Careers talk

In December, we started to study careers in work experience classes on a Thursday afternoon. We went onto careers portal and first filled out the personality test. This test was made up of 30 questions that we had to answer honestly about ourselves. The first time I did it, my highest section was theorist, but when I did it again, it came up as stabiliser. Both personalities are very logically minded personalities that like order and routine. I also scored highly in the idealist area which is the personality that is more thoughtful towards others and cares for other people’s opinions.  We also did the career interests profiler which made us rate statements in order of relevance to ourselves. The results showed that I was -1 realist and 37 naturalist. I was 14 enterprising, 29 social, 12 investigative, 21 administrative, 25 creative and 27 linguistic. When I searched the careers that would suit me with these results I got things like lecturer, teacher of English as a foreign language and special needs assistant.These are all similar to what I hope to be when I leave school. The career research was interesting and helped me find out about my personality and what career paths would be suitable for me.

Woodwork

housing joint

For our Woodwork projects, we are going to be making spice racks. For this, we needed to practice the housing joint with Mr Nugent. We had to mark out one piece of wood with the face side and face edge and then split it in half so that we could cut two pieces from it. We then had to mark out where we would be making the trench so that we could place the second piece in to make the joit. After we had everything marked out, we had to start by sawing down to where we had marked with the marking gauge on the trench. We then began using the chisel to get all the excess wood out of the trench. When that had been finished and we had checked that a piece of wood would fit in the trench, we then started to saw the piece in half. We place the joint together and then using two nails, we hammered it together so that the joint was more secure. We placed some wood glue above the nail place and then sanded over that so that the nail was less obvious. I was happy with my joint although a small part of the piece chipped off when I was chiselling and I was pleased that I got 85% for it.

Fashion Relay

For one of our Theatre classes this year, we did a fashion relay. We were split into two teams and had to take our shoes off. Ms Murphy gave us a pile of clothes that we had to put on at one end of the hall. The first person had to run down but they had no shoes on which made it really slippery. They had to put on all the clothes at that end and then run back to grab the next person’s hand. They ran down with that person and then had to help them put all the clothes onto them. This process had to keep repeating with the person wearing the clothes running down to get the next person until everyone was all at the same end and everyone had worn the clothes. This was a really fun game and got a good laugh from everyone as the clothes were really ridiculous. We had to put on slippers, gloves, robes and handbags! I really enjoyed this game even though my team lost both times!

PE classes

During our PE classes, we have been doing various different sports activities. Our PE classes are four classes this year so for the first class, Mr Doherty and Ms Kuehl make any announcements they need to and we do our PE after luch for the last three classes. We do a variety of sports and the last few weeks we played rounders. We have also split up before to do things like football, basketball, benchball and volleyball. I hadn’t really played volleyball before so it was something fun and different to do for me. It took me a while for me to get used to the rules and the way that is easiest to hit the ball, but after a while I got more used to it and really enjoyed it. PE this year was great fun and I really enjoyed having the longer classes to do more sports. It also meant that we did some other activities as well during the year such as practicing dance routines for Grease and also doing the Junk Kouture fashion show.

WordPress

In our digital media and video production classes this year, we have been doing WordPress websites with Mr Beattie. These are our online portfolios for the year, which we use to record everything that we have done during the year, in class and out of class. The first thing we had to do was set up our websites with a name and a username. We then chose the basic theme and after that, we made our menus. We also wrote our first post; hello world. After that, we started fully using our website, making categories and adding them to the menu. We then were able to make posts for each subject and categorise them. The blog was really nice to make and easy. We wrote posts on all the subjects, trips, activities and guest speakers that we had during the year. I really enjoyed making my website as it taught me how to use the internet more to create websites and how to customise your own website so that it reflects you.

The flounder theme that I used for my WordPress

Disability Project

In our Religion classes, we have been doing a disability project for Saint Vincent De Paul. We were all split into groups, with different tasks for each groups. Some of the tasks included sorting out the disability unit so that it was more colourful and also making posters and campaigning for awareness in the halls for wheelchair users. I made a poster highlighting school bags left in the hall which make it difficult for wheelchair users to go down the hall. We got a few posters up in the school as well as doing a bake sale with half the proceeds going to the Irish Wheelchair Society. Róisín, me and Caroline were then tasked with writing letters and emails to the local ministers campaigning for the wheelchair ramp in the school to be fixed. I also wrote a letter to Thomas Pringle asking him to talk to the Department of Education about College Street and how difficult it is to maneuver for wheelchair users. This is the letter that I sent to Thomas Pringle; letter to Thomas Pringle. I got lots of replies from the ministers that I emailed. This is the email that I sent to all the ministers;

Dear minister,
I am a TY student writing on a disability project in our school. We have a wheelchair user in 6th year and another coming in 1st year. The lift from our assembly area to the music room hasn’t worked in six years. Our principal, Jimmy Keogh, has written several letters to the Department of Education re this issue but to no avail. As you are running for election could you do anything to help fix the wheelchair lift. Could you contact the Department of Education for us?
Yours Sincerely, Olivia Foster

These are some of the replies that I received;

Dear Olivia,

Thank you for contacting my office in relation to your issue with regard to a wheelchair lift at your school.

I write in order to advise that your issue is currently receiving attention.
I will revert to you in due course.

Yours Sincerely,

Deputy Tony McLoughlin T.D.
Representing Sligo, Leitrim, West Cavan and South Donegal

 

Dear Olivia

Thank you for your email.

I find it amazing that a college would allow such a situation to continue for six years. If the lift has not worked for six year it may now need to be replaced.

Do you know what action, if any, the Board of Management has taken on the matter?

Was Thomas Pringle T.D. contacted ? If he was contacted I would assume that he would have submitted a Parliamentary Question to the Minister for Education and that he would have received a written response from the Minister.

Please let me know.

With kind regards

DECLAN BREE

Dear Olivia

In relation to your query, we have had a response back from the Department of Education.

They are seeking additional information.

Can you find out from the school/principal if they have applied under emergency works to fix the lift or if they have been refused?

They say access issues like this are covered under the emergency works scheme but they will need a roll number and also the last application submitted to be able to track it down.

Kind regards

Susan

Senator Susan O’ Keeffe
Chair, Yeats2015

Politics

Over the year in our politics classes on a Friday before lunch, Mr Maguire has been talking to us about Irish politics and what has been happening in the world. At the start of the year, we talked about why the North had problems and how they could be solved. We talked about the history of the Troubles and what could be done now to ease tensions. We also talked about the Easter Rising, the causes and what it means for us today. We were all asked to research on person who is not as well known in the Rising or someone who is relevant to you. I chose Michael Mallin as I had not heard about him before and it was interesting to learn about his involvement in St. Stephens Green. We also discussed the issues in places like Syria at the moment and what could be done to help the refugees. We discussed that to truly help the refugees, the problem in Syria should be resolved and that relocating the refugees should only be a short term solution. We also discussed why Ireland might be hesitant to let refugees into our country as we do not know about who they are as very few have paperwork. The politics classes were nice as we got the chance to discuss and show what our own opinions were about political issues that affected us.

My TY Scrapbook

These are some of the first pages from my TY Scrapbook:

Self Awareness

Younger Me

Younger Me

Front cover

Personal Development: Scrapbooks

For our Personal Development Project, we have been making Scrapbooks of our year in TY and what we have done. We have had to write pieces on mindfulness and social development as well as self awareness. We were also asked to write a personal profile where we filled in pieces about ourselves. We did pieces about younger me where we had to write about ourselves when we were younger and maybe add a few photos. We also had to write about our goals for the year and what the new year would bring to us. The scrapbook was a nice thing to do and also meant that we got to design our own cover which was nice.

Mindfulness

ECDL: Powerpoint

Test 3 using Microsoft Word

Over the last few weeks, we have been doing the test 6 in the ECDL programme with Mr Picken. This is as we have finished test 3 which was all about how well we can work on Microsoft Word. Test 6 was all about working on Microsoft Powerpoint. I found these tests easier as I use Powerpoint better than Word. The questions that the ECDL asked us to do were things like apply a theme to the presentation and to put a picture on every slide. We were also asked to add charts to the slides which also tested our Excel skills. There was only one thing which we couldn’t do which was edit organisational charts on Powerpoint as we didn’t have the programme for it. I found the ECDL helpful as it taught me certain things from Powerpoint and Word that I hadn’t used before which now make my presentations and documents look neater and more professional.