All the french exchange students arrived on friday the 27th of April. The first night my french student, myself and some of my friends and their french students came to my house and we got to know each other. We decided to show the french people Dublin city on saturday. Everyone enjoyed Dublin and after that we went bowling with other people partaking in the french exchange. The next day we went to Dun Laoghaire and watched a movie. We also showed the french students the peoples park market on sunday.
During the week the french exchange students did many activities with the school. A few times during the week my french exchange students friends came over to my house with their Irish students. Me and my french student got along very well and as the week progressed we became very good friends. I really enjoyed the week I spent with my french exchange student and I’m excited to stay with him in France. Im very grateful for the experience.
0 Comments
I was very excited for the kairos day trip since I heard what it was all about. We arrived at the studio early and an employee gave us a talk about what we would be doing. He explained that we would be making a short film that we had written scripts for previously in english class. He then gave us a tour and explained the functions of the equipment. After we were all acquainted with the studio we started to film.
We managed to make about 30 minutes of material which everyone agreed was good. The whole class enjoyed is very much and I personally thought it was a great introduction to what a job in the media is like. During my fourth week of work experience I was working in the same office that I worked in the previous work experience week. I was asked to come back for an extra week to work with them. They needed help with a large amount of new people being employed. Throughout the week I was helping with organising the filing system and setting up new people on their online systems. I also helped to move the human resources department to a different section of the office.
I enjoyed this week of work experience just as much as the previous and I was happy to work an extra week with them. For this week I had organised to work in an office of a facility management business. I was placed with the Human Resources department which I was excited about. Throughout the week I handled all the new employees that the company took in and put them into files and onto the online system. I became friends with the people working in the office and I eventually got used to the office atmosphere. I really enjoyed the week and I learned many things like how the typical office will operate and how to use various computer programs for office work.
On Monday the 16th of April to wednesday the 18th of April my school year was partaking in a first aid course. We had a few guest speakers come in to teach us the basics of first aid.
We firstly learned the theory of first aid such as the particular symptoms of a heart attack. We learned what the best course of action is to take in the event of an emergency. I found this all very interesting and helpful. After the theory section we then began the practical section of the course. We were taught CPR and giving breaths techniques in the event of an emergency aswell as many other things. At the end of the three days everyone was tested on what we covered in the course and we all did well. I think that this course has given me confidence to help in the event of an emergency and I am grateful for the experience. This week I had organised to do my work experience with Stephen Mackenzie and Co solicitors firm. I was excited going into this week because I thought I would find the court cases interesting.
On my first day one of the solicitors took me to court with him. We went to the four courts which I found very enjoyable. I spent the day sitting in on court cases listening in on them. There was a variety of cases we listened to. An example of one of these was a civil case in which a plaintiff was suing for 75,000 euro in a defamation case. That case was particularly interesting and it also ended up in the news the next day. The next day I was taken to court again but this time I was in the criminal courts. I found this just as interesting. I listened in on many cases like traffic accident cases and also drug related cases. I really enjoyed that day aswell. Unfortunately the next day the courts were closed and I was unable to get into work experience due to the snow. This continued for the rest of the week. Because I only finished 2 days of the week I organised to go to a case that he had on in Limerick a few weeks later. I really enjoyed doing that day trip with him. It involved us getting up early and driving down. The case unfortunately ended up getting adjourned after a short hearing. This was quite frustrating. Despite this I enjoyed the day because afterwards we talked with some barristeers and I was ale to ask many questions about what they do. I found that very interesting and I learned a lot. AIthough I only completed 3 days I still found it very enjoyable. I learned a lot about the legal system in Ireland. I am very grateful for this experience. I found out about the Open Door Clinic in Bray because it close to my house and because some of my family has donated money to there before. This week started off with me meeting up with the staff members of the Open Door Clinic where I would be doing my work for the next few days. When I turned up to the clinic I found out that two people from year were also working in the clinic which was great.
Throughout the week my friends and I were tasked with helping the members of the clinic.These members were individuals with physical and mental disabilities. I found it very rewarding to assist them and to have conversations with them. They were all very kind and easy to talk to. This was the same with all the staff. On a typical day I would have arrived in the clinic at around 9am and then get everything ready for the members to come in at 10am. We would start off with a group activity which engaged all the members, then we would continue onto a morning activity such as physiotherapy. After this we would serve them lunch and then leave for our own lunch break. In the afternoon I would assist the members in another activity such as art and craft or music. There was a wide variety of things to do for them. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work in this clinic. As the week progressed I saw how the members had grown to be dependant service over the years. It gave them a group of friends and it helped to keep them busy on a day-to-day basis. I found the experience to be a greatly rewarding one. I feel like I benefited from the week just as much as the members themselves do. This talk was hosted by two Dell employees. They started off by explaining what Dell does. They manufacture different computer products. Then they introduced themselves. Their names were Aidan and Maire. Maire worked in human resources and Aidan worked in PR. The topics they talked about were the uses thet Dell's products have. They also showed us videos of how different college degrees can be useful in the information technology sector. This was interesting because it showed us how college courses could be useful.
They also gave us a task of trying to think about what we wanted to be when were older or what we wanted to study in collge. Then they gave us My class was taken during the day to do this course for 3 hours. We were the second group to do it. When we got to the class we were firstly split up into 5 groups. The groups had about 5 people in each. Every group was given a map of a fictional area and an envelope with several sheets needed for the game we would be playing. The teacher explained how the game worked basically saying how we had to reach our destination in a certain number of days with the resources we were given. Then we were given some time to plan everything.
Initially it seemed like our teams were working against each other but then we were told we would all add up our scores at the end and compare them with the other classes taking the course. This motivated us to all work together which we realised at the end was a good idea. Our class worked together by sharing the resources we were given throughout our groups and sharing special advantages that would normally be exclusive to only one group. By the end of the class everyone understood how important working together in the game was when the teacher showed us our results compared to other groups. We had done really well and it was a great learning experience. |