IT IS NOT FOR GEEKS On the 29th of September Marie and Adrian, from the Dell office who both worked in different areas of the IT business, came in to talk to us about how not all people involved in the IT industry are geeks and how people are not taking the job opportunity that they are presented with because they think IT jobs are for geeks. The talk began with Marie and Adrian talking about what jobs Dell and company's have. With jobs from sales and HR, to computer engineering and manufacturing ,there are loads of different jobs available in the IT community.After this they showed us a video of people who work in companies such as Google, Hewlett Packard, Intel ,etc. and all of the different tasks they are undertake I thought this talk was very interesting and really helped me understand the opportunities in the IT sector.
Enterprise talk! Serena from the County Enterprise Board came to the school to talk about our mini company projects that we are undertaking for transition year. She spoke about all of the past winners and their fantastic ideas and about how it is important to try and come up with a unique idea. She gave us an activity to do where we had to come up with as many ideas as we could for a mini company using only paper clips to make a product. It was difficult but also interesting how many ideas people could come up with with only paper clips. We came up with loads of ideas such as key rings and cuff links. I think the talk was very helpful because it helped us to realise how easy it was to come up with an idea with something that was so simple.
FIRST AID
Our first aid course took place on Monday the 16th of April to Wednesday the 18th of April. It began on the Monday with a long PowerPoint on heart attacks and asphyxia and throughout the day we learned different signs and symptoms of different illnesses. On the second day we started the day by briefly going over the stuff from Monday and then we got into cpr and how to deal with someone going into cardiac arrest. We did compressions and breaths on the dummies. It was interesting and also a good laugh. On the third day we did work involving burns and heatstroke and frostbite and hypothermia. We also learned how to bandage a patient. After we completed everything we had an exam where we had to work in a situation where a patient needs cpr we also had to do bandaging. It was a very interesting course and I think I learned a lot from it.
Musical
Our ty musical this year was legally blonde. My part in the musical was dancing during two different songs 'what you want' and ' bend and snap'. Our preparation for the musical was really enjoyable. We practiced and perfected the dances for around a month for the big day. We practiced every day in the halla nua. Coming up to the week of the musical we did loads of dress rehearsals. We also performed for the junior school. Taking part in the musical was not something I would have seen myself doing but I am happy I did. I really enjoyed it I had not done anything similar before. Perhaps if we could start over I would go for a bigger role.
BOXING COURSE
I took part in a boxing course for six weeks organised by the school. It started every Monday at 5.15 and ended at 6.45. At the start of each lesson we did stretches shadow boxing no put on straps which took everyone a good 10 minutes to put on. Throughout each lesson we learned various different things. It was a lot of fun each week when we got to hit the pads and learn lots of different combinations. At the end of each lesson we had to do fitness which wasn't as exiting as everything else but it was a good experience and I think I learned a lot.
TAG RUGBY TOURNAMENT
I took part in a tag rugby tournament in UCD on the Astro pitches. There were 3 schools involved. Gerards, black rock and Loreto Dalkey. There were 10 different teams all mixed and each had a different country name. Each team played around 4 games until the finals were decided it was great fun and tiring. We had a lot of laughs and my team made it to the final and won the tournament.
MARTIAL ARTS
From October the 23rd to October the 24th our year completed a martial arts course. Each martial arts class took up the whole day. At the start of the first day we were shown a PowerPoint presentation on all different situations you may need to use self defence and know how to detect if someone is going to attack you. At the end of the first day and throughout all of the second day we went through different exercises and drills to help us get better at self defence. At the end of the second day we had a test were we had to include all of the stuff we learned into a big exercise. I think it was really beneficial and really enjoyable. I would continue the course and learn more if we had the option. Hopefully it helps me with whatever happens in the future.
SCUBA DIVING
On the 20th of November a large amount of the year went to the national acuatic centre to complete a scuba diving course. It took up the whole day. We were split into two groups. One group sat out and watched in the stands while the other did the exercises in the water. It was really fun because I had done nothing like it before. It felt really weird to be able to breath under water but I enjoyed it a lot.