The Time Has Come...

As much as we all felt like it wouldn't happen, TY is coming to end with a bang. The past week has been all about preparing for our TY graduation and also unfortunately tests. Everyone has been practising hard to make sure our night goes well. We are all performing a mash up of 'Never Forget' and 'Wavin' Flag' to showcase what we have done in music. We are also doing a few hip hop dances that we have been learning for the past few weeks in our hip hop classes. The french students are singing 'Summer Paradise', in french of course. I'm really excited to perform all of these, we have put in a lot of work and I think we have all improved a lot, especially in hip hop we were all a bit clueless at first. My drumming skills for the music performance have also improved woo! Jack are you proud of your first drumming student? 

                                           

Looking back on TY now, it was definitely an unforgettable experience, that really helped to shape us all and I think most of us grew as people from what happened this year. I have to be honest and say it wasn't the best year ever for me but the good moments overshadow the bad ones. So my advice to future TY students is to really just let go and take part in everything without taking on more than you can handle (It doesn't work trust me you just end up not being able to do anything) Talk to people you usually wouldn't talk to because it's true what they say, Ty really is the year you make incredible new friends and keep the just as incredible old ones. Goodbye Ty, you were pretty damn great.

Swim A Mile With A Smile :)

On Wednesday out year participated in Ian Daly Swim A Mile With A Smile 2015 in the National Aquatic Centre. We were raising money for the Ian Daly foundation who help children and the families of children with cancer. It was set up in honour of a little boy, Ian Daly died at age 11 of a brain tumour. We all got sponsor cards and collected as much money as we could for the cause. You can read more about it here: http://swimamile.webnode.com/ 

When we got to the National Aquatic Centre we split up into groups of swimmers and lane counters, I was originally going to be in a group of 8 but we decided it would be a better sense of achievement if we were in a group of 4. I was in a group with Emily, Kathleen and Molly, at first it was hard because I hadn't swam in ages but once I got into it, it got easier. We had to swim 16 lengths of the 25 metre pool each to make a mile but after we finished we decided to swim it again because we still had energy.

After everyone had finished their mile, we all got t-shirts and took a picture, then we went to Blanchard's town shopping centre and had a well deserved break. It was a great day and I would enjoy doing it again next year since it is for an important cause.

Driving

On Monday our class went to the Leinster school of driving for a deriving lesson. When we got there we were split into two groups and one group was doing a mock theory test first and the other group were driving first. My group were driving first and we all split into groups of either 3 or 4, I was with Ciara, Olivia and Liveta. Olivia drove first (well done bro) then Ciara, then me and lastly Liveta. I think we were all better than we thought we would be, I thought I was going to crash and none of us did so that was great.

After driving we had lunch and did the mock theory test, we did it in groups like a quiz and had time to get bonus points and correct our answers. When we first did the test we only got 34 marks so we didn't pass oops... We got 36 marks after we corrected some answers though and then in the bonus round we got two more points for thinking of funny meanings for road signs. If you count those then we got 38 points and we passed woo! Then we all went outside and put on beer goggles which were designed to show us what it is like to try and drive if we were very drunk. We had to pick up a cone, put it on another cone and high five the instructor after. Some people were great at it and others struggled a little... I think I was somewhere in between.

Graduation Preparation

This week has mostly been spent getting ready for our Ty graduation at the end of the year. We are performing different things for different subjects to showcase what we have been doing and we are also making things to put on display. We are running out of time so everyone is trying to get it all done so there is no last minute stress.

In music we are performing a mash up of Wave your flag and Never forget, it's not perfect yet but it's getting better. I will be playing the djembe drum, because my brother has one that I now have to convince him to let me use. In Irish we are singing It's Time by Imagine Dragons, the lyrics are in Irish of course and Ciara is playing guitar.(Slay bro) Then in French we are singing Summer Paradise in French and making a sideshow for the background. We are also finishing our clay tiles in art and starting paints to display at the Ty graduation, mine isn't actually as bad as I thought it was going to be. 

For the past 2 weeks we have had hip hop classes instead of PE and we are learning a dance to perform at graduation. We have nearly finished the dance and I'm really enjoying it. I think we all actually look pretty good so I'm excited to see how it turns out. There's not long left in Ty, it went very fast and now the summer countdown has begun. 

Disconnected Dancing

Yesterday was the day of the schools annual music night and I was performing along with Ciara, Emily, Michaela and Emma. I spent half of the day helping to set up the hall for that night and practising with the rest of the Ty band. .

Our group or the Ty band were singing a mash up of Disconnected and Chocolate, Emily played the piano while Ciara and Michaela played guitar. We all sang which was terrifying to say the least, especially when I had to hold the mic because I was so worried I would drop it and deafen everyone. In the end though the performance went really well and it was really fun. 

Today we had the first of four hip hop classes instead of Pe, I was worried I wouldn't enjoy it because I'm so used to ballet but I actually ended up really enjoying it and it wasn't as hard to do as I thought it would be. Although I do still find myself looking too balletic but I'm getting there. I'm excited for the next few classes and possibly performing at the end of the year. Here's hoping I become a hip hop queen?

Lucid Drumming Dreams

On Friday we had the first round of the science competition scifest, we all set up our projects in the hall and waited for the judges. After staying up very late to finish my project I was finally finished and able to put my project up. My project was a study of lucid dreaming, which is any dream that one is aware one is dreaming. To do my project I surveyed students about lucid dreaming and compared my results to previous studies to try and find connections between lucid dreaming and factors such as hobbies and sleep disorders. 

Each project was judged at least twice, but the judges can go back and judge projects again so my project was judged four times in total. Turns out this was a good sign but I was worried.After lunch we were all dying to know who had gotten through, around 15 projects got through and then there were additional prizes like 1st place, 2nd place, highly commended and best communicator. I wasn't sure if I would get through but I did in the end and much to my surprise, I won the best communicator award. Emily's group won first place (slay bro) and Ciara also got through (also slay bro) so we are all going to the next round together woop.

On Thursday we had the drum workshop so we spent the day in the library playing african drums to different beats. We also spoke to the man who organised it about traveling and his experiences in different countries which was really interesting. Fun fact: He nearly died on a volcano. We watched a video about Africa and its music culture to show us that not all of africa is very poor and that there is more to it then we know. 

At the end of the day we got into groups and made up our own drumming performances, which was both hilarious and interesting. My group wasn't very good at coming up with an idea so we just followed what Anna was doing and hoped for the best. It didn't end very well but it was funny. 

Mini Company & Pancake Party

This Thursday we had the school round of the mini company finals. The night before was full of stress and last minute work but we managed to get everything together on time. The competition was being held in the hall so we all set up there in the morning and waited for the judges. I had to bring in a mannequin for my friend's mini company group, called Seem. We appropriately named the mannequin Deirdre Judy. For most of the day we were just waiting to be judged so Emily, Ciara and I used spare material to find ways to have fun like skipping and spinning, we are getting better at both of those things now.

After we had all spoken to the judges and tidied the hall, we were told who had gotten through to the nest round and who had won smaller categories. Our mini company Casevana unfortunately didn't win anything but we still had a good day.

Today we held a pancake party in aid of The National Children's Hospital Tallaght. I was on the pancake committee so I had to get more people to sell the pancakes and I helped to set the 'party' up. The Home Ec classes cooked over 200 pancakes that we sold at lunch. We sold the pancakes for 50c or €1 if you had a topping. It was a great success and we sold out in 10 minutes. 

Staging Schizophrenia

On Tuesday the 27th of January after a lot of practise, writing, directing and stress it was finally time for the briery gap drama competition. My group had a play called Schizophrenia, which is about a girl who is struggling with the mental disorder of schizophrenia and how it affects her life. We were all excited to see our play come to life but we were also very nervous it would go wrong.
                  
When we arrived in Mullingar (The land of Niall Horan woop), we found a dance studio which of course meant Sadbh and I had to spend time in there dancing when everyone was getting ready. We quickly practised the play before we went on stage and then it was time for us to perform. As a director I was off stage making sure everything was running smoothly. Our performance went really well and we got quite positive feedback so I am excited to see if we made it through to the next round.
                                

Young Scientist & Basketball Baes

On Thursday the 8th of January the TY's and 2nd years went to the RDS for the Young Scientist exhibition. There were 550 projects at the exhibition which meant we spent most of the day looking at the projects and making friends with people who had projects there. Shout out to Gabe and the guy with the project about cities, whose name I do not know. Some girls from our year had a project in the exhibition, which was about the ideal conditions for learning. In my opinion it was the best but I'm a little biased because Emily the bae was part of the group.

On Friday the 16th of January, the first year basketball players that I help coach had their first match in Athlone, which meant I got to go and help. When we arrived everyone was excited and we made sure that even if we didn't win we would still smell better then the other team. Although they tried hard and played amazingly, unfortunately the girls lost but they are determined to win next time. The long journey home was full of taking selfies, talking and eating which made the time go by quite fast. It was actually one of the highlights of my year so far and I have first year baes now. If anyone of you are reading this hellooo you guys are fab.

"People Will Stare. Make It Worth Their While"

After weeks of preparation the fashion show was this Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday morning the Cebridge Manor was definitely not ready which meant the TY's were needed to fix the place up. We spent the day painting the stage and stapling material to the side of the stage. It was very eventful, I had to go collect things which resulted in Ciara nearly getting hit in the head with a staple because Haven Hire didn't know how to use the staple gun and getting followed home by a creepy lady. By the end of the day though the Celbridge Manor looked fashion show ready.

The mini companies were selling at the fashion show which meant I was at the fashion show at 6pm (2 hours before the show started) We set up our stand and I got ready to dance and model. After that we were all just waiting for the show to begin which meant practising and stretching. Backstage was stressful to say the least. At one stage Sadbh and I had to put Anna's into a minute in less then a minute, we got it done but it was definitely stressful. 

Our dance went really well and all of the rehearsals were definitely worth it. 'Thinking Out Loud' will be stuck in my head forever now. Sadbh and I didn't forget the the dance or forget it so I'm very proud of us considering I had forgotten the dance earlier.

I was also a model for my some of my friends mini company 'Seem' I was modelling their jewellery and although backstage was stressful when we got on stage everything was fine, and everyone got a chance to see their jewellery. (You should buy some)

The fashion show was overall a success, my mini company (Casevana) sold quite a few cases and we have orders too. All the hard work everyone put in paid off and we had a fantastic show.

Vanishing Art

On Tuesday we went to an art exhibition in Carton House. The exhibition had pieces of art indoors and outdoors. We all got a map and Ciara and decided to be like tourists and walk around using the map. I ended up ripping the map thank to the wind. We saw lots of pieces of art like a pink T-Rex, dresses made of bronze, an owl made of paper and what Ciara and I like to call 'The Swag Man'.

We were there to look at the art but most people ended up looking at the Irish rugby team who were training there. I guess people classified them as moving art? I spent most of the day listening to Four with Ciara, stumbling into a fictional world(long story) and taking photos (yes we did take a selfie with the T-rex)

Thinking Out Loud & Casevana

Rehearsals for the fashion show have started and the countdown has begun. With only 3 weeks to go everybody is working hard to make sure we are all ready. I will be doing ballet in the fashion how along with other girls from different years. The ballet dance will be opening the wedding section of the fashion show so evryone is very excited for that. We have rehearals most lunch times and we also had a rehearsal after school on Thursday.

We are dancing to the Ed Sheeran song 'Thinking Out Loud.' We are still working on the dance as most of us are still learning it but we have gotten off to a very good start. I'm excited to see what the finished dance will look like and to see what the fashion show is like.

We are all currently working hard on our mini companies and my groups mini company is called 'Casevana' we will be selling custom made phone cases with a place to keep your headphones as well. We are ordering our first cases this week and after that it will be hard work to get all of the cases made and sold.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Centre of the Stage & Business Moguls

Not many exciting things were planned to happen this week but there's always something to do and this week the challenge was to write a play and start a business. Trust me it's not as easy as it sounds. For the play I am in a group and we work together in English class to come up with ideas and write our play. Our play is called 'Schizophrenia'  we are all very excited to see how the play will look on stage, we have big plans for it so watch this space. Ciara and I came up with the idea after being inspired by a story we had read before, the aim of the play is to show how mental disorders are a problem in our world and how they affect people. The play aims to especially show the emotional problems people suffer from because of these disorders so hopefully we will be able to make it an emotional roller coaster for the audience. It's definitely not a Disney story...

This week we also became business moguls by starting our own mini company. There is still a lot of work to be done but we have an idea and we all have jobs to do so soon our business will be taking over the world, well hopefully at least the school anyway. Our business idea is phone cases that will be custom made and will also have useful add-ons such as pockets and a place to put your headphones. It's harder then it sounds Ciara and I attempted to make a prototype phone case and it took us a long time to made a not so great case. 

Walk In My Shoes

Today the school is raising money for a charity called 'Walk in my shoes.' This charity is to help young people who have mental health issues of any kind. Everyone in the school today wore their own choice of clothes and shoes, some people even wore wellies for the charity. Everybody who didn't wear their uniform donated €2 to the charity. 

Mental health is a very important topic that is often overlooked because its very hard for people to know, if someone they know has mental health issues. This charity aims to help young people understand what mental health issues are an how to deal with them. 

Some mental health statistics:

• 1 in 6 employees in Ireland will experience a mental health difficulty.
• 1 in 4 young people in Ireland will experience a mental health difficulty.
• Suicide is the leading cause of death among 18-25 year old men in Ireland and the second most common cause of death generally in this age group.
• Ireland has one of the highest suicide rates in the 14-24 age group in the EU.
• 75% of all mental health difficulties begin before 24 years of age.

The inspiration behind the fundraiser is that people 'walk in the shoes' of people with mental health issues, so that everyone can see what it is like for people with mental health issues. The fundraising went really well in the school today as everybody wore different shoes and they all donated.

Links for help with mental health in Ireland:

Walk in my shoes: http://www.walkinmyshoes.ie/i-needi-feel/

Aware: http://www.aware.ie/help/support/support-mail/

Grow: http://grow.ie/how-we-help/

Mental Health Ireland: http://www.mentalhealthireland.ie/

Aurora and Maleficent Woke Me Up

This week we had our fun walk, which of course meant we needed to come up with a dance, luckily our class names are Disney princesses so we already had a story line. My class is Aurora, who is sleeping beauty, so of course the only logical thing to do was to dress up Mr. Kennedy as Maleficent. After changing our dance multiple times, we finally decided on one. Half of the class would be evil, wearing black bin bags and masks while the other half would be good, wearing yellow. The evil people were mean to each other and the audience and then the good people came in and made them nice with hugs and dance. The plan, which surprisingly actually worked, was for the bad people to take off their masks and bin bags when they turned good. After that we all danced together to 'Wake me up before you go go' because sleeping beauty woke up and we turned Maleficent good.

The dance went really well on the day and we actually ended up winning! All of our practising paid off and of course Mr. Kennedy dressing up as Maleficent paid off too. As Mr. Kennedy said "I am not dressing up as a woman if we aren't going to win." The day was really fun, especially because it didn't rain. It was a busy day of dancing, dressing up and party poppers. 

Work Experience

I had day first day of work experience in North Kildare Educate Together School on the 24th of September. It is a mixed primary school with around 250 students. Meadhbh and I are both doing work experience in the school so we have someone to eat with at lunch, that makes it less awkward but it is still quite awkward talking to the teachers at lunch. When I went in to the school, it felt very weird to me because I attended this primary school. I am a classroom assistant in Senior Infants. On my first day I spent the day helping the students paint their favourite summer memories, I also set up the hall for their PE class, helped the students with their maths worksheet, put up posters and checked the art supply orders were correct.

My second day of work experience was on Wednesday and again I was a classroom assistant in Senior Infants, on Wednesday I helped to set up he art the students would be doing that day. I then helped them to draw pizzas, cut them out and stick them onto card for world food day. After that I took down their older art from the wall,organised it into envelopes for each student and put up their new art on the wall. I set up the hall for their PE class and for the rest of the day I was getting ready what they would need for the next time the students are doling art, I had to scrunch up little pieces of crepe paper, so the students could make a picture out of them for Diwali.

I am really enjoying work experience so far, it is a new and fun experience and I am looking forward to going back next Wednesday.

Carlingford

Day  One

Monday the 15th was the morning I was dreading, only because I had to get the bus at 7am... Iam not usually awake then, no actually Iam never awake then, unless I stayed up all night and Iam going to sleep then. So of course in true Laura style I got to the bus just in time and sat down beside Ciara. The first thing we did was eat and try to connect to the Internet, that's  pretty much the definition of us. Thanks to Ireland's many country roads though we had no service... for a two hour journey, we were not amused. This called for a One Direction jam session, after we had realised it had been months since we had one. The rest of the journey was a blur of One Direction, laughing and fangirling.

When we arrived in Carlingford we were all sorted into rooms, which turned out to be alot harder then you would think. I was in a room with Aislinn and Ciara. We were then sent straight to kayaking which involved putting on disgusting wet suits. Aislinn, Ciara and I were to say the least not great at kayaking, we had a boat following us because we were so slow. It wasn't our finest hour.

Then we had my favourite activity, Laser Tag. We all put on camo onsies and got guns which made me feel like i was in the book Divergent. After walking up an impossibly steep hill we made it to the forest, where the laser war began. I loved this game because i got to shoot people it was like being in a video game, I hid out in different bases and used the fact that Iam small to my advantage. One time i hid behind a tree and shot people in their base with one hand sticking out, so they couldn't shoot me. I even killed Aislinn without her knowing it was me, sorry not sorry Aislinn.

Then we had a two hour break which of course meant going on the hunt for food. Possibly one of the greatest success's of the trip was accomplished then... We found the ten cent lollipops! Proving Ciara didn't eat them all! After that we had an activity called 'Nightline' which involved walking blindfolded in a line through the dark forest, In did not like the idea of this. So I may have had my blindfold on in the perfect way so it looked like I couldn't see but I really could. This meant I had the job of warning my friends of upcoming turns or drops. When we got back to our room it was time to eat all of our stash, which consisted terry's chocolate orange, pringles, rice (yes rice), ten cent lollipops and a lot more.

Day Two

7:30am, we had to get up at 7:30am way too early to move. Old music was being played all throughout the building, like the classic 'What makes you beautiful' by One Direction which I am pretty sure we are all a bit sick of by now. We then went Canadian canoeing, which meant we were in three boats bound together with wood and rope. Lots of us then jumped into the water which was freezing but so much fun, there was also a trampoline on the water that we then of course had to jump off.

The last activity was team building exercises where we had to complete challenges for the reward of gems. Of course because I am small this involved me being lifted up high through small holes and having piggy back rides because we need more weight on a small area. It was actually surprisingly really fun.

It was then time to get on the bus and head home, we were all really tired from two days of activities and we were all ready to go home at that stage. We actually had service on the way home, so Ciara and I passed the time by snapchatting our friend, listening to our favourite band(Not One Direction actually) and laughing at our inside jokes.

We Are Doomed

Our first week of Ty was all about getting to know each other and finding out what the rest of the year would be like. We were split into three classes which are named Disney princesses; Ariel, Belle and Aurora. I am in class Aurora along with some of my friends. Last Wednesday we had three workshops; A first aid workshop, Etiquette workshop and a Positive parties workshop.

The first aid workshop was first and I had to pretend to be choking so that another girl could pretend to save my life. It was a memorable experience to say the least. We then had to apply what we had learnt and try to put a bandage on our friends... Ciara, Aislinn and judging by how we did, we would all be doomed in an accident.

The second workshop was an Etiquette workshops and lets just say it wasn't quite what we were expecting and I am not talking about the fact that we had to wear tracksuits and heels. A red carpet was set up in the second year mall for us to strut down like we are Beyonce. We didn't look very much like Beyonce more like girls in heels and tracksuits struggling to keep a book on their heads. I think heels and tracksuits could be the next big trend, well maybe not. It's definitely a story that we can tell though.

The last workshop was a Positive Parties workshop which involved crazy ways of staying positive and everybody getting a lei, we had our own little part of Hawaii in the library. As part of the workshop we did 'Laughter Yoga' which was essentially doing yoga but also fake laughing at the same time but of course as it was so ridiculous we all just ended up in fits of laughter. We also got sweets which of course made my friends and I happy bunnies. At the end we did the Cha-Cha slide and even though Ciara nearly fell over, sorry Ciara that was kinda my fault, it brought back memories of GAA which of course made us laugh.

This Wednesday we had no workshops because we were collecting our Junior Cert results. We went to school at 10 to 12 to collect them. I was glad about that because it meant I got to sleep for longer, that's always good. After collecting out results everyone was calmer and a lot of us forgot all about about them because we were going out with our friends that night. It would be understatement to say we were tired the next day.

I am intrigued to see what the rest of Ty will be like, especially next week as we are going on a trip to Carlingford.