TY Matrix Workshop

From the 29th of September to the 6th of October all of the TY students partook in the yearly Matrix workshop by base class, starting with 4E.

The matrix workshop is a “workshop made for TY’s by TY’s” to try and help TY’s to gain skills that will aid them going forward in life as this is a difficult time for most as they become more independent and take steps closer to the Leaving Cert and college. Firstly, Malcolm introduced the TY’s to the idea behind the Matrix workshop and then began the workshop activities.

The first activity the TY’s participated in was self analysis as Malcolm explained the importance of empowering yourself and understanding yourself now to aid in reaching your goals. This was done by filling out a worksheet, which had you write about your interests and goals and discussions closing this section with the quote “ remember “I will” can be just as import as “IQ”.

Secondly the TY’s worked on L.M.R (Listening. Memory. Recall). In this the TY’s were paired off and told to interview their partner, to Listen to their answers, Memorise as much as they can and then Recall the information to the group. After all the information was recalled Malcom asked the TY’s to swap sheets with their partner and proceeded to say “ this is a sheet that has parts of your character and personality, this will help you going forward as these aren't things you want to lose”

Following this the TY’s were broken up into 6 groups of four for the 3 games. The first game was “interaction with matt and trixie” this game involved malcolm reading a script and the TY’s had to pay close attention and call out and correct mistakes such as wrong names and numbers some being easy, such as Tim and Tom, and some being harder such as how many McDonalds meals are sold in a day. The second game was following another section called “think-smart” this taught TY’s how to improve their knowledge and achieve their goals through hard work while keeping a balanced life making sure to recharge your batteries and uses all your skills to achieve your goals and form new ideas. This game involved a part of this. All groups were asked to write as many hobbies, activities etc you could do to relax, this was a fun race against time as all four in a group wrote anything they could think of. The third and final game was a puzzle game, this involved two puzzle sheets which taught the groups how important question interpretation is, teaching them to use R.U.S.T; to READ the quest, UNDERSTAND, SPLIT into do-able pieces and then value your TIME.

The final portion of the Matrix Masterclass was a chat-zone, in which the TY’s where allowed to anonymously ask questions which they may not feel comfortable asking in another setting such as questions to do with dating, drugs, the law, among many other sensitive topics.

To conclude, the Matrix masterclass was a fun and educational workshop for the TY’s which helped them be more prepared for their next steps in life and we thank Malcolm for coming into our school again for another successful year!