I have chosen to help out at Greystones Library on Thursday evenings, for my Gaisce Community Service! The purpose and aim of Gaisce is to help us develop from teenagers to young adults by dedicating our free time to improving the lives the others, by helping our community, by expanding our skill set, by learning new and useful things, by having memorable experiences and making lifelong friends. To fulfill this purpose and aim, we are required to do 13 weeks of community service, 13 weeks of physical activity and 13 weeks of nurturing a personal skill. As I have already mentioned in a previous blog post, I am pleased to be doing my 13 weeks of community service in Greystones Library. I must admit, 13 week go a lot faster than you might think! During the summer of 2016, I was researching Gaisce and was stunned when I learned we had to do 13 weeks of an activity, and even 26 for an activity of our choice. I couldn’t believe it, it seemed like almost too many weeks! I asked friends who have already completed Transition Year if this information was correct, and was amazed when they said it is true! However I honestly find now that those 13 weeks, and even Transition Year, have flown by. I started my community service on the 22nd of September 2016, and finished on the 26th of January 2017 (I missed a few weeks because of holidays and school events!). During my community service at Greystones Library I have had many great experiences, learned many new things and have made some good friends. I looked forward to every Thursday evening, as I enjoyed working at Greystones Library. I got the opportunity to work as a librarian, by scanning people’s books and giving them book recommendations! Most of the time you would find me sitting by a table in the children’s section of the library, doing some sort of artistic and creative crafts, or sometimes simply cutting out templates! I thoroughly enjoyed this, as I received the chance to be creative and use my imagination to create something. The crafts I would make, and at times I would simply prepare the materials to make the craft, are used for the crafts sessions on Saturday mornings for little children, which is organised by the library. I also created various decorations for the library at Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day! My very last day at the library I was given the job to wrap novels in newspapers, and on a label on top of the wrapped book I had to write down the genre of the book. The label read ‘Blind Date With Your New Favourite Book'. This Book Is For ….. (write in genre) Lovers’! I thought it was a wonderful idea for Valentine's Day, that people would pick up a random book, from a genre they have an interest in, without judging the book by its cover! In addition I spent some time stacking books in the library, and putting them back in their original place, in alphabetical order. This is a relaxing and enjoyable ending to a busy Thursday, and I enjoy reading the blurbs on the books as I put them away. It is quite a wonderful feeling being surrounded by mountains of books! I am sad my 13 weeks of working at Greystones Library have come to an end, but I very happy I chose to do my community service here. I enquired if I could continue helping out on Thursday evenings for another 13 weeks, but the library do not facilitate for students working there for longer than 13 weeks for insurance reasons I believe. The library has a wonderful atmosphere of kindness and peace and gives me a sense of community. The librarians have told me a lot about how to become a professional librarian and what the work the job entails (most people picture a librarian as a grumpy old women who always says ‘shhhhh’, but really it's a proper job which needs qualification and experience!), so who knows I may decide to become a librarian because of my community service? Also its fantastic as I did not need to pay any fees for late books while I worked at the library, however I doubt this will continue!! I gave the librarians a box of Belgian chocolates as a token of thanks for having me in the library for 13 weeks, and for being so kind and helpful! The stereotypical librarian! It has been a great 13 weeks and I have learned many new and valuable skills!
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European Computer Driving Licence, is exactly what the name suggests. ECDL is the world's leading computer skills certification. The ECDL programme defines the skills and competencies necessary to use a computer and common computer applications. It offers a wide range of modules including Computer Essentials, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, IT Security and many more base, intermediate and advanced modules. When I discovered our school provided ECDL classes in Transition Year, I saw it as a brilliant opportunity to expand my knowledge on computers and improve the few skills I already have and learn many new skills concerning computers, and applications. Nowadays it is essential that one understands computers and modern technology. A large range of jobs these days are either heavily based on technology or require a basic knowledge on programmes such as Spreadsheets and Word Processor. As I do not have a natural flair or dominant interest in technology, I thought Transition Year is the perfect opportunity to evolve the skill of using computers to the best of their ability. Every Thursday evening I attend the hour and 15 minutes ECDL classes at school, from 17.15pm to 18.30pm. After games, we gather in the IT room and we are left to our own devices. It is up to us to complete modules and learn the information given to us. We each have our own account, and we can pick and choose which modules we want to complete based on interest and which one would be most practical for us in the future. It is normal that each student works at a different pace, therefore at the end of the school year some students have completed 6 modules, while others have completed 3. In order to receive an ECDL certificate, we must complete a minimum of one module. I have completed 3 modules to date: Computer Essentials, Word Processing and Spreadsheets. I am in the middle of doing the mock test for the Presentations module. For each module you do a mock test, which you can pause and resume at any time and then you do a ‘real’ test, which you must finish within the allocated time. I am enjoying ECDL, although it is challenging, I feel I am using my time wisely by learning new and useful things every week. My goal is to complete 5 modules before the end of the school year, and I am sure I will benefit from doing this course, in the future!
I joined Enniskerry Girls Soccer Club at the start of the school year, in September. I decided to take up soccer for the Physical Recreation part of the Gaisce President’s Award. For the past few weeks my team, the U16 Girls Team, have been extremely successful in our league matches! I go to training every Tuesday evening. There is training on Saturday mornings as well but unfortunately this clashes with my hockey training and matches. Then on most Sundays we have a match, be it League or Friendly. The first few matches I played were friendlies, and I found them quite challenging as I am less experienced than most of my teammates and the opposing team players. Also some girls can be quite rough when we play matches, especially league matches. However as time went on I improved my skills and learnt how to play the game with more tactics! As I said, we have been very successful in the league, we were on top of the league the whole time, winning every one of our matches! We even won a match 14-1, which was incredible considering the team we were playing were actually doing quite well in the league as well. However, although it is fantastic to win by 13 goals and it really boosted our motivation it also had consequences. This amazing result highlighted that our team was too good for the league we were in. So next thing you know, we are promoted to the next League(which is the best league)! This, is in one sense, is brilliant but in another not so great. Moving up a league means the teams we will be playing at a great deal better. Also we lose all the points we got in the other league, meaning we are no longer top of the league. In addition we must play catch-up matches to make sure we have played the same number of matches as the other teams! Despite this, it is a great achievement to be promoted to the next league! I am really enjoying being part of the U16 Girls Soccer team, as I am learning new things all the time and have made new friends!
As I have mentioned (link to blog post) for my Gaisce Community Service I am helping out at Greystones Library on Thursday evenings. For the past weeks leading up to Halloween I have been tasked with decorating the library with Halloween decorations! Every week the librarians have given me pumpkins, cauldrons, zombies and what not, to cut out! Later we stuck these cut-out shapes around the library. For example we stuck ‘green slime’(green paper shaped as dripping slime of course!) across the shelves. Silhouettes of monsters, witches and pumpkins were stuck to the library windows, so when the light was on inside and it was dark outside it gave a creepy and scary effect. In addition, above the librarians seats, we have put witch hats suspended from the ceiling to make it look like they are wearing witch hats as they sat at their desks. Suspended witch hats and silhouettes on the library windows! On Saturdays Greystones Library host a craft making session for children. Therefore quite often I am asked to prepare certain materials and make samples of the crafts they will be making on Saturday. This included preparing many Halloween themed materials and making samples of scary crafts the children are going to create! As well as making crafts I stack books from time to time. I actually love doing this as while I stack books I read the blurbs of certain books and find many books I probably wouldn’t have considered reading otherwise! I now have a pile of books at home I want to read! Without doubt I really enjoy working at the library as it gives a sense of community. Also I have meet many kind people during my community service at the library. This is probably one of the most exciting Halloweens I have ever had with the whole build up and all the decorations!
I choose to participate in Gaisce during my Transition Year as it seemed a fun and worthwhile experience that I would remember throughout my life. The fact that Gaisce is nationally recognised and is awarded by the Irish President added to the thrill and excitement to being involved in such an important thing. I first asked friends who had already had the opportunity to do Transition Year about their experiences and recommendations. All of them said I should certainly do Gaisce, as I’ll get more from it than I put into it! During the summer I did lot of research on how Gaisce works and what activities were available to partake for the Gaisce Awards. I choose my Gaisce activities based on things I enjoy or things I aspire to develop or improve in. For my Community Service activity I am helping out a Greystones Library, an hour on Thursday evenings. I love books and reading is one of my favourite things to do. Also Greystones is a very convenient place for me to get to on a weekly basis, so as well as being lovely way to help my community, it is also a convenient way. For my Personal Skill I have decided to do the computer course provided at our school called ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence). I am not the most talented person with computers, and in this age dominated by technology I thought it would be vital for me to understand how computers work and how to use them. I believe developing this skill will be of great benefit to me in the future, as most jobs nowadays require a basic knowledge of computers. In addition this course is well known in Europe, so having done it will be a great achievement! Lastly for my Physical Recreation I have joined a girl’s soccer team in Enniskerry. I used to be on my school’s girl soccer team in Belgium, and I greatly enjoyed it and the sport appealed to me. When I discovered there was a girl soccer team near me, I immediately joined up! Since Transition Year is all about learning new things and having new experiences I thought joining a club would put me out of my comfort zone and challenge me. I am glad I have chosen to do soccer as I have made many new friends and I am learning new things every match and training session. It is quite a big commitment as matches over the weekend can be hard to get to because of the timing and distance but once I am on the pitch I really enjoy myself! The camping trip on the 14th September until the 16th counted as my Adventure Journey, which is required for Gaisce. Already this trip was fantastic and memorable! You can read my account of the camping trip by clicking here.
I expect Gaisce to be an unbelievable experience and I will learn useful skills, try out new things, make new friends and develop as a person! |
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February 2017
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