Spotlight #5 - Evelyn O’Connor

Welcome to the fifth ITB Spotlight. This time we caught up with Evelyn O’Connor (@evelynoconnor) of the popular website, leavingcertenglish.net.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in education.

I’ve been teaching for nine years. To be honest, I pretty much always wanted to be a teacher - apart for that brief phase aged 10 when I was in the Legion of Mary and considered becoming a nun!. My passion in college was English - writing for the student paper, acting with DramSoc, playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, working in Charlie Byrne’s bookshop in Galway. Oh, and going to lectures too! After my dip, I taught for a year; did a Masters in Film Studies in UCD; then happily returned to the classroom despite UCD’s best efforts to lure me into a PHD. I knew I wouldn’t have the stamina for it after the 15,000 word thesis almost killed me ;-)

2. Please tell us about your blog.

I started my blog because I had missed a lot of class time with my leaving certs in 2010/2011. A student - their classmate - had died of sudden adult death syndrome when they were in 5th year, then a couple of months later another student - again their classmate - died tragically. Understandably it took months for any semblance of normality to return and then I got sick with a six week bout of laryngitis! So it became my ‘voice’, my means of communicating with them even when we weren’t together. I never meant for it to become anything other than our class website that I’d share with a few friends who were also English teachers but it’s become popular with students all over the country!

3. Have you written/Do you write other blogs?

No, other than a guest post for my husband’s blog www.tablequiz.net once upon a time.

4. Are there any other blogs (educational or otherwise) that you would recommend reading?

My husband blogs @ www.tablequiz.net where I like doing the picture rounds - I’m not really able for the rest! I love http://www.sccenglish.ie, a site I only discovered after I’d set my own up. It’s a beautiful, epic beast to my little minnow with a depth and breadth that’s made it globally popular with English teachers and all lovers of literature. I often find myself reading Fintan O’Mahony’s musings on education too - he blogs at http://levdavidovic.wordpress.com. Finally, I love this site because it sends me in directions I might not otherwise go on the web (via twitter) so kudos to you Nigel!

I’d like to thank Evelyn for agreeing to take part in this feature and for her valuable contribution to ITB.