Storyboarding an issue.

In Religion we are exploring the MDG's and for the past few classes class Fódla have looked at MDG No 3 and the issue of Gender by watching the film Desert Flower - the Waris Dirie story.

Awards!

TY has been celebrating this week as we have received not just one but 2 awards for our St Wolstan's TY Blog!

The Junior Spiders!!

So this morning Sarah K, Leah and Sarah D headed off with Mrs.L to DCU Helix for the Eircom Junior Spider Awards.Wish us good luck!!Here's a picture from this morning.

SarahD

Blogs of the week

SarahD is doing great work on her blog as is SarahK and SarahM.

Sarah D

SarahM

SarahK

They all deserve more people to read their blogs. Why not pop over and have a read of all their goings on?

Mrs L :)

More christmas greetings

Here is class Banba's christmas greetings video for the Connected Classrooms Christmas Message Exchange project. (http://connectedclassrooms.wordpress.com/)

More News from TY

Thanks to Sarah and Kate for being this weeks newsreaders.




As we said in the News bulletin - Please vote for us in the Edublog Best class blog category

http://edublogawards.com/2011-3/best-class-blog-2011/

We have been Nominated!!

Well I think a celebration is in order for our bloggers. Thanks to all who continue to blog because the St.Wolstans TY blog has been shortlisted in the Eircom Junior Spiders 2011.

Off to the Opera

Last Tuesday, 22nd November, all of TY went to the Swan Cinema in Rathmines, Dublin. We went there to see a recording of the opera Don Giovanni by Mozart. It was recorded the previous week at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

Going global with our greetings

We will be taking part in a Christmas greetings exchange project with some other schools around the world. The project is one of the Connected Classrooms projects  #ccGlobal projects. (http://ccglobal.ning.com/)

Work Experience Week 1

This week, TYs completed their first week of Work Experience. It gave them a chance to gain an insight into the world of work and maybe even opened their eyes to a possible future career.

TY News from TY TV

More TY News from TY TV.

Thanks to Aoife and Saoirse for being this weeks News Readers and to Courtney for help with the recording. Isabelle and Orla wrote the script before mid term but they never got to record it so we adapted the script today :)

Positively Pulaski want to chat

Mrs Forsberg contacted Mrs Leahy recently because they had something in common - their students like to blog!! Mrs Forsberg students are a little bit younger than TY students but they have something in common with TY - they like to blog and everyone loves to see a comment on their own blog. Right?

So Mrs L would like TYs to head over to Mrs Forsbergs 6th Grade blogs at Positive House in Pulaski Community Schools and read their blogs and leave a comment.

Imagine, taking your TY experience even further out of the classroom - all the way to Wisconsin, America!!

http://kidblog.org/PositivelyPulaski/

Here are a  few tips from Mrs Forsberg.

Before you blog...

*Remember that blogging is a formal type of writing; it's expected that you use standard English and proper punctuation.  (You are representing your class, your school, and your country. :)

*Commenting Etiquette--

• Make sincere comments (Make a connection to the writing.) "Nice blog" is not a sincere comment.
• When someone comments on one of your posts, it's polite to visit their's back.
• It's polite to thank readers for visiting your blog and taking the time to leave a comment. 
• If someone asks a question in a blog comment, answer it.  If you've asked a question on another blog, check back--You just might get an answer! 
• When you leave a comment on a post and have the option to leave a link, share the one to your blog.

Mrs L :)

Opportunity for TYs to win an iPad2!

The Language Village (http://www.thelanguagevillage.com/ are currently running a competition for secondary school students - the winner will be the student who answers the competition question 'Why learn more languages?' in the most original and convincing way.

This involves creating a blog post on www.thelanguagevillage.com that not only addresses the question but is also dynamic, interesting and enjoyable, using any media of the students' choice.

For more information go to:

http://www.languagesinitiative.ie/component/content/article/213

I wonder will the iPad tempt any TY student to enter?

A History of Celbridge

On Wednesday, 26th October, Tony Doohan came in to talk to TYs about his book on the history of Celbridge. He is the principal of a local primary school so a lot of us were happy to see him.
He presented a slide show of images of past and present Celbridge and had a story to accompany each picture. We all found it really interesting to learn so much about where we live. It turns out Celbridge is one of the most historic towns in Ireland, which shocked most of us as Aoibheann explains here. And Sarah talks about some of the facts we found out here. Who knew the man who named New York came from Celbridge?

'A History of Celbridge' by Tony Doohan is available in local bookstores and businesses  now.

http://www.facebook.com/AHistoryofCelbridge
historyofcelbridge@gmail.com

Hannah likes to write

Hannah has been writing about her Creative Writing class with Ms Ward. Read what she has to say here

http://hannahsplaceboblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/creative-writing.html

TY News from TY TV

This is our first attempt at our TY News programmes. Through trial and error we will surely get better! Maybe next time we will add a bit of background music and we can work on the background screen too!!

Thanks to Rebecca and Aoibheann for being our first newscasters.

Juno and the Paycock

Yesterday, all the TY's went to Dublin on an English Trip. We went to see the Yeats exhibition and then went to the National Museum and National Library. At 2 o' clock we went to the Abbey Theatre to see Juno and the Paycock, the play that we read in English class. I really enjoyed it.

Isabel seem to have enjoyed it as well. Read her blog post here.

Martha didn't understand Johnny's character until she saw him on stage. Read her post here.

Eleana

We took part

I am delighted to see so many TY's actually remembered to write a blog post last Sunday for Blog Action Day.

Here is a list of their posts. Perhaps readers will leave comments for them?

Eiru

Elaina http://eleanastyblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day-east-african-famine.html

Eimear http://eimearelephants.blogspot.com/2011/10/food-food-glourious-food.html

Martha http://marthabradyty.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-dayfoodnom.html

Laragh http://laraghty.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day.html

Catriona http://tienies.blogspot.com/2011/10/bia-oh-mamma-mia.html

Sarah M http://sarahlovesirishdancing.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day-on-food-home-baking.html

 

Niamh Mc http://sniamh.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-love-you-food.html

Isabelle  http://isabellety.blogspot.com/2011/10/dinner-time-for-some.html

Kasia http://kasia-ty.blogspot.com/2011/10/vitamins-vitamins-vitamnis.html

Alswyn http://alswyn.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day-2011-food.html

Elizabeth http://elizabethty.blogspot.com/2011/10/food.html

Laura W http://whelanlaura.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day-food-glorious-food.html

Grace http://gracexx.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day.html

Aoife O http://aoifeoneillty.blogspot.com/2011/10/do-we-all-take-food-for-granted.html

Banba

Claire http://clairety95.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day-fooood.html

Sally http://sidekick-sally.blogspot.com/2011/10/eat-until-you-cant-see-your-feet.html

Ellen http://perryyy.blogspot.com/2011/10/food-is-cool-oh-yeah.html

Fodla

Sive http://sivefitz.blogspot.com/2011/10/food-glorious-food.html

Niamh http://niamh23.blogspot.com/2011/10/gone-off-food.html

Aoibhaeann http://aoibheann-apples.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day.html

Sarah http://sarahlikessmarties.blogspot.com/2011/10/getting-lucozade-shakes-and-scrambled.html

Louise http://louisetransitionyear-louise.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-dayfood.html

 

Lisa http://lisalikeslettuce.blogspot.com/2011/10/extremely-hot-sauce.html

Sarah B http://sarah-sausages.blogspot.com/2011/10/whats-obsession.html

 

Elaina http://elaina-ty.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day.html

 

Aoife http://aoifelikesapples.blogspot.com/2011/10/nom-nom-blog-action-day.html

Laura http://laurasmyth1996.blogspot.com/2011/10/mcdonalds-mcdonalds-kentucky-fried.html

 

Aisling http://aislinglovesaustria.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-action-day-food.html

Blog Action Day 2011 #BAD11

Today is Blog Action Day. Yesterday I was redecorating my kitchen and didn't get to have lunch because 1)  I was busy painting and 2) the cupboards were all covered with splash sheets and I couldn't get to the fridge. By 5pm I was very, very hungry. I did not enjoy the hungry feeling and could not wait for food.

I woke this morning and remembered it was Blog Action Day and World Food Day. I started my breakfast with a lovely cup of hot clean water and then had some cereal. I turned on the TV to check the news and watched an interview with a representative from the Red Cross on Sky News. I scribbled down these statistics:

There are 13 million hungry in East Africa today.
They spend 80% of their income on basic food.

It's only been an hour or so but already I want a cup of tea and my toast to finish my breakfast routine. How wrong is this inequality? I could not imagine having to go without food everyday. The Blog Action Day focus on food has made me think.

In St Wolstans we deliver a Development Education programme in Religion with the help of Self Help Africa and Mr Patsy Toland, so I turned to the Self Help Africa website for some inspiration.

Here it is - It starts with a seed.




@blogactionday11

#BAD11

#WorldFoodDay

Work experience

A few students are still looking for work experience placements after mid term. Here is a spreadsheet with some placements held by previous TY students. It has contact names and details and also a brief report about what the work experience involved.

It might help those struggling with finding a placement.

Work Experience placements

Remember, Mr Corcoran and Ms Hughes are there to help.

I will make the file public in November so you can all add your November placements and that might help some students for next March.

Mrs L :)

Can We Fix it for our Friends?

Last week St Wolstans held their annual Fun Walk to coincide with Friendship Week.

Each class performs a song and dance on the theme of Friendship and the whole school gathers in the tennis courts to watch. After each class performs they head off on a 5 km walk.

I had the pleasure this year again of judging the dances and it was a great day - such fun and happiness throughout the whole school.

Here is Claire's post about the day and a few photos included. Enjoy :)

Can We Fix It?

Catriona posted some videos on YouTube here:

Fodhla dance

Banba dance

Eríu dance

Class Fodla in Kazza's Car

Mrs L :)

Blog Action Day 2011

Last year TY took part in Blog Action Day in October and the theme was WATER. All we had to do was register and join bloggers all over the world by writing a post about water.

This year's Blog Action Day 2011 coincides with World Food Day, so BAD's topic this year will be FOOD.

Food is something that we all share in common, but is distinct to each of our cultures. The way we produce, distribute and consume food is crucial to our shared future, and the unhealthy imbalance of food scarcity in developing world and food over-abundance in the developed world is unsustainable for us all.

Blog Action Day 2011 will be an opportunity to open the conversation about how food impacts all of us – individually and globally.

The big event is only a few days away. I am hoping that TY will take part again.

To kick things off register for Blog Action Day 2011 by clicking the link below:

http://blogactionday.org/register-for-blog-action-day/

Mrs L :)

Suggested Topics for Blog Action Day

• My favorite food
• The famine in East African
• To be organic or not to be:
• Best and worst food memory
• Slow Food, Fast Food: What does it actually mean
• Malnutrition
• Conflict over Food:
• Is your hamburger hurting the enviroment?
  It takes 24 liters of water to produce one hamburger. That means it would take over 19.9 billion liters of water to make just one hamburger for every person in Europe.
• Vegan, Vegetarian, Meat eater – Which one are you?
• Will we be able to feed 9 billion people in 2050?
• Freeganism
• The scandal of Food Waste.
• What is the best way to farm food.
• Growing your own – the joys and heartache of growing what you eat.
• Too much or too little taking food to extremes
• Strangest thing you have ever eaten.
• What food means to your culture.

Can you think of any more?

Geography projects

There are only 4 weeks left until mid term and I am hoping that my TY Geography class will have finished the research for their Around the World Virtual Trip by then.
After mid term they should be ready to make their presentations in class and to submit their Fact File for assessment.
Here is an example of what last year's class presented. Siobhanb was going to travel to Poland.

Siobhan had lots of photos in her presentation and talked us through each slide.

http://siobhanb.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-geography-presentation-poland.html

50% of TY Christmas Assessment will go towards their Factfile and 50% towards their classroom presentation.
In the Factfile I will be looking for facts obviously, a geography focus on each country (places to see etc) and a well presented project. It does not have to be printed, a scrapbook will do just as well.

For the classroom presentation I will be looking for depth of knowledge about yopur chosen country - so I will be asking questions! I will also allocate marks for a well designed PowerPoint presentation and for delivery  - so be confident!

Good luck
Mrs L :)

Commenting on blogs

I thought I would post these posters so TY will post good comments during our Quadblogging project. First poster is from classes 2KM and 2KJ @ Leopold Primary School

and the next poster is from Mrs Edwards classes at Geeky GrammaMiddle School 

So a good comment is always polite, starts with a greeting, starts or contributes to a conversation, and ends with a question which could keep the connection / conversation going.
Mrs L :)

Thurstable High School

Our quadblogging project starts this week. Mr Kilvert sent me a link to his new Geography Dept blog.


http://geographydepartment.wordpress.com/

Watch out for some new blog posts from Thurstable High School and don't forget to post a comment to their blog.

Mrs L :)

Quadblogging

West Jefferson High School is one of our partners in the Quadblogging project this term. Their teacher is Ms Burton, an English/Language Arts teacher from New Orleans, and her students are in 9th grade. They are new to blogging, just like us in St Wolstans!

Here are the addresses os their blog and wiki:
Class Blog : http://msvrburton.edublogs.org/
Class Wiki : http://msburtonisonline.pbworks.com/

Why not check them out? Mrs L :)

Quadblogging

We will be taking part in a Quadblogging project this term. I am looking forward to TY making global connections through their blogs. Here is a video to explain it.





We will be in a quad with 3 other schools

- Thurstable School in the UK with Mr Kilvert  http://mrkilvert.wordpress.com/

- Oak Hill Academy in the USA with Ms Ritter-Guth (no blog address yet)

- West Jefferson High School with Mrs Burton http://msvrburton.edublogs.org/


I am still waiting for our Quad Coordinator to contact me but I am very excited about it all. I hope the TY's are as well!

Mrs L :)

Ideas for blog posts

This week TY's created their own blogs and have agreed to post at least one blog post a week. I know after a time some will eventually think they have nothing to blog about so I am posting a link to 52 types of blg posts to give them ideas. Not all of the ideas will be relevant to them but surely they will get some ideas :)

52 Types of Blog Posts


Mrs L :)

IT skills survey

Can all TY's please complete the following surveys?

These are to help me determine your IT skills levels.

Thanks
Mrs L :)

Survey 1 - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WBND2WW

Survey 2 - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WH7WCGQ

Bonding at Carlingford

TY will be going to Carlingford Adventure Centre for two days teambuilding and bonding activities on 12th and 13th September. I thought they might like to check it out :) http://www.carlingfordadventure.com/


And here are some previous posts about adventures at Carlingford

http://stwolstansty.blogspot.com/search/label/Carlingford

A new year

There are only two weeks until TY 2011/2012 return to school now. I have been updating the calendar (--------> on the right hand section of the page ---------> ) with what events I know TY will be doing over the coming year. I know there will be lots more events added to it when we get back to school so make sure to check the calendar often.

I'm looking forward to working with my 3 TY classes next year - Banba, Fodla and Eirú
Mrs L :)


Are you happy to return to school?

T.Y Reflection collection.

TY Reflection collection

Wordles about TY

Patty came to class today to conduct a focus group for her research on blogging. She had a Wordle - a Word Cloud - of this TY blog.



The word cloud showed that WENT was used the most in the blog along with TY, GROUP and COMPETITION.

Here is the link to Wordle - why not make your own Word Cloud and post it on your blog?

http://www.wordle.net/

One thing about me and TY....

Are you glad you did TY?

Add your thoughts to the wall here or click the Post A sticky tab below.

Why blog?

Hmmm, I wonder do TY agree?

Sci-fest.

Leah tells us about the T.Y’ trip to Tallaght last week to take part in the sci-fest competition.

"A couple of days ago we went to sci fest it was an experience. We arrived early enough because we had to leave at 8 and when we got there we saw a lot of projects. My group was in the physical sciences category and we were put into a lab with a few other groups...we felt very important. Then the judges came around and analysed our projects which was fun but after our third judge we were getting tired and Hungry! After lunch we went to a few lectures i went to one on alcohol."

Read the rest of Leah's post to find out all about the sci-fest competition here.

T.Y reflections.

Some of the transition years have been writing some reflections on their T.Y experiences.
Read some of their reflections .

Aoife.

Niamh.

Siobhán.

Kellie.

Niamh.

Summer tests!

TY will be doing their summer tests in class this year.

Mrs KB and myself have decided to have our Religion summer test as a form of workshop next Tuesday at 3.20. Here is the test so you can all gather your resources and thoughts:

Using A3 paper (supplied by teacher) and the Visual Verbal Square methodology, compose your personal response(s) to films studied on the theme of conflict. This year we watched the following movies:
Sometimes in April
Hotel Rwanda
Once Brothers
Gran Torino
Pursuit of Happiness


You will create your poster in class. This week gather your thoughts and images for your poster. Please bring glue, markers, and anything else you want or need for your poster.

Good luck!
Mrs L and Mrs KB

Grading blog posts

I've just come across this blog post from Janet Lynn Johnson who teaches at The University of Texas at Dallas.

http://www.mediarhetoric.com/blog/grading-a-blog

Now I know Dr Lynn Johnson teaches at 3rd Level but I thought she had some intersting points that I could consider when I'm marking the TY Geography blog posts.

What do you think I should grade them on?

Book Reviews.

For the past few weeks the T.Y’s have been reading different books and writing book reviews on their chosen book for their English classes. All of the books that the T.Y’s have chosen to read have come of the 2013 prescribed texts for the leaving cert. Some of the books that the T.Y’s have been reading are : My sisters keeper, 1984, Never let me go, Wuthering heights and The great Gatsby.

Read some of their book reviews.

Aisling

Alison

Saidhbh

Louise

Siobhán

Geography projects

This week TY have been frantically finishing off the latest Geography project that I set a few weeks ago. The task is to write 5 blog posts on the geography of a subject of their choice. The project also includes the creation of a a Google map with 5 pins about the topic and shared with me.

The project will be the end of year assessment for TY Geography. I am looking forward to reading them all. I will be reading about Music, and more Music, Food, Manchester United legends, famous Women Throwers, Irish Actors, Mc Donald's, Life saving, Horses, the history of printing, Karate, and even Mass Murderers!

Mrs L :)

Irish Autism Action

Well done to all the TY's who gave up their time to help. Great work.

Aoife tells how it's done......

"Last weekend a number of TY's volunteered to help raise money and awareness for Irish Autism Action. Steph had graciously agreed to

Party Payback

Niamh tells more ....

"Earlier on in the school year, just before we broke up for the Christmas holidays, class Emnet prepared a lovely breakfast for all of us in class Amina. We were very thankful for what this breakfast and so we decided to make it up to them this morning.
We did this by inviting them to our "Easter Feaster"! :)

Read the rest of Niamh's post and find out all about the "EasterFeaster" here. Lots of lovely photos of food too!

Mrs L :)

Green Heroes

Congratulations to Green Hero Mini Company who won 3rd prize for Quality in the TY Get Up and Go National Finals today in Naas.

Amina on Retreat

Read some of the TY's posts about their retreat this week, and see some of their photos at the blog posts below.

Chloe

Eimear

Aoife

Niamh C

Steph H

Thanks go to Mr Kerrigan and Ms Kavanagh Bracken who accompanied class Amina on their retreat in Glendalough.

Gaisce hike

A group of TY's along with Ms Hughes and Mr Kerrigan headed off to Wicklow at the weekend to complete their Gaisce hike.

Why not read some of their posts.

Aisling

Siobhan

Saidhbh

Leah

Ailbhe

Well done to all the students who completed the hike and a big thank you to Ms Hughes and Mr Kerrigan for giving up their weekend. It is much appreciated by us all.

Mrs L :)

Mia and her therapies!

Mia was at Peamount.....

"For my work experience I went to Peamount Hospital in Newbridge, I was in three different departments they were

1.Physio Therapy

2.Speech and Language Therapy and

3. Occupational therapy

I also went to the Audiology department to get information on what goes on there.

Monday:

On Monday I went to human

Ellen and the babies.

Ellen really enjoyed her work experience....

"For my second week of work experience I went to The Purple Penguin Creche and Montassori in Oldtown Mill. I really enjoyed the week and didn't want to leave when it was over! The Creche is divided into different rooms and the children are put into

A truly musical night - Hayley tells all

Last night the Music Department held their annual Music Night. All TY's took part singing the song 'Mamma Said' by Dionne Bromfield.



We had lots of choreography and harmony parts too and had lots of practise time before hand. Everyone seemed to

Jabba Jabba Jembe - Percussion workshop

More Jabba Jabba Jembe. This time, class Amina.

TY Friendship - by Aoife

To TY

Our last few months,
We'll never forget those laughs.
From Carlingford to Carlow,
Mini Company to English,
Dressing up or down,
Making friends
and

Awards all round

Today a photographer came to school, he thought he was only there to take one photos of TY....he was there for an hour! We had winners galore :)

Well done TY.




Oops, just noticed I spelt Hakka with a K :)

Chloe is dancing.....with Sean???

Mr S taught Chloe and the TYs some Irish dancing.....

"Mr S our Irish teacher taught us some Sean Nós dancing. Sean Nós is a type of Irish dance. It is completely different to the traditional Irish dancing. Traditional Irish dancing has a more strict posture where as Sean Nós dancing is more

Road Safety talk

Stephanie can't cycle to school.....

"This morning, we had a talk about cycling. A man came in and explained a bit about cycling and why we should cycle. We should cycle as its better for the environment, better for our health and doesn’t cause traffic congestion, which has been a big problem. He told is that in the Netherlands,

Zoe wants to be a vet

Zoe enjoyed her last work experience.

"For our second work experience placement I went to Anglesey Lodge Equine Hospital in the Curragh :) I wanted to go there because I love working with horses and I am interested in becoming a vet also.

My friend Laura also went to the same placement as me in the same week :) I was really nervous on the first day as I honestly didn't know what to expect but

Bog bodies, Yeats and Eimear!

Image Source - Tate Gallery© Estate of Jack Butler Yeats

Eimear wrote a great post about the TY English trip to Dublin to see the Yeats exhibition and the Natural History Museum.

"We headed off to the William Butler Yeats exhibition first. We were greeted by a tour guide who brought us through the colourful displays and cases which make up the exhibition. Everything was colourful and designed beautifully, from the stands themselves to the

Aoife has advice for new TYs

Aoife wrote a really good post giving advice to any student going into TY next year, I thought it important to put here so the 3rd Years will read it.

"What's So Good about TY?

As Mrs. Leahy has directed future transition year students to explore our blogs and gather more information about the whole TY experience I decided that I would make a post dedicated to

Niamh's Fáinne Challenge

Niamh has a new challenge....

"In Irish Class, we are doing a Fáinne Challenge.

Well, with it... people get a gold fáinne (Ring/Badge) if they are fluent in Irish, or a silver fáinne if you have a basic ability to speak Irish.

The teacher of the other Irish class is going to come into our class and talk to each of us to see how well we can speak it.

I really want to get the Fáinne Ór (gold ring/badge) to prove my Irish... so I really better get practicing my Irish Speaking!

Image source

Dia Duit :)

Bhuel, Slán go Fóill :)"

Bon chance Niamh. Oops, wrong language :) I mean Go n'éirí an t-ádh leat.

Read more of Niamh's blog here. Visit the AN fáinne website.

Mrs L :)

Cutting Radishes.. and fingers! :/

Niamh is dangerous....read on.....

"On Monday, we did an exciting Science experiment. We were testing the reaction of the enzyme in radishes at different temperatures. We had to use safety goggles and plastic gloves, as usual. The reaction of the radishes with hydrochloric acid, washing up liquid and buffer created

Rachels cooking!

Rachel was working with Clodagh Mc Kenna for work experience.....

"For our second work experience, 7th-11th of March. I went to Lyons Cookery School. I loved it, it was exactly what I was looking for and so much more. I was not only helping in the cookery school but also in the cafes kitchen, where I learned so much about cooking and running a kitchen.
I definitely want to go into cookery after the Leaving Cert, and I think I even know what courses I want to do now as well. I would definitely recommend Lyons Estate to anyone looking for work experince, the people there are so nice and they make sure your busy and involved the whole time."

This was a successful work experience then Rachel. Isn't it great to know what you want to do after school?
Well done.

Read Rachels blog here.

Visit The Village at Lyons website for more information.
Mrs L :)

Saidhbh was at RTE

Saidhbh spent a week at RTE for her work experience. Read what she has to say about it .......

"Last week I had the privilege of doing work experience in RTE for the week :)I was unbelievably lucky as I was one of 18 students picked out of a draw of about 300! RTE do a special T.Y work experience programme, and it began on Monday.....

Patricia and Marilyn

Patricia is doing her History project..

Image source

I have decided to do my history end of year project on Marilyn Monroe. She is a very interesting character in movie history here is some information I have gathered about her :

Jabba Jabba Jembe - Percussion workshop

Ciara really enjoyed making noise!



Read Ciara's blog post........

The percussion workshop our class had was one of the best things we've done in TY I think :) We had the whole day with a man called David, who owns the company called Jabba Jabba Jembe. He owns loads of African drums, all different kinds called.....

An audience with an age gap! :)

Image from Chloe

Niamh tells us about the recent Holy Faith Drama festival that TY took part in.

Here is Niamh's blog with lots more interesting and fun posts!


Click the Read More button to read the rest of her blog post.....


"On Tuesday, 15th of March, the two Transition year classes spent the day and most part of the night at the convent in Glasnevin, Co. Dublin. We went to the convent to take part in the "Margaret Aylword Drama Presentation". Margaret Aylword was the founder of the Holy Faith Sisters in the 1850's.

Siobhan's a winner!

I've been following the Irish Blog Awards from Belfast all evening on Twitter and have heard that Siobhan B has won the Best Youth blog.

Image from SluggerOToole.com.

Congratulations Siobhan, great work on your blog.

Why not visit Siobhan's blog here and leave her a message?

Mrs L :)

P.S.
Was it like this Siobhan?..................

Student Enterprise Awards

x
Hayley has written a blog post about the Student Enterprise Awards last week.

"On Monday we went to the County Final of the Student Enterprise Awards. We arrived in the Osprey Hotel in Naas around 11 o clock and it was straight down to business on getting our stand ready. Our main thing on our stand was a large knot a problem that Aislings dad helped us make! Thank God for DADS! It took us a while to get it up be it was Check Spellingwell worth it! When we finished our stand it was time for lunch. It was really nice (chicken and wedges)......

Happy St Patrick's Day

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Happy St Patrick's Day. Here's a little something to make your day even happier:)

Lá Glas

Today was Lá Glas and each year group dressed up according to the theme they were given by the Prefect team.

TY's were to dress as Aer Lingus air stewardesses, although a few Pilots, airport passengers, an odd terrorist and two super heroes were all part of the theme as well :)

We had a great day in wonderful spring sunshine. Here are a few photos, I'm sure there will be plenty more on the students own blogs so check them out on the Class Amina page and Class Emnet page.

Look, what's that in the sky?

getting ready for the Ceili

Captain Leahy!

Lauren wants to teach!

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Lauren was teaching last week. Click the Read More link below to read her post....

"Last week the 7th of March all TY's were out on work experience. I decided to do my work experience in my old primary school. I chose to do my work experience here because ever since I was a primary school student I wanted to be a teacher myself.

Awards, awards, awards!

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We had a great day today at two Mini Company competitions.

At the Get Up and Go competition in the Red Cow Hotel, Dublin, 4 awards were won. Real won 2nd prize for Innovation, BizClips won 3rd prize for Innovation, Green Hero won 1st prize for Sustainability and 3rd prize for Quality as well. Green Hero also go through to the finals in Naas on April 7th.

At the Kildare Finals of the Student Enterprise Awards in Naas Just Deserts won the Judges prize and Knot a Problem were Runners Up overall.

Great work girls. Well done to all the groups who took part in both events.

Big thanks go to your Mini Company teachers, Ms Leonard and Ms Evans for all their help and advice.

Read Niamh's blog about the competition today here.

Mrs L :)
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Another successful Work Experience

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Work experience is over for another year and once again the reports from employers about all the students were outstanding. The employers told us how enthusiastic, diligent, punctual, and lovely the students were. Many said they would happily take a St Wolstans student for work experience again. That's a great credit to our TY ambassadors.

Thanks so much to class Amina and Emnet for being such exemplary employees and doing us proud.

Mrs L :)

Ruth is going to murder someone!

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Well, not quite :)

Ruth has finally decided on what her end of year History project will be. She explains on her blog.........

"For our history summer test we have to choose any topic in history and do a project on it. When I was told this, I thought to myself how am I ever going to pick something? After a long time of thinking I landed on the idea of doing my project on women pilots during World Wwar II, or WASP's. But I wasn't 100% certain.

Then that week I was watching my absolute favourite programme of all times Criminal Minds and they were investigating a serial killer, who was copy catting Jack The Ripper. And that is when it came to me, I will do my project on Jack The Ripper!"


Read the rest of Ruths blog post here.

Sounds very interesting Ruth. Remind me not to get into trouble with you between now and the end of the year!!!

Mrs L ;)

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Ailbhe likes the student life!

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Ailbhe spent her work experience at the University of Limerick. Sounds like she enjoyed it, read on.....

"University of Limerick is really such an amazing place to go for work experience! The reason I went to UL was because I wanted to get a taste of a few different courses and I thought that it might give me an idea of what I would want to do in college. It was so good because we actually were like college students for the week. We were on our own going to the different lectures......

Orlaigh's been to Court!

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Orlaigh has been in the Four Courts on work experience, read on......

"So, I'm doing my Work Experience in the Four Courts this week and wow was it a good choice. Since I was seven I have wanted to be a lawyer and to finally get to see all of these intelligent barristers at work is just amazing..........

The Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking

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I came across this on Fiona's blog tonight. Great work Fiona for posting this.

Fiona says,
"I thought this video was really interesting and its amazing what happens if a girl is given an education and has access to a doctor. Also what makes this video different is that it's an ad yet it doesn't feel like one. "



Read more of Fiona's blog here.

Mrs L :)

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Hayley is on yard duty!

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Hayley is enjoying her work experience by the sounds of it!

Read what she has to say.....

"Dia Dhuit!!! I am working in Gael Scoil Uí Fhiaich in Maynooth and I am loving it! Yesterday morning I went to my supervisor who gave me a time table of the class I would be in for the week. Firstly I was in senior infants helping kids with their words and their writing. I then took down posters around a class room and put up new ones. I also helped calculate marks for tests. I also had to help with Irish dancing which was awkward because I have no idea about any of the dances. I was really nervous to begin with because it was an all Irish school but the teachers are lovely and friendly.
Today I started off in the same classes I was in yesterday stapeling and helping kids with their work. I then spent my time sorting out library books. I had to stick labels on each of them and then put the school stamp on it! I was also in a third class helping them with their work. I spend lunch times on yard duty everyday.
It was a great day and I am looking forward to tomorrow!"


Read more of Hayleys blog here.

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Congratulations to Noughts and Crosses

Congratulations to Noughts and Crosses drama group who won Best Newcomer at the Briery Gap Drama Festival in Macroom, Co Cork on Saturday. Well done girls on all your hard work.

Thanks to Ms G and Ms B for giving up their Saturday to take you down to Macroom and for all the hard work they did helping you as well.

I took this photo from Siobhan's blog :)

Read more about the day on Siobhans blog post here.
Mrs L :)

Congratulations and Good Luck

Well done to Siobhan Brady who is through to the finals of the Irish Blog Awards (Youth category).

I nominated Siobhan's blog some time ago and over the last few weeks all the nominated blogs have been judged by anonymous judges. Obviously the judges liked what they saw on Siobhan's blog because it was shortlisted for the finals.

http://awards.ie/blogawards/2011/02/28/youth-2011-finalists/

Please stop by her blog http://siobhanb.blogspot.com/ and wish her good luck. Have a read of her great blog while you're there.

Congratulations Siobhan. I'm delighted that the very first year we have used blogging in TY that you have set the standard this high. Brilliant work.

Good luck to all the finalists in the Youth category, and indeed to all the bloggers, be they journalists, politicians, comedians, scientists or whatever.

Mrs L :)

Desert Flower story boards

Below are some of the story boards class Emnet created about the Waris Dirie story - Desert Flower.

We were covering the issue of Gender in Religion class and we watched this film to see how one woman fought against the harsh 3000 year old African tradition of female gender mutilation (FGM) and how she became an activist to permanently abolish this rite of passage to womanhood.

Afterwards class Emnet got into groups and made a story board of Waris's life and then wrote a film review for their blogs.

Well done girls.

Click on each image for a larger view and please feel free to leave a comment.

Ailbhe, Leah, and Sarah's story board.

Mia and Eileen's story board

Aisling, Hayley and Michelle's story board

Ciara, Grace and Laura's story board

Hello to Mrs Gentrup

I'm delighted to see that the 7 girls who have decided to take the Student Blogging Challenge supported by EduBlogs, have been interacting with their guest teacher for the challenge, Mrs Beth Gentrup.

Mrs Gentrup works in Nebraska, USA and is a teacher of gifted students. She has asked lots of questions about TY and I hope she enjoys reading all you get up to!

Mrs L :)

History projects

Some of the girls have been blogging about their History projects.

Click the Read More text below to read on and see what they are doing their research on.....

Irish Blog Awards

Good luck to Siobhan B who has been included in two categories of the Irish Blog Awards - Best Newcomer and Best Youth categories.

http://awards.ie/blogawards/2011/02/13/youth-2011-nominations/

http://awards.ie/blogawards/2011/02/13/newcomer-2011-nominations/


There will be two rounds of judging so here's hoping Siobhan gets through. Well done anyway Siobhan on being chosen.

Mrs L :)

I made a Voki

over there > > > > > > > > > > > >(top of page)

......do you want to make one too? You could tell your blog visitors something about yourself or your blog.

Make yours at www.voki.com

Team Swift

Team Swift have been busy setting up their blog and Facebook page. Well done on the recent KFM radio interview and good luck in the F1 in Schools competition girls.

Find out more about F1 in Schools competition at http://www.f1inschools.ie

Mrs L

Wohoo 5555 page views

Our girls in KFM and F1 :)

Here is the podcast of Roisin and Aisling's interview on KFM this week about their F1 in Schools projects.

Aisling and Roisin at KFM

Well done girls. Any sponsors out there?

Mrs L :)

The Student Blog Challenge

Well done to Siobhan and Aisling B for entering the Student blog challenge. I'm delighted. I see their blogs have been visited by a teacher from New Zealand already. Good luck girls.

Anyone else want to join them??? Find out more info here.

Register your blog here.

What will the challenges involve?

Chloe Wants to be a Millionaire!

Chloe enjoyed her Irish class today. Read on.......

"Today in Irish we played Who Wants to be a Millionaire but all the questions were related to Irish Verbs. Everyone each got a question. We sat in The Chair at the front of the room and our teacher, "Chris Tarrant", asked us the