Big Announcement..

Digital Youth Council!

I am delighted to announce that I am on the 'Digital Youth Coucil of Ireland', the first of it's kind in Europe. All twelve of us on the council have achieved awards or milestones in terms of technology/ digital media. I am very excited to work with these very well established people as well as minister Ciaran Cannon. I am co-social media manager with Ciara. Here is a description of what we are/will do from the website:

'The Digital Youth Council is made up of the Top 12 young people in Tech in Ireland and is set to Launch in late August 2014. The Council will be given the job of gathering young people's views and opinions on Technology, ICT, EU Digital Agenda and more. The Council will work alongside key figures in the Irish Government, EU Commission, Education and other various places to make sure that the views of Young people are listened to.'

We will be meeting in the Science Gallery, Dublin in late August, so I will fill you in on what we decide. After visiting google and loving it, I am very excited to visit the science gallery make sure to:
Follow us on Twitter: @dyc2014
Like our facebook page: 'Digital Youth Coucil'
Follow us on instagram too! : @digitalyouthcouncil
To stay updated on all the things we get up to, and also, to paryake and have YOUR say. We want to hear from you!

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That's all for now, but watch this space guys!

Lauren :)

A Message For Future TYs

Now that we are into the month of August, I figured that those of you lucky boys and girls who will be going into Transition Year next Year have started looking for Work Experience and into extra-curricular activities. So, based on my own experience of TY, here's some advice.

**disclaimer: I do not claim to be an expert I just want you all to get the most out of your Transition Year.

'Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.'

Thomas A. Edison

1. Get Involved - Get into the spirit of TY and sign up for anything that interests you and stick with it. Try something new, something out of your comfort zone. Isn't it better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all? Do some sports, join the choir, there are plenty of after-school activities to keep you busy that won't cost a penny. 

2. Be Prepared - Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Okay that's a bit harsh but still make sure to get all of your work placements sorted early. It makes it more likely that you will be doing something you want to do and will get the best work experience. I managed to get a work placement in TV3, which I thoroughly enjoyed but I applied very early which I really think helped.

3. Participate - In class, in projects, in whatever TY throws at you. As some of you may know, I was heavily involved in our school musical, Calamity Jane, (played Calamity) and this was a fantastic extra-cirricular activity for me. It helped boost my confidence, improve my performance skills, and I met a lot of fantastic people because of it. Do something special this year, you'll be glad you did.

4. Don't Procrastinate - Do yourself a favour and do things as soon as they are assigned. Seriously. It's for your own good, I swear. Things get very messy when you leave them to last minute.

5. ENJOY IT! - I have fantastic memories from TY and I hope you will too. Make new friends, try new hobbies and enjoy learning new things. 

I hope this has inspired you all to be active and participate, whether you're going into TY or not. Blog about your experiences while you're at it. ;)

I have a very exciting project coming up that I'm involved in.. Watch this space for more!!

Lauren :)

Excited?

"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future".

Franklin D. Roosevelt 

"What excites you most about 'Excited?'" 

This is one of the questions we asked people when some of the Radio TY team visited Dublin Castle to  attend the 'Excited' Digital Learning Conference 2014. This conference was about listening to, and learning from students. There were several primary schools there who took part in a junior dragons den. We had the privilege of interviewing them. This was part of a behind the scenes footage project we worked on from early morning until the afternoon and hen showed after Junior dragons den. I found it strange hearing and seeing myself on television but really enjoyed interviewing.

Here are some of the pictures from the exciting day in Dublin castle:

All The St Wolstan's RTY represenattives on the day with our new friend ;)

RTY selfie!

Interviewer and producer ;)

I would like to thank everyone involved in excited and to the Youth Media Team for letting us join them, we really enjoyed ourselves and we all learnt a lot from each other. It was a wonderful learning experience for all and I hope to go on more innovative adventures with RTY in the future. 

Aoife and I interviewed Dr Ruth Freeman, Director of Programmes, Enterprise and International Affairs at the Science Foundation of Ireland. Ruth spoke to us about gender expectations and how they affect the career path we want, just to fit in. I found Ruth to be a very inspirational lady and someone to look up to for her achievements and friendly personality.

listen to ‘Interview with Dr Ruth Freeman’ on Audioboo

Thanks for reading/listening/visiting,

That's all for now,

Lauren :)

Swim a mile with a smile

This Wednesday I was really excited and slightly nervous about the Ian Daly Swim a Mile for Barretstown. I hadn't trained for it so that was why I was nervous as I planned on doing the full mile by myself. When we got there we were pretty much straight into the pool once we had sorted out who was going in what lane. All the people doing the mile by themselves were put into two lanes and then all the teams were together in 6 other lanes. We had to swim 64 lengths of a 25 meter pool in order to swim a mile. getting past about 20 was the hard part because there were so many left but after that I had got into a nice rhythm and it wasn't too bad. I can happily say that I swam the mile along with several other girls and I'm so proud of us all. It just shows what determination can do! It was such a great sense of accomplishment and I did 12 more lengths for the craic afterwards to add to our grand total of 38 lengths between our year group. We got squares bars and fruit and a drink afterwards and I was ecstatic after swimming.

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However the adrenaline soon wore off when we went to Blanchardstown for a while for lunch due to tiredness :p but overall it was a fantastic experience and I would love to do it again next year and would recommend it to anyone who can swim and even if you're not too comfortable with swimming do a few lengths with some friends for a great cause! Well done to everyone who took part and thanks to the girls who counted our lengths! We raised over 2200 euro for charity which is fantastic!

That's all for now,

Thanks,

Lauren x

Junior Spider Awards!

As you may have noticed, my blog has been shortlisted for an Eircom Junior Spider award! It is shortlisted under Best Project. This means I get to go to Google's  European Headquarters in Dublin on the 29th of April! Im sure there will plenty of exciting things happening there so I'll be sure to keep you posted on that. I will be going with Eilis, who's blog was also nominated under best concept and also Mrs L and some of the girls from Radio TY, as we have also been nominated for an award for our TY Radio blog: www.radioty.blogspot.ie. I was so happy to be shortlisted and to have another classmate shortlisted also is fantastic! (Go Tabei! :p) And then to have Radio TY up for an award is great too as I have been involved with that from the start and I think its a really great idea. Best of luck to everyone who is up for an award; check out the shortlist here for some really cool blogs.

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Seachtain na Gaeilge

Last week was 'Seachtain na Gaeilge' and for the past few weeks, my class, Tabei, has been practicing a play called 'Trúir Amadáin' which literally translates as the three idiots. We've had great fun practicing for it in class and were in tears laughing at the fabulous farmer outfits and hair do's. The first years and a TY class came down to watch it and seemed to enjoy it!

We had Lá Glas on Friday and we were all dressed up in green, and had the craic in the school hall while watching people parade along in their farmer and leprechaun costumes. We then had a lovely long weekend to finish off a fantastic week of gaeilge and craic.

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Slán libh a chairde,

Lauren :)

Barcelona

We are going on a school trip to Barcelona soon and I cannot wait to go. We're going over easter which will be really good. Some of my friends are going also. We will be going to Port Aventura, cathedrals, and many other tourist attractions and I cannot wait!!

Gymnastics!

Yesterday we did our first P.E. class of gymnastics in Excel Gymnastics for 2 hours. I did gymnastics for over 7 years there as a child so it brought back great memories. We warmed up with some exercises and did the splits and then did some  jumping and tumbling exercises. After that was the vault which was a lot of fun. I even flipped off the vault! (into mats of course). Then we did some balance work on the beam which was good and then chin ups and beats on the barres.

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How we looked doing our exercises ;)

Its the next day and my shoulders and arms are pretty stiff from the push ups and chin ups as I'm not used to that kinda work (#chickenarms ;p ) but it was so worth it I had a great time and cant wait for next week!

Whip Crack AWAY!

Last week was the week of our school musical, Calamity Jane, and as Calamity, it was one of the best weeks of my life. It was such a fantastic experience.

Monday evening was the first rehearsal in the GAA and we tested the mics and stuff which made me so excited because it hit me then how the musical was the next day and I started to get really excited to show off our hard work.

On Tuesday we rehearsed all day at the GAA which went well. By the time showtime came around that evening, everyone was excited, nervous, and anxious but there was a great buzz around the place. After going home for over an hour i went back to get my hair and makeup done by Ms. L (who did a fabulous job) and to get my mic on. I had a few friends  and family members there so I was a bit nervous but as soon as I stepped out onto the stage the nerves went away and I started to enjoy myself. There were a few 'saves' that we made but no major mistakes which was fantastic for an opening night. There were some lovely pictures taken on the night by Lola

Wednesday went really well also, although there was a bit of anxiety towards this show as we now had a standard to uphold and wanted to keep the good streak going. It went well again and although there were a few blunders in the first act, the second act was spectacular and we finished on a high.

The Thursday show was fantastic and we really enjoyed ourselves. Everyone did brilliantly and I was so excited after it I could hardly sleep and then Friday went even better.

I have enjoyed this whole experience thoroughly and feel I have gained from it confidence wise and also I met some really great people that I hope to stay in touch with. All the songs in it are so beautiful and are constantly in my head (ill have everyone driven mad from singing them). I hope everyone who went enjoyed it and thanks so much for coming and supporting us. Well done to everyone involved, either on stage or backstage or in the orchestra and all the teachers and prefects who helped out along the way too.

That's all for now,

Lauren

Scifest

Last Friday Transition Years participated in Scifest! Although Scifest was stressful at times, it was nice to see it all come together. At the start of the year we were all put into groups and began preparing our titles. It was difficult to come up with a title to explore but after a lot of research we decided on Stain Removal: Natural vs Synthetic. We aimed to explore which stain remover was the best and tested:

• Lemon Juice
• Vinegar
• Acetone (in nail varnish remover)
• Baking Powder 
• Vanish

We scrubbed stains like dirt, berries and ketchup on white t-shirts and found that the best remover was baking powder which made the whites whiter.

Scrubbing

Vanish

So we are now through to the next round so watch this space!

Lauren :)

Empower Girls For Change

In religion class we have been working on our mini NGO which is promoting girls education In developing countries, and everywhere. Giving girls an education can break the chain of poverty for future generations.

• Educated girls grow into educated women, who have healthier babies and are more likely to educate their children.
• They will be able to have a career and therefore pay for their child's education.
• When a girl in the developing world receives an education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.

We made videos in I.T. class to promote this issue. Here is mine:

I hope you enjoyed my video and that you help us to promote education for girls worldwide. I want them to have the opportunities that I am so fortunate to have, and I'm sure you will too.

Thanks guys,

Stay tuned for more,

Lauren

Calamity jane update!

Hi guys! So as the lead of Calamity Jane, I thought I'd let you know how we're getting on, as showtime draws nearer and nearer!

So we have rehearsed the whole show at this stage which is brilliant and all songs are covered of course! I'm having so much fun rehearsing; singing, acting and dancing. I'm really getting into the character now and i'm enjoying it :)

We've started trying on costumes which was so fun, some of them were really funny because they were frilly but they'll look so cool on stage. Also the drag costume was by far the funniest! If you wanna know what that's all about, make sure to get your ticket to Calamity Jane in the GAA in the school reception! :)

Tomorrow we're going around to all the local primary schools in costume to sing and dance and tell them what the musical is about. I'm really looking forward to that, it should be great fun :)

Here's the song Calamity and Katie sing after a bit of pampering!


Anyway, that's all for now, I shall let you know how I get on tomorrow,

Stay tuned for all the craic and pictures!

Lauren :)

Birthday Banter

Tuesday was my 16th birthday and saying I had a brilliant day would be an understatement. I woke up to presents from my family and notifications from my friends wishing me happy birthday. Claire and Melissa had pictures and messages posted at bang on midnight, thank u girls :) when I went in to my lunch room in the morning everyone sang happy birthday to me which was lovely.

A collage Melissa made

Lunch time was so much fun, with more singing, presents and claire made me a lovely poster with pics and private jokes and things on it! Aideen made a yummy train cake aswell!

The cake Aideen made

Cakes, presents, posters and cards. Thank u all!

When I went home, I had family over and more cake! I really enjoyed my birthday and I can't thank all my friends and family enough for making my day so special. I had a lovely get together that saturday too with all my friends :) 

Me and Aideen

That's all for now,

Lauren :)

Nerds

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Albert Einstein

Yesterday we went to the BT Young scientist exhibition which was brilliant. There were some really interesting projects from around the country such as how to prepare for an earthquake in third world countries and a light for your bicycle that lights up when a car approaches. These are just some of the many amazing projects that were competing in the young scientist. 

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It was the 50th young scientist exhibition so there was a special 3D show about space which was very interesting. It gave me perspective in relation to how small we are. They compared the size of earth with the sun and then the sun with other stars and it looked minute! It was really fascinating and I would definitely recommend visiting it if you are at the exhibition. 

However with the sciences aside, the highlight of my day was definitely meeting Ryan Tubridy and taking a selfie with him (below)

After that I got to present the weather! We stood in front of the blue screen and Aideen pointed to the map and Melissa clicked for the prompter to change. I really enjoyed reading it and made me consider news reporting.. Sadly they didn't ask to hire me right there on the spot but I'm sure they were just too in awe.... ;)

Overall we had a brilliant day, thanks to all the science teachers and Mrs L for organising it :)

Stay tuned for even more TY antics and pictures,

Have a good weekend! 

Lauren :)

Be crazy, be happy

Hi guys! How are things? This week has been super busy for us TY's as it is our first week back after Christmas! We were all busy preparing for Junk Kouture, which I will tell you about later in this post. We are also preparing for Scifest and Mini Company, so for those of you that consider TY as a doss year, this is far from the truth. Not to mention the musical is in 7 weeks which I am excited about but also quite nervous but a bit of nerves is okay I spose :) Tickets are on sale now in the school, so make sure to get your before they sell out!

Me and Sorcha in our Junk Kouture :)

So today was the big day of.. Junk Kouture! We had our fashion show today, which loads of students and teachers watched. We put a lot of time and effort into our outfit and I really enjoyed walking up the catwalk to this song:



It really tied in with the black swan theme, and I thought it was actually a really cool remix :) I really enjoyed the fashion show and doing the ridiculous makeup and hair and everything, although the wires stuck into me a bit, the minor injuries were worth it haha.

That's all for now amigos, watch this space for more TY madness, and just to spoil you on this fabulous friday, here is a nice happy song: