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!

 

Carmina Burana – 1st Movement ‘O Fortuna’ (Carl Orff) – Experimental Harmonisation Cover

My Cover of 'O Fortuna'

Link to Video of Cover
Upon reading through my blog, I noticed that I talk a lot about a major interest of mine – Music. However, I realised that I haven’t displayed much about it, and therefore I have decided to cover something one of my instruments. This time I have chosen to cover on the piano. This is a cover of the first movement of Carmina Burana, which is more commonly known as ‘O Fortuna’.

About ‘O Fortuna’

‘O Fortuna’ is the first movement from the orchestral cantata, written by Carl Orff. A ‘cantata’ is a dramatic or expressive piece of music that has been created around a medival poem, often found manuscripts of abbeys. Most cantatas have a religious or ecclesiastical ‘feel’ about them, however ‘O Fortuna’ and Carmina Burana, are based on the themes of – Luck, Life, Loss & Fortune. ‘O Fortuna’ is written by German composer – Carl Orff, reknowned for his work with expressive time signatures and dramatic compositions. The cantata is most known for being part of the score of many movies, or “the song from the X Factor, when the judges walk out”, however, for some previous Junior Cert Music students like me, it is known for being one of Set C’s Set Works!!

What have I done with ‘O Fortuna’

I wanted to create something very different, but still recognizable from the original piece when I went to cover this song, and therefore I decided to learn the piece from ear, without any sheet music. I first of all worked out the main melodic ostinato (repeated sequence), and then lay down an extended D Minor (Dm) Octave chord, (which also repeats throughout), before starting to work on ‘Experimental Harmonization’. This is when I tried to harmonize my base line that I had gotten earlier, with corresponding intervals. The intervals were in 1sts, 4ths, 6ths and 8ves (Octaves – 8ths).

I was extremely proud that I had learned this piece in slightly over an hour, when it was originally meant for a full scale orchestra!

Link to Video of Cover

 

Month in Review – December

To take note of all that I have done in December, I will review and reflect my top 5 highlights of December.

1. TY Trip in Belfast

I really enjoyed the TY Christmas Trip. , we first of all went to Dundonald Ice Bowl, where we were taken to ice-skate, before being taken to Belfast where we were allowed to shop around, and later on see the Coca Cola, truck, and then head on to Junction One! It was such a good day as everyone had got on so well, and  everyone really enjoyed all aspects of the day. The day was that full of activities, that it went by so quick, and didn’t feel anyway long at all.

2. Hill Walking Trip

I really enjoyed the hill walking trip, as it was a challenge. I was really interested in the walk as it was an outdoors activity, and it something active. It was great to get out and do something totally different to any of the other activities in TY. We left the school after our first class, at 10 O’Clock, and headed on a bus to Leenan, outside Urris in Clonmany, where we were met by our guide for the day – Charlie McCarron, who is also the man who is in charge of the TY Tourism Enterprise project, which we will start this January. We were also accompanied by one of the PE Teachers & TY Tutors in Crana College – Mr McMullan, as well as a group of Spanish Students, accompanied by the Spanish Language Assistant in our school – Julia. I had never walked, or actually knew about the area where we walked, so it was a total change of scenery, and despite the very windy weather, the  views were absolutely spectacular!

3. TY Christmas Market

When writing this post, I realised that I hadn’t blogged about perhaps one of the biggest events that TY organised, not only in December, but in my TY so far! This was the ‘Christmas Market’, which linked to two very different modules in the TY Programme – Enterprise and Performing Arts. The event was organised in my Performing Arts classes, and our mini-companies, which were created through our Enterprise module, were to sell their goods (of possible), at the market. The amount of work that had to go in to not alone organizing a whole event, but also having a mini-company set up, and trading, was huge, however the event was a great success, and I was really happy that TY Students undertook a project that had never been done in the school before!

4. Starting the Irish Architecture Foundation Module

Something, more academic which had really interested me this month, was the starting of a new module, in my ‘Design & Woodwork’ class. This new concept is a new module that we will study called ‘Architecture’, which is brought to us by the Irish Architects Foundation, and is taught by our teacher – Mr Boyle.Since a young age I have been very interested in designing and drawing. I used to spend a lot of time drawing town plans and house design sketches, and I had also wanted to do Technical Graphics for my Junior Certificate, however the subject did not go ahead due to a lack of numbers in interest in this subject. Therefore, this module is of major interest to me! I am really glad, that in TY I get the chance to explore a topic and subject, that is totally new to me, yet a subject that I have a major interest in.

5.  Finishing My First Work Experience

This month I was very saddened to have finished my first placement. I had been in this placement over the past 13 weeks, and was really sad to say goodbye and get ready to start on my second work placement. Since September, I have been lucky enough to work in my past primary school – Scoil Naomh Pádraig in Drumfries. There are only about 60 – 70 students in the whole school, and therefore  I felt like I had grew to know them all well and had built up such a great working relationship with each and every one of them! I would like to thank all the staff & pupils at Drumfries N.S. for making, an amazing work experience placement possible!

 

Music Appreaciton Module – Presentation!

Music Appreciation Module

Rockabilly Music & Its Influence on Modern Musicians 

Today in TY, I got the chance to present a project that I had really enjoyed creating. This project was my ‘Music Appreciation Module’, which I had studied inside my Perfoming Arts class. Since we had returned in September, we had been set to the task of creating a presentation that we would present to the rest of the class, on our favourite genre of music or a musical genre that had interested us.

I had mentioned about this project in one of my very early posts on this site, where I had talked about public speaking, as well as the initial research which I had carried out to help me to create the presentation that I presented today.

Similarly, to when I had presented other pieces of work in front of the class, I was very nervous! I had felt very conscious of my work, and I was very nervous that I would make a mistake. I however tried to learn the project off as best as I could, and practiced saying it aloud before I presented the project. I believe that this had helpd me as I was quite calm when I was delivering the project. I really appreciated that I could get the chance to improve Public Speaking, inside the TY course as it is a major goal of mine this year, for me to be able to improve my public speaking by the end of the year.

My project focused on an uncommon genre known as ‘Rockabilly Music’. This project really interested me as music is of major interest to me. The influence that this genre had on areas such as art and design, had also been focused on in this project as I felt that this would be a unique topic to focus on and it would stand out whenever I was presenting the project. I then finished the project by me playing and singing the song ‘Johnny Got A Boom Boom’  by Imelda May on the guitar, while I got my class involved by accompanying me, percussively by clapping out a rhythm.

I really enjoyed this module in my Perfoming Arts class, and I hope that the rest of the year on Perfoming Arts will be as good !

  

Performing Arts Presentation & Public Speaking

Performing Arts Presentation

Over the past week in my Performing Arts class, I had been given the task to research a particular genre of music which I was interested in. This task is part of a much larger ‘Music Appreciation Module’ , where I will explore the many different genres of music and their features and qualities. I had chose to study Rockabilly Music; a fusion of Rock’n’Roll music and and country music of the Deep South of America in the 1940s and 1950s .This genre of music had really interested me as one of my favourite artists, Imelda May , has popularised this style in Ireland over the last 5-10 years.

I had to present this initial piece of research in front of my Performing Arts class today. Although the task was very daunting, and I was very nervous while speaking,  I really appreciated that I had got the chance to improve my public speaking, as I had foremostly entered the Transition Year programme to improve my confidence.

I hope to continue my research and to delve further into my rockabilly project. I hope to be able to link my instruments (piano and guitar) into the project in some way, as they are of major interest to me.

I will get the chance to hopefully improve my public speaking again on Thursday, when I present my Irish Mythology powerpoInt presentation in my Irish class.

Included; My Initial research on Rockabilly Music.

Performing Arts – Music Genre Introduction Project – Rockabilly