Saturday, August 17, 2013

TY Night

After all of the stress of preparation for our TY night, the time had come to show our parents all of the work that we had done throughout the year. From projects, to musical performances and dramas, I definitely think we showed how hard that we have work during the year.
Everybody got into groups of five or six. Each group worked on the stand for a different subject. My group was in charge of the Spanish stand. We decided to put up different things that we had done in Spanish throughout the year, for example film reviews, information about Spanish speaking countries and our favourite actors and actresses. We also had a map of Spain and postcards that showed the culture in Spain. We also had Spanish magazines and also the DVDs that we had watched in Spanish class.
The night went smoothly; Thank god. With all of the preparation that went into it, we were all happy with how it turned out. After the show was finished, Mrs L had some lovely words to say and wished us look as we now continue on into fifth year. We also present gifts to out class tutors who have work so hard to make the year the best it could have been. Then the prefects came and served tea and biscuits. Then all of the TYs headed to McDonalds and had a great time.
Eilíse :Dxx

Friday, May 17, 2013

Musical preparations

For the past few weeks, all TYs have been preparing for our performance on TY night. Every year at TY night, all of the TYs perform a song. The three classes voted between 5 years time and Pompeii. 3/3 classes picked Pompeii so it was clear which one we would be doing. Each class has a special part in the song. Síocháin are singing all of the harmonies. The three classes haven't all gotten together to practice yet, but the individual pieces sound really good!


                     

Making Movies

A few weeks ago, our IT teacher, Mrs L gave each of us the task of creating our own movies. We were told to use windows movie maker and make a video on a topic of our choice. It took me a while to decide what topic I wanted to choose, but I eventually made the decision to make a movie about how to play the ukulele. There are four magical chords that fit into many different songs and I have shown this in my video!
Here is the finished product:


                    

Monday, April 29, 2013

Swim a mile with a smile

Every year all of the TYs and lcvp students take part in the Swim a mile with a smile challenge.The event was set up by Laura and Brian Daly after the death of their son, Ian in 2003. Ian died of a rare form of cancer and all of the funds raised from the event go towards Our Lady's hospital, Crumlin and Barretstown Camps. 
When I applied for TY, one of the things that I was really looking forward to was Swim a mile. I love swimming so I was excited to see how much lengths I could actually swim. We got ourselves into teams of 4 or 5 and all contributed to the mile. I was in a team with Aideen, Róisín B, Orlaith, and Alanna D. I swam a total of 32 lengths, which adds up to half a mile. In total the group swam 2 and a half lengths and the all together we came to 24 lengths. It was a great achievement for everyone and afterwards we earned a well deserved trip to Blanchardstown shopping centre for some food and a bit of shopping.


Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Lollipop Day Collection!

On the 22nd of febuary, all TY and 5th year students headed off to town for the annual lollipop day collection. We arrived in powerscourt centre and were each given a t-shirt, cap and box for collecting and were asked to split up into groups of 3 or 4. Each group was given a spot to collect at: my group were given westmoreland street corner. We had to sell lollipops and badges for €2 each! Even though it was freezing cold,  it was still an amazing experience and I really enjoyed the day!

Saturday, March 16, 2013

jabba jabba jembe

First day back after our midterm break and we are already into a workshop! A guy called Dave came in to do a drumming workshop with us! I had heard of the workshop from past years and I had really been looking forward to it. We went to the library in the morning and met up with dave. He brought us outside and we helped him carry all of the drums in from his van. Throughout the day we used a load of different types of drums. The main one was called the jembe. We also used the kpanlogo, marakas, shekere, and the agogo bells.


Jembe





Here is the link to the jabba jabba jembe website: http://www.jabbajabbajembe.com/

Saturday, February 16, 2013

A Collection For Pieta House.....

A few weeks ago, Mrs L told us that there would be a collection held in aid of pieta house. She was looking for volunteers to help out with bagpacking in our local tesco! I thought that it was a very good cause so I was happy to give up a few hours so that I could help out.
Pieta House, the centre for the prevention of self-harm or suicide, opened in Lucan, Co Dublin, in January 2006. It was set up to reduce the number of deaths by suicide, reduce the number of people engaging in self-harm and to bring about social change.
Myself, Aideen, Shannon, Ruth, and Zoe arrived at tesco at 1 o' clock, and were introduced to marie, who told us what tills to go to! Unfortunatly, It wasn't too busy today so a lot of the tills were closed. This meant that we had to share tills, however we had difficulty getting to do a lot! A lot of people hadn't bought a lot so they didnt really need our help, but we did pack a good few bags and collected a lot for the cause.
We finished up at around 3 O' clock and we got to keep out t-shirts. Overall I really enjoyed the experience and would happily do it again

Monday, February 11, 2013

Advice to the third years......

For all of you third years who are considering TY......this post is to tell you why you should do TY!
Firstly, it gives you a chance to get to know people who you have never talked to before. You gain skills that can and will be used later on in life! You get chances to do things that you normally wouldn't get to do.
A lot of people have the idea that TY is a "doss year". It is actually the opposite. Don't be fooled by the lack of big exams or masses of home work, TY is a different kind of stress! Just because it is not as academically based at other years doesnt mean that you don't have to work!You might not believe us when we tell you this but do remember we have done the junior cert before so we know how you feel!
TY involves at lot of group work! Some people love this, and some people don't! But for almost every project you are in groups! I personally like working in groups because you get to know different people in your class and it is easier because if everyone pulls their weight, your work load isn't as heavy!
You get a chance to try so many new subjects! For example I have never done technology before TY and I love it! You do all of the options and in most of these option classes, you cover different aspects of the leaving cert course! This gives you a chance to get a wider knowledge of all subjects before choosing your subjects for leaving cert! You also get an extra year to build on your core subjects for the leaving cert!
The best thing about TY are the different things that you get to experience. Carlingford, junk kouture, formula one, mini-company and so much more! This is why I would definitely recommend it to everyone!


 

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Formula One Design: finished!!:D

Over the past two weeks we have been working really hard in tech on both our car design and sponsorship! Designing the car has been stressful, with many complications throughout the last week! However we have finally finished our design and sent it off to cork institute of technology to be made!!
We could not have finished the car without the help of Mr W as he has kept us for extra classes and has put up with our changes and presence in his classroom!
We have been frantically looking for companies and businesses to spinster our car but have been unlucky so far! All we can do is send more emails, except we are running out of places to email! Sponsorship is defiantly one of the biggest challenges that we face!
Here is our completed F1 car design:

My TY highlights so far.....................

I have put together a slide show of my TY highlights from the past five months.

Music Night is looming..............

In Music at the moment, we are practising our song for the music night. The music night is an annual event to showcase the musical talent in the school. Performances will be done by each of the first, second , TY and fifth year classes. There will also be performances from the choir, the orchestra, trad group and other solo performers. This year my class is doing a medley of three songs- Hall of fame by the script, Ho Hey by the lumineers and I follow rivers by Lykke Li. I am really enjoying learning the songs and everyone gets really into it and sings their hearts out. I will be playing the piano accompaniment along with Ciara K, Shannon and Sarah Q on guitars, Zoe on the ukulele, Ciara M on the bongo, Orla on the triangle, Eimear on the tamborine and ruth will be keeping the beat with the biro. Everyone else will be singing and dancing along. I think that the three songs are completly different but they work really well together.
 I have been working really hard because Ms S has asked me to play the intro for hall of fame, however this intro is quite fast and was hard to learn! But at long last I have got the hang of it and it sounds really good. The songs are also coming together. Everyone was a bit worried at first about what it would sound like but I think that everyone is happy now.
Here are the three songs that we will be performing:







Saturday, February 9, 2013

En La Clase Espanola- América latina

En el momento en clase de español , estamos aprendiendo sobre América latina. Hemos estado aprendiendo todos los países de América Latina y también de su capital y posición.Hemos tenido una prueba pequena, donde nos dieron el mapa de América del sur. Los países en el mapa fueron numerados del uno al diez. Tuvimos que elegir diez de los países, ponerles nombre y el nombre de su capital. He podido nombre catorce de los países que significó que no tuve que rehacer la prueba. También investigó en diferentes maravillas naturales en América del sur.
Aquí hay unos ejemplos y alguna información sobre ellos:

El glaciar Perito Moreno

El glaciar Perito Moreno es un glaciar situado en el Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, en el suroeste de la provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina. Es uno de los más importantes atractivos turísticos en la Patagonia Argentina.

 
 

Las Pampas:

Las Pampas son fértiles llanuras de América del sur, que cubre más de 750.000 km2, que incluyen las provincias argentinas de Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos y Córdoba, Chubut, la mayor parte de Uruguay y el estado brasileño más al sur, Rio Grande do Sul.
 
 

Machu Picchu:

Machu Picchu es que un sitio precolombino de Inca del siglo XV situado a 2.430 metros sobre el nivel del mar. Machu Picchu se encuentra en la región de Cusco, en Perú, América del sur.
 
 

 

las Cataratas del Iguazú :

las Cataratas del Iguazú son Cataratas del río Iguazú en la frontera del estado brasileño de Paraná y la provincia Argentina de Misiones. Las cataratas dividen el río en el Iguazú superior e inferior. El río Iguazú se levanta cerca de la ciudad de Curitiba. Fluye a través de Brasil durante la mayor parte de su curso. Por debajo de su confluencia con el río San Antonio, el río Iguazú forma el límite entre Argentina y Brasil.

Germs, germs everywhere!

In geography at the moment, we are studying medical geography! Medical geography is the study of the diseases in the world and where abouts they occur! We have all been given a disease to research and have made leaflets with information about the disease! We have also started watching the film 'contagion'. The movie is about a highly contagious disease that is unknown to top scientists, which is quickly spreading around the world! After watching some of it everyone became very paranoid about germs! It was very funny actually!:D The film highlights how fast germs can travel and how they are passed from person to person!
 
 
 

Cassette Tape portraits

At the moment in art, We ask doing portraits of famous people. However they arent normal portraits. Mrs O S asked us if we would like to use cassette tapes to make our portraits different. We all jumped for the idea and were really excited about it. The first thing that we need to do was get a picture of our chosen celebrity. The celebrity that I chose to do is Olly Murs because he is one of my favorite singers. We went to the computer room to select our images from google and then used a site called pixlr to make the picture black and white (the black would be cassette tapes). We each printed of one picture and went back to the art room.
We were then given the choice whether we wanted to do the portrait on an A2 or A3 page. I chose A3 because I thought that A2 was a bit big! We then had to draw the outline of our person and shade in the black parts of the picture. Once this was finished, we had to get the 2 cassette tapes that all of us had collected and use them to fill in the shaded areas in the picture. This is the stage that I am at now! I find it quite difficult to decide which way the tapes look best but I am getting there!
Here are a few examples of what we are trying to achieve:

James Taylor

Bob Marley




The Beatles

Gaisce- the presidents award!:)

Gaisce – The President's Award, is an award in Ireland, earned by young people between the ages of 15 and 25 for participating in several activities for a certain Amount of time. There are three awards; bronze, silver and gold. Myself and other TYs are currently working on the bronze award, on which you must take part in a physical activity for 13 weeks, a personal skill for 13 weeks and community service for 13 weeks! You then must choose one to do for an extra 13 weeks! For my physical activity,i chooses to do badminton, for my skill I have chosen piano and I am helping out with the celbridge brownies for my community service! In April we will be going on a hike to complete the bronze award!


Friday, February 8, 2013

Good news all around

I have a good bit of news to tell everyone! Firstly, in relation to the briary gap competition. We have all been waiting patiently to hear if either of the dramas had gotten through to the final in cork! Today in religion, Mrs G walked in with a face that was difficult to read! I couldn't tell if she had good or bad news for us. This was probably because she had both! Unfortunately my group will not progress any further in the competition, however I didn't really mind about the is because the other group did get through! I'm happy that there will be one group representing the class and the school in the finals and I know that they will do so fantastically!:D
That's not all the good news I have......There's more!


On the 21st on January, two judges from the enterprise board came to the school to judge our mini-company projects! Four groups were short listed for the possibility of progressing in the Kildare county final! One of the groups was " Williams words" , a group from my class! Since then everyone had been waiting anxiously to hear the news! Fortunately, on Tuesday, Mrs P gave them the good news that they had been waiting for! I'm really happy that a group will be there to represent the class and also two groups to represent the school! (Hair couture also got through to the competition!)

Williams words- Shakesphere dictionary
Hair Couture
                                



And Finally….…………OUR F1 CAR DESIGN IS FINALLY FINISHED! It was sent off to our make centre today! Now all that is left to do is the portfolio and sponsorship and we will be all set for the comp on the 8th of march!Eilise:Dxx

Teddy Bears in the making......

At the moment in Home Ec, we have started making teddies. We were given the list of materials before Christmas so that we would have everything that we needed when we came back after the Christmas holidays! The material that I chose is denim! We also had to get brown embroidery thread and eyes!
Since we do cookery in our Tuesday double class, Ms M told us that we would be sewing in our Friday double class! So far i have drawn our teddy bear patterns, pinned them to our fabric, cut the pieces out and started my teddy's arms, legs and ears. For the arms,legs and ears, you have to tack two pieces together before using the sewing machine! This is what I did in class today! I had finished the tacking in the class last Friday so Ms M brought some sewing machines into the kitchen so that myself and other people who were finished could sew the limbs together properly! I then removed the tacking from the pieces, except for one arm which chose not to cooperate and had to be
ripped back and started again! After all of the tacking was removed I started tacking the ears onto the back of the head! I will post pictures next week!
Eilise :Dxx

Movie time!:)

Since finishing our dramas for the briary gap competition, we have started watching The pursuit of happiness, as it links in with the topic of poverty.The movie, starring Will Smith and Jaden Smith, tells the story about a man named Christopher Gardner. Chris has invested in a device known as a "Bone Density scanner".  However, they do not sell as they are marginally better than the current technology at a much higher price. As Chris tries to figure out how to sell them, his wife leaves him, he loses his house, his bank account, and credit cards. Forced to live out in the streets with his son, Chris is now desperate to find a steady job; he takes on a job as a stockbroker, but before he can receive pay, he needs to go through 6 months of training.
I am really enjoying watching the movie, and I think that it conveys a very good message of how homelessness and poverty can affect anybody!
Eilíse :D


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Formula One!

Since finding out that team Rápido y Furioso had gotten through to the regional finals of the F1 in schools competition, We have all been working really hard on our design for our cars, and also trying to promote our team and gain support. The team consists of myself, Katie H, Orlaith K, Ciara K and Ciara Molloy.
This week has been especially difficult as the design for the car has to be finished and sent to our make centre by this Friday!! We have been using any time possible to go to the tech room and finish our design on the solid works and we are almost finished. We have changed our minds a lot but I think that we finally know what we want the car to look like.
  • This is the first design that we did on the solid works, however we changed our minds about how we wanted it to look so we made a second design!
Design #1 on solid works!

  • This is a slide show showing our second design!


                               Design #2 on solid works

Friday, February 1, 2013

Briary Gap Drama competition!

As I have said in previous blog posts, we have been working on Dramas in religion. There are two groups, one doing their play on homelessness and then my group are doing our play on the effects of war. our play consisted of two different settings. One was in a doctors office, where people who had been affected by war were talking about their experiences to the doctor, and then the other was a flashback of what each person remembered.
The day had finally come to perform the dramas in the competition. On Tuesday the 29th of January class síocháin set off to the arts centre in mullingar to perform what we had worked very hard on. The bus journey took about an hour. When we arrived a group of guys who were also performing offered to take our props backstage and we were shown to our dressing room, which was right beside the stage. The dramas were not starting until half eleven and we were not on until one so this gave us a chance to check out the stage. It wasn't too big but it was different to where we were used to practising. We all got changed into our costumes but we had some time to kill so we decided to go to McDonald's  as we were all very hungry. When we came back we went into the audience seats to watch the other schools perform their dramas, however we realised that our drama was being moved forward a half an hour so we rushed off for one last practise before waiting nervously to be called. When this did happen, we all walked anxiously down to the side of stage and got our props organised. When the curtain opened it was very hard to see the audience, which in my opinion made it easier because you couldn't see people watching. Apart from the length of time it took us to change the props between each scene,Overall the play went quite well. the judge came on stage after we finished and gave us praise and also constructive criticism so that we could improve.There were many sighs of relief as we walked off the stage and we could finally relax.
Both plays were finished up and we were dressed at about half one. the bus wasn't coming until half two so this meant that we had time to kill. Myself and six other girls decided to go for a walk to the park across the road from the arts centre. Just our luck, on the walk back the heavens opened and we got soaked through. 
Overall it was an amazing experience and now we just have to wait for the results to come to see if either team got through to the finals in cork!
Mullingar Arts Centre
Eilísexx:D

Friday, January 25, 2013

Kenya Presentation

Since the start of the year we have all been working on a Trip around the world project. We finished the project in October. Afterwards we were paired up with someone who picked one of the same countries as you and were asked to do a presentation on it. Myself and Ciara chose Kenya. Here is our presentation, xxxx

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Oh the stress of TY....

Don't believe anyone if they tell you that TY is a doss year. Its not. There is so much going on all the time and there are so many things to get done. One piece of advice..... do not leave eveything until the last minute!
The Mini-company schools competition is taking place next monday. Mini-company has been so stressful. Our company is called SnapShot  Frames. We use old birthday cards to decorated frames. For the competition we have to have a business report and a display done for monday. The business report is finished but the display still has to be sorted out, which is worrying.
In technology, all of the TYs entered the f1 in schools competition, where in teams of five or six you must design a formula one car. Only two teams from the school got through to the competition, and luckily I was on one of those two teams. For the competition, each team has to complete a portfolio containing research on aerodynamics and designs of the car and also advertising and fundraising. this all has to be done so that our designs can be sent off so that the car can be made.
Eilíse :D

Back to school!!:)

So its our second week back and to be honest, I was really looking forward to coming back. Since last week, we have been getting exam results and projects from before Christmas back. We are also being given new projects to start.
In geography, we have started studying medical geography. This is basically learning about disease and where and how they occur in the world. We were given the task of finding the top ten diseases, both in developed and developing countries. I found it really interesting to compare the diseases. Along with that we have all been given different diseases, and we have to make a leaflet displaying what the disease is, symptoms, vaccinations, causes and treatment. the disease that I was given is malaria. Even though we have only started the topic, i know that I am going to enjoy it.
In Home ec., we have started to collect materials for making Teddy bears. We have also starting baking. Yesterday we made apple crumble. In art, we have started portraits of celebrities using old cassette tapes. In science we are working on our project for sci fest, which is due for the start of February. We are doing our project on factors that influence dreams.
Eilíse:Dxx