Monday 20 May 2013

I.T. Video Project!! :D


We had to make a mini movie on anything we wanted for our IT end of year project. Me and Cliodhna decided to do ours on the gaisce hike.. however as I was too afraid to bring my camera on the actual hike we did it on our preparations for the hike! : D It was our first time using movie maker and it turns out me and movie maker don't go well...so I would like to apologize for the mess that is our video.. none the less I hope you enjoy!!!

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Swim A Mile!! :)

Last Friday the transition years went to the National Aquatic Center in aid of Ian Daly's Swim  a Mile Challenge. It was great fun!! I was in a group of three and we had to swim a total of 64 laps between us which is a mile. I'm in credibly unfit so I was sure I wasn't going to make it. When we got there we quickly changed into our swim suits and jumped in! I was nervous before but once in I realised it was actually going to be good fun. We all just swam our laps at our own pace though it was really crowded with like 15 girls in one lane!! it was all good though and although at first we were swimming on top of each other we quickly worked out a way to swim properly.
When we had finished our mile I was so happy and I was suprisingly not that tired so I decided to get back in and swim a few more. Altogether I swam around 32 laps. I was really pleased with myself as I didn't even think I would be able to do 20 laps : D
After we were done we got our t-shirts and we went to Blanchardstown shopping centre. I pigged out on Mac Donalds after, basically cancelling out all the excersize I'd just done! Ah it was worth it though :)
I had a great day and would love to do it again!!


Tuesday 19 March 2013

emotional retreat

Last Wednesday all the tys went to tallaght for a retreat. Honestly I didn't know what to expect, but I definitely didn't expect what we got. We went in and we were split into groups of 12 groups we went with our friends and we had to make sure we were comfortable with the people we were with. We then went into a room with our group and a women whos name I can't remember. We sat in a big circle and we all had to talk. We started off with simple things like who was in our family etc. And we discussed basically everything. We then went for a break and we had tea and biscuits :) yum. We went back and continued with the conversation. We had to say what our favourite time has been so far in life and then our worst time. When we reached these topics it started getting emotional and a lot of people really opened up. It was a strange experience but I felt better after. Then it was lunch and we had tea and biscuits again! : D
When we went back this time to lighten the mood we all wrote our names on a sheet and passed them around and people wrote nice things about each other on them. This was a really nice thing and everyone felt really good after. I really enjoyed this retreat and would love to go back again!

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Sci Fest

On Friday all the Ty's were in the hall all day for the Sci fest :). We had to set up our projects at tables and judges went around and we had to present them.They then had to judge us and let 6 groups through to the next round in Tallagh on the 8th of May. I was in a group with SinĂ©ad and Roisin, we did our project on        " The Effects Of Amputation On Swimming." I was really nervous when the judges were coming near to our table but when they were there it was grand. We basically just chatted :) Three judges came to our table all together. After the judges had finished with everyone the different years in our school came to look at our projects. At the end of the day the judges announced the people who got through. They ended up picking ten to go through because they said the standard was so high. We got through! YAY! :D I really didn't think we'd get through. All the projects were great. I'm looking forward for the next round.


Our Lesson On Conflict Around The World

This week we were assigned a project on a place of conflict by our religion teacher Ms. Leahy. I was in a group with Cliodhna, Roisin, Sorcha and Aisling, we did our project on the conflict between Iraq and America that is currently going on. I found it really interesting as I didn't actually know the causes or anything about it. We discovered that it started over concerns that Iraq were hiding nuclear weapons ,even though they had said they wouldn't. Also the leader of Iraq Suddam Hussein was condemned for being a brutal Dictator, as a first step for freedom of Iraq George gave Saddam Husseim 48 hours to leave Iraq or face removal by force. In 2002 George Bush got authorization for the use of military against Iraq. The conflict is still going on today.
As well as doing our own presentation we listened to everyone else's project on there chosen place of conflict. I really enjoyed it and thought it was interesting. Ms Leahy also did her own power point on conflict in the north when she was growing up. This was really good because we got to hear her story's about it as she was actually there to see it.
I learned alot from this lesson and enjoyed it :)

Tuesday 26 February 2013

Lollipop Day!

Today we went into town to raise money for lollipop day. It was amazing! Lollipop day is to raise awarness and money for oesophageal cancer. So we all set out in out t-shirts and caps for lollipop day to stand around Dublin asking people to donate. We had a bucket full of heart shaped lollipops and badges that we were selling for 2 euro. We were all assigned places to stand , me and Ciara were at a place that not too many people were at the start but then we moved so it was all good ;) People are really generous, loads of people donated and many did't even want a lollipop or anything in return. We even had a few € 5! It was freezing cold though and I could't feel my toes I'm telling you! After we had a break and warmed up in Mc Donalds all was good and we got some hot chocolate to heat ourselves. When we went back we were there for 5 minutes and we ran out of lollipops. We had to go back and fill up again. As we ventured back half way there we realised we had no idea where we were going. Luckily we ran into another girl who was raising money and she gave us some of hers. When it was time for us to go I was actually dissapointed even though we were freezing I had a really good day and I would love to do that again! :)
 

Tuesday 19 February 2013

Jaba Jaba Jembeing!!! :)

Yesterday we had a drumming workshop for our class. It was amazing!! We were all in a big circle in the music room, surrounded by a load of African drums. A man named Dave came in and taught
 us how to drum properly. Now before this I just called all those type of drums bongo's .. I will NEVER make that mistake again... Yeah Dave doesn't appreciate people calling those drums Bongo's. Apperently they are all called different names, the one I can remember is the jembe drum. :)

So he got us to warm our hands up by doing all these warm up exercises  Then we finally got to the actual drumming. It was so cool. At first we did these drumming games that were kind of like like a Mexican wave but drumming version! After this we started to develop on a prober beat. Once we had the hang of this we made a kind of drum band were we all got different types of drums and we made different beats with them, then put them together to create this rhythm. We had a bass drum, these shaker things, maracas and loads more. It actually sounded really good! I felt like I was in a tribe or something ; D We then recorded our beat!!


When the workshop was over I was sad. I'd really enjoyed it!
Here's the link to the jaba jaba jembe website: http://www.jabbajabbajembe.com/

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Yesterday was the competition for mini company. We had to set up a little stall, showcasing our product and we all had to do a three minute presentation. Our mini company is called Stuzic. Its a study accessory app. We put study notes to popular songs to make study easy!
Tyhe stall ended up[ looking really good I thought. We got a professional poster done and we had helium baloons with our company name on it, we also got t-shirts done with our names, position in the company and logo on it. The judges came around and looked at our stall. They seemed really impressed and said that the quality of our songs were really good.
 After that it was time for our presentations. I was so nervous about the presentation that we had to do because we all had to stand up in the middle of the hall and talk in front of everyone. We all had our own little thing to say. When it was my go to speak I was so nervous. I'm terrible at public speaking! I stumbled through, stuttering but trying to act calm and professional... It didn't work.
After we gave our little presentation they asked us questions. They asked this question that I didn't really understand but for some strange reason, like the idiot I am, I decide to jump in and answer it. So there I am standing with no idea what to say. I managed to say some rubbish about something, but judging by the judges faces it was not the right thing to say : L. Luckily Ciara jumped in and answed it right.
After everyone had finished their presentations we were told who were shortlisted.. We were! Yay! We also won the innovation award. It was  good day :)

BT young scientist


Last Thursday I went to the BT Young Scientist exhibition in the RDS with my year. It was a good day but I was too tired to enjoy it really if I'm honest.
I skipped looking at all the projects and went straight to the place that give out loads of free stuff, I entered a load of competitions to win prizes but didn't win any in the end :( ....  disappointing.
 After a good while looking around there It started getting really packed and we were hungry so we went outside to eat. Usually they have a big chocolate fountain there, but for some reason this year it wasn't there!.. Damn. I'd spent most of the day searching for it.
After sitting in a cafe without buying anything for as long as we could we were forced to go back to the crowds. We decided to look around at the projects for a while.. You'd be suprized how many projects were on cows or something to do with cows... seriously.
We went over and looked at the project from Wolstans that made it this year. After that we found a stall that nobody was at.. so we decided to sit there and pretend it was ours... unfortunately while we were there a judge came over and started asking us questions... We started answering confidently.. but that lasted 10 seconds because I'm absolutely terrible at lying
.After apologizing we got up and walked around some more. While walking we came across a Que so me, Ciara and Alana decided to join it. It was to a 3D movie talk on space. That was good as we could sit down. The 3D worked really well! It was actually pretty cool. Also I found out there's like 10 different suns and our sun is like a midget sun.
After that we went outside to meet up with the rest of the year to go home. :)