Thursday 17 May 2012

Advice for incoming Third Years

Third years who have decided to do Transition Year I think you have made a wonderful decision!
It really is a great year where you learn so much about yourself and about the world. It is a year spent getting to know about things that in a hectic school like you do not usually get to learn about, things that people decide there just isn't time for in a busy curriculum. 
From the beginning of September I would definitely recommend setting some goals for yourself. If you want to improve in Irish you could try learning two new words a week or decide this year you will real a novel if you want to improve in English. You have to set these goals yourself and monitor your own work. This year nobody will chase you for work as much as in third year but if you hand nothing in you will still get in the same trouble.
I really think it is important to take part in as much as possible, all the activities in our school are free! Take up get fit for the year and you definitely notice a difference in your fitness. Focusing on extra curricular activities is so important for Transition year as you have the time to get things done.
You do have at least one project to do in every subject but if you do your work and don't leave everything till last minute you won't have a worry!
There is so much to take part in and look forward to. There is Young Scientist, SciFest, Gaisce, Carlingford, bowling trips, Thursday afternoon activities, retreats, opera, always a little bit of shopping where we can fit it in and so much more!
Every year will differ in what they do but from what I have heard Transition in St.Wolstans has only got better every year.
Other things that I would find helpful are getting your work experiences early, the girls who left it last minute often didn't get much out of the experience. Again make sure to start projects when you get them, there's nothing wrong with having things done a week or two early, you'll be proud of yourself. Try to make friends with everyone, you have more time to focus on socialising in Transition yearn so make the most of it. Try to keep calm and enjoy things like mini company and other projects, some things may get stressful but it'll be grand!
Enjoy the whole year, pack as much in as you can and have some fun!





Sunday 22 April 2012

Favourite TY Moment

Okay this is impossible!| There has been so many moments this year that have been a one in a life time experience. Picking my favourite, I just cannot do it! I have been thinking about what to choose all week...


Although one moment that really has stuck in my head happened in the beginning of 2012. The third years were getting a talk on Tansition Year, the pros and cons (defiantly more pros!)
Catriona needed help from another Transiton Year student in her class to do the talk last minute. So Caitriona and I sat outside the hall while Mrs. L told the third years all about TY from a teachers perspective. 
Caitriona and I had a piece a paper ready to go with so many different events you take part in during TY. 
When we started to talk to the third years I really began to think about how amazing each experience had been. Telling them all about Carlingford Adventure Centre. All the jokes like chasing sheep up mountains, everyone getting lost in orienteering and late night sing-songs by the fire.
Then on to the amazing opportunities brought with work experience and all the time spent at new extra curriculum activities, I could have spent hours sharing everything that the musical had brought and I know if I had been in any other year I would not have had the time to put as much in to the musical and equally get out of it as I did this year! There was so much more we both had to rush through like the excitement of Zumba every week, the thrill of a new Thursday afternoon activity and throwing TY parties!
Caitriona and I stood in front of the third years and I know we both realized every achievement you can get out of TY. That's why this talk was one of my favorite moments of Transition Year, it brought together all the memories of the great days, mornings and afternoons.

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Fridays are looking good!

The next two Fridays are definatly going to be exciting ones!

This Friday we are heading off to the National Aquatic Centre for the Ian Daly Swim A Mile With A Smile. It is a great charity set up by Eimear D's family and is for an amazing cause. Every year since the charity has been set up I have swam a mile to try and help out, this year I will be doing the same along with many of the year!
Everybody should check out the charity and do their bit. Everything from swimming 1 Lent to 64 Lents makes a difference.

The following Friday we are going to Wicklow for our Gaisce hike.
Gaisce is a president's award and this year many of us will be getting the bronze award after completing the hike. We had to also complete 13 weeks of either a community service, a personal skill and a sport and 26 weeks of one of these.
I decided to do homework club in our school, cooking at home and hockey for my three Gaisce events.

For the hike it will be a 25 km hike through the Wicklow mountains on Friday evening. Friday night we will spend in houses in the hostel. We have to bring our own food and cook in groups which will be pretty fun. I think there will be a lot of packets of noodles that night! It is looking to be a very exciting night and then the following morning we will be doing high ropes! I know I cannot wait.

Saturday 7 April 2012

A little bit of Glory!

Rachel, Aoibheann and I started our project called 'Could this be a Cool Current?' back in September. Everyday we either loved or hated our project!
Honestly, we were slightly gutted that we did not get into Young Scientist but we quickly forgot about it. We were the second group to present our project to the TY group. All the other projects we saw were so interesting! Like Emma and Vicky's about carpooling and of course Isabelle, Niamh and Elaina's (who were in Young Scientist) with their surfing app!


Here's a link to my first blog about this Scientist Project: http://megsme.blogspot.com/2011/09/scientists-are-born.html


Here's Aoibheann's blog when we started out with this project: http://aoibheann-apples.blogspot.com/2011/09/could-this-be-cool-current.html


Finally, here's Rachel's first blog ever (now that's exciting) it includes a bit about starting the project too, in purple writing. Enjoy: http://rachiee15.blogspot.com/2011/09/and-ty-finally-starts.html


Now the exciting bit. 'Could this be a Cool Cutrrent?' won the prize of the top three porjects, that weren't Young Scientist, in in our TY group! We were so thrilled! This project isn't over yet. In May we will be going to SciFest, so we can still be hopeful that maybe the glory will continue! 

¡Hola Chicas!

Me llamo Meg, soy irlandese y tengo dieciséis años.
Voy a ir colegio en St.Wolstan's. Me gusta mucho el año TY. He aprendido sobre mo mismo porque me encanta los musicales. Cada persona en año TY son amigos porque esta un año pequeño. Hay setenta y ocho personas en el año. 
 Cada dia hago mucho trabajo intereste. 
Cada jueves tengo clase de bailer 'Zumba'. Me gusto mucho! Fui el aventuras por ejemplo una ópera, Carlingford y unos bolos. 
Me gustao mucho el comida de españa. Me gusta cocinar paella y churros! En el colegio cocinamos comida. El mes próximo voy a cocinar el comida de españa!
Gracias y adios!

Work Experience TAKE 2!

I LOVE WORK EXPERIENCE!


I could not believe my luck when I found out that I would be spending a week in the RTE studios in Donnybrook.

I had read a TY blog from last year outlining what had been done in RTE work experience so I was super excited that I was going to get this chance.
Every morning Jenny and I got the 67x to Donnybrook. I found it really interesting to see the same people heading into work on the same bus every morning. I know to most people this would be normal but I was not use to getting public transport on a daily basis as I walk to school.
On the first morning Jenny and I were slightly nervous but we had both read the RTE work experience blog from last year and had a fair idea of what to expect.
We found the TV receptions and sat together, half an hour early, waiting for everyone else to arrive. The work experience group contained 18 TY students from 9 different school across Ireland, there was two students from Cork, two from Meath and even two from Mayo.

Fair City set



On the first morning we did some ice-breakers within the group and got to know each other and learnt a lot about RTE from a very cool guy named Jerry. Afterwards we went on a tour of RTE with Ciara and the fun really began. We met the cast of Fair City, Joe Duffy and Pat Kenny. I LOVE PAT KENNY.
RTE is huge, different building for Radio, sets, publishing, offices and so much more. We also got to see the sets from Primetime, the news and The Late Late Show!
Our first lunch together was a bit awkward but we really bonded by the time Jedward walked into the cafeteria (which, by RTE rule, we had to called the canner!).
That afternoon we spent in publishing, learning the excitement and disappoint of photo shop and experience the daily work and effort in the RTE guide! I had a nice sleep on the bus home that evening.
Pat Kenny!


On the second day we were working in a radio workshop with two presenters from RTE Lyric FM. We split up into three groups and had to think up a radio programme. Our group started 'Film Fantasia' every evening at 19:30. I was one of the presenters. We really felt as if we were live on air when recording our shows. It was so exciting!
In the afternoon we played a small part in the Rick O'Shea show, we were the clappers! We got to learn how to edit sound recordings and even had to curse into the mics so we could edit them it. We saw all the CD's that RTE has. There is SO many, it's unbelievable.
On air


Wednesday was like another world. We knew there would be work involved as we were told the day would end at five, while it normally ended at four. We did not expect the excitement and achievement that Wednesday brought.
We split into two groups of nine and started of brainstorming ideas and then went onto script writing. We had to go quickly to get costumes and props, the wardrobes or RTE are amazing. I wanted to live there. All the clothes and costumes you could dream of stored in a pretty hot and stuffy but big wardrobe.
We had a a short lunch break but everyone was buzzing to get a start on shooting the show. Another bit of excitement was we couldn't tell the other group anything about our show.
When shooting began I laughed for the next three hours. With Brian playing Harry Potter sitting casually in the back round of every scene and a random security guard taking part in the end of our show things were just so funny.
Our show was called 'News for Insominas' it including the people of Dublin's reactions to the shutting down of Dominos and Justin Bieber's snake jelly high. That day I will never forget the pain in my sides from laughing so much!
On camera



Thursday was a late start. We headed to the National Concert Hall at 10am where we saw a live performance and had a tour of the Concert Hall. The trip there was full of laughs as the group of 18 of us were now best friends for life!
In the afternoon we had a talk about SaorView, which if anyone has any questions about I feel like a SaorView wizzkid. SaorView will be taking over all satellite TV (that you guys who don't have UPC or Sky) and it will happen this October. Make sure to get your SaorView boxes everyone.
Broadcasting


Friday. I don't want to remember the ending. After only a week the 18 of us were inseparable. Although I do have to talk about Friday cause I have to say, like the other four days, it was amazing!
We wrote a newsletter about our week together in the morning but this quickly changed to everyone showing each other their houses of google maps. Technology is pretty amazing.
Our last lunch together we seriously felt like the apostles but we need the lunch would end early because we knew who was coming to TV receptiontion....
SUSAN BOYLE! She was closely followed by The Wanted so we were all on a high!
We then watched the two TV shows that we had made and the director of each group had edited. Everyone was in stitches laughing! We also got our RTE goodie bag and a group photo that had been taken on Wednesday. The real surprise came next.
Jerry held 18 tickets in his hands and asked us if we would like to go to The Late Late Show? All week were told that we couldn't go as it was strictly over 18's but this Friday Susan Boyle had asked to do a pre-record of her interview and so we would be part of the audience. It was so much fun and even though it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon I really felt as if I was at the real show, we even had to clap on que! 
Waiting for Subo!


That was week in a nutshell. RTE work experience was really unforgettable!

All the crew

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Work Experience TAKE 1!


Firstly I spent a week in the Arnott's cafe
 'Homemade by Clodagh McKenna'
The first day I worked in the cold kitchen making orange juice, chopping vegetables, making sandwiches and salads.It was so exciting to be in a busy kitchen and see how everything needs to be prepared in bulk and in a short time frame.
Day two was one of my favourites! I worked with the head baker Alberto for the day. Nearly every recipe is multiplied by at least 5 so there is always cake batter ready to go! We made carrot carrot, scones, red velvet cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, lemon cupcakes and so many more. Alberto and I also decorated the cakes. I really enjoyed this and had such a sense of achievement when a cake I had baked and decorated was bought. 
The bakery was very organised and there was such a variety of ingredients to bake with. The huge fridges in the kitchens were really scary. When you went inside them there was always those few moments thinking is the door going to close behind me? I'm going to freeze to death! Luckily, that never happened.
Day three I was working in the main kitchen preparing all the roasties, I love Clodagh's roasties! I've been making them all the time at home since work.
I also prepared about 70 turnips and cauliflower, most people would find that boring I guess but I loved it. I think I could cut and chop vegetables for the rest of my years.
On day four we worked doing promotion. We handed out leaflets and had to help to bring people in to the cafe with the offer of a free Americano with every sandwich bought. We helped bring in business so we were happy. I also learnt to use to coffee machine and served customers in the Food Market. I really enjoyed the social aspects of interacting with the public in the Food Market as they were all very interested in the different foods and cakes sold here.
I really
Coming to work Friday morning (day five) I really was so sad! I could not believe it was my last day. I was so comfortable in the workplace I felt that I could really take part in any areas of the work that I enjoyed. I spent my day helping the baker as this was my favourite place to spend time. The Head Baker Alberto told us all about his life from Venezuela! I also baked peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips, partly my own recipe, that are now being baked everyday in Clodagh's cafe!
Before I left Clodagh, Head Chef Ben and Manager Micheal gave me a beautiful present of a red poka-dot apron and a Homemade by Clodagh cookery book. Also I was given goodies to bring home such as the some of the freshly baked cookies I had baked earlier that day.
Everybody from the cafe signed my card which I really liked as I do not want to forget such an amazing experience!

I was so sad to leave such an enjoyable week behind but I count myself lucky for having an amazing experience. I was even given a part time job to work with Clodagh in her cookery school in The Lyons Estate. I worked there last Satruday and it was a great oppertunity! I can not wait to work there again. :)


Tuesday 13 March 2012

Hockey *love*

Well done to the Junior Hockey team who were so close to the Semi-Final yesterday. Sadly, after a draw leading to extra time leading to penalties the other team got the goal!
The St. Wolstans Junior team really did us proud though. It was unbelievable play by centre back Emma who's in Transition Year and an amazing goals by Chanice and Alannah both in 3rd year. The Junior goalie Alannah O'S played a blinder, letting almost nothing past that white line.
Well done Juniors! Good luck with your match Thursday, hopefully we'll be out supporting again.

Next for Senior hockey, my beloved team who are in the Leinster Semi-Final this Wednesday! Wow, that's tomorrow! We are all very excited for the match but already I can tell nerves are running high. Hopefully we'll pull together as a team and go for gold. With Captain Ali leading the team anything is possible.

I shall blog the result of the match, wish us luck!

Wednesday 8 February 2012

A Day Spent for Bridget

On Tuesday all of Ty headed out along with some of the religion teachers to the town of Kildare. This trip was organized so we could reflect on Saint Bridget and your personal religious beliefs. It was a day of pilgrimage but an enjoyable day where we even got to do some shopping!
Our first stop was Kildare's tourist centre where we watched a short video about the history of Saint Bridget and the area of Kildare. We learnt the round tower was there for defense and so much more facts. What really amazed me was, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, had been to Kildare town last April! We were shown a picture of him holding a Saint Bridget's cross which had been sent to hang in the Kildare tourist centre. Although this wasn't something many people saw, it really made me think. Although so many religions and cultures have and are constantly clashing it really made me happy to see the Dalai Lama, head of the Buddhist religion hold a Catholic symbol peacefully and with such joy.
Next we visited Saint Bridget's cathedral, where today The Church Of Ireland still holds mass. The stone ornaments were very impressive and the stained glass windows were beautiful. We also saw the round tower here. This round tower was the tallest in Ireland until the cone top was knocked off, today it is the second tallest in Ireland.
We than had a shopping and lunch break in Kildare Village outlets.
We than walked to the original Saint Bridgets well. The sun began to shine so brightly on the way and all of us who had spent the morning ice cold began to quickly warm up, it defiantly raised spirits. 
At the first well we each had the option to walk down to the well, walk around the edge of it and bless ourselves with the holy water. Even though I am not religious I did find it nice to take part in this. We could say a private prayer which I also find has a lot more meaning as apposed to reciting things you may not understand. 
We walked to the second well next which was a beautiful green area with a small stream, statues, benches, flowers and of course, the well. Here an optional short prayer service was held. Not everyone joined in and I really liked that it was your decision. For me, I don't enjoy prayer services as such, I feel I can't connect properly with what I would like to reflect on. I choose to walk around the well on my own after the prayer service. Some girls did this too and others felt they enjoyed the prayer service. 
I really liked that throughout our trip we were given options as I feel religion is something that should always be your personal choose and no one should interfere with that. 
Also as part of our study of Bridget we have started a blog, please check out my poem on this blog! 



Thanks :)

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Christmas Partying (A tad late!)

To end our first TY term we held a Christmas Party!
Our class FÓDLA held the party. We spent weeks deciding on food, decorations and music.Emma D and I dressed up as Santa to give out all the Kris Kindle presents. The urge to shout *AND FOUR FOR YOU GLEN COCO, YOU GO GLEN COCO* was unreal! Also thanks to Sarah H for the great present :-) We drank hot chocolate, danced to Cha Cha Slide and sang Christmas song, it was really so much fun. Ms. O'C did a great job helping us to organise everything so big thanks to her! After we cleaned up everyone headed for the double Decker bus which reminded us all so much of Carlingford *sigh*.

Next it was on to bowling. Once again the joys of having weirdly small feet struck, they only had size 3 and 8 left by the time we reached the top of the Que and who's a size 3? ME! And then, BAM, i got a spare on my first go! Things went slightly downhill with the bowling after that, I think I came 2nd last. But it was still very fun! Rachel amazingly got about seven strikes! GOO   RACH!
[Image]We played some of the arcade games after bowling which were so much fun, I seemed to play a lot of the games for five year old.. What can I say? They were very exciting! 




 We then headed home and were all delighted to be off for two weeks of Christmas holidays! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a fabulous New Year :) 

Zumba Zoom!

Last Thursday we started new activities!
Massaging, band and ZUMBA!
Zumba is a type of fast dancing which originated in Brazil. It's such a great way to exercise as it's fast and really fun.
I really enjoyed all three activities but Zumba had to be my favourite. We started with relaxing head massages and then moved on to Zumba class.
Nicola, who use to teach us palates is now doing the Zumba classes. She taught us a few of the simple moves and then we headed straight into it with the music blaring full blast in the first year mall. Everyone was getting very hot and sweaty *eww* but it was so worth it. Flat bellies all round after a few weeks of Zumba dancing. We all enjoyed Zumba so much we decided to go to Zumba class this evening in Celbridge.
So Emily, Rebekah, Emma, Sarah, Sive and I are all joining some of the other girls in the class for a Zumba evening. Cannot wait!
It anyone is looking for a new hobbie, you should take up Zumba!

Young Scientists!

Last Friday we went on a trip to the BT Young Scientist Exhibition.
Everyone in Transition Year in St.Wolstans thought up a project in groups of two and three. Unfortunately, the group I was in didn't get accepted into the competition but still we're entering the Sci Fest competition in a few months!
A couple of groups from our year did get accepted into the competition though. Isabelle, Niamh and Elaina were one of the groups who were accepted. They had an amazing project about surfing. They planned to make an app for ipod and iphone which would show you places around Ireland for surfing, how to get the best surfboard, when to catch the best waves and so much more.
We had a great day in the RDS where the exhibition was being held. There were so many interesting projects from around Ireland. One project from Cork showed what type of eyes you have and what your eyes say about you.
I also went to the BT Young Scientist on Saturday. The winners had been announced the night before so it was great to see the winning projects. Well done to everyone who took part! They all put so much work in!
Hopefully the Sci Fest competition will be as much :)