There's Always Light at the End of the Tunnel

Today some people from the school choir and some of the T.Y's went to the orchard to sing some Christmas carols to help raise money for focus Ireland. We were told about it about two weeks ago and the T.Y’s were asked if they would come and sing as well. I decided that I would go because it was for a good cause and it would be a bit of fun. It wasn’t for too long it was only from one until three and it was a bit of fun too. The choir was very small today and there was only a hand full of T.Ys but there was enough people to make a good sound so the people would be able to hear us. We were standing up stairs in the orchard at the front so that people were able to see. We also had a banner on the railing so that people knew who we were. Once we had managed to get the banner the right way round we started off singing. As the day went on the choir got bigger and bigger, some people came late and then some of the teachers came to sing with us as well. Some of the teachers also brought th...

Today we had a religion craft class. We started making wall hangings for Christmas and advent. The class was divided into two different groups depending on what you wanted to do. For the advent wall hanging it is going to be made use fabric and for the Christmas wall hanging it is going to be made on canvas and different pictures painted onto it. We were show different wall hangings from other years and we were told that the standard was very high. We didn’t need to be told this as it was very clear from just looking at the wall hanging. Today was our first day doing it and everybody had brought in things that they thought might be useful. But we didn’t really start it today once we had split into our groups we then planned what we were going to put on each of them. I am working in the group that is making the wall hanging for advent and we are using different fabrics and things like that to make our wall hanging. It is really good fun and we all got a chance to say what we thought wou...

In science today we were doing an experiment. The experiment was to do with find the PH of things and trying to make different colours with the chemicals that we had to use. MS O C said that it was a competition to see who could make all of the colours first. I and Jessica got off to a bit of a rocky start as we didn’t really understand what we were meant to be doing. But we figured it out pretty quickly well Jessica figured it out anyway. Once we knew what we were doing things would get better would you think so well they didn’t... First we couldn’t work the Pipette and when we got it to work the acid would only come out in drops so we decided to get a new one. But once again it would only let the liquid come out in slow small drops. But we decided that we wouldn’t bother to change it this time. So we were able to make the colour red because that only needed acid. Then once we had that colour done we started to work on a different colour. I thought...

Yesterday in religion we made a wreath for advent. It was only a small wreath and it had one candle in it. It is meant to be used an s a centre piece on a table. They were easy to make. We had to bring in all the things that we needed our self’s. It was easy to get them and we didn’t need that much anyway. All we needed was some oasis a candle and holder and then some greenery. We had them all finished in one class apart from the cleaning. A few of us stayed back for a few minutes to help sweep up the floor. Once we had them made we left them on the window sill until the end of the day when we had to come back to get them. Someone took a picture of them all on the window sill. It was really easy to make. All you had to do was put the candle in the oasis and then start to put all of the greenery into it. You have to soak the oasis the night before but I don’t know why. It was kind of fun making them. I have never made anything like that before so that was my first time.

Yesterday we had music. In music class on a Wednesday we do some work in our groups. The group that I am working in is singing the song “the man who can’t be moved” by the script. So far is coming along great. We have a bit of guitar in it and we also have some harmonies in it as well. Some of the other groups sound really good and are really loud. It is very hard to practice in class with everybody because it is so loud with all the different groups but its kind of fun. You get to hear everybaody else and nobody is just focusing all of their attention onto your group. Next week I think that we will be starting to perform in front of the other T.Y music class .I really don’t want to do that. It’s ok at the moment signing with the group that I’m in but in front of another class. It seems kind of scary I guess. But at the end of the day it’s all a bit of fun. I am kind of looking forward to getting it done and over with though. I would prefer to be one of the first groups so that I don’...

Well yesterday we were meant to be getting all of our magazines from the printer and well we didn't. Our managing director was in contact with the printer during the week while the magazines were being printed. We had made arrangements for the entire group to go to Louise's house on Friday after school to receive the delivery and get our pictures taken. We had arranged to get time off school on Monday to go and give the magazines to the schools. We had also gotten permission from or year head and everything was very organized. At lunch time it was getting closer to the end of school and we were all getting really excited to see the final product of all our hard work. We have spent the last few weeks working very hard on this. In school and out of school. At lunch time I left art in a very positive and good mood. I made my way up to the lunch room and was telling everybody how exciting it was to be able to see th e final magazine in only a few hours. Then Louise stood up an...

Today we had double P.E. We were again doing dance. For the first week that we started dance it was really fun and exciting. This week I didn’t find it as much fun as the last week. This week we learned a new routine. I really like the first routine that we learned. I don’t like this routine as much as the first one. We started off with a bit of a warm up. We were just doing some dancing and stretching for the warm ups. After we had done so warm ups and we were all ready and set to do some dancing we started with the routine from the last week. We went through it slowly so that we would all remember it and it was also to show the people who didn’t know it. After we went through it slowly we then put some more music on and began to do it fast. It was really fun and everybody seemed to be really enjoying it. After we done the old routine for a bit we then got to learn a new one. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first one but it was still goo...

So today was our first day back to school after our week of work experience and it is good to be back. We set off form school at nine o'clock and headed to Naas. We arrived a bit late but everything was ok once we got there. Today we talked about product that we are making and the different things that people are doing. Orla seemed very impressed with our sample magazine tat we had printed off to show her. She passed it around the room and the whole group felt very proud that people really liked our magazine. Our magazine is comming along very well. We have sent it off to the printer and it is in the process of being printed. We are getting 2500 copies printed. The mini company is very good and we have even made a profit. Today we also learned about writing up our business report and what we have to put into it. We were also told about how the judges will mark it and that it doesn't need to be very long. After we were given a break we were then shown a video of people actini...

So our magazine is starting to take shape. We have so far got enough money to print our first issue as well as having a profit. We have decided that we are going to get some of the pages designed professionally with the money from our profits. We had double mini company class toddy where we got some more work done on the magazine. We also decided that we would all meet u after school to dome more work on our magazine. There is a lot of work to be done and I think that in the beginning I under estimated the amount of work that needed to be done. We have all ready done so much work and we still have a lot more work to do. Out of all of the projects that we have to do the one taking up most of my time is Mini Company. I do enjoy doing all the Work and it is good fun spending time with the people in my group we get some good laughs while we’re doing the work. But it is just some much work and takes up so much time. It’s like all we think abo...

Today our mini company met in Louise’s house to do some more work on our magazine. There was only half of our group because the rest of our group are either in a foreign country or are nowhere to be found. Anyway we had a kind of productive day today. We got some work done. We began to use Microsoft publisher to begin to design our magazine. The day started off ok and then some people like Jessica began to get very hyper. But it was all good fun. We were all laughing together and having some good fun. We got some work done. By the time that I had to leave we had got two full pages completed….. you see we managed to get lots of work done… lol  not to worry we still have lots of time left before we need to get the magazine to the printer. We soon realised that Microsoft publisher was hard to use. Even though the printer gave us a book on how to use Microsoft publisher we didn’t really use the book. At least we were able to kind of figure it out along with having lots of fun too. ...

Today we had a talk from Accord. this talk was all about relationships and how we deal with them. This was a very good talk because we got to learn about how to deal with relationships. We learned about ourselves and what we would like in a relationship. We also got to fill our a sheet on what we would like our ideal partner in a relationship would be like. We had the talk from 9.40 until 1.20.  We were thought about relationships in the family and the different parts of the family that people see. We were told that it is best to not get angry with the people that you are having a fight with. We were told that when we are angry and shot that the people that we are shouting at are not hearing what we were saying that are more focused on how you are acting. This talk was very good and that i learned a lot about how to deal with problems in a relationship. it was a very worthwhile talk and it was also very interesting. Dress up day tomorrow but still trying to find something to d...

Today we went for another mini company workshop in Naas. This was very good because we learned about marketing and a bit about finance. We also got to hear about different ideas that the other schools that were there had. Some of the other schools had some really good ideas. We were told that the next time that we go we have to tell how the group is working as a team and how we are progressing. It was a very fun day especially on the way home. We had a quick stop in mc Donald’s when we were finished and then we got on the bus to go home. We were on a double Decker bus and it was so fun. I and Kelly were laughing the whole way home. We kept annoying Roisin who was trying to sleep and we were also playing with the tables.  It was a great day overall and I am looking forward to the next trip into Naas for mini company. 

In science today we were working on our young scientist projects. we had planned to start it today to show how fast the germs spread. to do this we had planned to put lemon juice on our hands and go around and touch different things. we wre sure that this was going to work because we had done some research on this on the interne. but it didnt work. when we found out that the lemon juice was not going to work we went to the home ec room to borrow some washing powder would work. first we mixed the washing powder with water and put it on our hands to see if it would work but it didnt so then we tried to do it by just using the washing powder on its own but that didnt work either. we then decided that flour would work so we went back to the home ec room and got some flour. we thought that the flour would work because all that we had to do was put it onto our hands and then touch things. it did work but we were told that we were not allowed to use flour because it was too messy and it wou...

On Saturday our mini company all wend to Louise's house to do some more work on our project. We had a very good day overall. there were a few ups and downs and some disagreements. But we over came all over difficulties and talked about them and came up with solutions. We got a lot of work done on Saturday. We rang up some places to see if they would like to take out some advertisement with us and we were also talking to the printer again to confirm that we were going to print with him.We also decided what would go into the magazine and where we are going to put everything in the magazine. So far we have raised enough money to be able to print our first issue and we are all feeling good about the magazine and that we will be able to get all the magazines out to the schools before Christmas. On Wednesday the Ty's are going back to Naas again for another Mini Company workshop. This is going to be a very good day because It will gives us a chance to do some more work on our magazi...

97 % of earth’s water is in the oceans. Although a person can live without food for more than a month, a person can only live without water for approximately one week. The average person in the United States uses 80 to 100 gallons of water each day. It takes 2 gallons to brush your teeth, 2 to 7 gallons to flush a toilet, and 25 to 50 gallons to take a shower. Sources of water pollution include: oil spills, fertilizer and agricultural run-off, sewage, stormwater, and industrial wastes. Water boils at 212 o Fahrenheit or 100 o Celsius. Water freezes at 32 o Fahrenheit or 0 o Celsius.

On Monday Oral from the county Kildare enterprise board came in to talk to each of the mini company groups. The whole ty year group spent the first two classes on Monday morning in the library telling Orla about our different mini company ideas. We have been doing a lot of work for our mini company project "Green Hero" this week. Today we had double mini company. In mini company we did a lot this week. We rang some more companies to see if they would advertise with us. We also began to organise the layout of our magazine. Today we arranged what we would be putting on each page of our magazine. This week we also raised 3/4 of the money that we need to produce our magazine. This was a great achievement for our mini company because we are now allowed to follow through with our project. Everybody in our group is really looking forward to being able to produce our first issue of the Green Hero magazine.

On Saturday our mini company group all gathered together to work on our mini company. We had a very productive day as we made a lot of progress on our mini company. We sent e-mails to people that we would like to advertise with us, we designed a website, we made a facebook account and we also designed business cards and headed paper for our company. While the purpose of the day was to work on our mini company project we also had a lot of fun with each other and it all felt very businesslike with all six of us sitting around a table with laptops. We all felt like we were in the boardroom on the Apprentice.  On Monday we had a visit from the Oral O' Carroll from the county Kildare enterprise board. She came to our school to talk to each group individually about our mini company project. This was great because she was really helpful and gave us lots of good advice and helpful hints and tips n how we could make our mini company better. Our mini company is starting to take shape as ...

Last Monday all the TY students headed to Nass where we had a mini company workshop. This was a very worthwhile day overall. During the day we made our groups that we were going to do our mini company project in. We also had to come up 50 ideas that we could use as our mini company project. During the day we learned a lot about the mini company competition itself. We learned about how the judges mark the projects. We were also shown videos of past years and some of the mini companies that one the competition, this was a great help because it allowed us to see what the judges would expect form us and what the atmosphere is like at the final stages of the competition. During the day we learned about the mini company competition and we also got to hear lost of ideas from other people that we could all use ideas. At the end of the workshop we were then allowed to go to mc Donald’s until the bus came. It was a good day overall and everybody learned a lot and enjoyed themselves. Siobh...

T.Y.'s going great so far, everybodys starting to make new friends and everybody is getting on well with each other. All ready we have done lots of fun things in class and outside of class. On Monday the 5th of September we had social development day which was a very worthwhile day. This day was spent in the library getting to know our fellow classmates and ourselves a little more. This was a great day and helped everybody to get to know each other better. Our next activity was going to Carlingford Co. Louth on the 13th and 14th of September. This was a two day trip that was aimed at developing team building and good communication. Yesterday all the T.Ys got their junior cert result. All the teachers were really nice to us and gave us an easy day where we did not have to do too much work. We started to watch the green mile in Spanish class and it seemed like a good film but we didn’t get too far into the film before the bell went for break. We also started to learn to Play tag ...