Today we went into town to sell for Lollipop Day
in aid of the Oesophageal Cancer Fund. We arrived in at around 10 and had until
2 to sell as many lollipops as possible! We were given hats and t-shirts to
wear and balloons and boxes/buckets to carry.
A few of us decided to bring guitars and 'busk' for the charity on
Grafton Street. We started off not too amazing... but after a while it got
better and was really fun! There were loads of other schools collecting for the
charity all over town all wearing pink for the charity. We were everywhere! It
was a really fun day altogether.
Last night we went to see Hudson Taylor in the Olympia. They were so amazing!
Bonjour! A l'école, j'étude francais. Je ne suis pas trés bonne en francais mais j'adore la langue.
Je visite la france tout le année pour mes grandes vacances. Nous restons dans un terrain de camping á Julien des Landes prés de Nantes. Cet été, j'irai à collége française. Je suis tout excité!
Mon Terrain de Camping
Semaine prochaine, je visiterai Paris. J'irai avec ma mere, ma soeur et ma cousin. Ce sera magnifique!
Because I am in TY, I decided I would try to do new things outside of school. So myself and Alison have started a cake decorating class! So far we have learned to cover a cake and base with sugar paste, crimp the edges and sides and also how to make swags and bows. We've been learning loads of tips and tricks to do with decorating tools, working with sugar paste and just baking in general! I hope that by the end of it I can make really cool cakes.
Yesterday we had a pancake party in aid of the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght. In Home Ec this morning we made 180 pancakes and even got to have one to eat ourselves. The pancakes were onsale at lunch for 50c.
We went to see Saint Raymond in the Academy last night and it was amazing!
Today we had our in school competition for Student Enterprise. Everyone set up their stands in the hall and we were judged based on our product, appearance of stand, marketing technique and business report.
Two groups got through to the county final: BamBeauty and iProtect.
Tomorrow making pancakes for the pancake party and we're off for midterm!
So far, I'm really enjoying TY! I'm so glad that I chose to do it because I've been able to get involved in so much. Some of the highlights have been our trip to Carlingford Adventure centre, writing and performing a play for English, work experience, doing gaisce and going on the various different trips. I've also been able to do interesting things outside of school like zumba and a cake decorating course. Last week we had to choose our options for 5th year, which makes me feel sad because it means TY is nearly over:( I honestly don't want it to end! The next few weeks will be busy and I'm excited for everything coming up.:))
Today was an eventful day to say the
least... It was my last day of work experience in Walton's today and There
wasn't much for us to do there but I still really enjoyed it. I got to meet
loads of other people there on Work Experience and got a chance to try out all
of the instruments.
This morning, I arrived in at 10. I usually finished at 4, but because the heating was broken, at 10:30 everyone on work experience was sent home! Straight away I got the bus home and stopped at Liffey Valley for lunch. After I got food I got back on the bus. Turns out I got the wrong bus and I ended up getting off on the last stop of the 25 bus outside of Lucan. I was really lost...
With the help of Eimear on the phone (shoutout to Eimear for helping me) I found my way to the motorway and had to walk for like 20 minutes until I saw a bus stop ahead. The bus was there so I had to run really fast for ages until I got to it but I made it! I only arrived home at 2 o'clock having left Liffey Valley at 12. On the plus side I got my exercise in?? Moral of the story: don't get on random buses without checking the number.
Tomorrow is the Mini Company competition in school which I am nervous but excited for!
We were supposed to write a post about something we are interested for the November blog challenge woops. I guess I'm doing it now. Something
that I am interested is photography.I love taking pictures of everything. I love being
able to have memories of wherever I've been and who I've been with. I take
photos on my iPhone and also my camera. I got a Nikon DLSR for Christmas 2
years ago and I love it so much. My favourite things to take photos of are
sunsets. I think they look really pretty! Although I may not be an amazing
photographer, I really enjoy photography! Here are a few of my favourite
pictures I've taken:
We got through! Our english play
named 'Change' as well as the other play in our class 'Speak Up' got through to
the finals of the Briery Gap Transition Year Drama competition. We were all so
happy to get through. I was really surprised to be honest, because all of the
plays from our school were really good. The final is on the 28th February which
is sooner than we all thought. We will be practising so much until then! We're
extremely excited for the final and can't wait!
In Religion we're learning about MDG #6 - Combat HIV and AIDs. For the past few classes we have been watching the 1993 film Philadelphia. It's about a man with AIDs who is fired from his job in a law firm because of his illness and how he hires a homophobic lawyer to try win his case against the law firm.
Although the film is about AIDs, the main theme was homophobia. I thought this film was really good but extremely sad. It's upsetting to see how sick Tom Hanks' character is but also how badly gay men were treated at the time. I think this film has taught me a lot about HIV / AIDs and now I know much more on the topic!
I really love movies. I love going to see new movies in the cinema or just watching my old DVDs at home. The Oscars are on 20th of February and I'm excited to watch them! So here's some reviews of a few of the films that are nominated for Best Picture..
Boyhood
When I first heard about this film last year I was so excited to see it and had to wait nearly a year before it came out last summer. Boyhood was filmed over 12 years starring the same cast. The story is told through the eyes of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) who we see grow up from age 5 to 18. The movie just explores his family life and the different relationships he has in his life and how they change as he grows up.
I really liked this film. Because the same cast are used over 12 years, we literally see everyone grow up on screen. It's extremely realistic because of this. Ethan Hawke who plays the father of Mason is so good in his role. I feel like everyone can relate to at least one aspect of this film. Also, the length of the movie is nearly 3 hours, so it almost feels like you are watching someone's life it's so long! I definitely recommend this movie but it should only be watched in full, so only start it if you feel like sitting down for three hours!
The Theory of Everything
The Theory of Everything stars Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist. The film is about the relationship between Stephen and his wife and how their relationship changes when he is diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease.
I liked this film but I didn't think it was amazing. It's not really about Stephen Hawking's work, but honestly I was glad about that because I didn't want to have to watch a movie all about physics. It's mainly just to do with his disease and how he and his wife copes with it. It was really sad to see how his body starts to deteriorate and how it negatively affects his relationship with his wife despite both of their efforts.
Although I didn't think the movie was brilliant, Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking was amazing! As the character has MNS he had to show his body shutting down muscle by muscle, which would've been extremely difficult to do, but he did it perfectly. I would recommend watching this movie purely for Eddie Redmayne because he was so good!
Whiplash
Whiplash is about a young jazz drummer Andrew (Miles Teller) who is studying at the best music conservatory in America. Andrew wins a place in a jazz band led by an instructor (J.K Simmons) who uses fear and intimation to push his students to perfection. This film is extremely intense. The instructor is really extreme in his teaching methods like slapping players and throwing chairs at peoples heads.
I loved this movie. After watching it I had this sudden urge to listen to Jazz music. The playing is really impressive in this film. This film is so amazing. It is fast-paced, just like the drumming in the movie, and full of suspense. It was probably my favourite out of the three. I think that everyone would enjoy this film, even if you don't like jazz music or play an instrument. The acting is brilliant and it's not like anything I've seen before.
Gaisce,
The President's Award is the most prestigious Award in Ireland for young people
aged 15 to 25. This year in TY we have been working towards the bronze award,
the first gaisce award. The Bronze Award programme consists of 4 challenge
areas:
Community Involvement
Personal Skill
Physical Recreation
Adventure Journey
We have to do 13 weeks of the first three, 26 weeks of one of them and then we will be going on an overnight adventure journey in May. For my Community Involvement I've been singing in the school choir, for the Personal Skill I am taking piano lessons and for Physical Recreation I am doing Zumba. I've been enjoying doing Gaisce because it keeps me busy and I'm excited for the adventure journey in May!
It's February which means that there are only 3
months left of TY :( There is only a week and a half left of school before
midterm and we've been extremely busy. Next Thursday is the competition forStudent
Enterpriseor 'Mini Company'. We've been working hard on our business
report and getting everything organised for our stand. I feel like most TYs
have a love/hate relationship with Mini Company. It's great when we're able to
sell our products but it's also really stressful trying to get organised. To
learn about our Mini Company clickhere.
We've also been working on our SciFest projects for the competition on 6th March. Our SciFest project is about music. We're testing whether musical background affects the ability to recognise and match pitch. We tested TYs and 1st years.
On Wednesday we will have our last day of our second work experience placement. I've been doing mine in Walton's Music shop. I haven't been doing a whole lot, but its been fun meeting other TYs on work experience and getting a chance to try out all the different instruments. I still don't have a work experience placement for after midterm but I'm trying to get one at the moment!
I'm really looking forward to midterm next week. I'm mostly looking forward to it because on Friday we're going to see Saint Raymond in The Academy. I'm so excited :))
It's very important to help the environment.
Everyone can help by just doing small things like switching off the light,
putting paper in the recycling bin or turning off the tap. Something I do
everyday to help the environment is walking to and from school. Not only is
this good for the environment as it means there are less toxic fumes being
released into the air, it's also exercise which is good for your health.
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