Off on an Irish adventure we go!

Hey guys,

As this post is coming a little late (whoops, sorry) my memory as to what went on the past week has slightly faded, and all I can really remember is the week previous, our Irish trip to be precise.

So, on Friday the 10th of may, all of us transition years headed out in our tracksuits to explore the grounds of St.Enda's school in Dublin. This was an all-boys school set up in 1908 by Patrick Pearse and Willie Pearse, two leaders of the Irish 1916 rising that were executed in Kilmainham jail for their involvement. The school was set up as the pair wanted gaeilge to be taught and spoken throughoutin schools and throughout Ireland. It was therefore set up as an all Irish speaking school which did succeed at influencing the teaching of Irish, which is of course still around today. Mar is eol duit.

While there, we had a tour of the beautiful gardens, learnt about the history of the school and the students that attended (the boys wore yellow skirts, blazers and white shirts). The house itself was fabulous, finished with three stories, a massive garden and a set of stairs which lead to the large green front door. (inside they even had the butcher block on which Robert Emmet was beheaded.

We then watched a movie about the life of the Pearse Brothers and enjoyed a nice lunch in the accompanying Brambles café. It was a lovely day out with everyone, and we all enjoyed learning more about the history of Ireland. If you are near the area, I definitely recommend a visit. The gardens are full of flowering plants and it is a wonderfully quiet and relaxing place to visit.

Till next week,
Ciara

   

Supersize me, and make me a teddy bear.

Hey guys,

So this week has been a prolonged week whereby we finished homework assignments etc. and found out about upcoming events and deadlines. Our summer tests are fast approaching and we've already been briefed on what subjects each student will be organising for Transition Year night, but more on that in another post.

Today we learnt about the geography and cultural contexts of India, and soon we will be having two native Indian speakers in to talk to us about their cultures and knowledge of India. We also got a little break from sewing our teddy bears (which are coming along just fine) and began to watch a  documentary style movie called 'super size me'. It's a really interesting film to watch, and is all about the rapid growth of obesity in America and their problems with fast food, ie. McDonald's. One man goes on a 30 day binge of mcDonald's food which involves him eating 3 square meals a day and nothing else from any other food source. Definitely check it out.

I'm afraid that's all we've been getting up to this week as nothing new has been scheduled. Make sure you check again for next week's blog post as I will be covering an up and coming Transition year outing.

Till next week,

Ciara

Dissolvaball, a cereal ball that dissolves in your milk.

Hey Guys,

This week was full of new projects and tasks that we took on in an effort to finish before our 3 month long summer holidays. All week we have been working on perfecting a song for an Irish competition we have decided to enter into. Ciara, Roisin, Zoe & Orla have been mad at work for the past two weeks creating lyrics to go along with the tune of The Script - 'the man who can't be moved'  and after successfully jumping a few hurdles, we have finally learned it off and even got around to recording the whole thing today, getting it ready to send into the judges. I'll let you know how we get on with that, and will have the video to share with you shortly!

This week we have also been designing cereal boxes for our latest mini company assignment. Myself, Eimear and Aisling have come up with 'disolvaball' a sphere shaped cereal that when dissolved in half a bowl of milk gives you eg. Chocolate milk and cocopops. I have been in charge of creating the logo and our character ('Bally Pauly'). We have decided to go ahead and create the strawberry version of our cereal, here it is below:

I went to my 3rd week of work experience, the half way mark until we're completely finished. If you'd like to read about my day, all you need to do is click on this here and you will be redirected over to my work experience blog! I've also been to work on my teddy bear, which is coming on nicely. A lot of us are nearing the end of the process so I'll get a picture up soon! I can't believe there's so little time left in Transition Year!

Till next week,

Ciara

Swim a mile with a Smile

Hey guys,

As you might have guessed from the title, we participated in the Ian Daly 'Swim a mile with a smile' event this week. It is a highly worthwhile cause that you can read more about by clicking here.

The swim a mile fundraising event was set up by the parents of Ian Daly, a 9 year old boy that was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour back in 2002. Sadly, Ian passed away in 2003 at the age of 11 after attempts to fight off the tumour hadn't been effective. This tragic event inspired Ian's family to start up a fundraising event requiring participants to swim a mile or as much as they could in honour of Ian, who loved to swim. Each year people take part in the challenge and raise money for Barretstown.

As well as fundraising for a very worthwhile cause we also had lots of fun and managed to swim over 23 miles all together. I strongly encourage whoever is interested to take part in Swim a mile as it's a truly amiable fundraising event.

Till next week,
Ciara

I mustache you a question, but I'll shave it for later..

Hey guys,

As you may have guessed from the slightly subtle heading I have been recently influenced by the French culture. This is a result of a delicious French breakfast that I shared with my classmates this Friday morning. We indulged in a LOT of French themed food including the likes of; croissants, brioche, pain au chocolat and bonbons. We definitely ate ourselves sick but it was worth it and we took it as an opportunity to practise for our future orals on the topic of breakfast time.

So, as that was at the end of the week, I should probably cover how the week started. First up on Monday we made deeeelicious lemon curd cupcakes. They were filled with a lemon curd swirl and topped with lemon icing, I was cooking on my own so got them all for myself, but it was definitely stressful trying to get it done in time! On Tuesday we got to work completing our art work on tape portraits and a lot of us began working on our new assignment: puppets! It sounds like it's going to be really fun and I can't wait to see all of the finished products, I was thinking of making a mermaid like the one below. We'll see how that works out!

On Wednesday I started my third and final work experience in a gorgeous cafe & garden centre type of place. It was a great day and looks like it's going to be the best work experience so far. You can read about that on my work experience blog here. On Thursday we had a double mini company class where we finalised a lot of the mini company business and continued to work on our new assignment which involves us creating our own cereal. We have managed to come up with our cereal idea so far and just need to get to work on the cereal box and logo. Lots to do!

So that's what I got up to this week. It was a lot to do in the first week back but hey, lots of new interesting projects coming up and there's only 7 weeks left until summer!

Till next week,
Ciara

Pilgrimage & Bowling

Hey guys,

This week we went on a mini pilgrimage, ate out, and went bowling. Not to mention we also performed in our school's annual Music Night.

The week started off on Tuesday after our long weekend and St.Patrick's day!! On Tuesday we started watching the movie '21' in maths. It's all about this guy that needs to save $300,000 for his college tuition fee's and so gets roped into a group of 'card counters' that use their 'super brains' to cheat casino's in Vegas and win themselves a lot of money. We haven't quite finished it yet, but if you haven't seen it I definitely recommend giving it a watch, it's so interesting!

Usually on a Wednesday we would go to work experience but since our second block is completed we have been going out on mini group trips. This week's came in the form of a mini pilgrimage to Kildare.

Our pilgrimage involved us visiting sights such as those shown above. They are all to do with St. Brigid and the last picture you see (St. Brigid's holy well) shows a tree on the left hand corner full of small belongings traditionally put there by visitors symbolising people they would like to be prayed for. Our pilgrimage was followed by a trip to White Water Shopping Centre (where we filled up on doughnuts & carrot cake) and then a competitive game of bowling! It was a great day!

On Thursday and headed straight to the hall to practise for that nights music night. We were singing a medley of 'Ho Hey' by the Lumineers, 'Hall of Fame' by The Script and 'I follow rivers' by Lykke Li. We had been practising the previous few weeks and set the stage that night in front of an audience made up of student's parents. It was a great night and nobody forgot their words!

Today we finally finished contagion (another BRILLIANT movie that you should watch) and continued to make our Teddy Bears, they're really coming together! Now for our two-week long mid-term break, Have a good Easter :)

Till next week,
Ciara

Retreat time

Hey guys,

So another week has passed in Transition Year and i'm here again writing about this week's antics. Transition year seems to be FLYING by, We can basically call ourselves fifth years, can you believe there's only a little over 2 months until summer?!

So this week was full of project work, but we took a lovely day off from all our hard work and went up to Tallaght for our TY retreat. Here we sectioned off into small groups of 12 students or so and made our way to our own rooms. Here, we spoke about life and experiences, and it was a spectacular day.

The week had a great finish and ended with us all dressed up as leprechauns and fairies. Our school prefects set up a dress up day to the fast arriving St.Patricks festival. Each year had a theme to inspire their dress-up and everybody brought in 2 euros to go towards charity. It was a great day, full of movie watching, celebrating and dancing!

Till next week,
Ciara

Trip to Trinity

Hey guys,

This week was fun, again busy & all the while recieving new projects. The end of the week was finished off with a small trip to Trinity College, Dublin, where we were spoken to by different physicists, scientists & engineers about their world of work and expertise.

 





 

It was a great day and I certainly feel more informed about the engineering side of things and I feel as though I've made the right subject choices for next year. An added plus was that we ended the trip with a lovely warm cup of tea, a sandwhich, popcorn & more, all complimentary of course!

Till next week,
Ciara

To Cork We go..

Hey guys,

This week was a pretty hectic week (in particular, a hectic friday!). We presented our Scifest projects to judges and made our way to Cork & back .. all in one day.

Other than Friday, this week was a relaxed one. We had a couple of assignment deadlines, but nothing major that we couldn't handle. What was crazy though was the numerous different activities that Friday had to offer.

Friday morning we set up our displays for Scifest. Myself and my partner Eimear had conducted an experiment regarding the topic of ithcing being contagious (it is). The morning was good fun and we wrapped up an left for Cork (a county on the other side of Ireland if you didn't know) at around 11:40am.

We took 3hours 25minutes in the mini bus until finally arriving at Briary Gap to perform our play. It was scary at first but when we got to it it was such good fun and we hope to have done our play justice. After perfoming we got back into the bus to return home nackered at 8:40pm. Talk about one crazy day.

Till next week,
Ciara



Professional Bongo Players



Hey guys,

So this week included two major events. Firstly, we had a 'percussion class' and secondly we went into Dublin to collect money for Lollipop day.

Lollipop day takes place every year, and Transition year students from all over the country participate in collecting money for charity. It's a fun day out and a great way to raise money for Oesophageal Cancer Research Ireland. We held collection buckets and gathered as much money as we could, and we also got to make our own way to any lunch destination of our choice (ours MacDonalds, no surprise there!). It was a great day and although we were f-f-freeeezing and at times felt like our toes were ready to fall off, we really feel like we have made a great contribution to the cause. Thank you to everyone who donated!

Earlier in the week we got together in our class groups to de-stress with ssome mad bongo playing. We learnt classic African songs and had a blast learning how to bring everything together. We were told the different names for different sized and shaped 'bongos' although I can't remember them now.. oops. If you're interested in having a fun afternoon of mad bongo playing then you can click here to contact David from the JabaJaba Jimbe organisation.

Till Next Week,
Ciara



Happy Pancake Tuesday!

In a week's time

Hey guys,

So this week was a lot of fun, and comes before our week long mid term break. We made risotto, watched some movies (for educational purposes of course) and practised for our end of year MUSIC NIGHT!

This Tuesday consisted of a jam packed afternoon when me and my Home Ec partner got together and whipped up a tasty chicken risotto. It was the first time I had ever tasted risotto or even tried to make it. Before then I had always thought of it as such a hard dish to make... how wrong I was!

This week and last week (and for the foreseeable future) myself and my class have been slowly but surely making our way through two movies. The first of these two movies we watched in religion class. I'm sure you've heard of it, it's called 'The Pursuit Of Happiness'. The purpose of us watching this film is to teach us about poverty and the devastating effects it has on people's lives. On going with this theme my class have produced a play on homelessness. This is why we were in Mullingar last week for a drama competition, and I have news.... WE GOT THROUGH! So watch out for a future blog post on my trip to Cork for the finals!

The second of the movies we have been watching (this time in Geography class) is 'Contagion'. We have recently been learning about different diseases. Each of us had been assigned a different disease to research and make a leaflet about. Our leaflets consisted of vaccinations, causes and symptoms of different diseases. My disease was Tuberculosis. Not a very pleasant disease to withold!

Today in music class we continued practising for our Transition Year music night that will be held in May of this year. We are singing a mash-up medley of 'Hey Ho'- The Lumineers, 'Hall of fame'- The Script and of 'I follow rivers' - Lykke Li. It's great fun to perform and we're really looking forward to the night!
 
In other news, I have recently picked up a book from the school library. Our school library had been neglected for a long time and turned into an uncomfortable, cold class room. But, all of that changed this year and it has been completely transformed. We have gotten a librarian, new books (voted in by students) and there's talk of us getting bean bags, water fountains and computers! So, due to this drastic change there has been a lot of excitement produced about the library and I have been encouraged to read more books. So far I have read 'The Kite Runner' and am currently reading 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini. If you haven't already, RUN to your nearest book outlet and get yourself a copy of each, they are fantastic reads!

Till next week,
Ciara

Mullingar !

Hey guys,

This week was a lot of fun and involved an educational trip to Mullingar, another successful day at work experience and an Oreo malt to finish off the long week of hard work.

Don't get me wrong, Transition year is full of lots of projects and work that needs to be done. Our school makes sure that we keep working hard and developing new and old skills. That being said, we have a lot of learning opportunities that require us going on school trips, and of course there's lots of fun to be had away from school! One of these trips was our drama competition that was held in Mullingar. 

We've been working on dramas regarding the Millenium Development Goals during religion class. We went to Briary Gap in the Mullingar arts centre to perform our dramas in front of judges. No news back yet but if we get through, we're going to Cork! It was a great day out, we got to perform on a stage with an audience and snack on some McDonald's before hand. We have our fingers crossed that one of our plays get through because we worked so hard on them and would love to support each other in Cork!

In other news, I have progressed with my 'teddy making' process and now have all the pattern pieces cut out. We also bribed our home economics teacher into allowing us to make Oreo malts for the whole class, they were D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!

Till Next week,

Ciara

      

I Do What I Say and I Say What I Do

Hey guys,

So it's been another hard week in Transition Year, although, when I say hard I really mean tiring (probably due to my own lack of sleep!). This week judging was held for our mini company projects, we made advances in our teddy making process and we got cracking at our third week of work experience.

First up on a snowy Monday morning we each set up stalls and promoted our mini company products. The day consisted of a small award ceremony and a public speaking presentation from each team in front of two judges. The judges were there to choose what group would be going through to a national competition later on in the year. Although we didn't get short listed, myself and my group are very proud of our progress and left very happy indeed.

We also made a DELICIOUS cheesecake, no doubt I ate it all myself! And as I said I would, here's a picture..

That's all for this week,
Ciara

Crumbled

Hey guys,

So it's the end of another eventful week in Transition Year and although alot happened, there isn't too much to report on seeing as I blogged a mammoth post last week!

First up on tuesday afternoon, we made an AMAZING apple crumble. Of course, it was completely demolished before I even returned home, and it tasted soo good that I decided to name this post after it. Next week, CHEESECAKE. I may even post a picture of that one, if it lasts long enough!

One major project that we've all been working on this week has been mini company. A lot of work went on to finish our report and get our project ready for judging this Monday. It's been crazy and required an abundance of hard work but we are finally finished and we cannot wait to set up our stall and present our finished product to the judges.

I've also been continuing to work on my teddy bear and I got the most gorgeous material to make it from, it's baby blue with small white polka dots, a little something like this:

So that's all that I've gotten up to this week, including a day of work experience in a Spa. If you want to check that out, i've put a link on the top right hand side of this page for you to click on and read all about it.

Till next week,

Ciara

Hi ho Hi ho, It's off to work we go

Hey guys,

Back this week after a fantastic 2week long Christmas break and already I have made advances in my mini company, recieved my Christmas test results, started my second work placement, and visited the BT Young Scientist exhibition. It's been a loooong week.

Of course, it was torture getting out of bed at 7:30am on Monday morning, but I've gradually gotten back into the swing of things, and you know, this week was a pretty good one. We kick-started this week by making some delicious scones that were nearly gone by the time I got home, and by preparing for a new project, something I think is going to be really enjoyable.We're going to be making teddy bears! Let's hope when i'm finished it will resemble a teddy bear, but none the less, i'll try my hardest :)

I started my second work placement in a ridiculously posh hotel spa, and it was so so enjoyable. If you'd like to read more about that, you can click on a link to that blog on the top right hand corner of this page.

We were up and out bright and early Thursday morning to greet our fellow students and explore the scientific grounds of the Young Scientist Exhibition that's being held all week in the RDS, Dublin. We had a fabulous day, seeing lots of amazing scientific discoveries and experiments and of course, stocking up on looads of free things. I even entered myself in a competition or two in an attempt to win an ipad. If you're in Dublin this weekend i'd definately recommend you go and visit!

My mini company group and I have also been working like mad women trying to get our report completed and rushed off to the judges for the competition. The deadline is soon and the whole class is hectic, franticly trying to finish a 20- page report in what little time we have left!

So that's all from me this week, keep an eye out here  for more posts about the life of a Transition Year student every week.

Till next week,
Ciara.