Mini Company Competitions

I forgot to say that on the 3rd of March all of us TY's were heading off to Clane GAA where we would take part in our TY mini Company competition, well one of them. My team was sad because we didn't get a board to stick things onto like about our mini group but that didn't stop us because when we go there, we got 2 tables in a good place. We set all of our stuff up anyway, we put a pink sheet over the tables, put some clear christmas lights on the tables and then put our beads on it along with our charity ribbons and baloons. We 'borrowed' the box that the boards come in off another group and stuck our things on that. It turned out great and worked just as well. We managed to go for a walk around to see the other mini companies and we had a lot of competition. Some of the other people were from Clane and Dublin and other places like Naas. It was only in the last like 10 minutes of judging that a judge finally came to us and asked us about our group, it wasn't that bad and he was really nice, bad thing is.....we didn't get through in the competition but it's ok because we had a lot of fun doing the mini- comapny and have enjoyed doing it right from the start. After our Transition Year work experience we only found out on the Sunday before we went back to school that on Monday we would be split up and going to another competition. Seeing as my group didn't get through we had to split up and join another group. 4 of the other groups that didn't get through in the first competition had a second chance to get through. I joined Real which was a online book where it would show girls how to apply make-up, style hair and make their skin look more natural. So for the groups that didn't get through the first time went to the Red Cow in Dublin and for the groups that did get through they went to Naas. When we go there we had to set up the board where we out things about the group and pictures of different things. We spent the whole day there and it was fun because we got to go around and ask other groups about their product. We spent 1 hour going around and talking to other groups, 1 hour in another room taking about our product and 1 hour for the judges to go around and interview us about our mini company. Ms L was with us for the whole day while Ms E and Ms L went to Naas with the others. In the end from about 2-3 the judges revealed who got through to the next round and who won a trophy. Real won a 2nd place trophy but sadly they didn't get through to the next round. It was a fun day all in all but me personally, I'm just glad that we don't have to go to another one of these competitions because they really take a lot out of you and you get stressed about trying to impress the judges.

Work Experience in Scoil Naomh Brid

On the 7th of March 2011 it was my first day working in Scoil Naomh Brid. It was my old school so I was a bit nervous. Before I went to sleep on Sunday night I got everything ready meaning my clothes were laid out and I had my bag ready, so when I woke up I wouldn't be spending ages getting ready and wasting time looking for things. I got up at about 7:30 and I planned to meet up with Stephanie and Alison at 8:45 at the top of our estate. So I got ready and wore like a long black dress, flat shoes and a cardigan and was out the door by 8:45. We met Karen on the way as well, even though we did have to wait for her for like 10 minutes. We got there and made our way into the school where the new reception was. We spent a few minutes talking about how excited we were and then when the bell rang our old principal; Ms Pierce came over to us and started talking to us about what we would be doing. She put me and Alison with the senior infants, Stephanie was with first class and Karen was with the 2 junior infants. My teacher was Ms. Brady so I was happy because she was my actual teacher in senior infants, so it was nice being with her for the week because we already knew each other. The first thing she did was introduced me to the class and all the children were like "Hi Lauren..", she then told me to trace like wooden shapes and then cut them out. That took me about 2 hours because there was so many. We then had like lunch in the staff room but we had to leave our classes earlier than the other teachers. So we would get there about 10 minutes before the bell rang for lunch and we had to leave when the other teachers cam in because there was not enough room as it was for the actual teachers. After lunch Ms. Brady gave me about 20 pages that had small pictures that were jumbled up and the children would have to put them in the right order. These included Snow White and The ugly duckling, etc. I put so much effort into them because she said that she would laminate them so that she could keep them forever, as she says. Put by leaning hard on the pencils, I started to get tired and my hand got sore, so I decided to only go light on them. During the next few days I was still colouring the pictures, it literally took me about 4 days to finish them because there was so much detail in them. Ms. Brady would ask me to do other things like bring things to the office and help students with their work but I was mainly colouring at the back of the class. It was so funny because even though I was getting involved with the class by saying a prayer with them, I also had to dance with them because the children asked why wasn't I dancing with them, so I had to. :) I felt like i was a giant dancing with little midgets and they were all looking at me seeing how to like to the dance and I hadn't got a clue. On Tuesday it was Pancake Tuesday, so everything was all about pancakes, me and Alison were asked by my 5th class teacher to supervise her class while she took about 5 at a time down to the staff room to make pancakes. The power one has when supervising 11 year olds. :) Then after lunch I was asked by Sive a Junior Infants teacher; whose second name is unpronounceable, to help make and hand out pancakes to junior infants. We had about 4 packs of pancakes that had like 10 in each so we had plenty, the children would then form 2 lines where they would come up to either me or Sive and we would make them a pancake (my line was sooo much longer :] ) On Thursday I now had about 4 more pictures to do and I chose to laminate the ones that I had done already. When the page was laminated the picture that had about 5 small pictures, I then had to cut them out so they were like learning cards that Ms. Brady could show to the class. Later on in the day she then asked me to help the students paint a paper plate that had the centre cut out which was going to be used to make St. Patricks Day hats. That took hours!!! One by one the children came to the table at the back of the room where I was and put a t-shirt on over their uniform and got them to paint one side of the paper plate. I know they are 6 but they took so long to paint it and I sort of had to hurry them along so everyone got to do it. It was about 1 when I finally chose to do the last 15, 2 at a time, because they go home at 2. When everyone got theirs done I had to paint the other side of the 30 paper plates, so I just sort of quickly painted them and I got them all done in about 20 minutes. :L On Friday I was sad because it was my last day, throughout the whole day I was making paddy's day hats. I was using a sheet of green card which had been cut in half and trimmed at the end so when you folded it around a girls head it made the end bits stick out. I then put a green paper plate on it and then stapled it together, then the children had coloured in pictures of a shamrock and a buckle so I stapled them onto the hat and then some string to keep it on their heads. It took a lot of work and effort to put 30 of these things together. I didn't get to finish them all but the teacher said it was ok. After spending a week with my old teacher in my old school, has made me think about what I want to be when I'm older, a helper in a class not a teacher, I don't know how they do it day in day out. I wouldn't have the patience to be a teacher but I just wanna say thank to everyone who made us feel welcome and helped us throughout the week :)

Mid-Term (projects)

We are now back from our mid term and back into hard work because we have about 3 projects to do and I haven't even started. I am in a group with Niamh O'Reilly so we have to both get information about New Zealand because that was the country that we had picked. In Art we had to pick an artist or sculptor that was from New Zealand, we planned on getting like an A3 piece of paper and putting pictures and biography of both an artist and sculptor. It turned out ok because we descussed it on Monday when we got back from Mid- Term and on the Tuesday we got the information and the paper. We had a double Technology class and our teacher Mr. W was out and we had a sub so we did our project in that class by sticking things on to it and including a lot of pictures. Turns out we got our Art project all done in that class and at break we just went into the art room to leave the poster there. We both felt great because that was one of our projects out of the way, now it was onto the other two. Our Home Economics project was the hardest because we had to have so much information in it, unlike the art one where we just had pictures. Niamh got information about the food that people from New Zealand eat and the history and I did like climate and geography. I think it was about Friday that we actually had all of our information on New Zealand and we put it together into a folder and gave it to our teacher Ms. Mc A in Home Ec. Great, now that's two of our projects out of the way and finished. And the last project I'm on my own because it's the end of year history project where we can literally choose any topic from any time in history, let it be the reformation or WW2. I have chosen to do my project on the London Blitz (1940- 1941). It should be a fun topic because I have a real interest in history and no one else is doing this topic. The project doesn't have to be given in until like May so I've got months. But I better get started because the project needs to be about 5 pages long and should include NO pictures. I was really sad about that because every project I do, let it be art or english I always include a picture even if it's small. I plan on not just doing it the lazy way by getting information on the internet, but I'm going to go to the library in the next few weeks to take out some books on the Blitz.

Movement Workshop

Today we had a movement workshop with Ian. The guy who came in before to teach us how to move on stage but this time he thought us how to fight on stage. My class came in late because we didn't know that we were having a movement workshop. When we got there he was already doing something with Emnet, in one of their English plays there is a big fight scene so Ian was there to make sure that no-one actually got hurt when we were doing the play. It didn't really concern my English group, who are acting out the scenes of the Poem "But you Didn't" by Meryl Glass, because there is not a fight scene or a violent scene in it. But it was still good to be there and see how can fight on stage for like future plays that we will be doing.

Poland

A couple of days ago all of TY's received a permission slip about our 5th year trip. We are all jetting off to Poland, well not all of us, only 40 people will be picked to go. It will be a 4 day trip and we will be able to see the goods and the greats of Poland. It should be fun but this sort of fun comes at a price. The total cost is like 530 euro, so it is a bit of a stretch but I will not be going because I am going to America in like 7 weeks. My mam said that the money is not the problem the time when the money has to be paid. I will be away so I can't go but I'm fine with that because I didn't get picked for the 2nd year trip to France but my family brought me instead. So I asked her and she said that we can go to Poland next year. So for the people that do get picked, they will be going in October of 2011 ove Halloween Mid-term. I don't know what teachers are going but 5 of them are. Over the 4 days the people that go will be partaking in the following activites: --3 hour guided tour of Krakow including the Old Town Square, University District, Wawel Hill, Kazimierz & the Jewish Quarter, Shindlers Factory. --Free time to explore the Old Town and shop at Krakow plaza. --Excursion to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. --See the birthplace of Pope John Paul; Wadowice. --Visit the Wieliczka Salt mines. --Visit the Galicja Museum. --3 hour session at Park Wodny Waterpark. There seems like that is a lot of things to do in 4 days but it should be fun.

Oisin McGann

Today we had a workshop with a writer called Oisin McGann. It lasted for 2 classes so we missed Spanish, I was so sad because I had done more homework than anyone else :( It was more of a talk than a workshop but it was good anyway. My class was first (because we are simply the best) and we all had to go to the library after registration. We all sat in a circle so that Oisin could all see us. He seemed really nice. He introduced himself to us and started talking to us about writing and about how writers come up with their ideas. He said that writers write down all of their ideas in a notebook and that they will always have one at hand. After he told about when a person is writing a story that they stop and that it can be hard when they are trying to think about how the story goes. He told us us that he looks at something ordinary and turns it into something magical. He gave us an example by looking at a shoe, and it was my shoe. (scarlet) :P He started to make up a story of a shoe that they had teeth and it hides in your cupboard until night and then it crawls up the stairs. It crawls into your room and under your covers and then it bits your foot and sucks all the blood out. It was a weird story but I enjoyed it. It was good to see that a writer could make up a story like that on the spot in front of like 20 of us. He also got really into the story by being very enthusiastic and shouting a lot :D After that he started talking to us about how we use language and they way that we speak. He started talking to us about the time he went to different countries. He said that he didn't have a strong Irish accent and that people can tell that you're Irish by the things that we say. He said that we would say things that people from a different country might not understand like; "If you give it some wellie, you'll be sucking diesel" I would never say that but people wouldn't understand it if you said it. Coming near to the end he then started drawing. He drew us a picture and even signed it for us. It was a really good workshop and he was really funny too. I would really like it if another writer came to us and talked to us.

Look at his website: http://www.oisinmcgann.com/blog/

Class Amina and Oisin McGann and the picture he drew us. :)

PE

Yesterday we didn't get to do PE. We weren't able to because the mocks were going on in the hall and it was raining outside so we couldn't do it in the rain. So instead all of the TY's went to the Demo room where we watched the rugby match between Ireland and France that was on over the weekend. Mr. L tried to make it seem like it was educational and that we could use what we saw when we were going to play rugby in PE and it didn't really help :D

Sometimes in April

In religion we have doing some work on a film called Sometimes in April. We have been going through what a genocide and an American genocide is to help us prepare for the movie so we could understand it more. We started to watch it but unfortunately the bell went. Here is a small clip of the movie:

Croke Park

Yesterday all of the Ty's were brought to Croke Park, the home of Irish sport. We went to school and did schoolwork until like 12pm and then we got on a bus and about 30 mins later we arrived at the stadium. I was there before with my family so it was nice coming back. The first thing we did was watch like a 20 minute clip of preparations that are made before a big match of either, hurling, Gaelic football or camogie. It was really interesting and just to see the amount of effort and the people that take part in making the match a safe environment for the players and the public. I learned that so much goes into a match and they don't do any of the work lying down. After that we were brought on like a tour around the stadium, so we went out to the edge of the pitch, we weren't allowed on it because there is like pipes underneath it to make it grow and stuff. :D We were also brought to the players changing rooms and the place where they go after matches. It was really fun and we learned a lot about who founded the GAA. I thought it was better to be brought somewhere and actually see the place rather than just reading it out of a book. The tour guide explained everything so well so we understood everything, the teachers seemed impressed because we actually enjoyed learning :D Ms McG and Ms McH were the teachers that came with us and they seemed to really enjoy it too. I asked them whether or not they had been before and Ms McG said that she saw U2 and Take That there once but never to see a match. They were with us the whole time so they learned things aswell, because I even overheard them talking and one of them said "Did you know that?, I didn't know that" (that's rich coming from a teacher)! Later on we were brought to the very top of the stadium, the highest seats in the whole place...... NEVER AGAIN!!! Walking up, you couldn't see but when you turned around you felt physically sick, because you were up so high, I didn't mind it but it was just so steep that made me really nervous about tripping. We were able to have about 20 mins to go around the interactive part of the museum, I didn't though all I could think about was getting food. Food was D-lish! I will definitelly be going there again no matter what the price.

Week 7th-11th of Feb

This week in school the mock examinations have started, so we now have our lunch earlier, I like it a lot better because we are usually starving by about 12 o' clock. The 3rd years are all in the hall and the 6th years are upstairs in like room 28 to 32. I remember when that was me last year and I was so nervous about failing it. People are taking it really well because unlike last year the 3rd year are not oging around saying that they were going to fail everything. This year people are not really taking an interest in whether thay to good or not. I have all of that to look forward to in 6th year when I will be doing the mock for my Leaving Cert. :O Also today I had my metting with Ms. H because Mr. C was at a meeting, it turned out really well because she just asked us about what we are planning to do when we leave school and what subjects we need to do to get into a certain college. He gave us the sheet today which we have to fill out about what subjects we would like to do for Leaving Cert. I am thinking about choosing Boilogy, Geography and Home Ec because I will need Biology and possibly Home Ec to get into a hair and beauty college. I want to choose History for my 4th option because I enjoy the subject and wouldn't mind getting that instead of Geography.