It's that time of year again, when students squeal in delight and teachers exhale!
Everyone at the College Press wishes you and yours a very Merry Christmas :-)
Click on the link below for the latest festive issue!

https://issuu.com/gdoylenc/docs/christmas_2016/1?e=4719288/32136714

Welcome back after what was hopefully a very enjoyable mid-term.
Please follow the link below for our eagerly awaited College Press (Halloween edition).  Sorry it is a little late, some technical issues ensued!  Thanks to everyone who contributed and well done to our new editor, Sam Burke.
Follow the link below and Happy reading!

http://issuu.com/gdoylenc/docs/doc3

Happy Open Evening, one and all!

As well as our wonderful on-site library, staff and students have access to an online library where they can read, download and enjoy digital books.  Overdrive is a unique resource free to all our students.  You simply download the OverDrive app onto your phone, tablet or device and then use you unique access code to gain entry to the library.  A wide range of genres are catered for where pupils can read for pleasure or look at more subject focused texts.

Ask your English teacher for further details about OverDrive.

Welcome back - School year 2015/2016

Welcome back to a new academic year.  I trust this post finds you all still full of enthusiasm and aspirations for the new year.  Unfortunately, dark times are upon the NewEnglish blog!  Our founder, moderator and sage Eoghan Evesson has temporarily absconded to pastures greener.  However, our loss is the department of Education’s gain.  We wish Eoghan the best of luck and have no doubt we will hear from him soon.  In the interim I will be manning the reigns. (So be prepared for many spelling mistakes and a noticeably limited vocabulary.) We hope that the blog will continue to showcase the literary talents and achievements of our students as well as providing resources and tips for teaching and learning. 

Here's to a happy, successful and rewarding year.

EUfolio Conference 2015

After leaving the Eufolio conference at Dublin Castle this week there was much to reflect on.

I really enjoyed the keynote from Prof. Val Klenowski  which talked about using technology to help pupils become more socially responsible in the 21st century. There was also, I found, an insightful discussion of the difference between 'Communication' and 'Connection' amongst pupils and people today. 

From speakers on the day and the presentations from pupils it was clear how much energy and creativity the EUfolio pilot made happen. This was not only in Ireland. I thought the video (below) showing organisers, teachers and pupils from all over Europe displayed the ambition and scope of this project. Innovative, engaging and new educational experiences were made possible because of this pilot. That in itself means this pilot was a success. Let's hope we can, as Minister O Sullivan suggested, continue the cascade effect of using ePortfolios in Ireland/Europe. 

I was delighted to speak at the event. The presentation I delivered (below) focused on how I used ePorfolios in the classroom with my Junior English class. In the middle of the presentation you'll find a poster we created for the day with interviews from pupils and my colleague Ger Doyle who also took part in the pilot project.

We have the experience of using ePortfolios in Ireland now. A base has been created of teacher and pupil experience that we will hopefully build upon. As Sean Gallagher, referencing Seamus Heaney, eloquently reminded us before we left: we've walked the road now, we have the tar on our feet. Evidence of this building process can already be found on the EUfolio site resource section.

Sincere thank you to Rita, John, Ben and especially Sinead for all the guidance throughout the pilot. My colleague Ger Doyle for the talks and help. Newbridge College and my principal Pat O Brien for always wanting to try what is best for our pupils. Our school ICT coordinator Gerry Gavin for helping in every way throughout. And finally all the pupils and parents that we worked with over the last two years, for being so willing to engage and come along on this great educational journey.

Aoibhín Tutty Bardon - Rotary Competition

Aoibhín at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Near the beginning of my fifth year, I was presented by Miss Carey with the opportunity to take part in the Rotary Youth Leadership competition. Though I wasn’t quite sure what exactly Rotary was or the details of the competition, I took an application form – this proved to be one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time. After three stages of interviews at School, District and Regional level, I was delighted to win a trip culminating in a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

On 25^th of January I headed to Connolly Station in Dublin to get a train to Belfast with six other people I had never met before. After the two hour train journey full of chatter and laughter, we found our way to Jury’s Inn which would be our Belfast home. After checking in with Rotary, we waited as the rest of the twenty-four participants arrived over a two hour period.

After a quick shopping trip we headed back to the hotel where we had a meeting about the week that lay ahead of us and what to expect. We had already been given the topics which would come up for discussion in the European Parliament. We all chatted late into the night, getting to know other participants from around Ireland, both North and South. 

After getting up at 7:30 the following day, we packed our suitcases, loaded them on to the bus and made our way to the European Office in Belfast. There, we were given information about the EU Commission and had a question and answer session. We took some photos, gathered some booklets that would help us learn about our given topics for the EU Parliament and then made our way over to City Hall, a fabulous building. We were invited up to the Mayor’s Parlour we had tea and biscuits. We then got a bus to the Northern Assembly in Stormont, where we got a short history of the building and then had a rather interesting question and answer session with some Members of the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly was in session, so we watched that for some time and started our journey down to Dublin.

Following arrival at our hotel in Dublin we began to present speeches to the other students to see who would represent Ireland in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. I was privileged to be one of the four students selected to represent our group to the hemi-sphere in the Parliament.

We had another early morning on Tuesday, waking up at 7 o’clock. We headed out to the EU Parliament offices where we were individually filmed explaining what we would do in Ireland if we were Taoiseach. Afterwards, we had another question and answer session which would help us in Strasbourg. Our next destination was Leinster House where we had a tour of the building and a question and answer session with TD and Minister for State, Simon Harris which was really interesting. We rushed back to the hotel, gathered our luggage and travelled to Dublin airport where we boarded a plane to Frankfurt en route to Strasburg. 

We set off at 8a.m. next morning on our three hour journey to Strasbourg. We arrived at our hotel, dropped our luggage off and were let loose in the city centre. It was gorgeous, almost like a postcard city. A group of us had a look around and had a lovely lunch in a little French café. We then split up and went shopping before heading back to the hotel where we gathered in the meeting room. We preformed our “Introduction to Ireland” piece several times, and then we split into our groups again and prepared for our presentation in the European Parliament. 

We were up at the early hour of 5:45 on the day of the Euroscola, the competition at the heart of the trip, before departing for the EU Parliament. After going through airport-like security, we settled in the restaurant for some hot chocolate as we waited for the other twenty-two countries to arrive. Soon enough we started filing into the hemi-sphere, which is the main chamber in the Parliament. There was a short introduction and the presentations began. We were sixth up, and it wasn’t long before I found myself standing up to walk to the podium.  It felt so invigorating to stand there speaking about Ireland to such a vast number of people – this was the same podium we see European leaders standing at on TV – what an honour! After all the presentations were over a question and answer session took place with incredible Irish representation with over half of the overall questions posed by my colleagues. We used the voting system to vote on several topics so we got accustomed to how it worked. 

After lunch we split into our six groups according to our topics, and went to smaller chambers to prepare for the group’s presentation. My group’s topic was Integration and Migration in the Euro-Mediterranean region and an Irish student was deserving to be elected as spokesperson for our group. We broke into smaller groups and discussed ideas to bring to the spokesperson, and then began presenting our ideas and discussing proposals. It was soon time to return to the hemisphere for the presentations. The pride I felt when I looked down to the centre of the room and saw that seven of the twelve spaces for the main speakers were occupied by Irish people is indescribable! The spokespeople (four of the six which were Irish) began to put forward their proposals and after they did so the floor was opened to questions. I managed to ask two questions of the spokespeople. After each round of questions the floor voted on whether or not they supported the proposal.  The occasion was over all too soon, and we climbed onto our coach, on a high once again, and headed back to the hotel.

We went out to a French restaurant for dinner and were treated to a three course meal as celebration. Once we were back in the hotel, we all gathered together and listened to some great musical talent from the group, watched a spectacular Irish dance and shared our experiences from the trip. Tears began to flow as the realisation that the trip was coming to an end dawned on us! 

As a result of a very late night we ended up having our breakfast on the bus to the airport and sleeping on the plane home. As we collected our luggage there were more tears - I hated leaving the people I had gotten to know so well over a week and with whom I had shared such an incredible experience. It completely surpassed all expectations I had, and I can’t thank Rotary enough for having given me such a wonderful opportunity.

Decscriptive Writing Class using @MSOneNote

College Press: Easter Edition

Eggstra, Eggstra, read all about...here it is!

TY Class Participates and Wins the Liam O’Connell Debate in Kildare County Council

On Tuesday the 24^th of February 2015, the Kildare County Council offices saw six teams of budding debaters arrive to participate in the Liam O’Connell Annual Debate. We sent along two teams, one made up of members Hannah Egan, Roisin King, and Jenna Brannock, and the other Caitlin Breen, Fionn O’Sullivan, and Sadhbh Donoghue. Holy Family, Clongowes, Rathangan and Gaelcholaiste Cill Dara also took part.

This particular debate was established by the late councillor Liam O’Connell. His particular focus was on encouraging the youth to use their voices in relation to politics. His aim was certainly met on the day, with eighteen TY students contributing to a heated discussion. The motion was “Political Protest Aims to Subvert Democracy.”

Each team opened with a six minute statement. Hannah, Jenna and Roisin, as proposition, argued that political protest is not always safe, and that “swarm” mentalities stand to represent the needs of just a select portion of the population. The opposition of Fionn, Sadhbh, and Caitlin contended that political protest is crucial to ensure that all of society is heard and has their needs met. The floor was then opened to a lively open discussion. Once we all figured out how to switch on the microphones, it ran quite smoothly! The prize for best speaker award went to the captain from the Gael Cholaiste.  Roisin, Hannah, and Jenna were then shocked and delighted to learn they were taking home the prize for best over-all team. They received a crystal trophy each, and a perpetual plague for the school. They winning team appeared in the Leinster Leader and on KFM.

The standard from each team was extremely high, and the debate was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all! Many thanks to Miss Carey for all her help.

By Hannah Egan

College Press: Valentine's Edition

Hi Everyone!

This term has really flown by! Let's hope everyone has held their sanity during the mocks! Summer is drawing ever closer and college life is in full swing.

Huge congratulations to our rugby S.C.T. on their ongoing campaign to bring home the cup! Also a big well done to The JCT hockey and the concern debating team for representing the school with pride.

Hope you all have a great valentine’s day, try not to eat too much chocolate alone or otherwise.

See you all soon, till next issue!

Amy, Cara, Laura

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: QkiwSlides by 6th Year English

A fresh option at H.L.L.C. 

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This term I am going through the poetry of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin for the first time with a 6th Year English class. This will be the first year the poetry of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin could possibly appear on the Higher Leaving Certificate exam paper. To date, our class has covered three poems: Translation, Death and Engines and The Bend in the Road. The class split into pairs and I challenged each group to create a brief QwikSlide presentation of their poem using Classtools.net. With the help of class discussion, their text book and some great online resources they were able to create their presentations. After we complete the poetry of Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin we hope to return to this exercise and complete our set of presentations.

Translation

Deaths and Engines

The Bend in the Road

The Great Gatsby - Chapter 4 Writing Competition

"The Great Gatsby" Chapter 4 from Lina Ell

Chapter 4 of The Great Gatsby is certainly the rising action chapter of the novel. Gatsby takes Nick to the city and on the way he delivers his well rehearsed fake back story to Nick with total commitment and of course fantastic props. When the two gentlemen arrive at 'a well — fanned Forty-second Street cellar' they meet the fascinating Meyer Wolfsheim. His almost comedic support of Gatsby as 'an Oggsford man' with 'fine breeding' is eerily juxtaposed with the knowledge that he was the man that fixed the 1919 World series and wears human teeth as cufflinks. After Wolfsheim leaves, Nick spots Tom Buchanan and introduces him to Gatsby. In the midst of rather awkward conversation Gatsby simply disappears. Fitzgerald then suddenly jumps us forward to later in the day when Jordan meets Nick. This conversation of course gives both the reader and Nick an insightful look back to Daisy's state of mind just before she married Tom 'Tell ’em all Daisy’s change’ her mine' and sets up the tea meeting at Nick's house between Gatsby and Daisy.

This week I set my 5th year class the challenge of filling in the narrative bridge in the middle of the chapter. I encouraged them to try and write in the style of Fitzgerald. We decided that they could: continue the conversation between Nick and Tom, start a new conversation between Nick and Gatsby or a mixture of both. Below I've included the entries I received from the class along with a poll to cast your vote for the winner (Learning of course being the real winner!). For your convenience, I've included the original text before and after where our entrants inserted their piece. Thanks for taking the time to read the entries and cast your vote!

Original Text

“This is Mr. Gatsby, Mr. Buchanan.”

They shook hands briefly, and a strained, unfamiliar look of embarrassment came over Gatsby’s face.

“How’ve you been, anyhow?” demanded Tom of me. “How’d you happen to come up this far to eat?”

“I’ve been having lunch with Mr. Gatsby.”

 I turned toward Mr. Gatsby, but he was no longer there.

 INSERT ENTRY HERE

One October day in nineteen-seventeen ——

(said Jordan Baker that afternoon, sitting up very straight on a straight chair in the tea-garden at the Plaza Hotel)

 — I was walking along from one place to another, half on the sidewalks and half on the lawns. I was happier on the lawns because I had on shoes from England with rubber nobs on the soles that bit into the soft ground. I had on a new plaid skirt also that blew a little in the wind, and whenever this happened the red, white, and blue banners in front of all the houses stretched out stiff and said TUT-TUT-TUT-TUT, in a disapproving way.

Entries 

Vote Now!