Goodbye!

I know it has been quite a while since I have last updated this blog, and I have one simple explanation for you all - I have completed Transition Year and am on my summer holidays!
Since this blog was created as part of my TY program (ever wonder where the name Melissa's TY Blog came from?! :P ), and was used to document all the goings-on of my Transition Year,  it feels right for me to end the blog here.
However it felt unfitting for me to just never post again, so I thought I would post this in order to give a little explanation.

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So, there it is, I'm saying goodbye to blogging, at least on this blog (who knows, I might start up another!). Thank you for reading my silly posts and sharing the year with me.

Take care,

Melissa :)

Junior Spider Awards

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So this week we came back to school after 2 weeks off for the Easter holidays. I must admit, I wasn't particularly looking forward to coming back, although since we only have 4 weeks more to go, I'm not too badly off!
To make getting back into school even easier, I got to go to the Eircom Junior Spider Awards representing Radio TY!

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The awards were held in Google HQ in Dublin, and there were stands from different companies like Microsoft, Eircom, Spin 1038 and Dublin Zoo (who brought lots of snakes and reptiles!). These stands were there to provide entertainment for several hours before the actual awards ceremony, and I really enjoyed spending the time looking around!

Radio TY (which I posted about a while ago here) was nominated for both Best Project and Best Concept in the Tera Category, and we were delighted to find out that we had won the Junior Spider for Best Concept!
It was a great day all round concluding with a bonus of winning one of the categories, so I was certainly delighted with the outcome of the day!

Swim A Mile With A Smile :D

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This Wednesday we participated in the 'Ian Daly Swim A Mile With A Smile' sponsored swim. The swim is in order to raise money for Barretstown Centre for seriously ill children, and St. John's Cancer Ward in Crumlin Children's hospital.
We all raised sponsorship money, and on the day of the swim we were taken to the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin, every person aiming to swim a certain number of lengths. A mile is 64 lengths of a 25 metre pool, and I swam a total of 76 lengths!! I was certainly tired afterwards!

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I was so delighted to be a part of raising money for such fantastic causes, that do so much good for children who are seriously sick. It was also nice to get the chance to be back in the swimming pool!

Debating Final :D

So as I said in a previous post (Debating Update!) I got through to the Final of the Leinster Schools Debating Competition which was held this Tuesday.

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After an intense week of preparation I was really excited for the competition, and there was a lot of build up and anticipation throughout the week.
  After a controversial change of venue, now held in UCD, the motion for debate was 'This House Believes That Dictatorships Are A Legitimate Form of Government', and Juliette and I were opposing.
  After an extremely tight debate, the result was announced that CBC Monkstown was the winning team.
  I really enjoyed the experience and was extremely happy with how far I had got, considering it was my first year in Senior Debating! It was a great night on all accounts.

Djembe Djembe!

This Thursday TY class Tabei was lucky enough to have a percussion workshop with Dave from 'Jabba Jabba Jembe'.

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  The workshop was on how to play djembe drums which originally come from West Africa.
  We started off the day with basic techniques and rhythms and tried out more and more complex rhythms and patterns as the day went on.

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  Dave told us about how drummers explain rhythms by using sounds. 
For example, one of the patterns we did sounds like 'Bah, bah, bah, biddi biddi,' and so on!
  We learned about the origins of West African drumming, how it was used traditionally and how it is used today. We also watched a DVD on life in Africa and how it differs from life here in Ireland.
  As a violinist and someone who relates very much to music, I really loved the workshop, and I hope I get another chance to try out djembe drumming and other styles, again!

Debating Update!

Leinster Semi Finalists

So as some of you may be aware, I am an active and competitive debater, and have been competing in many competitions this year, such as the Hist and the Phil Mace Debates held in Trinity College, Dublin, and also the Leinster Schools Debating Competition and the Aoife Begley Memorial Competition, which are prepared debating competitions.
  Both prepared competitions involve several rounds over the course of the year with a week to prepare motions. As my partner and I continued progressing through rounds in both competitions, we found ourselves getting more and more pressured with rounds almost every week and sometimes overlapping. Sadly, because of this we decided to drop out of the Aoife Begley Competition.
  We continued on with the Leinsters, and after reaching the Semi Finals on Monday, we are through to the finals!! This is a really big achievement for us, as 200 teams entered the competition, and only 4 make the final!
  I'm extremely excited about this, so I will let you know how we get on!

Until next time, 

Melissa :)

Challenge Yourself!

For the past three weeks, instead of doing conventional sports for P.E. class, the Transition Year students at St. Wolstan's were lucky enough to be taken to Excel Gymnastics for three 2 hour sessions!

  Despite having tried most sports and activities as a child, I had never done gymnastics before, so I was really looking forward to trying it out!
  Each week, our class got to try out different types of gymnastics, like artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics and parkour.
  We got to try vaulting, tumbling, cartwheeling, using the uneven bars and the beam. My favourite was probably vaulting, because although it was a little scary to start off, flipping and tumbling off the vault was really so much fun!
  
 
Here's a video of Jordyn Wieber, 2012 Olympic gymnast from the USA. Floor is one of the 5 apparatuses in Artistic Gymnastics.

I found myself gaining confidence each week, and I'm really glad that I threw myself into every activity, as it was such a unique opportunity!
  If I had more time, I would probably take up gymnastics, and I would recommend anyone to take up gymnastics or something new! Challenge yourself! :)


Here's a song recommended by YouTuber Troye Sivan that I just can't stop listening to!
Enjoy!

Calamity Jane!

This week was the week of our school musical - Calamity Jane!
  So much work and effort had gone into the production, so we were all very excited and nervous coming up to the week of the show.

Lauren as Calamity Jane,
and Darragh as the Colonel

  I was choreographing and dancing in the three ballet dances in the musical, to the songs 'Higher Than A Hawk', 'Black Hills of Dakota' and 'Secret Love'.
  Over the course of several months, a few other senior students and I choreographed the 3 dances and taught 2 of them to the junior ballet dancers. After practicing at lunchtime every day for months, we were ready!!
  The 4 nights of the show went so well - everyone who came to see it thought it was a fantastic production, particularly considering it was only a school musical!
  All the cast, crew, dancers and orchestra performed so well, and it was a pleasure to be a part of the whole production!

  Here are some clips of the songs I danced to from the movie version of Calamity Jane:


Don't forget to check out the Calamity Jane blog here, and the St Wolstan's Calamity Jane Facebook page for pictures of the show and rehearsals!!!

SPECtacular !

This Tuesday was the School Finals of the Transition Year MiniCompany competition. This meant that all the mini companies set up stands in the library displaying their projects, and judges from Kildare Enterprise Board came to view and judge the companies.
  At the beginning of the year, in our Mini-Company groups we had been coming up with ideas for products or services and working hard on producing and selling them. 
  My group had the idea of making patterned and coloured stickers for the sides of your glasses. Two of the girls created the unique designs themselves, and we then produced the stickers.
  Over the past few weeks, we had also been working really hard preparing a report our work over the past months, making our poster and planning our display stand.
  On the day, we had to set up our display stand, along with the other mini-companies, and then present our project to the judges from the Enterprise Board.
  Everything went really well, and I am really proud of all the work we put in and how it turned out! Also, congratulations to Candy Blossom, the group that progressed to the County Final!

Until next time,

Melissa :)

SciFest

From the beginning of the year, the Transition Year Students were given the task of making a science project to be entered in the SciFest @ Schools Competition.
  In September, we were put into groups of 3, and were told to come up with an idea for a project, and to over the course of the next few months we had to work on our projects.
  My group's idea was to investigate what weight people thought was healthiest and best-looking. We planned our experiment, surveyed people to find out which weight out of the 4 pictures people thought was healthiest and best-looking, and compiled our results.
 Aside from actually carrying out the experiment, we had to make a project report book containing details of all the work we did, and make a poster with the details of our experiment and different pictures too.
 Admittedly, a lot of the work was done last minute, but nonetheless we put a lot into the project! I was actually so proud of how well our project turned out considering how little time we had to actually do the project.
  Friday was the day that we set up our stands in the school hall, and the SciFest judges came to the school. Some students from the other years also came around to look at the projects, after we had been judged.
  It was a great day, where we got to show all the hard work that we had done, and congratulations to the projects that got through as well! :)

  Until next time,

Melissa :)

The Phil

This Friday and Saturday, Juliette and I competed in the PhilSpeaks Senior Schools Mace Debate competition in Trinity College. The competition (commonly known as 'The Phil' ), is an unprepared debating competition with 5 rounds where teams accumulate points and the top 8 teams break to the semi-finals (I think I wrote about this in an earlier post, read it here).
  The weekend started off on an uncertain note, as when I got off the bus into Dublin City Centre, I felt the onset of a migraine. Juliette and I quickly headed for a pharmacy to try and pick up some neurofen to try and delay the migraine, and luckily, despite a pounding headache and some blurred vision, I recovered quickly enough and was able to compete! What a relief that was!
  My teammate and I prepared motions such as 'Homeschooling Should Be Banned' and 'This House Believes All Catholics Should Elect the Pope'. Over the course of the 5 rounds, we came 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, and 3rd, which meant that we broke as the 3rd team to the semi-finals.
  We were given an extremely tricky motion for the semi: 'This House Would Take A Pill That Stops You From Falling In Love', and we have to oppose this motion. After a great debate and a close call, we unfortunately didn't make the final, but nonetheless we had a great weekend.
  The competition was so well-run and organised, and I really had a fantastic time. Between silly games, eating popcorn and candyfloss, meeting new people and of course, debating, the weekend was jam-packed with fun activities and the society running the competition really made a huge effort so that it ran smoothly.
  One further highlight of the competition, was that I came overall 6th on the speaker tab, and as a relatively inexperience debater, I was so delighted with that outcome!

  To anyone that is thinking of taking up debating, I would highly recommend it - it is an extremely valuable skill to have, and aside from it helping so much with English and other subjects, it's just so much fun!!!
  Until next time, as someone once said; 

"Keep Calm and Think Critically"

Fashion Show!!

So guys, for the past week or so I have been unwell, so this on top of busyness has meant that I haven't really been updating this blog... Sorry!
  So, to update you on the activities that the Transition Years in St. Wolstan's have been up to this week: Junk Kouture!
  For weeks in Home Economics class we have been designing and creating our own dresses out of recycled materials. 
  My group decided to make a dress with a Vintage theme. We collected bubble wrap and old bed sheets for the skirt, and made a corset of film negatives. We also made flowers out of lace and attached these to the corset and to a vine to wrap around the corset, which was made of wire and green tape.
  Our inspiration for the dress came from this 50s Dior dress.
  On Thursday, the dresses were modeled in a fashion shoot, and we should find out soon which outfits will be entered further into the competition.
  
I'll try to be better about updating, but until then, I hope everyone is doing well!

Melissa :)

ZUMBA!

For the past few weeks in P.E. the Transition Years have had the opportunity to do Zumba classes!
  Zumba is a form of dance and fitness classes combined, with set dance routines put to Latin American and popular music.
  A lovely lady called Gráinne came into the school to teach us some moves, and I think it's fair to say that most every student really enjoyed it, particularly me!
  I was mildly surprised at how tiring I found it - zumba really is great exercise!!!
  I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to get in shape, or just looking for a good time!
  Here's a video that might give you an idea of the kind of dancing we were doing, and what Zumba is like!