Helen Butler’s Visit

On the 19th of January, 2017, a youth worker named Helen Butler and her assistant, Rosa came to teach us about transition year.

At first I thought that she would talk to us about transition year and secondary school and that would be it. Boy was I wrong!

We all sat down on benches in the halla when we finally got started.

The first thing that we did was, Rosa passed out a pink and a green sticky note. Rosa also gave us a pen or pencil.

On the pink sticky note we wrote what we were looking forward to for secondary school and  on the green sticky note we wrote what we weren’t looking forward to.

We gave all of the sticky notes to Helen and she read a few out loud, stuck them on the white board and moved on to the next thing.

The second thing we did was play a game called bomb.

Bomb is a game where we form a circle and throw a small ball to whoever you want. If someone drops the ball everyone would begin to count from ten as the person who dropped the ball threw it to other people. Whoever has the ball at zero was out of the game.

The third thing we did was make some rules.

Helen put us into groups of five.

In your group you would help your team mates come up with rules.

After all the teams each had four rules written down Helen would call on your group and you and your team mates would call out your rules.

In the end we got four rules. Rule one: listen. Rule two: respect (each other). Rule three: do your best. Rule four: have fun! (my team came up with that one)

Then fourth we played a game called silent ball.

Silent ball was like ball but no one was allowed to talk except for Helen. When someone dropped the ball only Helen was allowed to count from ten. If anyone else made a peep they were out.

Next we did a bullying workshop.

Helen put us in groups and gave us four categories on and a few activities.

 

We had to put the activities in the correct categories. For example, no talking in class would be in the behaviour category.

After all the groups were finished Helen told us to call out each category and all the activities within it.

Then Helen asked us why we put each activity where they were.

Then sixth we learnt about time tables. Helen told us that on a time table there would be the class you would be going to next, the initials of the teacher of that class and the time so that you know when it starts.

Then we played a game outside about time tables. Helen put us into groups (again) and Rosa explained the rules of the game.

Helen would call out a question for example, “What time if English on a Tuesday?” or “Who teaches science on Fridays?” Then we would write down the answer on a sheet of paper.

Then when we went back inside Helen taught us about bullying.

So while Helen called out a situation where someone was getting bullied while Rosa put pieces of paper around the room that each had a different way to solve the problem. When Helen gave us permission we would go look at the pieces of paper that Rosa put up and if we liked that solution we would stand in front of it. There was also a piece of paper you could stand in front of if you had your own idea.

When everyone found a solution Helen would go to a couple of people and ask them why they chose this solution.

At the end of the day Helen gave us a sheet of paper that had some questions on it that said things like, “What did you learn today?” and “Did this help boost your confidence for secondary school?”

Then Helen gave us a certificate and left with Rosa.

She’ll be coming back in two years to teach the next 5th and 6th class the same things.

I for one, really enjoyed my experience with Helen it was very fun and educational.

 

By: Erin. P. J