student savings

Tags

Bus, Dublin, leap card, luas, money, saving, student, student savings

Being a student again means lots of extra work but it also has it’s benefits: student savings! So make the most of the next year I decided it was time to get myself a student Leap Card.

Like the Oyster Card in London, the Leap Card is the perfect way to use public transport within and around Dublin. One of the main benefits of using a Leap Card is you pay less per trip. An additional bonus is you don’t need to carry around loose change when you want to use the bus (you don’t get back change on Dublin buses, all you get is a paper slip that you can exchange for money at headquarters – Dublin Bus makes more than a million euros every year on unclaimed refunds – so most people try an pay exact fares).

And since I am now the owner of a student leap card I get even more savings. I may still have to pay the same amount per fare however the daily and weekly cap on the card has gone way down. No matter how many buses I use in a day I’ll never pay more than 5€ (normally 6.90€), and in a week never more than 20€ (normally 27.50€). If I combine Luas (the Dublin tram system) and bus that goes slightly up but I still pay 25% less than with a regular Leap Card.

Wonderfully it doesn’t end there, by waving the Student Leap Card in certain high-street shops you get reductions and special offers. Saving 20% here and 15% there will definitely make a difference in the long run. Student savings – a perk for all the hard work.

a few euros saved with these two cards

teaching tribulations

Tags

miscellaneous, quotes, random, student, teaching, William Aurthur Ward

The semester is back in full swing and  my lecturers hat is perched atop my head. And while I love seeing all the students scurrying along the halls and stare at me in wide eyed confusion,  I am still struggling to find my rhythm.

At the moment the beat I am skipping to is still a little like experimental Jazz, but I am hoping that in a  week or two it will have settled down into a more melodic blues. So as I struggle to memorize my students names and keep my time-table in balance I embrace the daily challenges of this new semester, stretching myself, growing as a teacher.

I can only hope that I do my job well, no matter what trails and tribulations are put before me, and that the students get something out of my lessons. After all when I look back on my time as a student I remember some of my own teachers and lecturers with fondness, knowing that for some I was more than just a number, and they influenced me, the way I think and who I am.

So with that in mind I aspire to inspire, as American author William Aurthur Ward put it so well:

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

So a shout out to all the teachers out there, I tip my lecturer hat at you, in awe of what you do daily and help thousands achieve.