Choir and CHRISTMAS :D

Yesterday the choir was singing in the orchard in aid of focus ireland. We were all wearing santa hats (which we got to keep, haha) I think we sang great and got everyone in the christmas mood. Some teachers even came to join us at some stages, which was good. I hope we raised a lot of money for a really good cause. Here's focus ireland's website, if you'd like to check it out :)  http://www.focusireland.ie/
Christmas is only 6 days away now.....:o Next week we've got christmas tests, but we've only got 5, so thats better than other years :) I should really go do a bitta study now ;) haha

Bag Packing for the Irish Cancer Society :)

Today I was bag packing in tesco for the cancer society. This is a really good cause, and I hope we raised a lot of money. I had to pack people's bags and then for a while I had to sell raffle tickets, to win a hamper. Some people were very generous! Hopefully we've made enough money to make a difference to their society :)

history project

So we have to do a history project, which will account for our christmas test result :o I am doing mine on Bahrain. I know you're thinking bah what????! most people have never heard of it, but I like doing things differently! Its in the middle east, a country consisting of 33 islands. Its really interesting and I've been learning a lot about the history of the country :)
I must admit, it is one of the most interesting projects :)

SNOW :D :D

Well today was our first day back after a week of snow :( I was hoping that maybe we wouldnt have school, but unfortunately I was wrong ;) The last week was really good because I caught up on some well needed sleep! The snow was so deep, I measured it and in my garden I had 5 and a half inches :D Most of the time I couldn't feel my fingers or feet, but it was well worth it :)
"I'm dreaming of a white christmas"....!

Green Hero

This week was very exciting as we got our magazines off the printer and distributed them to the primary schools. It was so good to see the magazines, as we put SO much hard work into them and it was great to see the results :) All the teachers and students loved the magazine, which was really good. Our next issue should be coming out in early spring, so we will have to start working hard on that one...but everyone was very impressed with our first issue :D
here's a link to our website: http://greenheromag.blogspot.com/
please visit it :D

projects, projects, and more projects ;)

This week I have been soo busy with all the projects we have for various subjects.  We have to present a history powerpoint to the present 2nd and 3rd years. I'm doing mine on the korean war :) We have got a geography powerpoint to present in class..mine's on china. We also have to finish our dress design for home ec..ours is nearly done but we still have to do the mood board :o I have also been busy working on my tech f1 project as well! But its all good, there are a lot of projects, but they are fun :D We are making advent wreaths in religion tomorrow and we also have a podcasting workshop..so they should be good :)

Harry Potter

As most Harry Potter fans will know, the movie came out on friday the 19th november. I was really looking forward to seeing it because people have been talking about it non- stop for the past year. It is the second last movie in the series. I went to see it on the day it came out :) I dressed up as Professor Trelawney (the wierd one), and I must say I looked pretty well :) I would recommend anyone to see it, but if you're not familiar with harry potter, you might not understand it...:/ It was so good, and I cant wait until the last one :D

Tour of the State Labs :)

On Tuesday 16th of November, all the ty's headed of to the State Labs. Most people didn't even know that it existed! I was really excited because I have a really big interest in science. When we got there, we were split into 4 groups. We were all given really cool lab coats...we all looked dashing! :P We were given a tour of all the differnet departments, like the dairy science and veterinary departments. We were told what their work involved. They mostly test animals and food to make sure that their are no foreign bodies that could cause harm to humans. It was a really good day overall and everyone enjoyed it :)

Mini Company in Naas (:

Today we were at the Moate Theater again in Naas. Today Orla told us all about the business report that we have to write and showed us a movie about proper communication skills and manners, so that we know how to act when the judges come to talk to us. We learned that there are 4 types of business person:
Agressive, Passive agressive, Passive and Assertive. In business it is best to be assertive, as you can get your point across, but you do not attack anyone in the process. You are not afraid to say what you want to say, but you listen to what other people have to say as well. And we can't forget:
"Business is a risky business!"
:D

Work Experience Day 5

Today was my last day and I felt sad that it was all coming to an end. I looked at human cheek and skin cells and hair follicles under the microscope. It was very interesting. I really enjoyed my week at work experience and I was sad when it all finished. This week gave me an insight into the world of work and college life. It was so much fun and now I know that I definitely want to do something in biology when I leave school! :)

Work Experience Day 4

Today I took part in a 1st year demonstration. It was really good because we studied things like fungi and bacteria and looked an them under the microscope. It was really interesting and I learned so much. I felt like I was one of the college students :)

Work Experience Day 3

Today I was in work for my 3rd day. It was different from my first day, because this time I knew my way around the college. I felt like I was one of the college students! :P Today was so much fun because I looked at various things under the microscopes. I looked at things like plants, dog and cat livers, human pancreases, rat tongue, cardiac muscle and skeletal muscle. It was really good to see things maximized so you could see every little cell and nucleus. It was so much fun and really interesting. :)

Work Experience Day 1

Today was the first day of work experience. I am working in the muscle biology laboratory in NUI Maynooth. I was really nervous but excited when I was going in. I was introduced to my supervisor, who was very nice. She gave a brief outline of what I would be doing and what her work involves. She gave me a tour of the biology department, and then I met all the other workers in the lab. They were all very nice and welcoming. In this lab they look at  muscle diseases. I am in charge of filling the water tanks everyday. I have to wear gloves and a lab coat at all times, for health and safety reasons. Today my task was to make up buffers, which I then had to put into 1ml containers using a pipette. I met up with Leah and Michelle for lunch, which was fun. Overall the day was very good and enjoyable!

Work Experience Talk

Today we got a talk from the 2 guidance councilors, preparing us for our work experience next week. We learned about how to behave in the work place and what the employer expects from us.We also were given some of the worst situations that could happen and we had to find a solution for them. One of these was that you woke up an hour late and what would you do? The talk was really helpful. Next week we do our work experience, and I'm going to NUI Maynooth, so I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing :)

Leinster Rugby and dance classes :D

TY's now have 4 classes of P.E a week, which is great :D Yesterday we had another session with the leinster rugby coaches, which was really good. I'm really enjoying the rugby, its great fun! I've always likes watching rugby and now that we get to play it its really enjoyable. We are also learning teamwork, and a lot of people's competitive sides are coming out :P
For the next 3 weeks, we will be doing dance classes. We started today. I was a bit apprehensive at the start, as I have 2 left feet. ;) It was really fun, and we got to dance to songs that we like. We learned a whole routine, and by the end of the double class, we were all so tired. None of us expected it to be that tiring! It was really fun when I got into it, and I can't wait for next week! :D

Dress Up Day :D

Today is the last day before mid term woo :D its dress up day and I dressed up as Scream :o  Surprisingly, a lot of people dressed up, and some look very scary :) Every one is excited for mid term, to get a well deserved break(and a lot of sleep), so we will come back fresh for our work experience!

Accord Talk

Today we had a talk from a woman from the organisation Accord. We learned all about relationships, how we relate to other people and we learned about our bodies. It was a really worthwhile day as we learned a lot. It wasn't awkward as we didn't have a teacher in the room with us. The woman was really down to earth and easy to talk to. It was a very interesting day :)
Tomorrow is the last day before mid- term and we have a theme day. TY's are dressing up as characters from scary movies, so it should be very interesting to see what everybody dresses up as ;) I've been very busy with all these projects, so I'll have a lot to do!

Mini Company in Naas :)

Yesterday TY's went to the Moate Theater in Naas for a mini company talk. Orla from the Kildare County Enterprise Board was talking to us all about marketing our product. It was very good, as we also got to hear the ideas from other schools as well. We don not need to promote our project, as it is a free service and we have all our customers already. But yesterday was very helpful, as we got a lot more information to help us with our projects. So we have a lot of work to do over the midterm!

Colour Me Beautiful and Mini Company talk :)

On Thursday this week, a man from NUI maynooth came in to talk to us about a product design course in NUIM. It was very interesting, and was useful as many mini company groups are making a product and he gave them advice. Check out our Green Hero Mini Company facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Celbridge-Ireland/Green-Hero/164129233598558.
On friday, we had two women from colour me beautiful come into talk to us about what colours suited our skin tones etc. This was really good, as we were categorized into groups. I was a warm, and examples of colours that suit me are red, green, brown, turquoise and orange. We also found out what style personality we were, and I was casual (which was very obvious, as all i wear is tracksuits :L)

Mini Company (:

This week, my group have been working very hard on our mini company project. We were given a deadline to meet by Mrs B by monday the 11th of november. My team was delighted when we got over €100 over our target! My group is doing a free magazine that will be distributed free to our local primary schools. All week we have been busy getting sponsors and businesses that wanted to put an ad into our magazine. Our company is called "Green Hero" and will promote being eco- friendly and green. On monday we had a visit from Orla, from the Kildare county enterprise board. Our group has been very professional as now we have a website, an email address and we even have business cards! This week has been very busy, I feel like a real business woman! :P

Geography project :)

We are all working hard on our geography projects now. I am doing a 2nd and 3rd world country, so I am choosing China and Brazil respectively. Here is an interesting fact in Brazil: Macapa lies on the equator and is proud to have the only football stadium in the world (The Zerao) that has each half of the pitch lying in different hemispheres!
<<<This is a picture of the amazon rainforest in Brazil :)

TY update :)

Ty is going really good, but I've got a lot of hard work to do! This week, we submitted our Young Scientist projects, worked on our history and geography projects and Mini Company. My group have been busy finding out prices and other things. Today there was a meeting about the Gaisce Award, and it looks really good and interesting! We have also been working on our technology F1 competition and our home ec dress design :) This week has been quite busy but fun too :)

Carlingford!! :D

On Monday 13th of september, ty's headed off to carlingford. It was a very early start, with us having to meet at 7 in the morning! We arrived there at about 9. My first impressions of carlingford town was that it was very pretty. When we got there, we were brought on our 1st activity which was the high ropes. From the minute I saw the ropes i felt sick, because I have a HUGE fear of heights. After the high ropes, we went for lunch, and then we were brought to our 2nd activity, which was kayaking. We got changing into our swimming togs and wetsuits ( which were very hard to get into!!). I didnt think that kayaking would be very hnard, but it really hurt my arms! :P It was so windy, which made it very hard to steer in the right direction and we kept getting blown off course into the wall. It was so much fun though :) We then went pier jumping, we was awesome. I started off on the small jump and then decided that I was going to conquer my fears and jump off the higher wall. It took about 10 minutes of convincing myself to do it, but I eventually did :) It was so much fun. That night we were all knackered, but then we were told that we were going on a hike. It sounded fun, but I soon realised that it was so tiring. We were climbing uphill for about an hour, and that was bad enough! Then it got really dark all of a sudden and it started lashing rain. To make matters worse there was gale force winds and we couldn't see a thing! Everyone was feeling wet, cold and tired, so to cheer ourselves up we sang christmas carols :) the instructors probably thought that we were mad!
the next day we did orienteering and archery which were both really fun. then we did the challenge course which taught us teamwork and good communication.  We left carlingford at 5, and I was so tired. I had never climbed uphill so much in my life! Carlingford was really great fun and definitely something to remember!!

Social Development Day :D

On monday the 6th of september, our class amina had social development day. we started off by introducing each other so we could get to know everyone better. we had to say what we would like to do as a career, our greatest achievements, our hobbies and our (hilarious) embarrasing moments. we did many excercises and fun games, one was finding out our personality types. there were the directors (red), the mediators (green), the observers (blue) and the entertainers (yellow). i was red :) we are very direct, strong minded, quick thinking, extroverted and set a lot of targets. this was a very worthwhile excercise as we got to learn more about ourselves and each other. we all became more tolerant of other people personalities. we all learned how to communicate effectively with other people. :) overall this day was so much fun and definitely worthwhile. TY has been really great so far, and i'm definitely not regretting doing it...its definitely not a doss year!!!