My Digital Footprint

One of our blog challenges is to post about our digital footprint.  When I read this I had no idea what it meant, like our footprints aren't digital?!  But now I know it's actually nothing to do with our feet; it's to do with the tracks we leave behind about ourselves in digital form.

My digital footprint began before I was even born after my sonogram after 5 months when it was e-mailed to family and friends or printed for the doctors to use.  This was then followed by pictures or text messages sent when I was born.  My digital footprint has been updated throughout my life.  As a child when I filled out the questions, eg. name, to make my own penguin on Club Penguin it was added to my digital footprint.  Today I am still updating my digital footprint..

• Facebook -  I create a profile, share photos, make posts etc.
• Instagram -  I post photos of me for others to see.
• Twitter -  I tweet my thoughts.
• Snapchat - I send pictures of myself to others.
• Kik - I chat to my friends in groups.
• Google - I research information for school.
• Amazon - I buy things for my own use.

Even in the future my digital footprint will constantly be added to and this will go on until I die and even afterwards.

Work experience

This past week has been very eventful.  On Monday it was my birthday, yaaaaaay! Except there was a school camogie match which sadly we lost by a good bit.  It was our first match as a team though so taking that into consideration we played well.  Hopefully we will improve throughout the year as we play more as a team.

On Wednesday we started our first work experience.  I did mine in Beaufield Veterinary Clinic.  I started at 9 and finished at 2.  The previous night I had been very nervous.  I was afraid that I would be overwhelmed with what was going on or that I would not know anybody.  When I arrived the people there were really friendly and taught me many things.  I had to supervise many surgeries, such as the neutering of 2 cats, chemotherapy, many x-rays and even the grooming of a cat!  Although there was a fair amount of blood which I didn't think I'd be able for, it was a great experience and I feel like I greatly benefited from it.  I always wanted to be a vet and, if anything, this experience increased my interest in it.  I look forward to next week and seeing what I will be faced with.

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Carlingford

On Monday, the 15th of September, we went to Carlingford for the night.  We had to get up really early to be at Esso for 7 in the morning for the bus.  Luckily nobody was late so we were on the road before we knew it.  Surprisingly everyone was wide awake for the time and there was a buzz on the bus.
We got there at about 9 and were assigned our rooms.  There were 12 people in my room.  We almost instantly started our first activity, kayaking.  We had to paddle to a beach where we played some team building games.  At lunch time we headed back to the adventure centre for lunch.  We had sausages, beans and chips.  Afterwards we had to put on a a khaki onesie for laser tag.  We were given guns which were really heavy and we had to carry them up the steep mountain to the woods where we did the laser tag.  I was on TEAM BLUE!;)  Even though I didn't really know many on my team we bonded really well and after 2 hours crawling in the forest we won the game.  We then went back to the adventure centre for dinner where we had spaghetti bolognese and ice cream.  I thought we were finished for the day when we were told to make our way back to the forest.  Here we did a night line walk.  We were blindfolded and had to walk around the forest holding onto a rope and the person in front of us.  It was really fun!  When it was over my friends and I got a chinese and went to a party where we were staying.  We had to be in our rooms for 11 but only at 11 we started eating our sweets.  We had a sugar overdose!
The following day at 7.30 we were woken up by a One Direction song as our wake up alarm.  We went for breakfast and then at 9 we were already on the road back to the water where we canoed.  We canoed out to a water trampoline and had to jump in, it was freezing! We then canoed on to a cave where we were held under a waterfall which was said to give us "eternal youth" but all it did to me was make me cold!  It was then lunch time where we had sausage rolls and then we walked up a hill to a field where we had to do challenges.  We were put into teams to collect gems.  We had to crawl through a maze in the dark, walk over a mud pool with a barrel and a few planks of wood.  It was really hard but my team won with 12 gems.  Sadly it was time to go after this.  Even though we were all sleep deprived on the bus we ate more sweets so we were really loud.
The few days in Carlingford were great fun and it really helped the year to bond which was great!  Hopefully we get to go on more trips like this

Results week

On Wednesday, the 10th of September, the Junior Cert Students from last year got their results.  Those who did TY only had to come in at lunchtime which was good because we could have a lie in!  When we arrived at the school we had to line up in our base classes from last year.  I was in Class Pearl and it was really weird being with them, a good weird though.  We were all really nervous in the line.  When Ms Barry talked about being safe that night we were all really impatient; we just wanted to get our results, leave and get ready to go out that night.  When the results were finally given out we all left instantly to go home.  After opening the envelope with my results in it I was really happy and knew that I would be able to enjoy the night.
My friends and I were going Mantra.  It started at 8 o'clock but I started to get ready at half 2.  We were all really excited but when we were getting a lift there, there was so much traffic because of roadworks.  We finally got there and had a great night.  All in all it was a really good day!  On Thursday however we were all really tired because we only got to bed really late. I thought I was going to fall asleep!  By the end of the day people were barely talking as we were all overtired and just wanted to go home to bed.
Next week on Monday and Tuesday we are going to Carlingford which I am really excited about as I have no idea what to expect.  This weekend I plan on going to the shop to buy loads of sweets because I'd say we'll be needing all the sugar we can get!

First week of TY

I just finished my first full week of TY and so far it has been really good. There are 3 TY classes named after Disney princesses, Ariel, Belle and Aurora.  I am in class Aurora with many of my friends which is good. All the girls who I had not really known beforehand in my class are really nice too and we get on great! 
After the first day or two we had not yet done much and I still didn't really know many in my class that well.  I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision doing TY.  As time went on however I began to change my mind.  Our class began mixing with each other, especially in PE doing the skateboard challenge which made it more enjoyable.
As part of TY we get to try all the option subjects.  I was nervous about this because I had never done home-ec before and after first year I knew that I wasn't that great at art or music.  After trying all the subjects out though in my option class I can see it being really fun.  We are baking on Monday in home-ec so I am looking forward to trying this out, as long as I don't set the place on fire!
On Wednesday we had 3 workshops which were really fun. I started my day doing first aid.  The instructor, Garry, was really nice.  Although his jokes and puns were not the best I had ever heard, he taught us a lot of what we would know in an emergency like CPR.  I would love to learn more about these things now.  After this we had an etiquette workshop.  Here we were taught how to walk properly in heels with books on our heads.  It was pretty embarrassing at first but I think we learned a bit from it.  The women also taught us the importance of being comfortable with our body image by showing us this memorable Dove video.  We then got to use this really nice smelling hand cream which made our hands really soft.  The last workshop we did was Positive Parties.  Here the instructor tried to show us the importance of being happy and laughing.  She did so by making us fit a number of people into a pair of pants and taking part in laughter yoga.  It felt really weird at the time but now, looking back, I feel like my class gained a lot from it and it really helped us to bond.
I look forward to seeing what the next few weeks of TY brings.