Radio TY

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Last week, we went to the Schools Across Borders Development Education workshop in Citywest. A few of my friends and I decided to interview people there because we are all part of the school media team. We recorded them and they are no up on our Radio blog which can be viewed by clicking here.
 Lots of different charities talked to us about the work they do (eg. Burma Action Ireland, Trocaire, etc) and we recorded it so other people could have a listen!

Museums and Mc Donalds

so, last thursday, we went to three different museums in dublin city. We went to the National Gallery, the Natural History Museum and the National Library of Ireland.

In the national gallery, we saw many interesting paintings by famous artists. My personal favorite painting was called "The Convent Garden" by William Leech.

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I like this painting because of the bright colours and the different techniques used.
Another painting i liked was by Jack B Yeats. This painting is called The Liffey Swim. i like this picture because of the colours in the river makes it look as if its moving.

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in the Natural History Museum, we visited the Bog Bodies. These are bodies that have been found in the bog 100's of years after their time of death. Most of them are males between 25 and 35 years old. They are usually found on the boundary lines so historians think that they are the bodies of previous rulers that have been murdered.

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We also saw the WB Yeats exhibition in the National Library of Ireland. We learned about the life and career of the well known poet. 

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Afterwards, we walked to Grafton Street and wandered around for about an hour and a half. We went to Mc Donalds for lunch and when we finished, we went to Starbucks

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Science Week

Yesterday, our year went to Tallaght IT for a science talk as part of science week. You can visit the science week website here.

During this talk we were asked what gas we thought was in a floating balloon. We said helium as this is the gas used in party balloons. We learned that helium was a non reactive gas and that if it was set on fire a small pop would be heard. We also learned that hydrogen is also lighter than air so that would also keep the balloon floating. Hydrogen is a very reactive gas so if that was set alight there would be a very loud pop. 

We then watched the man put on protective earmuffs and bring a lit torch closer and closer to the balloon until the balloon EXPLODED INTO A BALL OF FLAME. So yeah turns out the balloon was filled with hydrogen...

We also did other small experiments like testing for oxygen and carbon dioxide, trying to blow a small ball into a plastic bottle, proving that gravity accelerates all things to the ground at the same time etc

Afterwards, we headed over to Liffey Valley for some McDonalds.

The Fault in our Stars

Book Review

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I recently read a book by the best selling author, John Green. The book is titled 'The Fault in our Stars'.

This book is written through the perspective of a 16 year old terminal lung cancer patient, Hazel Grace. Because Hazel is a cancer patient, she regularly attends a support group held in the center of her local church - commonly referenced as the 'Literal heart of Jesus'. On one of her visits to the support group, she catches the eye of former basketball player, Augustus Waters. He is attending the support group with his friend Isaac (who lost one eye to cancer at a young age). Sure enough, Hazel and Augustus fall deeply in love. Augustus uses his 'Cancer Perk' to take Hazel to visit Amsterdam to visit her favorite author, however unfortunately, the cancer kicks in and their visit didn't end quite as they had expected. What I liked about this book is that it really dramatizes how short life really is.

Although this book is about cancer kids, it is not entirely a 'tragic' book. Throughout the book, I really warmed to all the characters, Augustus in particular. Augustus is a charming yet witty character who lost his right leg to osteosarcoma and is in remission. I think the reason I warmed to all the characters was that they all seemed very real. Augustus is 17 and lives with his parents. He sees a very deep meaning in anything and everything e.g. he has a packet of cigarettes and he uses one but he does not light it.  

"Its a metaphor; You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing"

 I chose to read this book because lots of my friends were raving about it and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Another reason I read this book is that it is in the process of becoming a movie. The motion picture version is expected to be out on the sixth of June 2014. (Fun Fact: The actor who is set to play Isaac, is one of the lead singers of the Naked Brothers Band- I mentioned their song 'Taxi Cab' in a previous post). I rate this book 10 out of 10 as it is my favorite book of the year by far. I recommend this book to any young adult, but, (spoiler alert) it is extremely likely that you will cry and or be left speechless at the end.

What is your favorite book and who is the author?
Comment below :)

WERE GOING ON A SCHOOL TOUR!?

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Today at lunch time, we found out who got to go on a trip to BARCELONA!! They were calling out the names and three of my friends got to go- Lauren, Sorcha and Rebecca. I was so nervous...

"And the final student guaranteed a place is... Aoibheann"

 

I am one of the 45 students that get to go on the school tour. I am really excited because we get to spend a whole day at Port Aventura! The trip is in april, so we dont quite know what to expect 'weather wise'. 

FUN WALK!!

Every year in our school, to celebrate and promote Friendship Week, the whole school makes up a dance, preforms it in front of a panel of judges, and goes for a walk through our town for around half an hour.

Each year got different colours as follows:

First years were pink,
Second years were purple,
Third years were green,
 TYs were yellow,
Fifth years were blue,
and Sixth years were black and white.

Our class decided to go all out and make a cardboard american taxi as they are yellow and that was our theme. Our music for the start of the dance was this

We only played the first few seconds and then we decided to spice it up a bit with an appearance by Will Smith and Carlton Banks.

Our second song and dance can be seen on this segment of the Graham Norton Show here.

Overall, this years fun walk was not to be missed, but unfortunately, our class did not win for our year :( 

Workshops Workshops Workshops

Deportment

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In this workshop, we learned about our face shapes, skin tones, and make-up. We all cleansed our faces and applied our makeup. 

Building Rapport

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In this workshop we were taught how to behave in the workplace. We were told to remember if our employers mentioned any plans eg. if they said that they were going away for the weekend, ask them if they enjoyed it.

Work Experience

In this workshop, we were told what to do in certain situations eg if our supervisor was absent while we were on work experience we would ask if there was anything that needed to be done instead of just going home. We also talked about office hazards as some of us got work experience in an office.

Office Hazards
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