Blogging In Transition Year

I think that the idea of having a Transition Year blog was a good idea. It was good to be able to look back over the posts we have done and to remind ourselves of all of our experiences in TY and to be able to carry on our blogs into 5th year.
   It was good to blog throughout the year and to be able to read other students reflections of activities during the year.

TY Night

There is only 7 full days left in TY until TY night, on Monday 28th. For TY night we are singing 'Seasons of Love' by Rent. We will be doing a Zumba dance and a 1920's dance. Our drama group might also be performing our play 'Tich Miller'. 

Retreat to Glendalough

Yesterday, class Banba went on our retreat to Glendalough in Wicklow. It was raining all day so for most of it we were indoors. We learnt about the history of St. Kevin and Glendalough and then we did a meditation exercise.

   The rain died down in the afternoon so we were brought on a short walk around Glendalough. Even in the rain it was a good day and we all enjoyed it.

Challenge 126

On Thursday morning, Brian Maher from spin1038 radio station set off from Limerick with Mike Sheridan to complete Challenge 126 in aid of Special Olympics Ireland. They were running the 126 miles from Limerick back to Dublin non-stop!

   My uncle and god-father Eamonn joined the lads outside our school and ran their final 16 miles back to Grafton Street to give them a bit of support. I think Brian and Mike are inspirational to do this run without sleep or any stop offs and proud of my uncle Eamonn for joining the lads on their last 16 miles!

Sci-fest

On the 9th of May, Ty's will be going to the Sci-fest competition to show our projects which we have been working on since the start of the year in science.
  We are all busy working hard on our posters and PowerPoint's to have them designed for the competition. We are all looking forward to it and it should be a good day out.
  The month of May is going to be a busy month as we have got a lot of projects and assignments to be completed and handed in for the end of year.

Hotel Rwanda

Today, in religion class we finished watching the movie 'Hotel Rwanda' which follows a Rwandan man called Paul Rusesabagina, who tries to rescue his family, friends and fellow citizens from the Rwandan Genocide by using his position as manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines to grant shelter to more than a thousand refugees. We watched the movie as part of the conflict module in Transition Year religion.
  The movie explores genocide, political corruption and violence. I enjoyed watching the movie although it was at times very violent, intense and quite upsetting. It was good to learn about the Rwandan genocide between the Hutu's and the Tutsi's as this genocide was only 18 years ago.

7 weeks left of TY

Including this week, we have only got 7 weeks left of TY. The year flew by so far so 7 weeks isn't too long to wait. The next 7 weeks are going to be used up completing projects that are due in May such as Geography, History and Maths.
   We also have TY in May which should be fun as all of TY get to perform dances, songs and plays we have done in different subjects throughout the year.

First Year Sports Day

     Last week, class Banba were given the opportunity to organise a first year athletics afternoon. We all took different events and organised them separately. Emma and I organised discus, which was easy to set up so we got to watch the other events.
   
     The sports day was on Tuesday, it was good to be out in the sun instead of in classes and it was a successful afternoon, we set up at lunch time and the sports day was from 2pm until 4pm.
   

Blog Challenge- Spanish

Hola!

Este desafío blog de semana es para escribir un mensaje en un idioma diferente, así que decidí hacer mi blog en español. Hago francés en la escuela, pero me encanta el acento español, así que quería escribir mi blogpost en español.

Esta noche es la noche de música y escuelas de clase TY Eriu y Banba estará cantando Florencia y de las máquinas Shake It Out '. Hemos estado practicando muy duro así que espero que todo nuestro trabajo duro dará sus frutos!

        

Music Night

Next Wednesday, it is the schools music night and all the three TY classes are doing performances. Our class Banba and Eriu are doing Florence and the Machines 'Shake It Out' together. We have been practising together and a lot of work has gone into the performance.
 We are all looking forward to the music night  and hopefully our performance will go well.

Braveforce

Yesterday, we went to the braveforce centre in Puddenhill to do an assault course. We left school at 11am and we were there by 11.45.
   We were all gathered together and brought to the start line for a warm, and then we were off.. It was a 3.5k run with 20 obstacles to tackle. There were underground passages, swimming in a mucky ditch, climbing and walking across ropes.
 When finished we were all freezing and mucky but it was a good day out and we all enjoyed it.

Djembe!

On Monday, 5th March, class Banba did a percussion workshop for the day. We did it with a man called Dave, he brought different percussion instruments and a djembe drum for each of us.

  We learned two songs on the djmebe then we took turns playing the percussion instruments. We then put the percussion and the djembe together and played different songs.

 We all really enjoyed the day as it was something different and it was really enjoyable. I would definitely recommend it for other TY's to do.

Tich Miller in Cork

On Saturday, 3rd March, Our Tich Miller drama group travelled to Cork to take part in the Briery Gap competition in Macroom. We left on the bus at 10am and got to Cork at 2pm, it was a long bus journey but it was fun and the time flew.

  We went on stage at 3pm, we were all nervous before going on stage but we thought that it went fine. We all had a really good day, all we did was eat for the whole day.

  We left cork at 4.30pm and got home at 8.32pm. I was wrecked after the day but we were happy with our performance and we all had a good day.

Work Experience

Last week, all TY's were on work experience. I went to the Chemistry Department in NUI Maynooth for the week.
 
Throughout the week I set up labs for experiments, cleaned up labs after experiments, I also got the chance to make my own soap in a reflux and distillation experiment. The week was good experience and I enjoyed the week out of school to work. 
 
  My supervisor and the staff were really friendly and helpful and they made the week more enjoyable for me. I enjoyed the week of work experience and I now know that i may like a career in chemistry.

Hometown of St Brigid

On Tuesday the 7th of February, all of TY travelled to Kildare town, the hometown of St Brigid. We left the school at 9.15 and arrived in Kildare town at 10 o'clock.
  First we watched a short video about the town of Kildare and we then went to visit St Brigids cathedral and round tower. We looked around the cathedral, and went out and saw the round tower and Brigids kitchen. We then walked to the first well built by Brigid and we all walked around the well. We then went to the second well and had a short prayer service. We then went to Kildare village outlet and got Starbucks:)
  We were all tired by the end of the day but we enjoyed it. Thanks to the religion teachers for bringing us on the trip.

Heading to Cork

Last week, my drama group 'Tich Miller' found out that after performing our drama in the Briery Gap theatre Mullingar a few weeks ago, we got through to the next round in Cork!
  We are all really happy to have gotten through and we are the only group in all of the school who got through. The next round in Cork is on Saturday 3rd March so now we need to get practising and perfecting our drama.

St Brigids Day

Today is the 1st February, St Brigids day, and next Tuesday, the religion teachers have organised a trip for all TY's to go to Kildare Town, hometown of St Brigid. We are going to be going to visit St Brigids well.
   Our class were given the task to design the prayer room for St Brigids day, we organised ourselves into different groups to do this, the designers, the music group, the art group and the history group and we came up with our ideas. Today we just need to add the finishing touches and it will be done.

Hometown of Niall Horan..

On tuesday, all of the TY's travelled to Mullingar(Hometown of Niall Horan!) to perform our dramas which we wrote ourselves.
   Our drama was based on the poem Tich Miller by Wendy Cope, we were all nervous but it went well even though we only had a weeks practice.
  After performing our dramas we were free to go for lunch in Mullingar town, we went to McDonalds and i was on the hunt for Niall Horan since he was home on Tuesday for One Directions concert in the O2, but I didnt find him:(
  Then on Tuesday night I went to One Direction! It was amazing! All of the bands family's and friends were sitting in front of us and we were so close. Im so sad its over and i cant wait 'til they come back hopefully soon!

BT Young Scientist Competition:)

From Wednesday to Saturday last week, myself and 10 other girls from TY were in the RDS Dublin for the BT Young Scientist Competition.
  Me, Leah and Hannah were in a group together and our project was titled ''An analysis of how a communities awareness of their energy use can influence their energy output''. There were 3 other groups from our school titled ''Surf's App'', ''Do you smell what I smell?(The study of peoples perception of smell)'' and ''Is the fear of spiders a learnt fear or a natural fear''.
   All week we were judged on our projects and we made so many new friends and talked to lots of new people.
  We all enjoyed the competition so much and i thought it was the most enjoyable experience of TY so far. Even though we were tired coming home every day we still had so much fun and we all miss getting up to go to the competition every morning.

Briary Gap competition, Mullingar

Next Tuesday, the 24th of January, two of the TY classes are going to the Briary Gap competition as we have entered dramas into the competition.
      There are 13 people in our group and our drama is based on the poem ''A war story, Tainted beauty''. Hopefully our drama will come together by next Tuesday because at the moment it is not coming on very well. All of TY will be going to the competition to support eachother so it will be an enjoyable day.
      Also next Tuesday i am going to ONE DIRECTION, counting down the days!