Eagle's Flight Workshop
The Eagles flight workshop was a great experience for us all as a year group. It gave us a better understanding of what it means to be prepared for challenges we are due to face and broadened our communication skills to work together to complete a task. The Eagles flight workshop was not only educational but it was a fun and enjoyable way for us to face challenges together as a year. We were put into teams of six and were given a task to play a board game called ” The lost Dutchmans gold mine “. We were given limited resources and the only way for us to get more resources was a trade between teams. The only way to succeed in the game was to plan ahead and communicate as a team to find the solution. The workshop was a really fun experience and they gave us some key tips on how to plan for anything in the future to gain maximum success.
IT is not for geeks
On the 29th of september a pair of DELL workers came in to guve us a talk on the topic of IT and what its like to work in a tecnology firm. The DELL speakers that came in to give us the talk were both well experienced at what they do and it was interesting to hear about their different experiences from working in IT. We learned what the working environment ar DELL was like and how it is a very multi job based firm where people with all different skills and educational backrounds work. I think the talk was very interesting and practical and with that i learned a lot about IT and what types of job it offers.
Enterprise talk
On the 20th of september a speaker came in to give us a talk about the mini company competition we are preparing to take part in. She gave us some information about our mini company ideas and whats involved in the competition. We talked about ideas and what it takes to win the competition. We worked in groups and every group was given a paperclip and we had to come up with as many ideas that involves using a paperclip. The talk gave us a good insight in what is expected in the competition amd we learnt what the requirements are. The talk was really helpful and it gave me the information i needed to get my mini company started.
Simon Harris talk
On the 6th of October we had a talk from the Irish Minister for health Simon Harris. He talked about the overall health of the Irish population and he talked a lot about nutrition and what we should be eating to stay both physically and mentally healthy. He showed us the new and improved food pyramid that was previously incorrect and stated that things like bread,cereal and rice were at the bottom of the pyramid when it actually should be fruit and vegetables. He also stated that the top section of the pyramid where all the junk food was is now split into two sections. I enjoyed the speech and I found it interesting to see how the previous food pyramid was incorrect and also what Simon Harris's goals are for the future of health in Ireland.
Alison Canavan talk
For well-being week in the school we had a lot of guest speakers coming and teachers a little bit about health in general. One of the speakers was a woman called Alison Canavan. She gave us a really interesting talk about the mental side of health and how important it is to wake up in the morning and feel good. She told us about her past which involves a lot of alcohol and she told us how badly it affected her mental health. She talked to us about how she completely changed career paths from being a model in New York to becoming deeply interested in improving her mental health through meditation and spirituality. As a group we all participated in a breathing exercise which is to reduce any anxiety we may have and we also participated in a full meditation exercise. I really enjoyed her speech and I think was very relevant to the audience as a lot of the stuff she talked about was based on anxiety and stress which is quite common amongst students and she also gave us some really useful ways to try and overcome them.
Nutrition talk
On 7 November a speaker came in to talk to us about nutrition. She talked about what foods we should be eating on a daily basis and also how the food is digested. I learned about all the different bacteria that are found in the Gut and how important they are for our metabolism. Her job was a nutritional therapist which means she experiments with foods to try and make a product that would benefit or heal the human body. I learned what foods are bad for the bacteria and what foods will help improve them. She talked to us on how sugars are huge killers of the bacteria and how B vitamins can make our bacteria a lot stronger and increased their numbers. I think her speech was educational and I found it interesting to realise that there are millions of bacteria in the gut and how important they are to our everyday digestion
Aware talk
The Aware talk took place on Friday, 10 November and it was based on our awareness on depression and anxiety. The man who came in to talk to us was working for aware Ireland and he talked to us about depression and anxiety and how we can overcome them. The speaker interacted with the group well by asking us about our opinions on the topic and if we knew the most common symptoms. I learned a lot from the talk like how to identify depression and anxiety and if it doesn’t go away for two weeks it is our advised to go see a GP and to find a solution for it.
Tiglin talk
On the 12th of December a group of speakers came in from an organisation called Tiglin who’s focus is to help the homeless people in Dublin. I found this speech to be one of the most interesting talks we have had in the school, I found it so honest and it was really powerful to hear about a man’s life from when he was a child to becoming a heroin addict‘s to then being homeless and despite all that managing to turn his life around. The first speaker gave us an idea of what the organisation does for the homeless and and some facts about the homeless and the concept in general. She told us about the increasing number of people becoming homeless and just how little they have. The second speaker give us a full rundown of his life nd all the difficult challenges he faced from a young age. He described living in his house with an abusive father and an innocent mother and how he was afraid of going home. He talked about becoming addicted to heroin and becoming homeless and leaving home and his story on how he turned his life around through Tingin. I found his speech quite sad but also very powerful and he told just how hard it is being homeless.
Overall I thought the talk was very honest and interesting I think everybody enjoyed hearing about Tinglin and what they do to change peoples lives.
Overall I thought the talk was very honest and interesting I think everybody enjoyed hearing about Tinglin and what they do to change peoples lives.