Edublog Awards shortlist!

Well three of St Wolstan's TY blogs were shortlisted for the Edublog Awards this year. Eilís was shortlisted for the Best Student blog, Rebecca was shortlisted for Best New blog and Radio TY was shortlisted for Best Podcast blog.

Here are the links to the places to vote for them.

See full list on Listly

See full list on Listly

See full list on Listly

There are other Irish schools shortlisted as well:

See full list on Listly

See full list on Listly

And of course many irish teachers too. Good luck to everyone.

Edublog Awards 2013

We think we will participate in the Edublog Awards again this year. How this works is that we have to write a post with our nominations, link to the nominations and then link to the Edublog Awards website. We then send a link to this post here to the Edublog folks and that's it!

So here goes:

We would like to nominate Radio TY for the Best educational use of podcasts and for Best group blog because the St Wolstan's TY Media Team manage the blog. Here is their Audioboo


We'd also like to nominate the following blogs for:

Best new blog because they have all just been blogging since September 2013, Lauren's Transition Year , Jessica's Transitioning in 3...2...1!
Rebecca's TY experience,
and Eilís' TY Blog

Best student blog award because they are all students,  Lauren's Transition Year , Jessica's Transitioning in 3...2...1!
Rebecca's TY experience,
and Eilís' TY Blog


Best individual blog because they all keep their own blog -  Lauren's Transition Year , Jessica's Transitioning in 3...2...1!
Rebecca's TY experience,
and Eilís' TY Blog


#edchatie as the Best twitter hashtag.

Having a Blast!!

Source

When someone tells you that TY is a doss year you can tell them that they are wrong! Since we've come back from the midterm TY's have been kept very busy, with talks, trips, projects, work experience, and much more.

A few of the girls went to Naas General Hospital to attend talks that were given by the doctors and nurses there. Katie wrote a blog post about the talks she went to, click here to see it.

Many of the girls have been busy with Radio TY interviewing people about the things we are doing in TY like Mini Company and Junk Kouture, as well as things happening around the school such as the Open Day.
Some of the TY's were helping out at the open day, Caoimhe was helping in the music room while Rowen was in charge of the sports displays.

Most of our Mini Company groups now have their businesses up and running, selling their products. Click here to find out about Laura's Mini Company group Candy Blossom.

We have been on a few trips this week and had a little bit too much McDonalds and Starbucks. We went to a talk in Tallaght IT for Science Week, see what Sorcha and Rebecca thought of the talk. We also went into town for a W.B Yeats themed trip, which we all enjoyed. Aoife and Laura wrote about the trip.

We have also started doing Zumba during our PE classes and it is great to see everyone dancing, click here to find out what Karen thinks.

A lot of TY's have decided to get involved with our school Musical Calamity Jane and have been busy with the acting, singing, dancing, production team, etc.

Here are some pictures:

Bog Bodies

National Art Gallery
Source

Open Day
Source

Schools Across Borders

Two weeks ago, we had a talk with Darren Irvine, the founder of "Schools Across Borders" about the work he does with students in areas of conflict. Darren has worked with students all over the world. He helps young people to connect with their peers, both locally and internationally,to help work for a more just, equal and peaceful world. 

We are taking part in a project they are running called Global Citizens Network 2013-2014. This is a network of schools in Ireland and it also includes other schools around the world. There are two main stages to this program the Research Stage and the Campaign Stage.  We will be learning from each other and discussing different key themes in the world. 

Our class has started the Research Stage. During this each school group shall research, reflect and debate key local-global themes. We have been coming up with a theme that we will be researching. First of all we put our ideas forward and we wrote the top 7 ideas on sheets of paper. We got into groups and went around the classroom writing down what we know and what we would like to know about each theme. In the end everyone agreed with the overarching question that we came up. It is: "Is the world child friendly?".

We will be getting into groups and researching the life of children all over the world from different points of view like education, gender, conflict, etc.. In the end we will answer the question from all these aspects of a child's life, discovering where in our world is the most child friendly.  When we have finished this we plan on developing a “mini-NGO” type campaign.

You can find out more at http://www.schoolsacrossborders.org/

Laura uses picmonkey.com

Laura has written a short tutorial post on how to create a picture montage using PicMonkey.

Here are her instructions:


First of all open up a search engine e.g google chrome and search 

http://www.picmonkey.com/

On the top centre of the page there should be a button that says create a collage. When you hover the mouse over it, it should say click to start or drag images here click on it. 

 (It should look like the above images)

Click the Read More below........

Friendship Week fun!

Rowen has been blogging about our Fun Walk last Friday. Here's what she writes.....

Well on Friday was the Fun Walk. Its one of the major events in the school. Each year is given a color and each base class has o think of a song and put a dance to it to preform on front of the school and judges.

                                      1st year- Pink
                                      2nd year- Purple
                                      3rd year- Green
                                      TY- Yellow
                                      5th year- Blue
                                      6th year- Black and White

Click the Read More below.......

Road Safety Week

The RTY team interviewed Pat Mc Neeley of Bayside Services when he came to the school today to deliver the Drive 4 Life road safety workshop. The workshop was sponsored by Kildare Road Safety officer Declan Keogh, who also came into the school to visit TY.

We are only experimenting with podcasting at the moment so bear with us. We have some help to improve our podcasts coming soon though!

Listen to their short interview below.

listen to ‘Road Safety Week 2013’ on Audioboo

Check out Kildare Road safety on Facebook

Work experience has Ailbhe in stitches!

Ailbhe and Laura tell us about what they did on their first Wednesday of work experience.

A trip to St Enda's Park

Sarah Louise and Aoife give a quick report on last week's trip to St Enda's Park. We recorded this with very little preparation - it did take 7 attempts to get it right though!

Preparations and podcasts.

We tried out a quick podcast today while class Tabei practised for the Fun Walk on Friday. The Fun Walk ends our Friendship Week in school. The whole school goes on a short colourful walk.

listen to ‘Fun Walk Preparations’ on Audioboo

Here is the original 'Jump on It' from the Fresh Prince of Belair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCFRJEjM3fc

And here's Carlton singing the Tom Jones classic 'It's not Unusual'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKSxlJPmz40

And the Taxi cab song here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp7RmDFH-p8

Banish Viscious Circles with a Positive Party

Anna has written about her Positive Party experience last week. Sounds like TY had a great day learning how to get through the stresses of TY! Why not pop by Anna's blog later in the year to see what else TY has in store?

The Viscous Circle

"Put your thinking in, put your thinking out, in, out, in, out and
 shake it all about. Do the hockey pokey and you turn around, 
and that's what its all about. Ooooooooh, the viscous circle, 
ooooooooh the viscous circle, ooooooh the viscous circle, and 
that's what it's all about!"

Positive Parties

Of course, anyone who wasn't at our Positive Party on Wednesday
would think I'm an absolute lunatic right now (and I apologize if this
applies to you) but any of the girls who were there will know exactly
what I'm on about!

The Positive Party is exactly what it sounds like - we wore hula necklaces,
ate sweets, sang and just had a really positive day. We talked about our
happiest memories and learned how to channel those memories when
we're feeling upset.

I'm pretty sure this sums up how everyone felt at the party!

It was so much fun - we made so many great memories and we really
had a genuinely good time; everyone came out with big smiles on their
faces, in a brilliant mood!

After the Positive Party, a speaker talked to us about confidence, 
different personality types, and how to go after our dreams. It may 
not have been as exciting and fun as the party, but he gave us some 
good tips and I came out of the room feeling a little more confident.

After lunch we learned how to give massages - my partner was 
Laura and oh my god, if you ever need a massage she is definitely 
the person to go to! I felt so relaxed afterwards, she is the best. It 
was a great experience to learn how to do that, I'm really glad I got
the opportunity!

All in all, Wednesday was a brilliant day and I cant wait for the next
workshop!

Climbing Mountains and Wearing Trash.

Here is Lauren's first blog post about her first day in TY. Visit her blog and see how she documents her year.

Climbing Mountains and Wearing Trash.

We went in on the first day, not really knowing where to go. Everyone else had settled in already as TY's are the last to go back after summer. We had an assembly and I waited nervously to find out who was in my class and thankfully, I am really happy with my class group, Tabei. It also helped that it was the slightly easier class to pronounce... I still don't think I'm pronouncing Tereshkova right. Our classes were named after famous women who have made great accomplishments, for example, Junko Tabei is 
a Japanese mountain climber who became the
first woman to climb Mount Everest in 1975.

Source

Once the classes were sorted, it was like we had never left!
We then went to TY design and have started planning our Junk 
Kouture project which I am really excited about. For those of you 
who haven't heard of junk Kouture before, its a competition where 

TY's create an item of clothing made completely of recycled materials, 
including at least one recycled electrical item. I'm finding it really 
fun coming up with ideas for it because nothing is too outrageous
for this competition, so it should be interesting to see what we come 
up with. Watch this space!

What's coming up? Well, tomorrow we have a workshop, which I will 
tell you about soon. In a few weeks, I will be starting work experience
in a chemistry department  which I am really looking forward to 
because I find chemistry really interesting. I shall keep you posted. 
In the near future, I have double P.E. now, which will be great fun. 

I look forward to continuing my blog and making it better and better,
so stay tuned.

Here is Lauren's first blog post about her first day in TY. Visit
her blog and see how she documents her year.

Plans for 2013/2014

Only a short time until we are back to school and I thought I'd post an update of September plans just incase any TY 2013/2014 might be popping by.

TY's return to school on Thursday 29th August. Work experience is on each Wednesday this year again but it will not start until Wednesday 2nd October. In September they will have workshops on each Wednesday to prepare for work experience.

They will have 3 workshops on September 4th - Personal Development, Positivity, and Massage.
September 11th is Junior Cert results day.
Another 3 workshops on September 18th - Stress Management, Etiquette, and Building rapport.
Three more workshops on September 25th - Dressing for work experience, Assertiveness, and a work experience workshop from Mr Corcoran and Ms Hughes.

Mini Company, Young Scientist, F1 in Schools, and lots of other projects will be started but probably the most anticipated trip will be our bonding trip to Carlingford Adventure Centre on 16th and 17th September. We will leave the school at 7am on the Monday and return by 7pm on the Tuesday - exhausted but happy.

I think September will be a busy month!
Mrs L :)

TY vs Bastille

This was TY 2012/2013's closing song on TY Night. All three classes learnt the song, moves, and harmonies in separate Music classes. They only had one day to sing it together before they performed it at TY Night. I think they did a great job.

TY Night

Corrie made a video about TY Night, from setting up the hall on the day, through presenting their show on the night, and then to clearing the hall the next day. Have a look at how responsible they are!

Some more videos from TY 2012 / 2013

Here's some more videos that TY 2012 / 2013 made in May. Enjoy :)

Kate recorded Under the Same Sun ( and performed it at TY Night too!)



Orlaith, Ciara, and Ruth recorded a TY French oral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bk6Zk3a55ms 

Abbie and Muireann did an MTV cribs style video of St Wolstan’s http://youtu.be/cyn1Q587On4



Chanice shows us what a day out at Xtreme is like http://youtu.be/TW603BRAbWM 

Aisling did some weird dance moves in the garden! http://youtu.be/EA47VQN2fsM




Aideen went to the beach to make her video http://youtu.be/_AG579irnYs




Eilise made a How To video on playing the ukulele http://youtu.be/1av-wLNDsic

Shannon and Emma did their video on their TY year http://youtu.be/SNsnezRL8lo

Rachel made a video about her Junk Kouture experience http://youtu.be/7KZqdnBcI78



Ciara M is mad into boy bands! http://youtu.be/44EDx9vzjxM

Alanna plays in the orchestra and rehearses at lunchtimes. http://alannad101.blogspot.ie/2013/05/this-my-it-video-completed-it-is-all.html

Fiona recorded her Gaisce hike http://youtu.be/hdNn7vSUraM

Emma and Cliodhna shows us what’s involved in getting ready for Gaisce http://emmastytimes.blogspot.ie/2013/05/it-video-project-d.html

Aisling’s passion is horses http://aislingnty.blogspot.ie/

More videos

Dairine and Carmel made this video about her TY year. Dairine did lots of projects and Carmel helped her with them. Well done Dairine :)

TY videos

Here are some of the TY end of year IT videos that have been sent to me so far. Enjoy :D

Elizabeth nearly threw her laptop out the window when making her video but I think you'll agree, it is pretty brilliant. Well done Elizabeth.



Megan sent a message to herself from her future self with some very important information. Very sensible Megan and it's a lovely video.




Eve made a movie about her TY work experience at Aspire Design. Have a look at what she got up to.

Ciara is passionate about football and it certainly shows in her video below. Look at those skills!



Amanda recorded her TY year in photos, Orla interviewed The Strypes via Facebook, and Zoe made her own medley and played piano for her favourite movies.

Lisa and Aoibhinn made videos to be added to our TY blog - Our Music Rooms - a collaborative project with St Scolastica's College in Australia. Both videos are about traditional Irish music.


Enjoy
Mrs L :)

Making Movies

Transition Year have been set their end of year assignment for I.T. class. They have to record, produce, and publish a video of between 1 - 3 minutes long. The use of software and topic can be their own choice.

There was some excitement when the assignment was given, and some great ideas were discussed. There was talk of doing Forrest Gump in one minute, a Wolstan's Crib in an MTV Cribs style, a profile of our winning Camogie Team, a video on the upcoming Gaisce hike, and some will even make short videos for our Music Rooms collaborative project with St Scholastica's College in Sydney, Australia.

To help I have created a YouTube Playlist for using Windows Live Movie Maker which is the programme on the computers at school. If students wish to use any other programme they are free to do so.

Here is the first video in the Playlist.






I also found another site with lots of very useful Windows Live tutorials called Mahalo.com. 

Good luck TY, I am looking forward to your movies.
Mrs L :)

Caught in the web of the Junior Spider Awards

This month 7 TY's entered the eircom Junior Spider Awards. Well done to each and every one for having such good blogs that they were very worthy of entering this competition. Each girl had put in a lot of work to their blogs, designing them, updating them, and making sure anyone who read their blogs would go away with a real idea of what we do in TY.

Well done to Abbie, Katie, Eilíse, Shannon, Aideen, Chanice and Katie H

An extra well done to Katie H for being shortlisted in the Best Concept category. At least she doesn't compete with the TY 2011/2012 St Brigid blog that was also shortlisted but in the Best Project category. Katie will join Meg, Aoibheann, and Kate from last years TY classes as we all go to the RDS on March 5th for the finals.

Good luck Katie and TY 2011/2012

Making music with Jabba Jabba Jembe

Last week TY's had Jembe workshops with Dave from Jabba Jabba Jembe. 

Needless to say there was great fun and a few photos and videos were taken. Here's one Ava took of class Cairdeas performing their own pieces they composed at the worksops.



Check out the TY blogs to see what they have said about it, but judging by the smiles on the day I expect they all had great fun. Thanks to Ms Mahon for organising the workshops and of course to David Day for more excellent workshops again this year.

Rápido y Furioso at Kfm for F1

Last week Katie, Ciara and Eilísewent to Kfm to chat to Clem Ryan about Team Rápido y Furioso. He got a wee bit confused between Mini Company and F1 in Schools competitions but the girls so put him right though!

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Visit Team Rápio y Furioso blog here and why not follow them on Facebook and Twitter?

Find out more about the F1 in Schools competition here and visit Kfm for more music and craic from Clem here.

TY's present...

This week TY's have been uploading their class presentations to Slideshare (www.slideshare.net) so they can share them on their blogs.

See some of the presntations in these blogs:

Corrie's favourite scene from Dirty Dancing

Eve's Edouard Manet - peintre francais

Aoibhinn and Lisa's Oscar Claude Monet - another peintre francais!

Why not read some more of their posts while you visit their blogs?

Enjoy
Mrs L :)

Cars, Teddies, snakes and Robert Sheehan - typical TY!

Here's a few more blogs to read.

Katie's looking for followers for her F1 in School team Rápido y Furioso,

Ciara's all Teddy Bears and Crumble,

Shannon gets up close and personal with a snake at the BTYSE!

and 

Megan's in love with Robert Sheehan. Incase we don't know who he is, Lauren shows us who they are talking about!

TY's have been updating their blogs

Back to school after christmas and the TY's have been updating their blogs - just in time for the 3rd Years who will be checking the blogs in the process of deciding if they should do TY next year or not.

Read these blogs to find out what we've been up to since December:

Aoibhinn's TY blog

Ciara's TY Blog Xperience 

Lisa's TY blog 

Shannon's wild adventure

A trip to the ballet

Before Christmas we went to see the Irish National Youth Ballet at the Pavilion, in Dublin. Abbie thought it was amazing. Here is her post about it:


On Friday, we went to see the Irish National Youth Ballet perform 'The Little Nutcracker'. There were two girls from our school dancing in the ballet, the skill of all the dancers in the ballet was amazing. They all moved so gracefully around the stage and performed all their dance moves so precisely!


In the video above, the Irish National Youth Ballet are performing their opening number to the show. 
Abbie :)

Read more of Abbie's blog here.

Shannon's work experience video

Shannon has just completed a work experience at NUI Maynooth Chemistry Department. She made a short video of her time there.



Read more of Shannon's blog here.