Learning to Learn

LEARING TO LEARN

Our ability to learn depends a lot on how we plan our time. These days people find it hard to make time for family, work and study, we can sometimes find it hard to find time to call our own.

When we do find time to study, staring at a blank page can be very off putting; what will we write, how will we begin?

We sometimes have so many things on our minds that we admit defeat even before we start. We can sometimes worry so much about studying even when we can find time, we just can’t concentrate on what we should be doing. This can be very frustrating and we start to question why are we doing this, what are we putting our self through this for.

When this happens the best thing to do is leave what you are doing and do something different for a while. It's also very important try to create a good environment for studying.

This should include a quiet room that is free from interruptions.

We can sometimes dwell too much on past experiences, this includes some childhood memories, our spelling ability and making mistakes in punctuation .

Trying to keep yourself focussed on the task and hoping that other people can understand what you are writing about.

It is also very worrying that what you write might make you look stupid to other people.This can make it very hard to maintain confidents in your self.

When we start doubting our abilities studying anything becomes next to impossible.These factors can affect us so much that we end up where we started: staring at a blank page.

We should always try to remember learning should be enjoyable, using the knowledge we already have, can be a good place to start.

When we apply ourselves we might be surprised by what we already know, we should take responsibility for our own learning. We are then ready to begin learning, it is possible then to set goals and achieve what ever we set out to do.

Very soon we might see that learning is not as problematic as we might think and can be a fascinating journey to embark on. Another way of problem solving is we should always source as much material as possible on the subject we are studying.

With this material to hand, we can start to organize our study time and evaluate the sourced material into what we regard as important and what we should disregard.

Our willingness to learn can be greatly enhanced when we have a good basis to start from, by trying to understand the problems then we can begin to solve them. Every time we do this we are one step nearer to achieving the goals we set for our self.

By putting systems for learning in place any task we set our self’s will become easier, when we work within a structure we see how things fit into place and one thing can flow into another.

Noel

Fishing as a young boy

Fishing as a young boy

When I was young we hadn’t much money. If you hadn’t the money in the middle of the week you had to wait till the weekend for your pocket money. On Saturday I’d go over to Paddy Cavanagh’s in Gladstone St. For 2 shillings worth of brown line, 1 shillings worth of nylon gut, and 6 penny hooks. Then it was down to the bank of the river in what was then known as the barley field (now the Dennis Burk park) I would find a bit of a stick from a tree and tie the line on to the top of the stick, then you tied the gut to the line, a hook to the gut and put a worm on the hook. You’d hold the stick with one hand and throw the line out into the river with the other hand as far as you could and wait for the fish to bite. It was better when there was a flood in the river if you were lucky you might get a bite quick. When you got a bite you’d jerk the stick back towards you, if not you’d have to wait.

I caught a lot more with line tied on to sticks than I ever did with a fancy rod. We also made our own rods. I’d go up to Lowry’s hardware store in Gladstone St. and buy a bamboo cane and cut up an old clothes hanger into strips and bend them in to the shape of the rod ,to hold them on you could tape them.

My father worked in J.L. O’Brien’s mineral waters and he used to get me some ring seals off the corks of bottles. I would slide them up along the bamboo cane on to the wire eyes to hold them. It was a fancy rod and we caught trout, flat fish, (now as fluke) and eels.

One day when we were fishing in the barley field there were other boys fishing on the other bank on the town side. They were shouting and running around the place and we could see something splashing in the water, we thought it was a dog. The boys came running across the bridge to us they told us that there was a boy in the water. We dropped our rods and ran across to where they were. Just as we got there we could see the boy going under the bridge by then it was two late he disappeared under the water. The body was found 9 days later R.I.P. I will never forget it.

In the summer time we’d go swimming in the river at the barley field. A lot of Clonmel people learnt to swim there. It was low nearer to the bridge a bit futher up was the deeper part. One day a girl named Ann dived off the bank and stuck her head in the muck bank in the river. We all had a great laugh at her we had to pull her out feet first I remember one year the river was so low that we were able to walk across to the steps at the Allen Larkin monument.

Some days we’d go out to the centre arch of the bridge after lamper eels. We’d tie a fork to a stick. People say that they stick to your toe and suck the blood out, we were scared but it was fun at the same time, then we’d walk out under the centre arch to the other side where there was a bank of stones which are still there.

There was a man named Paddy who lived over in Kickham Park, Paddy was a great man for bobbing for eels, he had a 10 ft pole with a length of string tied on to it, on the end was a ball of worms sown together, he would dip the worms in the water when he taught he caught some eels he would lift the pole real fast over his shoulder the eels would fall off and hit the gas works wall behind him now know as Bridge Water House.

In the summer evenings we might cycle down to the river Anner to Two Mile Bridge. When we’d get fed up it was in for a swim, the water was lovely cool and clean. Sometimes we might go skinny dipping it might be 9pm or 10pm before we’d get home. Then the questions were asked, where were you all night? If you told the truth you might not be left out the next night so you told a lie.

By Anthony Phelan.

9-11-09

A Christmas Story

12/11/09.

My Christmas Story By Anne.

I loved Christmas when I was a child. I'm going to tell a story about one Christmas that will always stay in my mind. I was about seven years old at the time. I loved looking at the shop windows at Christmas time, Burks shop was beautiful they always decorated it well and had lovely toys to look at.
But Ryan's shop across the road had this lovely play cooker in the window that I fell in love with and I would love Santa to bring it to me for Christmas.

I knew at the back of my mind that mam would not be able to afford the deposit, you would have to give a dopiest to the shop keeper to hold on to the gift for Santa to collect it. Every evening after school I would look in at the window and just imagine playing with that cooker. When I saw it first I ran home to Mam, told her about the cooker, I said to her I would love Santa to bring me that cooker in Ryan's shop. Mam said if Santa can afford it Anne, and you are a very good girl, he might bring it to you.

Day's and weeks passed and I would be looking at the window to see if the cooker was still there. It got near Christmas and the cooker had disappeared from the window, it left me wondering if I was going to get it or not. Christmas Eve came and that night we all had a bath, but before we went to bed, we would hang our socks over the fire place, for Santa to put a surprise into them, we would hardly sleep with excitement.

Christmas morning arrived and we could not wait to see what Santa brought us. My sister Alice got what she asked for, I saw a big parcel under the Christmas tree. I could not wait to open it, and when I did Santa had brought the cooker to me, I jumped for joy. I played with that cooker all day long. It was like a little kitchen to me, it had a sink with a water tank, two taps and the water came out of it, there was an oven and inside it had a tray and a mock turkey on it. O it was the best Christmas I ever had. We looked to see what Santa left in our stockings, apples oranges and small doll’s.

After dinner we would go outside to see what our friends had got. They always got more than us, but we would pretend we got more and we told them we left our other toys inside. Our Dad died when we were very young, and we would not have as much as our friends. But I always say that we had plenty, because Mam kept us together she did a great job. We never had turkey for Christmas Mam could only afford chicken and our friends would boast about the beautiful turkey they had, and we would do the same, because we would never tell them what we really had.

They were hard times but we got through it. I played with that cooker and brought my friends in to the house to play with it, we had great fun playing with it. Thanks to Santa and Mum for giving me that lovely cooker. It will always stay in my mind, that wonderful Christmas.

The day after Christmas was called Saint Stephen's Day, we had great fun going around in the wren .We would dress up in old clothes and wear a mask, so that people would not recognize us. The were four of us, and we would start out early, singing Christmas songs and we would go from door to door, hoping we get some money for our singing. Back then we got very bad winter's snow and frost and it was very cold. At dinner time we would come home, warm ourselves up, get something to eat and go back out again, we would stay out until evening time, around five it would be dark, so we would have to come home then. The four of us would go to our house to count the money, and share it between us, we would have enough money for the week. We had great fun in those days, I don't see anybody going out in the wren now, I hope it comes back.

I do hope ye like my short story about Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all, best wishes for 2010.

Regards Anne.