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!!!

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!!

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!

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 Sinéad 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 :)

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! :)
 

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/