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This week we had a musician come in to our school and teach us samba drumming. We were each thought a simple rhythm on different instruments. We also learned about the history of this type of music and a bit about the teacher. We then had to practice for about an hour and that lead to a performance for all first and second years

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This week we visited our local fire station. We were shown lots of equipment that is used by firemen. These included axes to break down doors, ladders to scale buildings, their helmets and gas masks which allow them to breathe even if the smoke is overwhelming. The main part of our visit revolved around compartment fire. The head officer explained to us what compartment fire is and why it is so dangerous. He told us about the deaths of several firemen in England in the 1980’s when compartment fire was not fully understood. They also had a glass box which allowed them to demonstrate the destructiveness of compartment fire. It worked by slowly introducing gas to the box. A spark was then ignited to light the gas. The experiment demonstrated that  oxygen is needed to light a fire because when the chamber was over full  with gas it would not ignite.

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This Week we worked with a former member of the emergency services who informed us about dangers in the workplace and how to avoid them. We were shown the correct way to lift items to put the least strain on your back. We were also shown how many workplace accidents occur and how to prevent them. We were also shown the consequences of improper technique when lifting boxes and items. I was unaware of how serious spinal damage was and will not make that mistake now.

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This week for our last trip before Christmas we went to the Cinema using the leftover money from our sponsored walk. We travelled into Limerick by bus to the Castletroy shopping centre. We saw the film Daddy’s Home 2. The movie stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg amongst other stars such as John Lithgow and Mel Gibson.

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This week we learned some of the basics of mandarin such as hello and goodbye and were also tought about the basics of Chinese culture. This includes their music, cities, clothing and food. We also learned about some famous Chinese people such as Yao Ming, a 7’ 5” NBA Basketball Player, Jackie Chan, a famous Chinese movie star and Bruce Lee.

In Sign Language we had a test on the basics of Sign Language which involves, your name, your age, your family and your hobbies. I did relatively well  thanks to Mr. Boyle’s excellent lessons

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This week we attended a seminar in UL. We were shown career prospects from many different company s such as Road Bridge and Northern Trust and Regeneron. The speeches were rather lengthy and monotonous. Unfortunately none of the careers suited me and I am still determined to become a primary school teacher. Fortunately there were many stalls giving away free merchandise such as pens and headphones and we were also treated to a free lunch.

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For our first week back to school after the Halloween break half of us went to Cappanalea and half went on work experience. I went on work experience in the canteen in Smurfitt-Kappa World Headquarters in Dublin for the week.

I was working under Head chef Paul Cuff and learned a vast wealth of information throughout the week. I saw first-hand the hectic nature of running a kitchen and all of the activities involved in such.  I was involved in the preparation and cooking of many meats, vegetables, fruits and pastries.

I experienced the skill and depth of knowledge of someone with a culinary degree and years of experience in the workplace. The techniques I was taught are not only important when cooking at a professional level but are useful outside of the workplace too even just for speed, safety and precision at home.

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For this week’s activity we undertook a sponsored walk to raise funds for Transition Year activities. Each person was given a sponsorship card and was asked to collect 20 euro. On the day of the walk we travelled from our school  to the great southern trail  and out for approximately two kilometres. We then turned around and began the return journey to school. Lucky for us it did not rain until we were back at school even though we were all well prepared for it with our hats and rain coats. We raised enough money for an extra school trip in December.

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For this week we had a member of Music Generation in Limerick come out and work with us. He was a band member and played us a song that he wrote. He was a talented song writer and singer as well as a guitar player. He spoke to us about some of his past experiences and things that inspired him to write songs. We then began a song writing exercise/game. Each member of the group was required to write down 1 line based on the topic that we received and passing the sheet on. The sheet was then passed on and the next member would write one line only based off the previous line.  It was an enjoyable exercise which led to some memorable lyrics. We did this twice on two separate sheets with two different themes and compiled them at the end to make a song. Overall it was a good day.

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This week we week we went to our local park, The Demesne, to take part in Orienteering with a representative from Orienteering Ireland.

We were each given a map with a course on it. There were eight different courses in total but even though many of us had the same map we had to do our first course on our own. Each of the starter maps were about 1.2 km in length and took me roughly 15 minutes to complete.

Once we had finished the first map we could go onto a higher difficulty map or try one of the other courses at the same level. I chose the latter option and timed how long it would take me if I went at a slow pace and I still managed to complete it in 16 minutes.

Overall it was an enjoyable experience and given the opportunity I would gladly take part again.

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This week we went to the National Ploughing Championships in Tullamore, Co. Offaly. We had an early start as we had to gather at the school at 6:30 AM to get on the bus in order to beat the traffic.

The day started out dry but soon it began to pouring rain as the weather had predicted. We were forced to wear ponchos to try to keep the rain off but our efforts were in vain as most of us ended up soaked. During our day we did come across Television Personality Marty Morrissey which was a surprise.

There was a wide variety of different stands which peaked our interest, from political parties hoping to gain new voters in the next election, to companies both small and large showcasing their goods. There was also the largest collection of farm machinery that I have ever seen with the biggest brand names like John Deere and Massey Ferguson as well as New Holland.

We also left early at about 2:00 PM to beat the traffic back to Limerick.

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This week our group spent time learning sign language with a representative from Irish Sign Language. We were given a sheet with the sign language alphabet and asked us to spell out our names. Some members of the class were very good at this, but I must admit I was not one of them and I found it quite difficult. We were also taught some basic terms and phrases such as “my name is “ and  “ I am from”. Over all it was a very interesting class and made me think about what it would be like to live in a world without sound. I personally can’t imagine what that is like but I assume it is very difficult.

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With our first week of activities we kept it local with Limerick company “Get West” coming to our school and doing team building activities with us in the field.

They provided us with an array of activities ranging from a climbing wall to football darts. We had roughly two and a half hours to go through the activities. Some were mental, puzzle solving challenges and others were more physical such as archery tag. My personal favourite activity was the football darts in which you had five shots at a huge dart board with a soccer ball and try to get the highest score. The best score from our groups was Roisín Mann who managed an impressive score of 172.

I believe we accomplished our goal of  team building and spoke with people who we may not have spoken to much throughout our tenure in this school.