TY Reflection

The final few weeks of Transition Year are coming to an end as summer nears closer. The past few months I have spent doing TY, I have had many  opportunities in many various topics from once in a lifetime trips such as being apart of the Dance Drama who won first place, being apart of the Laurentic Project and meeting a range of people with different stories to other adventures such as being aboard the Samuel L Beckett Navy ship and getting to meet “Googlers” in the Google Headquarters in Dublin. Although my most memorable trip was the Ireland Vs Georgia match in the Aviva stadium as it was my first ever football match and there was a very exciting atmosphere surrounding it.

There was also many projects that were discussed within the classroom, such as  designing and creating a children’s book which was published to local primary schools, Junk Kouture which involved designing fashion and creating clothes from recycled materials and science projects such as researching what a flower is composed of and how it grows as well as even getting the chance to grow your own chicks from eggs!

Some of the opportunities that you can have by choosing to do Transition Year in Crana College are as follows:

• Trips – Google Headquarters, Kilmainham Jail and Glasnevin Cementary, Samuel Beckett Navy ship, Ice Skating, Surfing and Hill walking, Giants Causeway, Letterkenny Institute of Technology open day.
• Classwork – creating a children’s book, researching details about our future career, Junk Kouture, Disability Awareness, The Laurentic, Cube Project, Science projects, Creating a product, Architecture Project
• Other activities include-  Sliabh Sneacht Community Centre, Dance Drama, School Digital Champion, Special guests such as Christy Toyle and visiting President Higgins, Fundraisers.

I think I made the correct choice in choosing to do the TY module as I got a better understanding of what I want to study in terms of my career as beforehand I had nothing specific in mind, and it may have been too late if I had decided half way through fifth year as I would have had my subjects already chosen.

Transition Year has also given me the chance of learning new things not only on trips but at work experience as I learn new skills working in new environments and getting a better understanding of what different jobs are and which suit my ability to work.

I would recommend most students who don’t quite know for sure what job they want to study after school, or who want to get a better understanding of the country that around them and create joyful memories in the process!

 

Malala Yousafzai – Woman I Admire

Within the past few days, I have been preparing a slideshow for my Drama class based on a specific woman that inspires me, who has had a huge impact on other lives and helped change something in this world for the better.

For this project I chose Malala Yousafzai who is currently 19 years old.

Malala Yousafzai was born in northwestern Pakistan, where her father was a school owner and was active in educational issues.

After having blogged for the BBC since 2009 about her experiences during the Taliban’s growing influence in the region, in 2012 the Taliban attempted to assassinate Malala Yousafzai on the bus home from school.

She survived, but underwent several operations in the UK, where she currently lives. In addition to her schooling, she continues her work for the right of girls to education.

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Sliabh Sneacht Community Centre

Since my last completion of my art module in my portfolio, I have made and completed a junk kouture dress which consisted of recycled cupcake cases, music note sheets and recycled clothing.

After we had completed the Junk Kouture project, we began to work on another project for the Laurentic. In order to begin this task, we arranged to travel to the Sliabh Sneacht community center. We met with a woman who was helping us create our work for the Laurentic who was called Bernie.

The week before we were meant to travel to the Community Centre, each student thought of an idea on how to remember the Laurentic but in an artistic way. My idea was to put names of all the people who died aboard the ship, along with their date of birth, inside a poppy, for remembrance.

On the day we arrived, we were split around the classroom each assigned a specific task.

Mine was to sew strands of wool together to make an oceanic effect. By the end of the day, i had a few sewn which would then be placed onto a larger sized picture to create a beautiful view of the SS Laurentic.

My Ideal Job

As St. Patrick’s day weekend comes closer, our Transition Year class have been assigned tasks to create certain presentations, based on their subject. For this week, we had to produce a slide based on our future career for our Enterprise module.

My chosen career was photography. Some of the slides that I created for the slide are shown below:

We were given certain headings to develop our points and specific questions to research in order to find out more information about our chosen career. One question asked within the slide was ‘What subjects are needed in order to study your chosen career?’

This Friday the 10th of March is the due date for the presentations, which we will later present to the class and be graded on as part of our subject assignments portfolio.

By completing these presentations, it gave us a better understanding of what subjects we need to get to study our chosen career, where we may work and other inside information that can be very useful.

Kilmainham Jail

Last Wednesday the 1st of January, Transition Year and 5th Year History class students visited Kilmainham Jail and Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

We learned about some important figures in our Irish history such as Daniel O’Connell, who is currently resting inside the crypt in the bottom of a round tower, which can be seen from afar in Glasnevin Cemetery, as well as seeing some rather old and interesting architecture.

After about an hour of touring the Cemetery, we moved onto Kilmainham Jail, another historic piece of Ireland’s history.

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In this building, we learned about the stories relating to the prisoners who were living in certain cells, as well as Kilmainham Jail being the film location of the movie ‘Michael Collins’ in which the Irish actor, Liam Neeson portrays the character.

Overall, it was an enjoyable trip as well as educational and I never knew that one place could hold so much history!

Michael Lambert’s gold watch

Rope used to escape prison by James Stephens

 

Trailer of ‘Michael Collins’ in which the actor Liam Neeson acts:

The Laurentic

Since the end of 2016, crana college students have been working on certain Laurentic projects during their classes to celebrate its 100th anniversary for 2017.

The classes were divided up into groups to work on a project of their own, some of these projects included a map which indicated the places that the Laurentic ship traveled.

On Wednesday the 18th of January, Transition Year and 5th Year students gathered near Buncrana shore front to organise themselves to form the shape of the word ‘Laurentic’.

The following week, relatives of those who were aboard the Laurentic ship, from around the world, Canada and Ireland, arrived at Crana College on Friday to see the work done by the students.

The next day, Saturday the 28th, Crana College students laid wreaths at Fahan and Cockhill for the Laurentic Centenary Service in remembrance for the passengers.

Then finally, on Sunday, the students got a chance to aboard the Samuel Beckett, an Irish Navy ship which sailed out to the wreckage site of the SS Laurentic, where wreaths were placed as remembrance. All the effort done to remember those lost and discover more about them, as well as finding the Laurentic’s final passengers relatives was clearly worth the work-filled months and was a once in a lifetime experience!

Ireland vs. Georgia

On Thursday the 6th of October, 5th and TY students from Crana College, travelled down to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, to watch their country, Ireland, play a match of football against Georgia.

For some of the students, it was their first experience in the Aviva stadium in Dublin, which proved to be an extra advantage as Ireland came out the winning team.

Every student on the bus got illuminous green face paint, dotted across their face to show their support for the Irish team.

Before the match, the students stopped in Blanchardstown to get something to eat.

Overall, it was a fantastic night and was worth the long journey!