Warren Hills Health & Physical Education teacher Elise Tooker was blessed with the luck of the Irish when she was given the opportunity to teach in Dublin, Ireland for her student teaching program in 2010.

During her senior year at Lock Haven University, Tooker was able to complete her major by being a student teacher at Ballinteer Community High School for four months.

Having been inspired by her fifth-grade teacher who was from Ireland, she couldn’t imagine a better job than teaching in Ireland.
“The experience of teaching in another country and seeing how other people educate their youth helped me grow as a teacher,” said Tooker.

Tooker said she was able to experience the difference between cultures and how they affect school systems.
“Ireland school systems are a lot different from American ones,” she said. “They aren’t focused on any standardized testing, and they are more focused on what students need to learn in order to lead a happy, healthy, successful life outside of high school.”

Students in Ireland have long holiday breaks, and have half-days every Wednesday.

Teaching the children in Ireland was a lesson in itself for Tooker.
“When you immerse yourself in another culture, you have a better understanding of how other countries and people teach,” she said. “There are definitely skills and techniques that I learned from Ireland that I implement in my own teaching here in the USA.”
Tooker said her Irish students were fond of her background in the United States and were amused by the way she spoke.
“They used to ask me all the time how to say different words just to make me talk,” she said.  “It made me laugh.”
The language barrier was different on both sides though, Tooker said her biggest challenge was adjusting to the accents of her students.
“Much like the United States we all speak English, but it is like comparing somebody from New York to somebody from Georgia. We would say the person from Georgia has a Southern accent. The same concept goes for Ireland as well,” she said. “They all speak English; however, it is in an Irish accent and within that you have different dialects. So, needless to say, it could be pretty confusing at times.”

Over time, though, Tooker said she acclimated to the locale.

“I was so used to hearing an Irish accent that I began to think with an Irish accent,” she said. “I also found myself saying words with an Irish accent.”

Tooker said during her year in Ireland she developed strong connections with the community.

“I met some of the nicest and most interesting people in Ireland,” she said. “I absolutely love Ireland and I would encourage anybody to go visit for vacation or find a way to go there and live.”