Art!

Today in art we were painting again. I was delighted because painting is my favourite thing in art. We were making a clouor wheel which looks really easy but trust me it was NOT easy. We only had three colours and had to make TWELVE it was really hard to get the exact colour needed but i eventually got it. I'm a leonardo in the making!

Jabba Jabba Jembe

Last week we had a brilliant workshop with Dave. He taught us all about the Jembe and some other percussion instruments. It was defiantly the best workshop so far. We started off with some easy tunes and by the end we had a full on Samba going and my friend Davina volunteered me to get up and dance the sambe for the class it was really funny and I really enjoyed it. Dave then showed us a video on how the west Africans use music in every day life to keep them working through the whole day. The highlight of the day is when we all had different rhythms and we played them at once. I hope to continue my Jembe playing as a result of an extremely fun and successful workshop.

Retreat in Glendalough

On Tuesday of this week all class amina headed off on our way to glendalough for our Retreat. The day didn't start off to great because the bus was so warm but when we got to glendalough it was all okay. We started of with a dance to the earth and how we should respect it. I taught it was really funny. We then walked around the labyrinth which is a journey with no decisions. We then started our walk which was a day in the life of Kevin they showed us everything he done while he was there and where he slept and prayed. They also showed us a video on Christianity which wasn't really my cup of tea but it was ok. We then went on another walk to the upper lake and we also saw the waterfall it was a really scenic route up. We then finally had our lunch and i really enjoyed it because i was so hungry. We finished off with the board walk where we saw St.Kevin's bed, te round tower and the church. I really enjoyed the day and i was very tired on the way home.

English Trip to Dublin

Yesterday the 25th of march all TY's headed of on a trip to Dublin to see the Yeats exhibition in the national library, the bog bodies in the national museum and the Yeats exhibition in the national gallery. Class Amina started their day in the national library looking at the W.B Yeats exhibition i found the day very interesting as we didn't just learn about his poetry it was also about his life growing up. I was surprised to find out Yeats wasn't actually a good student in English his best subject was chemistry and sports. We learned about his love life with Maude Gonne and how he proposed to her 5 formally times and she rejected him each time he then moved on to her daughter who also rejected him. Yeats finally met the love of his life Georgie and married happily with her.
We then continued our tour to the national museum where we had a tour on all the artefact's and bodies found in the bog. Anything that is placed in a bog will be preserved for many year. We saw all the bodies that were murdered and then recovered a few years ago. I found this the most interesting part of the day and really enjoyed it.

Work Experience

Last week the 7th of March all TY's were out on work experience. I decided to do my work experience in my old primary school. I chose to do my work experience here because ever since I was a primary school student I wanted to be a teacher myself.
On the Monday before I started work I was really nervous because I was the only student going to the school. I soon realised that there was nothing to be nervous about. The day went great in the school they had a book fair on the week i was there so every morning I would go there and take in all money and then tidy up at the end of it all. After that i would go in to the junior infants room where i would remain till two o clock which is when they go home. While i was there with them i would help the teacher with all the correcting and help any student that was stuck with there work. At lunch time i would supervise them and then read them a story at the end of the day. For my lunch break I would go out and supervise the yard then I would go to the staff room and eat lunch there. From 2 till 3 it was slow I only did some photocopying for teachers and cleaning. That was my main routine for the week except on some days i would help out other classes with art and P.E. Towards the end of the week I had even more responsibilities within the classes. I was able to teach a bit more which I loved. Also on the last day of it all i got to sit in a watch toy story 3 with the infants because it was raining at lunch time so they were unable to play outside.
I really enjoyed my week at the school and I would still really consider being a primary school teacher. I also enjoyed being back with all my old teachers and the school. I was surprised at how much the school has changed since I was there. they are now planning too build an extension and in every class room there is an interactive white boards in every classroom.

Mini Company

Yesterday the 3rd of March we went to Clane G.A.A for our mini company competition. It was to see who would get through to the next round for the county. The day started off with a bit of a bump in the road for us as our company realised that we didn't have a board when we were on the bus, but when we got there it was all OK as we just used the wall instead. the day was long as we waited for the judge to come around and interview us because we were last to be interviewed. We then heard the our company, beady Bits didn't get through. We were all heart broken but Ms. E reminded us about the next competition coming up.

Oisin McGann

This week on Wednesday we had a talk from Oisin McGann a creative writer and illustrator. I really really enjoyed the talk and taught it was very interesting to see all the tricks of the trade in being an author. I also taught he was very funny because he was saying that nothing us Irish say really does make sense for example: "Go away out of that ye mad eejit ye." and "yeah no I'll have a tea please". He then showed us how quick an idea comes to your head and how important it is to right it down. He showed us this by looking at L.M's shoes and coming up with some crazy story about a shoe that eats feet it was really funny i enjoyed the day a lot but the highlight of it all was when he read out a bit from his books and then drew a character from the book it was really brilliant.