Life's a bastard...but sometimes it lets up

The life and times of an ordinary Dublin girl. Follow her journey as she finds out working from home really ISN'T about watching Oprah all day and that perhaps men aren't really all bastards.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Miss! Miss!!

APOLOGIES to all for the lack of posts of late, but as you will read, I'm now FAR too busy and important to be knocking about with you lot.

As of the middle of September, I will be a Professor of Journalism...

Right, ok, a TEACHER of Journalism...

Alright already, I'll be working with a local youth project, TALKING about journalism, are you happy now?

Yes, it looks as though the dry work spell may be coming to an end and the type of work that I'm really interested in is in the pipeline and all ready to go.

From the middle of September I'll be involved in a journalism/writing course within the media group of a youth project in Dublin, working with teenage boys.

The group has been together for a year and have already done some page layout, design, poster design, photography and even stand-up comedy so the writing part is the next step, and that's where I come in.

Without wanting to sound overly dramatic or fake B-Movie weepy, this is a dream come true for me. I've always wanted to teach, but not in a traditional classroom environment, so this is absolutely perfect.

The young lads, as you can imagine, probably won't be interested in sitting in a room listening to me drone on and on about boring writing techniques so the challenge for me is to draw up the course content and syllabus, to make it fun and interesting for them.

I'll be arranging for people to come in for them to interview (perhaps a local band or sports personality), bringing them out for vox pops (street surveys), showing them how to research using the Internet, libraries and books and finally getting them to write some articles which may be published in the youth group's newsletter.

It's a kind of pilot project for six weeks, but hopefully if it goes well and is successful then there's scope for it to be rolled out to other groups within the project and maybe even extended for longer to the original group.

I am so grateful for the chance to do this and the opportunity I've been given, after all I've never taught before so they're taking a real chance on me, and I keep getting little flashes of excitement and clenching my fist in victory on the bus. I'm starting to scare commuters.

Now that the initial excitement is over with I'm starting to get a little nervous and I have The Fear that I'll start to weep on the first day and they'll all give me funny looks, but I'm trying not to think about that!

Over the next few weeks I'll be drawing up the course content and researching into working with young people, so if anyone has any advice or has worked with youth groups or projects before, please mail me and give me the benefit of your experience.

Please! Or there'll be a Kaz-shaped hole in my door!

15 Comments:

At 1:29 a.m., Blogger dunner74 said...

Congratulations Professor Dunne!!!!

Am delighted for you and you will be a great success at it.

 
At 3:18 a.m., Blogger Irish Church Lady :) said...

Congratulations on your new endeavour!

 
At 10:18 a.m., Blogger Cat said...

Well done you! I've done bits of lecturing and course development work (in PR and media - quite similar to you) and The Fear got me too to begin with. But it soon passes! If you want any hot tips, give me a shout, but I'm sure you don't need them.

 
At 10:28 a.m., Blogger Pure Cork Boy said...

I think you need to wear a tight top, a short skirt and boots with high heels on your first day... heh, it's just a frickin' thought! :-)

 
At 12:41 p.m., Blogger KnackeredKaz said...

Thanks guys! I may take you up on that offer Cat Girl!

And as for you Pure Cork Boy...tut tut tut, you're a disgrace to mankind.

I'm a professional! I don't flash my boobs at every....er, right ok, I do. But they're 13 year old boys! I think I'll ditch the skirts and booby tops and go for a kagool or a mu mu!

 
At 1:06 p.m., Blogger darkman said...

Check my blog,comments appreciated.

 
At 7:38 p.m., Blogger Sandra said...

Congratulations - sounds fantastic!

 
At 12:57 a.m., Blogger fifipoo07 said...

Congrats.....rather you than me though. I would be a USELESS teacher. Pippa

 
At 3:47 p.m., Blogger Curly K said...

Well done you, best of luck with it. Bet they'll love you and you'll get brought in lots of apples ;-)

 
At 3:00 p.m., Blogger Red Mum said...

Excellent, that is wonderful news, well done! No one better to whip them into shape.

 
At 2:42 p.m., Blogger Paige A Harrison said...

Most excellent news, dude! Well done and best of luck with it.

 
At 11:55 a.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

sounds a cool project to be involved - dont forget to blog about it

 
At 11:33 a.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congrats! I'm an undergraduate Journalism student and I'm in complete awe :)

 
At 2:48 p.m., Blogger fatmammycat said...

Congrats missus, you'll be great!

 
At 9:02 p.m., Blogger Anna said...

I have lots of advice for working with youth. It boils down to Be Yourself.

 

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