Christmas is coming :D

Next week is our last week at school before we get off for Christmas hols!! :D I can't wait! Not only is Christmas in less than 10 days, but my birthday's coming up too , I better get started on buying Christmas presents though :L
We had a Carrolling service in school today, and myself and all the other t.y. girls are all in the choir :) We did lots of practice all week and the service went really well :) We sang loads of my favorite Christmas songs like 'Feed the world' and some girls in the class played the jambaya and did percussion so it sounded nice :) It definitely got me in the Christmas mood :L

Fashion Show

So last Friday we finaly had our home ec. fashion show! Unfortunately I actually missed it :( But I heard that it was great and the girls all had fun! Some people won prizes for their outfits and presentations, and they took plenty of pictures so at least I got to see the designs :)
Here's a picture of all the girls

Back to school :)

So today was our first day back at school after our snow days :) It was still freezing outside and the snow has pretty much turned to crushed ice which is not good for me since I forgot my coat :L Going back after 6 days off was a little weird at first but I definitely had a lot to catch up with. I did my geography project today finaly :L I was a bit nervous but it went ok, much faster than I had thought :L Of course I had so many things I wanted to say about my trip but when I got up there I forgot so many, but it was good practice at presenting :)
I think the fashion show might be this Friday so we have to finish our story board in time, and not to mention start the history project! So many things to do :L

Snow Days

These last few days it has been snowing non stop! :D Which I think is pretty great because I love the snow :) Although it's unbelievably cold, it's nice because it really makes you feel like Christmas is here. It's supposed to be the coldest November we've had in Ireland in recorded history :O And as an added bonus there's no school because the roads are too dangerous, which I'm bot complaining about because I have a great sleep in in the morning and time to make a snowman :D

Podcasting workshop

Last Friday we had a podcasting workshop in school. I never even knew what a podcast was until then :L It's a sound file that can be downloaded and sent to people. Two guys came into the school with a lot of computers and sound equipment and we were divided into groups to come up with our own podcast! It was a bit difficult to think of things at first but in the end we all came up with an idea. Some were a bit mad, but they were definitely original :L Our group did an ad for our own Irish takeaway ;Paddy's Potatoes' , and we had great fun recording the country Irish accents! :)
In the end we heard everyones podcasts and they were very funny. Unfortunately we didn't have time to Bluetooth them to our phones or I would've posted it on blogger!

Poll

All the projects :/

One thing you can expect a lot of in T.Y. is projects :L I think we almost have a project in every subject except maths! We're almost finished our geography project now, we'll be giving our presentations next week, and we submitted our proposal for the formula 1 technology project so that's a bit of a weight of my shoulders. One of the hardest projects this year is definitely mini company, it takes up a lot of time and so far we still haven't got a manufacturer :S but this week a woman is coming in to talk to us about manufacturers so hopefully that will help. I guess the best thing to do is keep on top of them, 'cos there's more to come! :L

Work Experience 2 :D

The last day of our work experience was definitely the best. Earlier on in the week we were told we would get to record our own show and we would create the playlists and control the sound. I was so nervous that morning, but at the same time I couldn't wait :D We were showed again how to work the sound equipment, and lucky for me róisín was in charge of that so all I had to worry about was talking into the microphone. It was an amazing experience and we had so much fun putting the show together, I couldn't get over how weird my voice sounded recorded. At the end of the show we went into a special recording booth, and Róisín played the guitar and sang live in the studios. It looked exactly like it did on t.v. :L We don't know yet when it will be used on the station, but they told us they'd let us know when they have a space :) I was sad to leave but at the same time I actually missed school and all my friends that I hadn’t seen all week. It was hard work but I'd do it again if I could :D

Work Experience :D

So all of last week, our year had work experience. Myself and Róisín went to raidio nd life, an Irish radio station in Dublin. I was surprisingly calm on our first day, but definatley excited. We got the bus into pearse street and walked to merrion square. Everyone who worked at the station was really nice and friendly, one of our supervisors gave us a tour of the studios and how everything worked. We spent the first day working on stories for that evenings talk show and ringing up people for interviews. We had to speak Irish the whole day, and at first it was a bit hard because both me and róisín were kind of rusty but soon we got so used to it on our lunch brakes we'd be speaking Irish without realizing it.
The atmosphere there was so relaxed and easy going, and there wasn't a particular dress code or anything. On wedensday one of the sound technicians showed us how to use the equipment for doing a show on air, and we got to do it ourselves for a pre-recorded music programme. We did this thing called a vaux pop aswell,it's where you pick a certain topis and interview the public or people on the streets to record their opinion on the subject. We went onto the streets of Grafton to intervies passers by about a controversial mini Miss Ireland pageant in St. Pats College. At first it was hard to approach people but after a while it got easier, the challenge was finding people who spoke irish! We edited the recordings together and it aired on the show that night :)

Dancing :L

For the next 3 weeks we have dancing classes during P.E. and Wednesday was our first class. A lady comes in from outside of school to teach us some hip hop dances, and she's brilliant! We started out with a simple warm up dance to loosen up and then she started to teach us a dance routine. It was great fun, and I think we all had a few laughs watching each other struggle through some of the various moves. Even Ms. O'C got into the spirit and joined us! We had a dance off at the end of the class where the class was split into 2 teams that danced facing each other, if you got confused or forgot a move you were out. Of course I was out in the first round :L but I was very impressed with a couple of girls who made it to the last few people left.
The other T.Y. class Emnet are doing Pilates for the 3 weeks we are doing dancing, and then we'll switch around. From what I've heard from the other class Pilates was fun too so I'm looking forward to that :D

Halloween Dress up Day

Today was Halloween dress up day in our school :D Every year was given a theme and the best dressed in each class goes into a parade. The juniors had the haunted house theme, T.Y. and 5th years were scary movies, and 6th years had Harry Potter. Everyone looked great, my favourites were Ciara who dressed up as the mad hatter (and made an amazing hat, so good she convinced Ms. O'C she should be a milliner) and Ailbhe and Leah as Cruela Deville and a ghost buster. Well done to all the girls who made the effort, and have a great midterm!! :D

Accord Talk

A representative from Accord came to our school today to talk with us about relationships. We had anticipated this talk and expected an awkward afternoon filled with laughter and embarrassment. Surprisingly that was not the case and I immediately warmed to our facilitator M. She made everything open and easy-going and although there was some laughter there was little embarrassment :L It was very informative and interesting to hear other peoples views and opinions on relationships.

Colour Me Beautiful :)

Last Friday we were lucky to have the opportunity to have two women from the Colour Me Beautiful Company come and talk with us. Colour Me beautiful is almost like a style advising company, but mainly focused on the colours that suit you best and compliment your skin tone. It was actually really interesting and definitely surprising. They started off by explaining that there are 6 different colour types. The fair people usually have blonde hair, pale skin and pale eyes, the colours that typically suit them are pale pinks and blues etc. The soft colouring can be compared to Jennifer Anniston with sandy brown hair and kind of sallow skin and pastels suit them also. Warm people tend to have reddish hair and fair skin with freckles and earthy browns, rustic reds and greens suit them. And then there were the clears, they have fair skin and then contrasting dark hair and bright eyes. Bright contrasting colours suit them eg. Bright reds and pinks. And last but not least there are the deeps, similar to Eva Longoria they have dark colouring and deep strong colours suit them like reds and purples and burgundy.

The two women went through the class categorizing everyone individually, altogether there were 4 fair girls, 5 clear, 5 warm , 3 deeps and almost half the class were soft :L  With great surprise I was put into the deep group, because initially I thought I would be a clear. It seemed I was a borderline! Overall It was definitely fun :D

Home ec. Design

  

In Home. Ec this year we are doing a fashion show!! It's very exciting because we are actually designing the outfits on the runway. The class was divided into groups and given a colour (black & white, red or purple) and a pair of white trousers and top. The challenge is to make an outfit out of these materials with a budget of €15, definitely a challenging project! My group and I were given the colour purple, and this inspired us to make an Alice in Wonderland themed dress. You’re probably thinking what has purple got to do with Alice in wonderland? Well we thought of the Cheshire cat initially and from there we put in different elements of the movie to make the outfit. We included a hat for the mad hatter, and on the hat we will have a butterfly and a deck of cards (the queen of hearts) and ribbons and feathers to top it off! The skirt will have an appliqué of a spade and a club and pink under netting. At the moment it sounds pretty crazy but hopefully it will al come together nicely!

                                                                 

Mini Company

Every year St.Wolstans T.Y.  Participates in the mini company Enterprise Ireland competition. Our school has always done well, two years ago a group of girls started a business called Digi-music and won the competition. My group and I have decided to produce a new product that seals the opening of a can (like coke etc.) so that you can put in your bag, and drink it later! :) It's definitely a challenging project because we have literally no business experience, but so far I'm enjoying it and today we finished the 3d design for the product. You never know maybe Wolstans could have another winner this year! ;) 

Trip Around The World

This year we have loads of projects to do, and one of them is our geography project where we must organise a trip around the world to 6 different countries. We were divided into groups of three and each person must pick 2 countries of their own to research, I picked Croatia and Laos. Croatia is officialy a coutnry for only 20 yeasr so it's relativley new but it has a rich history from when it was part of Yugoslavia.  Although it's not entirely relevant to the project, the boyband 'The Wanted' filmed there latest music video in the beautiful town of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

        

Carlingford

On monday morning all us girls gathered at our bus stop at the crazy hour of 7 in the morning. Most of the girls were like zombies (myself included because for some reason I had decided to get up at 5 for a shower :L) . We were going away for two days and yet most girls had massive suitcases or at least two bags, i was just proud of myself for only bringing 5 pairs of shoes :P
We arrived there at about 9 and almost immediatley we were brought on our first activity. My group went on the high ropes first and it was definatley one of the most terrifying experiences of my life...but also my most enjoyable :D The high ropes consisted of 3 different courses, one of them was a pole (about 60 feet high) that you had to climb up and then stand with 3 other girls on a small square platform on top while leaning backwards and holding on to each other. Myself and the 3 other girls with me stood trembeling and clutching on to each other for dear life, and if that wasn't bonding I don't know what is :P
We also went kayacking and pier jumping that day, and in the evening we had a traumatising experience of hiking up a mountain in the dark with the pelting rain!
The next day we did some orienteering and archery, and some group challenges. We packed our bags and left at about 5. The bus ride back home was a big contrast to the excited and hyper atmosphere present on the way to carlingford, instead half the girls were asleep exhausted from the trip :P Definatley a trip worth remembering! :)

Social Development Day :)

Last Monday class Amina had our social development day.

We went to the library first thing that morning, anticipating what was to come. Our instructor for the day was Austin and we began immediately by introducing each other, including our greatest achievements and our (extremely funny) most embarrassing moment. We continued the day with various games and exercises, and by lunch time we were all feeling much closer as a class. 

We were all categorized into four different personality types: The Mediators (calm, caring, patient, kind, and introverted) The Directors (direct, opinionated, driven, honest, extroverted) The Entertainers (positive, funny, sociable, loud, extroverted) and The Observers (analytical, organised, precise, logical, and introverted). I was a mediator, and it was very interesting to identify with the different groups.

Overall it was a lot of fun and we learnt loads about ourselves and others :D

First day :D

 The 1^st week of school started on Tuesday, hugs from girls who hadn’t seen each other in 2 months, stories about the summer were exchanged and everyone was excited about the upcoming year in T.Y! :)

 Our new class was called Amina (meaning truth and honesty) and quickly the girls became friends. We got our timetables with our new classes and teachers, and the rest of the week I tried to get used to waking up early when I was used to sleeping in until 1 :L