Success!

On Wednesday we had our mini company judging:) All Ty's  had to set up a display stand and and talk and answer questions to the judges which was really nerve racking! Everyone put so much work into their display and I felt sorry for the judges who had to pick a winner because they were all fab! Myself and the rest of my mini company, Illuminate was so excited when we were told we were the only company out of all TY's through to represent St Wolstan's in the county final!:D Just to remind you our product is a soft pvc key cover with an led light attached so you can see your keyhole in the dark:) They are on sale for three euro each so please buy one!  Im super excited for the county final now but its on March 5th which doesn't give us a lot of time to perfect our report and display stand! We are on a weeks work experience next week which doesent make things any easier either:( So little time so much to do! 

St Brigid

On Tuesday we went to Kildare to visit famous historic sites associated with St Brigid, the patron saint of county Kildare. We set off on the bus at 9.05 and went to the heritage centre. There we watched a short film about St Brigid and her life in Kildare, I found this very interesting and It felt weird to be in the exact town Brigid herself lived in thousands of years ago.
From there we walked to the cathedral where we looked around and everyone got a chance to ring the church bell, which could be heard all over Kildare town! We also saw St Brigids kitchen which was basically just an underground cave with a little light inside, It didn't help to know that it was actually haunted! haha.
We also saw the round tower which is the one of the highest in Ireland today.
Next we went to Kildare Village which was real exciting!:) we got starbucks which was so nice cos I was freezing at this stage! It was nice to look around and have a break from walking there.
We then walked which seemed like years, up to the first of the two St Brigids we saw. Most people sat around and blessed themselves with holy water from the well and said a little prayer to themselves. After that we then walked more through the countryside and came to another St Brigids well, there we had a small prayer service and said a decade of the roseary while walking in a circle around the well. I found this really interesting and relaxing and it was nice to take time out to do things like that as you never get the oppurtunity to.
Finally we walked back to the bus and had a very tiring bus jourbey home, overall I really enjoyed the day out :)






this is picture of the St Brigid statue in Kildare

Day full of drama

Last Tuesday ,January 24th 2012 All Transition Year students went to Mullingar in Co.Westmeath to see our fellow TY's perform in a drama competition. 

Since our class Fodla was not taking part we had the stress free, relaxing job of being the audience. Before classes Banba and Eiru started their dramas we had to point out any flaws they had, which was a little bit hard as I found it really hard to fault any of them but with a bit of constructive criticism from us they perfected their plays. I found alot of the characters needed to project their voices more to the audience as we found it difficult to hear them. 

First up was class Eiriu with their adaptation of the famous Seamus Heaney poem 'Midterm Break'. I found this interesting because I studied this poem for my junior cert. This poem was fantastically acted out by the girls on stage and they really brought the poem to life. it is a truly heartbreaking ,sad poem which deals with death so it was very emotional acting going on. 

Another drama in class Eiriu was based on the song 'Concrete Angel' which is in my opinion is one of the saddest songs ever! It is about a little girl who is being abused and eventually dies as a result of being beaten to death by her mother. Isabelle did an amazing job of playing the part of the father. She did a monologue towards the end of the play at the little girls funeral which really pulled at my heart strings and there was no doubt that there weren't many dry eyes in the house! Background music was also added into this play which made it a million times more effective. The lighting in both plays were also used very well and really made them professional. All I can say is well done girls!

Next up was class Banba. Again they took on quite depressing , emotional issues in their dramas which shocked me as I wasen't aware of the abilty of acting in our year! My favourite one was 'Tich Miller' inspired by the poem by Wendy Cope. This dealt with the topic of bullying which is always a very sad storyline in my opinion. Tich who was played by Vicky did an amazing job portaying the main character , Tich Miller. Her costume was exactly as described in the poem , It was almost as if she had jumped out of the poem and onto the stage! The poem describes the everyday life Tich faced in school from the bullies. It was brilliantly re-anacted by the girls in Banba and by the last line of the poem I could almost feel myself welling up.. Emilys a witness! "Tich died when she was twelve" I have to say this line of the poem got me. Again the lighting and music used in this play was very effective here and added to my enjoyment of the production, even if I was an emotional mess!

After that we went to MACDONALDS! This was the highlight of my day..  speaking on behalf of all TY's here! We stuffed our faces and headed out to wonder the streets of Mullingar (litrially). Emily then spotted the Joe Dolan statue and got a tad to over excited! She took a picture of it and certainly embraced the moment alright.. Oh well at least it cheered us up about not going to One Direction that night!

Overall A great ty outing was had by all. Well done girls, you were all fabulous ,Hollywood watch out! 

Zumbaa

On Thursdays from now on we are doing massaging classes instead of photography which are really relaxing and so different from any other class we do:)We also do zumba instead of pilates! It's so much fun and the teacher really gets you in the dancing mood:D
Im so excited for next week already!

Back 2 Schooool (stolen from Dunnes..)

So were back to school after a great Christmas break! Just before Christmas our class organised a a party for all of TY, It was so fun and everyone enjoyed it. After that we went bowling which was also real fun and such a good way to finish up for the Christmas holidays, especially knowing that the rest of the school are stuck in school doing exams!
On Friday All TY's are going to the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS:)Im really looking forward to seeing all the projects especially the girls that got through from our school:) good luck to to everyone involved! Yous will do great!:D In science we have to prepare a slideshow presentation for our rejected young scientist entry *tear* and we are also working on our visual display this week aswell for the sci-fest competition later in the year:) In Religion we are going to connect with a school in Austrailia about St Bridgits Day in Ireland. Our class are breaking up into groups to work on different things like acting out a video , researching Co.Kildare and the use of the famous st.bridgits cross. It sounds like alot of fun and should be interesting to do! Just like to take this time out to say Happy New Year to all you bloggers out there! Hope 2012's a good one:)
Bye xo-R

desert flower

In religion we watched a film called 'Desert Flower' about the famous model Waris Dirie. The film is based around the life of Waris and the struggles she faced throughout her life. She was living in Somalia with her family up until the age of about 8 or 9 mostly minding the camels and we see her just being treated very unfairly just because of her gender.Her mother sends her away to live with her aunt in another part of the country so she didn't have to face marraige to a much older man. Her marraige was arranged and at the age of three she got female genital mutilation performed on her which is a practise that happens to many women in Somalia and deprives women of basically being women. However Waris runs away to the streets of London and makes a friend there who eventually discovers what has happened to Waris back in Somalia, Waris thinks this practise happens to every woman and doesn't understand why the people in the UK are not like her. She then gets discovered by a famous photographer from a top class model agency and becomes a famous model. She uses her fame to campaign against the rights of women and to stop female mutilation all over the world. This film has thought me alot about the rights of women and how unfair and unequal the world is. It really opened by eyes to what happens to women and girls of my own age in other countries and made me feel lucky to be treated fairly and equally in Ireland today. Thanks Ms. L for that:) 

Work Experience :)

Haven't blogged in a while, sorry bloggers. Ive been busy over the past week with a week of work! I was working in South Dublin County Council in Tallaght. I really enjoyed it, it was a great experience. I was mainly doing office work, im not gonna lie but some of the stuff was pretty boring.. like stapeling and putting stuff into envelopes but thank god it was only for the first day only!
I got to do some work on the register of electors and filing peoples addresses and deaths in the south dublin area which was actually real interesting. Since I was working in the county managers office I had my own desk so I felt so greaat! I took messages and sat in on general meetings, I also did alot of computer work investivagating complaints of the residents of Dublin some which were quite strange!
I also helped out in a social inclusion workshop and that was really fun and a great oppurtunity :)
Overall it was such a great experience and really opened my eyes to what going to work everyday is all about. Looking forward to the next work experience week next year now:D 
Well that's all:)  over and out
-x