Development Education - NUI Maynooth

Last week myself and two other girls went on a trip with Mrs. L to NUI Maynooth to give a talk to student teachers about Development Education. When we arrived we set up the room that we were doing our presentation in and we looked over our powerpoint. We then got the chance to sit in on a lecture with the students which we really enjoyed. After the lecture we went back to the room to prepare for our presentation.
There were fifteen students listening to our presentaion. Firstly we asked them to vote on what topic they wanted to focus in on, they chose gender. We then based our activities around the topic of gender starting with "Role Cards".
They were all given the name of a girl and a short description of her, we then asked them a series of statements and if they related to the girl they had they took a step forward. In the end the result was that the girls in the developed world were nearer the front and the girls in the developing world were at the back. We then showed them a video about stereotypes towards females which was a stimulus to this activity.

Here is the video.....



Our second activity was a graffiti wall where the students got to illustrate or write their feelings about how society sees women and how they want to be viewed. It was interesting to see what the women said compared to the men. Whilst they were doing that we had one volunteer do a podcast on what the other students were writing.
Here is the podcast....

listen to ‘Dev Ed day at NUIM’ on Audioboo

Book Review!!! - Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

The book that I chose to read was Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. 
I chose to read this book because it had been recommended to me and because it is on the Leaving Certificate English course.

At the centre of the story is a girl named Eilís Lacey who is in her early twenties when the book opens. She lives with her widowed mother and older sister Rose in Enniscorthy in Ireland. Eilís is studying bookkeeping and searching for a job. She believes that she will continue to live the traditional "Irish-life" of the time. When the unexpected happens!

A priest visiting from the United States, Father Flood offers to sponsor Eilís in Booklyn, finding her a job and arranging for her to stay at a boarding house. Although Eilís is nervous her sister Rose encourages her to take this opportunity.  She is reluctant at first to leave home and to put the pressure on Rose to care for their mother by herself but much to Rose's sacrifice to improve her own prospects Eilís boards a ferry in Liverpool for New York.

Eilís is put into a cabin on the  ferry with a no-nonsense Englishwoman. The trip to New York is awful but the woman makes it bearable for Eilís. Toibin's use of imagery in this chapter is very effective and helps you to imagine the trip to New York very well.

As the novel progresses, Eilís is now working at a department store and she is off to a good start, but when she later receives a batch of letters from home she suddenly becomes homesick. Father Flood is worried about her and signs her up for a bookkeeping class at Brooklyn college which, he hopes, will take her mind off home.

An great moment occurs for Eilís when she meets Tony at the local dance sponsored by Father Flood at the parish hall. She is entranced by him and begins to envision a future with him.
Just as Eilís is settling in to her life in Brooklyn and is starting to fall in love with Tony, terrible news arrives from Ireland she has no other choice but to return, leaving her new American life behind her and settling back into her life in the small village of Enniscorthy. Resulting in heartbreak and pain.

The way Toibin portrays life in Ireland and New York in the '50's through different characters is very clever. He shows his characters in a believable and interesting way. 
I really enjoyed this book and I would definitely recommend Brooklyn to everyone.  

Ciara :)

Work Experience :)

I started my Work experience in TY and i am really enjoying it, so far! I am doing my work experience in the Credit Union in Celbridge. I was extremely nervous on my first day but once i was introduced to everyone and shown how things were done. I soon settled in, I am really enjoying it and I am  really looking forward to next week.

An Amazing Trip To Carlingford!!

Hi everyone,
Sorry I have neglected my blog but we have been really busy doing TY activities!!!!

After the build up and the excitement of the awaited trip, Carlingford had arrived. Although most of us are not "morning people" we had to be up bright and early to get our bus to Carlingford.
Although the journey was long the bus was full noise and laughter.
When we arrived we were ready for the day ahead and most of us had finally woken up, although that could have easily been for all of the sweets we had on the way down.

We grabbed our bags and walked to Carlingford Adventure Centre. There we were split into groups and we set off for the first of our activities, Laser Combat!!!
This was great fun, crawling on the ground shooting your opponents, you couldn't get any better.
After lunch, we had our second activity which was team building activities which needed good communication. Then we had dinner which wasn't exactly up to scratch to the Chinese around the corner which most of us had after.
The next morning we woke early to "High Hopes" and slowly got ready for the day. After breakfast we set off for the first of our last day of activities. It was started by Communication Breakdown which was basically a dark maze then Archery and then body Zorbin which was amazing. After lunch we went Kayaking, to a trampoline in the middle of the sea and then to a cave where there was a legend that if you held you head under the waterfall for five seconds you gain an extra day of your life!!!!!!
The bus home was quiet, i think that was because most of us were asleep! Overall Carlingford was amazing and great fun!

Workshops!!! ;)

On Wednesday we had our first workshops. We had three workshops and our day was split up into three.
We started off with a workshop on how to build our self-confidence which was presented by Austin the presentation was called Life Without Limits. We had to talk about our most embarrassing moments, our hobbies and three great achievements. It was hard to think about our most embarrassing moments and most of us said that we didn't have any which was hard to believe.

Our second workshop was learning about how to deal with stress and about stress release techniques. We learned about Effleurage and Hacking and how to give someone a massage. This workshop was presented by Gilíosa. We also learned about Energy Balancing and our body's Chakra and energy centres.

After lunch we had our final workshop of the day which was called Positive Parties presented by Denise. This was my favourite workshop. We learned about how to stay and think positive. We also learned how to anchor our positive thoughts. It was great fun and I really enjoyed it. We listened to feelgood music and this is one of the songs that Denise played for us....

New Beginnings - Nuevo Comienzo

Hey everyone,
Today I am going to write my first TY Blog! This blog will keep you updated on my experiences in TY.  I have never written a Blog before and I'm not sure how to start so I'm just going to tell you all how my first few days of TY are going for me so far.
I was nervous on my first day but when I found out who was in my class I was thrilled that I was with all my friends.
Our class is called Tabei. It is named after the first women to climb Mount Everest.
Yesterday I went to my first Art class ever! I wasn't very good but I gave it a go!
On Friday I went to Technology, I haven't done Technology since First year and I really enjoyed it.
I also really enjoyed my Home Economics class. We were put into our groups for Junk Kouture and I am so excited about it.

So far I have really enjoyed TY and I know that there will be more fun and exciting times to come! :)