translation of Oedipus the King. Both plays by Sophocles are used for the comparative module of our course (this time, with Donal Ryan's The Spinning Heart alongside The Great Gatsby).  Ian's site is here, dedicated to the memory of his son, Geoffrey.

Publishing our own book also gives us the ability to distribute it electronically to teachers and pupils. We incorporate advice, reading lists, lists of podcasts and other resources.