Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Friday Fun: Away At The Ballet!
Last Friday, all Ty's were brought into Belvedere College in Dublin to see a ballet. it is an all boys private school, which was huge. The Dublin Youth Ballet were preforming. Some of the dancers were very young and really good. They performed different dances to songs of the Nutcracker Suite. A highlight of the day was that there was a girl from our class in the Ballet so we got to cheer for her. Afterwards we went to get food. One of our teachers joked "Well that was a cultural experience for us all ... now lets go to McDonalds!" I actually felt sorry for the families that were in McDonalds before we arrived. I bet that they weren't too happy to see around 80 girls come running in! After that we went back to school, but it was just finishing when we arrived so we got to go home straight away.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
My Sister's Keeper - Book Review
The book My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult is a very interesting read. The story is told to us by the Fitzgerald family. The parents, Brian and Sarah have three children Jesse, Kate and Anna. When she was two, Kate was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia [APL]. In order to save their daughter's life, the parents received IVF treatments to conceive their second daughter so that she mould be a suitable donor for Kate. Now that Anna is thirteen, she is suing her parents to the rights to her own body.
This story focuses on the family's mental structure and as we see the lawsuit take affect we experience the turmoil of a family beak down. Picoult is a very talented author and she uses this advantage to the best of her abilities. Instead of focusing on just one character throughout the book, she enables us to see what this family is going through by changing the perspective in each chapter and sometimes having a chapter about a specific year.
During this book there were many different characters that appealed to me. Another one of Picoults talents is that she can make every character completely unique which gives us the feeling that we are spying on a struggling family which seems to be dealing with fresh heartbreak everyday, rather than just reading a book. I would have to say though that Sarah and Anna struck me as the strongest.
I enjoyed watching Anna's character develop throughout the book and to see her deal with very difficult situations again and again which I doubt most adults would be able to do quite so well. As the youngest in the family, Anna has had to grow up faster than most children would and often times finds herself feeling out of place in her own household. As the youngest of three kids myself, I really felt throughout this book that I could relate to Anna which for me, made the story much more realistic and believable. She is smart, cunning and has been very independent from a young age. Also as the theme of this book is quite sad, Anna was able to take a situation that for most would be upsetting and make it more lighthearted with her quick wit and wicked sense of humour. The thing that probably struck me the most about Anna would have to be her wisdom. All through the book she was very mature for her age, and at some points had me forgetting that I wasn't reading about and adult but rather a thirteen year old girl.
Sarah is the backbone of the Fitzgerald family, it is her that kept them going with her determination and strength. She is the mainly cares for her sick daughter Kate. She is probably the character which I admire the most. Throughout Kate's illness she has had to make almost impossible decisions, run the household and look after her other children. After reading this book and seeing the about of pain this woman has gone through to keep her family intact you have no choice but to look up to her. Other than caring for Kate she has had to rear two other children and keep her marriage afloat and up until the lawsuit she believed that they were doing okay. Now readers get to see her life spiralling out of her control while she struggles to hold everything together.
Jesse is actually my favourite character from this book. Although there are many excellent people to choose from I found myself completely drawn to him. Jesse is the eldest of the family and often gets overlooked by Kate's and Anna's medical stints. An example of this was when he was ten, Kate fell ill and Sarah was not able to bring Jesse to the orthodontist and to get cleats that he needed to tryout for his schools soccer team. As a result of this Jesse got a fork from the kitchen and pulled his braces from his mouth, before announcing to his mother that now she wouldn't have to bring him anywhere. Throughout this book although it was Kate and Anna that had to stay in hospital most of the time, I always found myself sympathising with Jesse as well. Because of his parents distractions it isn't long before he begins to lose his way. As the book goes on we begin to realise that his parents have lost almost all faith in him. An example of this is when Sarah finds a bruise on his arm she immediately suspects drugs but in fact he has just given blood to the hospital because he feels that he isn't helping enough with Kate because he isn't a blood match. I very much enjoyed reading from Jesse's point of view as we see that he wasn't a bad person and just can't find a way to express his love for his sisters.
Imagery is very strong in this book. Throughout the novel Picoult describes Kate illnesses extremely well giving us an insight to a life of a young girl going through the difficult throws of Leukaemia. This was often times sad but made the story very believable. I really liked this because I wouldn't have that much knowledge of cancer symptoms and this made the story much more worth while for me. Imagery also helped us with the dynamics of hospitals. We saw how the doctors were always busy while the nurses were the ones that got to know the patients really well and often got very close to them.
There are many themes seen throughout this book. Just some of these were: illness, love, law, and death. The one the stood out the most to me was illness. The whole book focuses on Kate's cancer and her attempt to live with it. I was really interested in this theme and was not disappointed by the information in this story. Love was shown clearly as well because of how the family stuck together through all the hard times and whatever obsticles they faced.
This book is one of my all time favourites and I would recommend it to anyone. Even for people who have already seen the movie, the book is in my opinion not only better but also very different. One part of the book that really surprized me was the shock twist at the end, as I was not expecting it at all. The imagery was brilliant, the characters were well thought out and the themes and plots were well executed. I for one cannot find one thing that I didn't like about this book. This is a must read, so grap your copy, sit back and enjoy.
This story focuses on the family's mental structure and as we see the lawsuit take affect we experience the turmoil of a family beak down. Picoult is a very talented author and she uses this advantage to the best of her abilities. Instead of focusing on just one character throughout the book, she enables us to see what this family is going through by changing the perspective in each chapter and sometimes having a chapter about a specific year.
During this book there were many different characters that appealed to me. Another one of Picoults talents is that she can make every character completely unique which gives us the feeling that we are spying on a struggling family which seems to be dealing with fresh heartbreak everyday, rather than just reading a book. I would have to say though that Sarah and Anna struck me as the strongest.
I enjoyed watching Anna's character develop throughout the book and to see her deal with very difficult situations again and again which I doubt most adults would be able to do quite so well. As the youngest in the family, Anna has had to grow up faster than most children would and often times finds herself feeling out of place in her own household. As the youngest of three kids myself, I really felt throughout this book that I could relate to Anna which for me, made the story much more realistic and believable. She is smart, cunning and has been very independent from a young age. Also as the theme of this book is quite sad, Anna was able to take a situation that for most would be upsetting and make it more lighthearted with her quick wit and wicked sense of humour. The thing that probably struck me the most about Anna would have to be her wisdom. All through the book she was very mature for her age, and at some points had me forgetting that I wasn't reading about and adult but rather a thirteen year old girl.
Sarah is the backbone of the Fitzgerald family, it is her that kept them going with her determination and strength. She is the mainly cares for her sick daughter Kate. She is probably the character which I admire the most. Throughout Kate's illness she has had to make almost impossible decisions, run the household and look after her other children. After reading this book and seeing the about of pain this woman has gone through to keep her family intact you have no choice but to look up to her. Other than caring for Kate she has had to rear two other children and keep her marriage afloat and up until the lawsuit she believed that they were doing okay. Now readers get to see her life spiralling out of her control while she struggles to hold everything together.
Jesse is actually my favourite character from this book. Although there are many excellent people to choose from I found myself completely drawn to him. Jesse is the eldest of the family and often gets overlooked by Kate's and Anna's medical stints. An example of this was when he was ten, Kate fell ill and Sarah was not able to bring Jesse to the orthodontist and to get cleats that he needed to tryout for his schools soccer team. As a result of this Jesse got a fork from the kitchen and pulled his braces from his mouth, before announcing to his mother that now she wouldn't have to bring him anywhere. Throughout this book although it was Kate and Anna that had to stay in hospital most of the time, I always found myself sympathising with Jesse as well. Because of his parents distractions it isn't long before he begins to lose his way. As the book goes on we begin to realise that his parents have lost almost all faith in him. An example of this is when Sarah finds a bruise on his arm she immediately suspects drugs but in fact he has just given blood to the hospital because he feels that he isn't helping enough with Kate because he isn't a blood match. I very much enjoyed reading from Jesse's point of view as we see that he wasn't a bad person and just can't find a way to express his love for his sisters.
Imagery is very strong in this book. Throughout the novel Picoult describes Kate illnesses extremely well giving us an insight to a life of a young girl going through the difficult throws of Leukaemia. This was often times sad but made the story very believable. I really liked this because I wouldn't have that much knowledge of cancer symptoms and this made the story much more worth while for me. Imagery also helped us with the dynamics of hospitals. We saw how the doctors were always busy while the nurses were the ones that got to know the patients really well and often got very close to them.
There are many themes seen throughout this book. Just some of these were: illness, love, law, and death. The one the stood out the most to me was illness. The whole book focuses on Kate's cancer and her attempt to live with it. I was really interested in this theme and was not disappointed by the information in this story. Love was shown clearly as well because of how the family stuck together through all the hard times and whatever obsticles they faced.
This book is one of my all time favourites and I would recommend it to anyone. Even for people who have already seen the movie, the book is in my opinion not only better but also very different. One part of the book that really surprized me was the shock twist at the end, as I was not expecting it at all. The imagery was brilliant, the characters were well thought out and the themes and plots were well executed. I for one cannot find one thing that I didn't like about this book. This is a must read, so grap your copy, sit back and enjoy.
EduBlogs :) Wuhooo..
Personally, I think Caitriona is awesome! Her blog is great! I would like to nominate her for the best student blog award EVER!
Here is her Work Experience Blog. Its Wonderful
http://tienies.blogspot.com/2011/11/neven-heaven.html?spref=tw
Here is her Work Experience Blog. Its Wonderful
http://tienies.blogspot.com/2011/11/neven-heaven.html?spref=tw
Sunday, 6 November 2011
'Juno and The Paycock' Review
On the 19th of October all Ty's were brought to see the play 'Juno and the Paycock' written by the Irish writer Sean O Casey, in the Abbey Theatre. It was a brilliant day and I think everyone enjoyed it.
When we were first showed to our seats there were a few people who were sceptical to see the play. I personally have to say that for me, to actually see the plays production really outshone reading it in class. It was a very different experience to see 'Juno and the Paycock' acted out live rather than just reading it. We had read the book previously to seeing it and I personally didn't actually like it. I found the way the play was written in the Dublin dialect to be very difficult to understand and because of this I found the characters to be completely unrelateable.
After viewing the play I was able to look on it from a very differennt perspective.
By the end of the play my favourite characyers were Mrs Boyle [Juno], Mary, Johnny and Ms Masie Madigan. In the book Mrs Boyle and Mary are both main characters, but what surprized me were the very strong performances by the actors who portrayed the characters of Johnny and Ms Masie Madigan. All the actors truly gave five star performances and made the whole play very realistic and believable.
As I found it difficult to understand what was happening in the book at times, going to see it live definantly brought the whole thing to life and the tricky Dublin dialect became easier to comprehend. All the actors delivered lines both strongly and clearly which really helped strenghthen the play.
Another great contributing factor of the play was the stage setting. The entire stage was done to resemble a room in one of the tenaments around the 1920s. This was made very realistic by the peeling wall paper to mismatched furniture in the family room to show the poverty in which the Boyle family were living. The lighting also made the performances believable as throughout the play the lighting was dim to help reflect the unhappiness and financial state in Ireland at that time. I especially liked the way when something upsetting occurred, you were made to believe that it was raining outside with sound affects and the lights diming even further so it seemed very dreary and sad. During the play I noticed something unusual that you dont normally get in a play. When Mr Boyle was smoking a pipe and when Mrs Boyle [Juno] was cooking sausages, the smells drifted into the audience and made the viewer actually believe that they were experiencing the drama first hand and not only watching in on stage.
In my opinion, Sean O Casey raised many themes in this play. The theme that I believe was shown most prominantly was war. This was clearly shown by the death of Ms Tancreds' son and later in the play by the death of Johnny, also by the ongoing sounds outside on the street which created the constant sounds of war and violence. This was a main issue during the play as well. We saw how traumatised Johnny was from the battle where he had lost his arm and we continued to see his depression and his paranoia throughout the play.
Another main theme that was clearly seen during the play was the economic state of dublin around the 1920s. This was shown by the families living in the tenaments and by the dirty and ragged clothes that they wore. O Casey showed the strain of the Boyle family by Mrs Boyle urging her husband to get a job and the way the family were forced to borrow money from the neighbours.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed seeing 'Juno and the Paycock' and I think Sean O Casey did a fantastic job in bringing the story to life with the very real issues and also the raw emotions of the characters [ mainly Mrs Boyle's speech after Johnny is killed]. Although I didnt enjoy reading the play in class, I would reccomend it to everyone, as I think that the Abbey Theatres production is a must see.
When we were first showed to our seats there were a few people who were sceptical to see the play. I personally have to say that for me, to actually see the plays production really outshone reading it in class. It was a very different experience to see 'Juno and the Paycock' acted out live rather than just reading it. We had read the book previously to seeing it and I personally didn't actually like it. I found the way the play was written in the Dublin dialect to be very difficult to understand and because of this I found the characters to be completely unrelateable.
After viewing the play I was able to look on it from a very differennt perspective.
By the end of the play my favourite characyers were Mrs Boyle [Juno], Mary, Johnny and Ms Masie Madigan. In the book Mrs Boyle and Mary are both main characters, but what surprized me were the very strong performances by the actors who portrayed the characters of Johnny and Ms Masie Madigan. All the actors truly gave five star performances and made the whole play very realistic and believable.
As I found it difficult to understand what was happening in the book at times, going to see it live definantly brought the whole thing to life and the tricky Dublin dialect became easier to comprehend. All the actors delivered lines both strongly and clearly which really helped strenghthen the play.
Another great contributing factor of the play was the stage setting. The entire stage was done to resemble a room in one of the tenaments around the 1920s. This was made very realistic by the peeling wall paper to mismatched furniture in the family room to show the poverty in which the Boyle family were living. The lighting also made the performances believable as throughout the play the lighting was dim to help reflect the unhappiness and financial state in Ireland at that time. I especially liked the way when something upsetting occurred, you were made to believe that it was raining outside with sound affects and the lights diming even further so it seemed very dreary and sad. During the play I noticed something unusual that you dont normally get in a play. When Mr Boyle was smoking a pipe and when Mrs Boyle [Juno] was cooking sausages, the smells drifted into the audience and made the viewer actually believe that they were experiencing the drama first hand and not only watching in on stage.
In my opinion, Sean O Casey raised many themes in this play. The theme that I believe was shown most prominantly was war. This was clearly shown by the death of Ms Tancreds' son and later in the play by the death of Johnny, also by the ongoing sounds outside on the street which created the constant sounds of war and violence. This was a main issue during the play as well. We saw how traumatised Johnny was from the battle where he had lost his arm and we continued to see his depression and his paranoia throughout the play.
Another main theme that was clearly seen during the play was the economic state of dublin around the 1920s. This was shown by the families living in the tenaments and by the dirty and ragged clothes that they wore. O Casey showed the strain of the Boyle family by Mrs Boyle urging her husband to get a job and the way the family were forced to borrow money from the neighbours.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed seeing 'Juno and the Paycock' and I think Sean O Casey did a fantastic job in bringing the story to life with the very real issues and also the raw emotions of the characters [ mainly Mrs Boyle's speech after Johnny is killed]. Although I didnt enjoy reading the play in class, I would reccomend it to everyone, as I think that the Abbey Theatres production is a must see.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
English Trip To Abbey Theatre
Tomorrow on Wednesday the 19th of October, all T.Ys are going into town. In the morning we are going to the Yeats Exhibition, the National Library......and to see The Bog Bodies [ugh]. For the past two weeks we have been working on an english project. My group did it on W.B Yeats, the poets, early life. I found out that he wasn't very good in school and found science maths and languages to be really hard.
In the afternoon we are free to get lunch around Graftons St for awhile and then we are going to the Abbey Theatre to see the play by Sean O' Casey called 'Juno and the Paycock'.
In the afternoon we are free to get lunch around Graftons St for awhile and then we are going to the Abbey Theatre to see the play by Sean O' Casey called 'Juno and the Paycock'.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Mini-company workshop
On Wednesday all TYs went to the riverbank theatre in Newbridge for our secong workshop with st marys girl school. Orla is really helpful and even said that the idea that my group has is a great idea. We are still having trouble getting our idea to work though, but we are excited that when we actually get our product ready lots of people has said that they would be interested in buying it. Aswell everyone loves these days that we get to go outside the school and an extra bonus was that after the workshop was finished we got to get chips for our lunch.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Go Bananas, GO GO GO BANANAS
Today everyone is trying to get everything sorted for the fun walk tomorrow. TY colour is yellow and our theme is bananas in pyjames and we have our tutor, Ms McEnery dressed up as a monkey. We are all happy about our dance but we are still trying to get our timing right. The fun walk is one of the best days in our school year, we get to miss classes, see everyone dress up and we all get to have a laugh with the teachers. Because this year we are in TY we have to leave the school before all of the other years, all of us have different posts all along the walk and its our jobis to direct people and to get everyone across the road. The only problem is, if it rains people's signs, make-up and costumes get ruined and we are in Ireland so more than likely there will be rain. As there is a few classes in every year we have a competition for the best idea/dance....... so go bananas, go go GO BANANAS!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
All Around The World In Sixty Days!
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
Work Work Work!
This week everyone is finally getting over their tiredness from all the events of last week. What with Carlingford, the results, time, and school everyone was half dead last week and were eager for the weekend. Now along with the new week we also have alot of work, we projects in science, geography, irish and religion and all of us feel that we really need to start really concentrating on them properly. Looks like I'm going to be tired this weekend as well
Results are OUT!!!
Last Wednesday, the 14th of September was the day we had been building up to for the past three years.... the day of our junior cert results! We Had to wait untill lunch before we were called down. No one could concentrate in classes and everyone was really quiet with either nerves or excitement.
It was weird when we were waiting for our envelopes to be given out and when we finally got them no one was sure if they wanted to open them or not. After a while everyone had to open their results and most were happy to find that they had gotten the results that they had wanted. After that everyone was relieved to feel that the pressure was off of us.... at least for this year anyway.
People were happy that the results were finally over because now it was time to celebrate, and most of our year were going out to the nightclub Time for the junior cert night!
It was weird when we were waiting for our envelopes to be given out and when we finally got them no one was sure if they wanted to open them or not. After a while everyone had to open their results and most were happy to find that they had gotten the results that they had wanted. After that everyone was relieved to feel that the pressure was off of us.... at least for this year anyway.
People were happy that the results were finally over because now it was time to celebrate, and most of our year were going out to the nightclub Time for the junior cert night!
Carlingford!!! :D
On Monday the 12th of September we went to the Carlingford Adventure Centre in Louth. We had to get up really early because we had to be on the road by 7 a.m. It was exciting because there were 77 of us going. When we arrived we got straight into the activities. Our first one was the adventure course, where we had teams that had to get past lots of different challenges e.g. a blindfolded maze, the low ropes, the bomb, the spider's web, and buzz.
After that we got to have an hour off for lunch and then it was straight back outside for a lazer war in the forest where we had to walk up this huge hill and dress up in soldiers clothes. That night we went back into the forest and up that hill again and we had to walk from one end of the forest to the other blindfolded and holding onto a rope. It was really scary because the forest was on a mountain so it was easy to fall. Later on that night we had two hours of free time before we had to go to bed so we went down to the common room with the boys from another school where we had a sing-song and we got to watch one of the centres instructors do a fire show. The next morning we were all wrecked and after breakfast we went orienteering where we had to walk around the forest for two hours. Later we had lunch and then it was time for our last activity which was rock climbing. Eventhugh I am afraid of heights it was really fun and I would definately do it again. On the way home from carlingford we were in the mini-bus again and my friends decided that we should sing along to all the old songs on my phone.....ugh! I really hope that we get to do something like Carlingford again it was great crack.
After that we got to have an hour off for lunch and then it was straight back outside for a lazer war in the forest where we had to walk up this huge hill and dress up in soldiers clothes. That night we went back into the forest and up that hill again and we had to walk from one end of the forest to the other blindfolded and holding onto a rope. It was really scary because the forest was on a mountain so it was easy to fall. Later on that night we had two hours of free time before we had to go to bed so we went down to the common room with the boys from another school where we had a sing-song and we got to watch one of the centres instructors do a fire show. The next morning we were all wrecked and after breakfast we went orienteering where we had to walk around the forest for two hours. Later we had lunch and then it was time for our last activity which was rock climbing. Eventhugh I am afraid of heights it was really fun and I would definately do it again. On the way home from carlingford we were in the mini-bus again and my friends decided that we should sing along to all the old songs on my phone.....ugh! I really hope that we get to do something like Carlingford again it was great crack.
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
T.Y Fun :-D
Well this is the first blog that I've ever written. On my second week of T.Y and already I can tell that its going to be a fun year. Its nice having no pressure on me to study for big exams! Already we have loads of things planned for the year..... like next week we are going to Carlingford Adventure Centre for two days, and next month we are going to see a play in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
Eventhough the pressure is off this year we still have a lot of to do. We have a geography project where we have to plan a trip around the world, we have an irish project, as well as that we have started to plan our science project for the BT Young Scientist Competition. The thing that I love about T.Y is that eventhough we have lots of work it always seems fun and schooldays are never boring!
Eventhough the pressure is off this year we still have a lot of to do. We have a geography project where we have to plan a trip around the world, we have an irish project, as well as that we have started to plan our science project for the BT Young Scientist Competition. The thing that I love about T.Y is that eventhough we have lots of work it always seems fun and schooldays are never boring!
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