Joshua Magee, first-year student, St Kevin’s College, Crumlin, Dublin
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8th
Today I was fishing with my Dad and brother in the Dodder. It was really good fun and I caught a huge trout. Dad says it’s bigger than anything he ever caught. I thought it would be boring, just sitting there for hours waiting for a fish with no Playstation or anything. It was good though. Chatted with my brother about football and stuff and the time went by really quickly.
I'm tired after all that waiting. Me and the brother went to bed early and Mum read to us from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I've read all the Harry Potter books already by myself but she's always read to us at night and she still does. I'm 12 and my brother is eight.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9th
I went running with the running club at school. I did a mile today. That was hard and I got a stitch. I came home and did some drawing. I want to be an animator when I grow up. I like sketching people in suits. I look at all the old Marvel comics and Avatar.Art is deadly. The Simpsons, definitely no X-Factor, and bed. Luckily I don't have a schoolbag to pack, just need to charge up my iPad for school tomorrow. It charges up for 10 hours which is about long enough to get me through the school day. Mum complains that I plug it in all over the place and the baby gets at the wire.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 10th
I just started first year in St Kevin’s College in Crumlin. I used to go to Synge Street, which was all boys. We also had books. Now we have girls and iPads. It’s different! The girls are okay, they laugh a lot and don’t really hang out with us, but they’re alright.
The iPads are okay too. It’s good that we don’t have to carry loads of books around and look for them in our bags every time we go to a new class. We just turn them on and a little app pops up with a list of all the subjects and we click on the right one.
Then the book comes up on the screen. It looks like a normal book, not like a website or anything. You just click to turn the page. We didn’t need any help learning how to use them, everybody just knew, I suppose.
We all have our own pin codes so that if anyone steals the computer, they can’t use it. Mine is Troutman. Only messing.
I suppose that’s one good thing about books – you can just leave them in your bag and forget about them. Nobody would be bothered to steal them. You don’t have to charge them up, keep your baby sister away from them or have your mum and dad looking at you when you’re doing your homework. You can get jam on them too. You have to watch your iPad in home economics.
Did music classes after school today. I think it’s called a recorder?
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 11th
This month we are trying out science, home economics, art and woodwork. We’re going to be trying out all sorts of different subjects over the next while to help us decide which ones to choose for the Junior Cert. I don’t know what to choose. I really like art. I like science too but we have to pick between science and home economics and I actually like home economics. We made pizza today and brownies and jam last week.
Better not get food on the iPad. It cost mum and dad €150. That’s a lot of money, but it’s cheaper than buying all the books, mum says.
We have to be careful with them. We are not allowed to take them out of our bags except when we’re in the classroom or at home. If you’re caught with it in the corridor you get a C2. That’s a load of writing.
Mum and dad like the computer but they do complain a bit that they have to watch me when I’m doing my homework. With my books, I could go off up to my room and do it. With the iPad, I have to be in the room with them so they can stop me going on to game sites and other stuff. I wouldn’t bother. The free games are all for babies anyway.
I like using the computer instead of books, I think. Except that I can’t draw cartoons in the margins. A couple of lads were caught playing games on the iPad in class though.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12th
Today we did some creative writing with our new English teacher, Ms Lynch. We had to write a news story about a boy whose dad is in prison and he is doing really badly at school but then he decides he's going to make things better for himself and starts doing better. I really enjoyed that. Journalism might be a good job, although Rita Skeeter in Harry Potteris a nasty character. I suppose writing stories will help with my animation.
Ms Lynch is a great teacher. She gets us to think about emotion and place in our writing. I think that will definitely be useful when I’m making cartoons. So far I’ve only sketched with graphite pencils but now I have the iPad I might see if I can download an animation programme.
We also did some technical graphics. I’m a bit confused now about whether to choose art or technical graphics. I wish I could do them all. My friend Mikey is going to do art and science. I might do the same.
Last month we did history which was all about old wars. That was great.
So far we have only used the iPad for looking at the books. We haven’t used it to look up websites in school or anything. Today our Irish teacher said we can use Google translator to help us with any words we don’t understand when we are doing our homework. I wonder could you do all your Irish homework using the translator? Is Google any good at Irish? It doesn’t matter. I like Irish so I’ll do it myself.
I use the iPad for lots of other things at home though. When I finished my homework I had a look for an animation programme and listened to Run DMC. It’s cool that I can do all this other stuff with it apart from schoolwork. My dad got me into Run DMC. I’ve been watching their old videos on youtube.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13th
Off to a race in Santry today. I hope I don't get a stitch like I did last week. Then I have tennis later. I'll be wrecked. Won't have much homework though, because of the race. I'll take a break from the computer and read a book. I'm reading The Da Vinci Code.It's really good but a bit too descriptive in places. We all read a lot in our house, I think because mum has been reading to us every night since we were little.
Looking forward to the weekend. I have an idea for a new character. Might make pizza.
