New faces in video land!

This week both Shannon and Roisin recorded their blog posts via video. Shannon tells us about her Geography project and Roisin tells us about the Fun Walk last Friday.

Well done to both girls for taking the plunge and recording their news! All done and dusted in one IT class too. Here's hoping other TY's want to get into recording and using video.




Read more of Shannon's blog here, and Roisin's blog here. Why not pop over and leave them a comment?
Mrs L :)

Run Forest Run! Wait scratch that - try cycling!

Grace took part in Bike Week. Here's what she says.....

"Last week was Bike Week in Ireland, to try to promote cycling as a fun, healthy low cost , environmentally friendly way to get around. So when Mr Kiely came around asking if we wanted to put our names into a draw to win a bike, I didn't really think much, because I never (really never) win stuff like that! At the end of the day when 3 other names and my own was called out I was so surprised! Just shows - it doesn't hurt to try! We get to keep the bikes for 6 months, and use them as much as we like! We were presented them last Thursday and yesterday we took them for a spin to Castletown House with the Greenschools Committee.

I want to thank Mr Kiely and the Greenschools Committee for all their hard work, and congratulations to them as they were recently awarded with the school's 4th green flag.

Seeing as we have come up with a topic for our Geography project, where we will be picking a subject and linking it to different places around the world, I thought I'd pick cycling because it's such a worldwide sport and I wanted to find out more!

It seems really interesting so far - for example do you know that Lance Armstrong had cancer before winning the internationally famous 'Tour de France' for 7 consecutive years? I can't wait to get started!"

Read more of Grace's blog here

Blog Action Day 2011

Last year TY took part in Blog Action Day in October and the theme was WATER. All we had to do was register and join bloggers all over the world by writing a post about water.

This year's Blog Action Day 2011 coincides with World Food Day, so BAD's topic this year will be FOOD.

Food is something that we all share in common, but is distinct to each of our cultures. The way we produce, distribute and consume food is crucial to our shared future, and the unhealthy imbalance of food scarcity in developing world and food over-abundance in the developed world is unsustainable for us all.

Blog Action Day 2011 will be an opportunity to open the conversation about how food impacts all of us – individually and globally.

The big event is only a few days away. I am hoping that TY will take part again.

To kick things off register for Blog Action Day 2011 by clicking the link below:

http://blogactionday.org/register-for-blog-action-day/

Mrs L :)

Suggested Topics for Blog Action Day

• My favorite food
• The famine in East African
• To be organic or not to be:
• Best and worst food memory
• Slow Food, Fast Food: What does it actually mean
• Malnutrition
• Conflict over Food:
• Is your hamburger hurting the enviroment?
  It takes 24 liters of water to produce one hamburger. That means it would take over 19.9 billion liters of water to make just one hamburger for every person in Europe.
• Vegan, Vegetarian, Meat eater – Which one are you?
• Will we be able to feed 9 billion people in 2050?
• Freeganism
• The scandal of Food Waste.
• What is the best way to farm food.
• Growing your own – the joys and heartache of growing what you eat.
• Too much or too little taking food to extremes
• Strangest thing you have ever eaten.
• What food means to your culture.

Can you think of any more?

Geography projects

There are only 4 weeks left until mid term and I am hoping that my TY Geography class will have finished the research for their Around the World Virtual Trip by then.
After mid term they should be ready to make their presentations in class and to submit their Fact File for assessment.
Here is an example of what last year's class presented. Siobhanb was going to travel to Poland.

Siobhan had lots of photos in her presentation and talked us through each slide.

http://siobhanb.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-geography-presentation-poland.html

50% of TY Christmas Assessment will go towards their Factfile and 50% towards their classroom presentation.
In the Factfile I will be looking for facts obviously, a geography focus on each country (places to see etc) and a well presented project. It does not have to be printed, a scrapbook will do just as well.

For the classroom presentation I will be looking for depth of knowledge about yopur chosen country - so I will be asking questions! I will also allocate marks for a well designed PowerPoint presentation and for delivery  - so be confident!

Good luck
Mrs L :)

Grading blog posts

I've just come across this blog post from Janet Lynn Johnson who teaches at The University of Texas at Dallas.

http://www.mediarhetoric.com/blog/grading-a-blog

Now I know Dr Lynn Johnson teaches at 3rd Level but I thought she had some intersting points that I could consider when I'm marking the TY Geography blog posts.

What do you think I should grade them on?

Geography projects

This week TY have been frantically finishing off the latest Geography project that I set a few weeks ago. The task is to write 5 blog posts on the geography of a subject of their choice. The project also includes the creation of a a Google map with 5 pins about the topic and shared with me.

The project will be the end of year assessment for TY Geography. I am looking forward to reading them all. I will be reading about Music, and more Music, Food, Manchester United legends, famous Women Throwers, Irish Actors, Mc Donald's, Life saving, Horses, the history of printing, Karate, and even Mass Murderers!

Mrs L :)

Geography world trip

Michelle posted an update on her Geography project this week....

"At the start of the year, we were assigned a Geography project. I had to pick two countries from the first world to present my project on. I chose Spain!! As I researched this country I found out that there was more to it then the gorgeous weather and golden beaches. I found out that in Castrillo de Murcia they hold a Baby Jumping Festival!! That's right, and it is a real festival!!!

Every year newborn babies are dressed in swaddling clothes and put on a mattress while grown men dressed in a devils outfit jumps over them. The idea is a scary one for all the babies parents concerned but many people flock to the event to watch this exhilarating event. The idea of the festival is that when the men (dressed as devils) jump over the babies they rid them of any wrong doings that they may do in their future life! Heres a picture ->"

Michelle

Fasinating stuff Michelle!

Mrs L

Eva's Cholera project

I have just finished my second geography project on an infectious disease in Peru. I made a brochure on the disease and included information like what it is, how it is caused, how it can be prevented, vaccinanations, symptoms and all about the medicine needed to cure it.
I learned a lot about Cholera and that it is caused by drinking or eating excessive amounts of drink or food that contain Vibrio Cholerae 01.
If you are travelling abroad for long term you will be offered the Vaccine which is called Dukoral and it is an oral vaccine. If you dont want to get the vaccine you can prevent Cholera by only drinking bottled water and not eating anything that is undercooked or raw.

To learn more about cholera clcik the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera

Eva Brady ( :

Geography presentations

I really enjoyed my Geography classes with Desta this week. The girls were presenting their World Trip presentations.

So far we have 'travelled' to Tanzania, New Zealand and USA with Louise, Kirstin and Caroline. Louise brought in some American Oreos for us to taste and took us on a journey up the US west coast. We then 'travelled' to Mexico, France, and Sweden with Alex, Shannon and Dearbhile who brought in some Mexican nachos and dip to share with us. Katie, Paula and Emma took us to Malawi, Azerbaijan and showed us some cuddly animals from Australia. Did you know the Koala bear is actually not a bear...and it's name is just Koala?

Ali, Eileen and Niamh took us to Egypt, Italy and Austria. Imagine, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was still built even after they discovered it leaning when building the 3rd floor?



We listened to some Mozart and even sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, little Star" with Niamh because Mozart, the Austrian composer, wrote a variation of the song.




Доброе утро ( doh-brah-eh- oo-trah) Good morning.
Today, Karolina gave us her presentation on her homeland, Russia. She taught us some Russian phrases and told us about the MEGA shopping centre in Moscow where she used to shop...250 shops, that's big!
Rebecca offered us some Vegemite and crackers from Australia. I think the crackers went down better than the Vegemite:) Vicky told us about the Museum of the Revolution in Havana in Cuba, and some of the colourful festivals they celebrate there. Caoimhe was taken by Malaysia because she likes scuba diving and tempted us with the beautiful clear waters there. She also took us to Germany where she wants to visit the Black Forest to find out why it's called that.

We have more presentations to come next week and I am so looking forward to them.

до свидания (Dasvidania) :)

Mrs Leahy

22/10/09-in IT class-

Its weird how after all that excitement and work towards the fun walk last week and this week its all over. Although we didn't win we were so happy with our Selam Traffic Jam! Ahhhh it was so much fun. I stood at Willowbrook 1 with Ellie and Niamh and even though we didnt see every class coming out to the judges we got to see all the costumes when they walked past us at the crossing. Everyone looked awesome! The rain was a nuisance, I made a "Cows Crossing" sign and it ran all over the place but it was funny :)

There's so many projects that we are doing atm, but it makes it much easier to learn things when you do projects! I just finished a project on Marilyn Monroe in History, that was pretty cool!

Ehm... we are doing a project on Jack B Yeats in Irish and in Geography we are doing the deadliest project ever - An Around the World Trip! Its so much fun! We get in groups and then we pick countries that we want to travel to and then we like book flights and hotels and things we are going to do and all! It is AWE-SOME! We actually feel like we are going on the trip and we're all excited hehe.

We had a talk today on Recyling and then another one from Garda Roche about drugs. Speaking of Garda.... Work experience in November for me is in Finglas, Blanchardstown and Cabra Garda stations. Hehe great place for Garda work experience, I'm sure they're pretty busy in there hehe. But Im sure it will be good :) My March work experience placement is in Urban Outfitters...I cannot wait, its my dream to work in a place like that, ahhh I love it!!!!! :P Cant wait for both the work experiences!
Well class is over in Like 5 minutes so best be off!
Conclusion- TY Is awesome-AZING!
Tttyl
~Meg K