Road Safety Talk

Today was quite a memorable day of Ty. A man named Pat McNeely of the Road Safety Authority came in to talk to our class for the duration of the day. He started off the day with showing us videos and telling us a story about two young men, Paul and Dave, who had been involved in a car accident that changed their lives in a big way. They lost their best friend and Paul ended up in a wheelchair, paralysed from the hips down. This was a shocking story and it really showed how much people's lives can be changed by reckless driving.

Throughout the day, we watched numerous different videos and saw many graphic images of fatal car accidents and the affects they have on friends and families all over Ireland. We focused a lot on the traumatic car crash in Donegal which happened two years ago. Two cars were involved, one with a young man Declan driving with his Aunt and Uncle in the car, and another with a young man Paul driving with three teenage boys in the car, two of which were twin brothers. All were killed except Declan, who was talking in the video but it was evident the guilt he still felt as he felt that the crash was his fault. This was an upsetting video to watch as the families of the victims are traumatised by the accident and will never be the same again. All these videos that we saw and stories we were told were such an eye opener to how dangerous the road is these days, especially in light of the tragedy that happened yesterday when a sixteen year old girl was knocked down in Celbridge and later died in hospital. We should pray for her family and friends at this time and may she rest in peace.

For the second half of the day, Pat discussed driving theory tests and driving lessons with us. The subject of us learning to drive ourselves. We did a mock theory test, I did okay for my first try, despite having never attempted to drive a car before :L We were also taught what not to do at the scene of a crash such as don't move the victims incase of futher injury and things like that. All in all, this day was very informative an useful, although upsetting and graphic, we still learnt a lot and this information will stick with us for the rest of our lives.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #5 Barbados (Rihanna)

Robyn Rihanna Fenty was born in Saint Michael, Barbados in 1988. She goes by the name, Rihanna now as her stage name. She had always loved singing in her youth so she moved to America at the age of sixteen to pursue her singing career, after she had been introduced to a record producer, Evan Rodgers who loved Rihanna's performing straight away. When she moved to America, she moved in with Rodgers and his wife. Here, she recorded a four song demo which made it's way to Def Jam recordings, who signed her straight away.

Her debut album, 'Music of the Sun', was released in August 2005. This included the chart toppping single 'Pon de Replay'. It went straight to number one of the UK Singles Chart. The second song released from the album was 'If It's Lovin' That You Want', but this wasn't as popular as the first single. A month after her debut album was released, she started working on her second album, titled 'A Girl Like Me'. It was released in April 2006. It included singles like 'SOS', 'Unfaithful' and 'Break It Off' featuring Sean Paul. This album sold 115,000 copies in it's first week. She then embarked on her world tour, despite only being 18 years old.

Her third album, 'Good Girl Gone Bad', was released in 2007. During the recording of this album, Rihanna decided to change her image to an edgier, rebellious one so she cut her long hair off and dyed it black. This change was heard in her music also. This album was full of songs to dance to on a night out such as 'Don't Stop The Music', 'Disturbia', and 'Umbrella'. Umbrella was the most- talked about song in a while as it stayed at number one in the charts for ten weeks, and it was said that this song was to blame for the rainy summer we had that year! This was her best selling album to date. She won Best Single and Video that year.This year she also headed off on her Good Girl Gone Bad Tour in September. In 2008 she won Favourite Female Artist of the Year.

In February 2009, Rihanna was scheduled to perform at the Grammy awards, but unfortunately this was cancelled due to a run in with her then- boyfriend, singer Chris Brown. He assaulted her leaving her with facial injuries. He was brought to court and was charged with assault and received five years probation. He was also ordered to stay fifty yards away from Rihanna at all times. Despite this hard time, Rihanna still managed to release another bestselling album, 'Rated R', including hit singles such as 'Russian Roulette' and 'Rude Boy'. To promote this album further, she set out on her Last Girl on Earth world tour. Due to her bestselling albums, Rihanna won Entertainer of the Decade in January 2010.

During 2010, Rihanna collaborated with Eminem with 'Love the Way You Lie' which was number one on the charts for weeks. She also sang with Kanye West in the hit song 'All of the Lights'. She released her fifth album, 'Loud' in November 2010. This album included hit singles such as 'Only Girl', 'What's My Name?' featuring Drake, and 'Who's That Chick?' featuring David Guetta. In December 2010, these three songs were top ten in the UK Singles Charts with 'What's My Name?' at number one. In April 2011, another song from the album Loud, 'S&M' , reached number one in the charts, giving her ten number ones in America. She is the youngest artist in the charts' history to do so, being only twenty three years of age. She is an extremely popular artist at the current time.

The connection between her in Barbados and Justin Bieber in Canada, is that they were both signed to the same record label, Def Jam Recordings.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #4 Ontario,Canada (Justin Bieber)

Justin Bieber was born in Ontario, Canada on March 1, 1994. As a child, Justin taught himself to play guitar, piano, drums and trumpet, as he always had a big love of music. When he was 12, he entered a competition at which he sang 'So Sick' by Ne-Yo and he was placed in second. Justin's mum decided to set up a YouTube account for him to upload videos of him singing covers of various songs. Overtime, his popularity on the site grew. He was discovered on YouTube by music producer, Scooter Braun, in 2007. He tracked Justin down as he was very interested in his talents. At this time Justin was only 13, but Scooter wanted to fly him to Atlanta, Georgia, to sing for him and Usher. After her sang for them ,he was signed to Scooter's company, RBMG, by both Scooter and Usher, Usher also arranged an audition for Justin with Antonio L.A Reid of Def Jam Recordings. Justin was also signed to Def Jam after his audition. Scooter Braun became Justin's manager.

Justin Bieber released his debut album, My World, in late 2009. This album contained chart toppers such as 'One Time', 'One Less Lonely Girl' and 'Favourite Girl'. This album went double platnium in Canada and the UK. At just seventeen, he is an extremely successful teenager. His second album, titled 'My World 2.0', was released in early 2010. The lead tracks from this album are 'Baby', 'Somebody to Love' and 'U Smile'. Justin has become extremely popular among teenage girls all over the world. Wherever he goes, millions of girls follow. There has been some safety issues around this though, Justin's public appearances have been cancelled numerous times due to crowd control problems regarding the safety of the crowds and Justin himself. He was due to do a public performance in Australia which had to be cancelled after several girl were injured in the crowd crush. This shows just how popular Justin has become over a short space of time.

He has been nominated for and won a huge number of awards during his short career. In 2010 alone he won Best Artist, five different times, his songs such as 'Baby' and 'One Time' have won awards such as Best Song, Best Music Video and Best Album of the Year. Despite being only seventeen, he has already had a world tour during which every concert has been sold out. He is an extremely successful teenager and will go on to be successful for many years.

For my next map point, I will go to Barbados where Rihanna is from as she is also signed to Def Jam Record company, this is why she is connected with Justin Bieber.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #3 California (Katy Perry)

Katy Perry, born Katherine Hudson, was born in Santa Barabara, California, in 1984. As a child, Katy sang in the gospel choir in her church and grew up listening to gospel music. Her parents were pastors so Katy went to Catholic schools and camps. She reached a point in her childhood when she was copying everything her older sister was doing, so Katy always borrow her sister's tapes to sing along to. She would perform for her parents who decided to enroll her for vocal training. She took these lessons from the age of nine until she was sixteen. She later attended the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

When Katy decided to pursue her singing career, she changed her name to Perry, which is her mother's maiden name, as Katy Hudson would be too close to the name of the actress Kate Hudson.She was originally signed to the record label, Def Jam, but was later dropped after her first album with that label was not successful. She was then signed to Columbia Records in 2004, but she wasn't too happy with this label as she lost a lot of control over her music. After a while of not getting anywhere with this label, even though she was named as the 'Next Big Thing' , Katy decided to start recording on her own.


Katy was dropped by Columbia Records in 2006, but she was highly recommended to Virgin Records. With this label, she began recording her first mainstream album titled 'One of the Boys'. Katy wanted to establish her image so she released singles titled 'I Kissed a Girl' and 'Hot and Cold'. These songs caused plenty of controversy as they were suggestive and offended some listeners of the songs. However, this didn't bother Katy as she was trying to set a quirky, unique image as a pop star. She had a bright, strange style of clothes but this really works for her as a performer because she really stands out.


Katy has been nominated for and won plenty of awards during her music career. Her single 'I Kissed a Girl' earned her a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal at the 2009 Grammy Awards. She won Best Breakthrough Artist in 2009 on the MTV Australia Awards. Her songs, 'Hot and Cold', 'Waking Up in Vegas', 'California Gurls' and 'Teenage Dream' have all won most performed songs. She has also won Best Act and 'California Gurls' won Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Also popular with the younger generation, Katy won Favourite Female Singer, and 'California Gurls' won Fave Song at the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards.

Katy met Russell Brand on set of his movie 'Get Him to the Greek' in 2008. They became a couple about a year later and since then have got married in India on October 23, 2010.


My next point on the map is in Ontario, Canada, the home of teenage sensation, Justin Bieber. The connection between Katy Perry and Justin is that Katy was signed with Justin's current record label Def Jam Recordings.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #2 London (Adele)

Adele Jenkins was born in Tottenham,England in May 1988, making her just 22 years old. She graduated from the Brit School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon in May 2006, where she had been classmates with Leona Lewis and Jessie J. She is a very talented singer/songwriter who also plays piano, guitar, bass, celeste and percussion. She is signed to a record label called XL Recordings after they saw a three-song demo that she had posted on MySpace. Her debut album, 19, was released in January, 2008. This album included songs such as 'Chasing Pavements' and a brilliant cover of Bod Dylan's 'Make You Feel My Love'.This album, despite being her first, went straight to number one and has been certified as platinum four times.

She is also very popular in America which is quite rare nowadays as it is quite tough to 'break' America. Her new album, 21, was released in January, 2011. It was extremely popular and sold 208,000 copies in it's first week. The album was number one on the charts in seventeen countries and in the US. She preformed her new single 'Someone Like You' at the 2011 Brit Awards and it went straight to number one in the charts. This single is from Adele's new album, titled 21. This album has also remained number one on the charts for a number of consecutive weeks. The Official Charts Company announced that Adele is the firs tliving artist to achieve two top five hits in both the Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since The Beatles in 1964.

She has become extremely popular all over the world in the past year. She has been asked to perform at many events and was on the Graham Norton show two weeks ago where she sang her new single from her album 21, 'Set Fire To The Rain'. In December, she performed at John Mayer's 2nd Annual Holiday Charity Revue, where she opened with a forty minute set.

This was held at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California, which is why i'm off to California for my next map point where I will write about Katy Perry.

Ciara Xxx

Geography Project - #1 Dublin (The Script)

To start off my geography world map project, I went to Dublin to write about The Script. They are a pop/rock band from Dublin who have become extemely famous all over the world in the past few years. The members of the band are Danny O'Donoghue, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power. Danny O'Donoghue is the lead singer-songwriter of the band, he also plays guitar and keyboard. Mark Sheehan is the band's guitarist, he his also a singer-songwriter. Danny and Mark started off as a band called Mytown in 1996. They were signed to Universal Records up until 2001 when they met The Script's current drummer, Glen Power.

The band's first single ' We Cry' was written after some hard times that the band went through. During the band's early years, Mark Sheehan's mum fell terminally ill and died 10 months after she was diagnosed and Danny's dad died of a heart attack four months later. Danny said that 'the song is not about hope because not everyone's life is full of hope'. 'We Cry' was released on 14 April, 2008. The band performed 'We Cry' for the first time on BalconyTv in Dublin on 13 September 2007. 'We Cry' was released on 14 April, 2008. The single peaked at 15 on the UK Singles Chart, giving them their first top 20 single. It also performed well in the Irish charts giving the band their first top ten single in their home country. They then won Best Band at the Danish Music Awards in 2009.

Their second single, 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved', was released on 15 September 2008. The single reached number 2 in Ireland, Denmark, and the UK. The band released their debut album, The Script, on 11 August 2008. Following the success of "The Man Who Can't Be Moved", the album entered the UK Album Chart at number one with sales of 20,240 copies where it stayed for eleven weeks. The album spent three weeks in the top ten and was the eighteenth best selling album in the UK of 2008. The album also entered the Irish Album Chart at number one, holding the top spot for five weeks. It had, as of January 2009, spent 2 wks. in the top 10. The Irish office of Sony BMG music presented the group with their first multi-platinum disc for over 600,000 sales of their debut album, 'The Script'.

The band have done extremely well over the past few years. The Script's new album, Science & Faith, was released in September of 2010. The first single that was released from this album was 'For the First Time'. The band have been so successful that they had seven sold out concert dates for their Science & Faith tour in 2011. I went to their concert on the 12 March 2011, they put on an amazing show and made me very proud to be Irish :)

The Script's record label are based in London, so my next point on my map will be in London where I will write about Adele.

Ciara Xxx

English Summer Assesment - My Sister's Keeper

For the Transition year Summer English assessment, we were told to choose a book from a very varied list, read it, and write a review on it, I chose 'My Sister's Keeper' by Jodi Picoult. My Sister's Keeper is a very moving book about a thirteen year old girl who requests a court case in order to sue her parents for medical emancipation. This girl, Anna Fitzgerald, is requesting the court case for a good reason as her teenage sister, Kate has Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia and Anna was conceived especially to be a perfect genetic match with Kate and has spent her whole young life in the hospital donating blood, marrow and whatever else her sister needs to survive her battle with leukaemia. Now after being asked to donate one of her kidneys to Kate, Anna decides this is the last straw which is why she files for rights to her own body.

This book tells the story of the Fitzgerald family during the trial, both the trial that is the court case, and the trial that is Kate's long sickness. The book is written in an unusual way, each chapter is from a different character's viewpoint. The characters in the book who talk from their personal viewpoint in each chapter are, Sara and Brian Fitzgerald who are Kate and Anna's parents, Kate and Anna's brother Jesse, Anna and Kate themselves, Campbell Anna's lawyer and Julia Romano, a woman who is advising Anna during the trial and who was a love interest of Campbell's.

The author evokes the physical and emotional toll a desperately sick child imposes on a family, even a close and loving one like the Fitzgeralds. Anna decided to move out of the family home to be apart from her mother as Sara tries on many occasions to make Anna drop the trial. She moves in with her dad, Brian, at the fire station where he works as a fireman. Brian decides to take Anna’s side of the trial, as he never wanted to put Anna through the hardship of the donations in the first place. Sara is shocked by Brian’s decision, but Brian refuses to change his mind. During the long, tiresome trial, during which the Fitzgerald family were falling apart, during the trial, it is revealed that Kate asked Anna to sue for emancipation because she did not want Anna to have to transplant, and because she believes that she will die anyway.

One of the main points of the book is when Kate meets a boy, Taylor, in the hospital while she is having chemo. He is two years her senior but they hit it off straight away. They become inseparable, helping each other through their treatments. Taylor invites Kate to the hospital dance. This is Kate's time to shine and finally feel beautiful during her tough illness. She finds a perfect dress and goes to the dance with Taylor feeling euphoric. After having an amazing night with Taylor, who appears to be the love of her life, Kate tries to contact him numerous times but she has no luck. She is extremely upset as she thinks she has done something to upset him, but when she goes back to hospital a few days later for more chemo, Sara asks a nurse has she heard from Taylor, and the nurse breaks the hard news that Taylor had passed away the day after the dance. Kate is heartbroken.

Used to being ignored by his troubled parents, Jesse has become a delinquent, taking drugs, committing arson and forever in trouble. In the middle of the book, Jesse starts a fire in a school and his father Brian, is called to distinguish it. He discovers a cigarette butt at the scene and realises it's the same brand that Jesse smokes. He confronts Jesse expecting him to lash out, but Jesse finally breaks down in his father's arms, showing his bottled emotions for the first time in the book. Fortunately for Jesse, his father forgives his difficult behaviour and by the end of the book, he's changed his ways and is a graduated guard.
We discover throughout the book that Campbell and Julia were young lovers but when Campbell is diagnosed with epilepsy, he left her and broke her heart because he thought she deserves better. Their fate is also happy, at the end of the book, all is forgiven and they get back together.

Not everything can be a happy ending though, which is evident by the end of the book. After successfully winning the court case and being granted medical emancipation, Anna is on her way home in the car with Campbell, when they are hit head-on by an oncoming truck. Anna, who is unconscious, is retrieved by Brian while Campbell is brought to the hospital with an arm injury. The doctors tell Anna's parents that she is brain dead and is only being kept alive by a machine. The doctor gives her parents the option to turn off the machine in order to donate one of Anna's kidney's to Kate, even though Kate had asked Anna to request medical emancipation so she can die. Campbell decides to make the decision for them as he now has power of attorney. Anna's machine is switched off and her kidney is successfully donated to Kate.

My Sister’s Keeper is an extremely touching book which stirs every emotion in it’s readers. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was quite a tear-jerker at times! I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good book which is also an emotional rollercoaster. The plot is very well planned and there are a number of shocking twists throughout. There is a movie of this book also, which is also very moving, but it has a completely different ending to the book. In my opinion the book is more enjoyable as it is deeper and the ending is a huge shock!

Ciara Xxx

Music Night :D

Well we did our Ty performance of 'Mama Said' last night at the Music Night. Ms.O'Reilly conducted us through the song with the speed and coreography and she looked very pleased after the song! She was great with preparing and practising the song with us for the past few months, thanks Ms.O'Reilly :) We;'ve heard that we got very good feedback from the audience so im very proud of the two Ty classes, well done everyone :D There was a huge variety of acts performing in the Music Night. These mostly consisted of 3rd and 6th year music students who performed some of their practical exam pieces, there was also a performance from the 5th year music class and a number of solo singers and musicians. Unfortunately, performers weren't allowed in the audience before they performed and after unless they bought a ticket so most of us didn't get to see the show itself but we had seen rehersals earlier on in the day and from what we saw it was a great show! We will also be performing 'Mama Said' at our end of year Ty night for our parents as a small taster of the fun things we have done this year. It was great fun to do and I really enjoyed the song. Ciara Xxx

Mama Said Ther'd Be Days Like This ..

The annual Music Night is on tomorrow the 30th of March and the Tys have prepared a big performance ;) We are singing 'Mama Said' , the Dionne Bromfield version. For music our class has Ms.O'Reilly and Amina have Ms.Gilsenan. We learned and practiced the song seperately but for the past few classes, we've been practicing as a Ty group. We've had a great time coreographing it and making up harmonies :) It's looking and sounding great when it's all put together. I think performing this song for the Music Night has brought us closer as a Ty group and will be one of the main memories of Ty. Hopefully it will all go right tomorrow and that we will be a Ty group to remember :D Ciara Xxx

Trip to Dublin :)

Yesterday on our trip to Dublin, we went to the National Museum of Ireland, the WB Yeats Museum in the National Library and the National Art Gallery. First of all we went to the National Museum where we had a tour of the Mesolithic & Neolithic periods, and the Bronze and Iron ages. We also went to a section of the museum that displayed a number of 'Bog Bodies'. These were bodies that were preserved in the bogs hundereds of years ago and are still perfectly preserved with fingernails and hair, they were quite strange to look at :L We then went to the WB Yeats museum because we have studied some of WB Yeats' poems in English. This was interesting as we found out lots about his life and his love for Maud Gonne. We saw loads of his original poems and his handwritten journals. For lunch we were all allowed to go off into town to get lunch and relax, most of us went toget lunch in Mcdonalds and then we went to relax in St.Stephen's Green, it was a really nice day out so this was lovely :) After lunch we went to the final museum of the day, the National Gallery. We had a tour guide that showed us around all kinds of paintings by Irish Artists, we also went to a JB Yeats art exhibition. JB Yeats is WB Yeats' brother who was a very talented artist. It was a good day in all and is probably one of the last days out we will have in Ty 2010/2011 :( Ciara Xxx

Jabba Jabba Jembe :D

The percussion workshop our class had yesterday 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 loaads of African drums, all different kinds called Jembes, bongos and some other crazy names that I can't quite remember :L We started off with clapping some rhythms to get into the beat then David showed us some basic rhythms on the drums such as 'Woodpecker' and our answering call, 'Pat the Baker' :L We had a great time all doing a big rhythm together, we kept it going for ages well done everyone :D It looked like everyone enjoyed it as much as I did, it was great fun. We also watched videos on youtube of a rhythm/music group called Stomp, It was really interesting to watch as it shows us what rhythm can create when it's used in the right way :)

Everyone got really confident during the day and had no problemswith doing little drum and percussion solos :L It was a great way for the class to listen to eachother and feel like we were accomplishing something as a group, I was quite proud of Emnet when we put all the rhythms together, it sounded great :D

I really think it's worth doing this workshop again for all the future Tys, it's a chance to learn something unusual and new and to just have fun with it.

Ciara Xxx

Last Days of Work Experience x

Well that's it, Ty work experience is over :( I think it's worth doing Ty just for work experience, it's such a good thing to do and you really learn a lot about yourself. For the last few days in Focus Ireland I was mainly doing office work such as updating media contacts and writing pieces for the organisation. On the last day, I went to a ceremony called the PETE awards. PETE is a project in Focus Ireland that helps people who were or are homeless get back into education that they may have missed out on. This was a very moving experience, it really showed me how lucky I am that I have a secure home and I will never have to leave my education. Some people, when they see homeless people on the street, they may be scared or want to stay well away from them, but when I was in Focus Ireland and meeting with their customers I learned that they are all just normal people like us who were just unfortunate enough to become homeless. Before I went to the awards on Friday, the people in my office brought out a big cake for me and my supervisor gave me a present and a card, it was so nice of them :D

I really enjoyed this week even though ~I wasn't expecting much out of it, i've learnt to have a better attitude towards anything I do in the future :)

Ciara Xxx

Work Experience #2

For my second week of work experience, I'm in Focus Ireland, Dublin. Focus Ireland is an organisation that provides long- term and short term housing for people who are homeless or in extrememly poor living conditions. They also provide emergency accomodation and have a coffee shop for homeless people to come in and have something to eat, it's open everyday from 11:30am-8:30pm.

I work from 9:30am to around 5pm. On my first day here in Focus, I was updating the company's Media Contact database. I've been working on it everyday since. This is an interesting task as I get to see all the radio and newspaper contacts from all over Ireland that Focus work with. For the second half of the first day I went to a session with some of the customers that use the houses that Focus Ireland provide. I got to chat with the customers and find out how they benefit from using Focus Ireland's facilities. They were telling me about how they will be designing a garden in Phoenix Park for the Bloom Festival in summer. They are very excited about this project and it was great to see how customers like to get involved in the organisation.

I am currently working on a customer newsletter that is being produced. The great thing about this newsletter is that the customers are involved in it's production so it will be of more use to them. I am also writing an article for the Children's Rights Alliance newsletter about a conference that Focus Ireland set up on Youth Homelessness and how they are trying to get more Governments and Political Parties involved in eradicating child and youth homelessness in Ireland.

So far i'm learning loads and even though this is not likely to be a career path I will take, it's still a great experience. I'll write more at the end of the week :)

Ciara Xxx

Mini Company Competition :D

Yesterday, the 3rd of March, all the Tys went to Clane GAA club for the first heat of the County Enterprise Board Mini Company Competition. We've been working on our companies for months and finally it was time to show people how far we've come. Our company, The Just Desserts, has come such a long way in only a few short months. We've got scammed, had disagreements in our group and had financial troubles but we've managed to get into the final :D

We worked really hard on our presentation for the competition, Sarah's dad sponsored our group by making the display board for our stand and we all went over to Sarah's house one day after school to decorate it. We designed it as a little cottage complete with photo frames containing our recipes :L Aoife's mum, who's a chef, made us her gorgeous brownies and Sarah's dad made a lovley strawberry cheesecake, the food disappeared pretty quickly :L Our stand looked really well and the judges seemed to love it :) We were the first group to be interviewed, our judge was eager to start and began talking to us before the judging was due to begin :L We were all nervous before the interview, but it turned out to be fine. The judge was lovely, just talking to us about how many we've sold, he asked us about the trouble we had with being scammed so we told him the story about us being amature buyers on the internet :L He told us he loved our product and that it was very innovative. We were delighted with his comments :)

After our interview, while everyone else was still nervously waiting for their turn, we had fun going and looking at all the other companies for a few hours. We even got our picture taken by the Liffey Champion photographer :) After a few hours when all the judging was finished, everyone took down their stands and cleared up everything while we waited to here who had been shortlisted. A few groups in our school were shortlisted, and 4 have made it into the final, well done girls :D

The Just Desserts are now preparing for the final and we hope to do well :)


Ciara Xxx

February Midterm (L)

We're all back after a nice break :) It was a good week, full of a lot of rest and relaxation. There wasn't too much on during the week, Mantra was the main event of the week on the Wednesday. This was a great night, some of the blisters still remain :/ haha Most of the Tys were there so it was like the class was together again :L It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to get up for school on Monday, mostly because it's my birthday today so I was excited for that :L Finally 16 :D Me and my friends all went to the cinema and then back to my house for food and cake on the Friday of midterm, it was a great laugh :) Some of the girls made me an Amazing handmade card (in the picture) and got me lots of lovely presents, thanks girls <3

We've a busy few weeks coming up in Ty with the Mini company competition on Thursday, work experience next week and the music night coming up soon aswell, along with a couple of concerts in between (The Script & Katy Perry :D). It won't be long until we're on our Easter holidays and then the rest of Ty will fly by, I don't want it to end :(

Ciara Xxx

Writing Workshop :)

The well- known irish author, Oisín McGann came in to talk to us about ways of recording our ideas, english grammar and the where he found his ideas for his novels. He took the normal English subject, and turned it into a fun way of learning. He made jokes about the way people talk and the different ways he writes his stories. He came up with a full story about shoes on the spot :L He had us all in fits of laughing with his jokes and his quick humour :)

It was kind of him to take time off and come in to talk to us, it really was a useful talk and shows how creative you can be if you put your mind to it :)

Oisín also illustrates his books so to show us, he quickly sketched a character from one of his books right in front of our eyes, it was amazing :O Here's a picture I took of it :)

Ciara Xxx

Waris Dirie Review (L)

In Religion class we read the story of Waris Dirie, Desert Flower. This is a very moving story about the tough life of Waris Dirie. Waris, as a young girl, lived in the Somalian desert. She knew that if she stayed in Somalia, she would live the life of a typical Somalian woman, doing all the work in the village, being forced to marry a stranger at a young age and living under his power for the rest of her life. The idea of this angered Waris and she knew she didn't want her life to turn out this way.

When Waris was five years old, her mother told her that she would undergo the process of 'becoming a woman' through female circumcision. This is an extremely painful operation that most Somalian girls go through. If they refuse this operation, they are shunned from their village and treated like they are worthless. This process consists of the female genitals being removed so the girl can never feel pleasure and so she is pure and 'clean'. The description of female circumcision or FGM (female genital mutilation) that Waris gave in her story was very shocking and shows the pain that women all over the world go through just for the sake of 'Culture'. Unfortunatley, Waris went through the worst kind of circumcision, leaving her in pure agony everyday of her life.

When Waris was 13 years old, after being forced to meet her arranged future husband, who was years her senior, she decided to run away from home fleeing to Mogadishu to find her aunt. She ran across the desert without any food and water, almost dying but after she was advanced on by a hungry lion, and the lion left her alone, she believed this was a sign from God to continue on. Waris was lucky enough to find her aunt.

After working in Mogadishu for a short amount of time, Waris traveled to London to live with another aunt and work as a maid for the Somalian Embassador, her uncle.

After years of Waris working as a maid, her aunt and uncle decided to go back home to Somalia, but Waris wanted to stay in London . She began working in a fast food restaurant. One day she was spotted by a photographer who thought she was very beautiful. He gave her his card and told her to contact him. The card always stayed on her mind, she had a feeling she should call the number, so one day she did. When she went to see the photographer again, he took pictures of her and told her she had the most beautiful profile he had ever seen.

Waris went on to have a very succesful career as a supermodel , appearing on the cover of Vogue and Elle, all over the world.

After living a life full of pain, Waris had a life changing operation. The doctor told her he couldn't give her back what she had but he could make sure she wouldn't be in pain anymore.

Waris became a human rights activist, fighting back against FGM. In 1997, she was appointed UN Special Embassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. I found this story very inspiring, seeing someone who came from nothing becoming this successful and influencial on the world.

Ciara Xxx

Rugby (Y)

For a good number of weeks now throughout Ty, we have been learning the skills of tag rugby every Wednesday for our double class. I think this is a good experience because it's another skill to add to our list of new things we've learnt in Ty :D Rugby is great fun even for people who aren't really interested in sports as it gets the heart racing and gets you on the buzz in the midst of some dull classes (sorry teachers) :L

We have two coaches, Tom and Ross. Ross is from New Zealand :) All the Tys get a great laugh from asking him to pronounce things for us :L There was a rugby blitz on a few weeks ago, and there's another one coming up soon. I didn't take part because I don't think i'm very good at it (I tagged someone on my own team before :/ )but everyone that did had a great time :) The double on Wednesday is one of the few times that all of the Tys get to be together so we make the most of it :D

Ciara Xxx

Croke Park :D

On Monday the 14th of February, all the Tys set off to Croke Park at 12 oclock. We were taking a trip to the GAA museum in Croke Park for the day. We began the tour by going to a very important room in the stadium where a lot of things happen before and after matches. We watched a movie about twenty minutes long. It wasn't just about the matches themselves, it was all about the preparation that goes into the impotant matches like the All-Ireland Finals and such. This is the room that stewards and gardai discuss their responsibilities that thye will have during matches, it is also the room in which the managers and staff of Croke Park have mass before important matches.

We then took a tour all around the stadium starting with the huge underground tunnel which covers three sides of the stadium. We all ran out of the tunnel while a simulator played the noises of the crowd cheering which really gave us the exciting feeling of what teams experience when they run out onto the pitch to play a match in Croke Park. We were told about the Cusack stand, the Hogan stand and the Davin stand. I had never been to Croke Park so I found everything really interesting :)

I found out lots of things Inever knew about the stadium like you can rent a seat for a certain length of time, it's very expensive though :L This was a fun day out for Tys :)

Ciara Xxx

Young Scientist :D

On the 14th of January 2011, the week we came back from Christmas holidays, all the Tys and 2nd years went to the Young Scientist exhibition in the RDS, Dublin. All of Ty entered the competition with a project in groups of two or three. Every project was very original and innovative but only a small number of projects could be taken further in the competition. Two projects from Ty got through to the competition. Well done girls :)

We all had permission to go around and look at the projects with our friends. The boy's school were there also so we had a fun day with our friends from outside school :)The projects were very interesting and we learnt a lot. We got talking to the groups from other schools about how they went about coming up with their ideas and creating their projects.

The projects that we entered into the Young Scientist competition are now being entered into the Scifest, so hopefully we will have some luck in getting into the Sciefest with mine and Aisling Byrne's project, Does Cigarette Smoking Increase Traffic Congestion?

Ciara Xxx

Work Experience #1 :D

Work experience took place on the 8th - 12th of November 2010. I went to Scoil Mochua, which is my old primary school in Celbridge. I went here on Monday until Thursday because the school had a day off on the Friday. On the Friday, I went to Kids at Play playschool in Maynooth.
On the first morning of the week, I got up early to make sure I was organised and ready to go. I was quite nervous but seeing as I had attended the school for eight years, I knew some of the teachers and staff so it wasn't too intimidating. I went to see the vice principal as she was going to be my supervisor for the week. She told me that teachers throughout the school had been booking me in for their classes to do activities such as art and filing work. Most mornings I did office work such as photocopying and filing tests. This was the least enjoyable part of the experience but it was worth doing as
you see all the work the teachers must do behind the scenes :L Everyday I was in different classrooms ranging from junior infants, to sixth class. This was a great experience as I got to see the variations of teaching that applies to each class group. I realised while being in all the different classes that I enjoyed working with the junior end of the school more than the senior end. The juniors were less intimidating and easier to work with.
I have always wanted to be a teacher when I leave school, but after this week I know it's definately the career path that I want to take :)

On the last day of work experience, the Friday, I went to the Kids at Play playschool in Maynooth. This was a very interesting experience as you are working with children who are only learning how to interact with eachother. This was such a difference from being in the primary school as these children are only 3 and 4 in age. It was an enjoyable experience but I know that I don't want to be a playschool teacher, it's a challenging job to say the least :L

It is worth doing transition year just for work experience alone. It is such a great opportunity and really lets you see what you would like to do in the future :)



Ciara Xxx