Thank You Transition Year! – My Year in Review

As my Transition Year in Crana College draws to a close, I look back on one of the most interesting and inspiring times in my school life. The year has by far exceeded any expectations that I ever had, encompassing everything and anything inside the Irish Education System.

I think that it is fair to say, that I had an action-packed, yet educational year in TY. Like many other skeptics, I came into the year, with an idea of prejudice in my head, thinking that the year didn’t yield any opportunities or chances for me, and I couldn’t have been further wrong! Within a matter of weeks, I realised that TY In Crana College (and in many other hard working schools around the country) is one of the best organised programmes, that aims to get the most out of each and every student, based on the effort and commitment that the students dedicate to the programme.

Transition Year, has improved me for the better. I have became a lot more confident in this year. Through this, I have countless unforgettable memories, but of these, the most prominent include:

Speaking on behalf of TY Ireland at the National Parents Council of Post Primary Secondary Schools annual conference in the INEC, Killarney.

Participating in the 5K Mud Run!

Making the Eir Junior Spiders – Giga Spiders – Best Induvidual Project Shortlist.

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Being ‘Highly Commended’ in the National Career Skills Competition with CareersPortal.ie 

Transition Year has been simply, amazing, and has made me much more ‘well-rounded’, and confident person. I feel that this year has benefited me greatly, and that I have taken every opportunity possible to get the very best out of this year. I would urge any student who is doing TY next year, to firstly, push themselves in TY, secondly, take every opportunity available to you, and thirdly, enjoy TY – It will be amazing!

Above, is only a snapshot of what has being going on in my Transition Year! I’m sure that if you were to read through this blog, or my Twitter Feed, you would see a much bigger picture of what my Transition Year was all about.

Writing one of my final blog posts of TY has really saddened me, not only has this blog been an ongoing assessed piece of work for my Media Studies Module, but it has been a space where I can freely write about a topic that I have grown to love! A special thanks has to be given to absolutely everyone who have supported me in this journey – My TY Coordinator, Teachers, Staff, Employers, Co-Workers, Transition Year Ireland, Volunteers, Guest-Speakers, Fellow Bloggers & Twitter Users, Family & Friends , and everyone in between- each and every one of you have helped make my TY that extra bit more special!

Thank you Transition Year!

The Eir Junior Spiders Shortlist

TY’s at the Colosseum

The TY Boys Walking in Sorrento

The Trevi Fountain

The Colosseum

Me & Ciarán Touring Rome

5th Years at the Amalfi Coast

The Amalfi Coast

The Streets of Sorrento

‘Rome’-ing about with Roisín & Tiree

The TY Boys on a Boat Trip

Selfies at the Trevi Fountain

Outside St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican

‘Frescos’ in the Vatican

The Time Elevator

Subject Choices for Leaving Certificate 2018

TY First Aid Training

Promoting Inishowen’s Tourism Industry

Skiing Tour Key Ring Design

Rome Tour Key Ring Design

My Cover of ‘O Fortuna’

Starting the Architecture Module!

Me and my little sister Dearbhla, pictured just after my last day at work experience at her “Big School”

My ‘Space Study’ for Architecture

Blog Challenge – Six Word Story

Ice Skating in Belfast

Hill Walking Trip

Hill Walking in Uriris

Christmas Market Poster

Drugs & Alcohol Conference

Disability Awareness Module Part 1

Our Greatest Scientist – Nikola Tesla

Completion of the Cube Project

TY Panel at the National Parents Council Post Primary Annual Conference in the INEC, Killarney

TY Panel at NPCpp Annual Conference

‘Chain Reaction’ Key Rings – TY Enterprise Mini Company

Semi-Completed Cube

Prize-giving – Co-Junior Student of the Year 2014/2015 & Co-Recipient of the ‘Bríd Boner Memorial Plaque’

TY Panel at the National Parents Council of Post Primary Secondary Schools

Irish Wheelchair Association Collection

What I’ve been learning about in TY Geography – The Human Development Index (HDI)

‘Chain reaction Keyring’s’ first product!

Oisín i dTír na nÓg – Mindmap

TY Panel at National Parents Council

Month In Review – October

My Work Experience Report, written in ‘The Drumfries Times’

Monthl

Foyle Hospice Coffee Morning Donation

National Road Safety Week

Ireland Trip

TY1 Post-Surfing Selfie

Cube Project

Surifng

Surfing

Foyle Hospice Coffee Morning

Cube Project

Music Appreciation Module

Room 13 – Pre-Coffee Morning Setup

TY1 Receiving the iPads

Junior Cert Results

Irish Mythology presentation

European Day Of Languages

 

My Progressions in the Transition Year Drama Module!

Drama, is one of the newest, and most exciting modules of my Transition Year. I started studying the module, three weeks ago in my TY Performing Arts class, and since then,  it has not only interested me greatly, but has also showed me about an area of ‘The Arts’ that I have never experienced before.

Over the past three weeks, I had to keep a log of all the work that we did in each week of the module, and reading over this weeks module, I decided to blog it, to give my readers an insight into the module!

Similarly to last week, this week in our Performing Arts module, we were very busy working on dialogue and beginning to express our voices.  This week, again allowed me to, understand drama, and work with others. In its second week, we were given the chance to practice this through a number of activities. I really enjoyed this week, as I liked learning about dialogue, and how to express it! The Drama Module, is a really interesting module in my Transition Year, as it combines many activities and exercises into one class, of which a quick overview of them can be seen below!

Warm Up

Once again, we began by warming up our voices, by all expressing our names through different emotions, before we recited some items,and began then to work our way into different movements, and small routines. We played a few games, and did a few exercises to warm up also.

Drama Exercise

We, worked together in small groups, pairs, and teams, and began with a few drama exercises, movements and games. For the majority of the time when we were doing these exercises, I worked along with Aaron, and sometimes along with Gerard. Some games and activities that we did over the last few weeks, were done again – ie: freeze frame & mirror images.

Group Piece

We participated in a group acting session! We had to come up with a scene and act it! I was in a scene along with the other boys in my class – Aaron, Denis, Gerard, Adam, Tomás & Donncha. We had to experiment with different scenarios, and devise different events and scenes. We got a chance to both mime these scenes, and to express them with dialogue.

The Module, so far has been extremely enjoyable, and has allowed me to learn about something totally new for me -Drama. It has been such a fun three weeks of the module so far, and I can’t wait for the next few Tuesdays, where TY will once again dive into the World of Drama!

 

Starting the Drama Module in Performing Arts

Starting a new module - Drama

Today, in our Performing Arts Module, we were told that we would be starting one of the most expressive and different modules of our Transition Year – Drama. This morning I walked into my Performing Arts class, and I was told along with the other students in my class to read back the desks and to create a circle of chairs in the centre of the Music Room.

We were then all sitting in a circle, when we were told that we were going to be doing a Drama Module for the duration of the school year. This means that we will be studying about eight weeks of drama!

Today, we were told that we would be doing simple drama tasks, warm-ups and games. The first thing that we did was to ‘Pass the clap’ where we were asked to send a clap around the circle and to ‘catch it’ again. Following that we then participated in a Vocal Warm-Up, where we all had to say our own names using many different emotions. Who knew that I could say ‘Darragh’ Happily, Angry, Annoyed, Panicked, Disappointed and Confused!

Following this, we began to play the ‘Number Conversation Game’ where we had to act out a dialogue with a partner but we were only allowed to speak using numbers! This was definitely a first for me, and it was an extremely funny experience!

Following that, we played ‘Freeze Frame’ where were split into two groups, and were asked to create a still photograph of an event, ie: sports day, a picnic, a wedding, etc. It was really fun getting into positions to convey a scene! Our final event then arrived, where we we had a group mime session, where we had to come up with a scene and mime it! My group’s scene was about a man and a woman out shopping for a wedding ring, when a pickpocket attacks, and is apprehended by a security guard and a bystander. It was really fun to get a chance to create a scene, and I laughed so much in the process!

The drama module has been really enjoyable so far, and it has given me a great opportunity to explore a subject area that I never experienced before!