my first semi-prepared session of the year... earlier in the day, when discussing what to do at V, screening a bhopal video had come up as an option... bitter drink (video on plachimada coca cola struggle) was another topic and i'd that video too... so finally, decided to leave the choice with the kids...
reached V by 2.45 or so... asked rajani to gather the army, and just slipped in the word video casually.. ;-)) not surprisingly, there was a huge turnout, including the li'l ones... i decided to proceed with whatever audience i'd, though the li'l ones may not really understand... asked them whether they wanted a movie on bhopal incident (most of them didn't know what it was at all) or coca cola... they chose to see the bhopal video...
so the movie started... it was a 16 min video downloaded from youtube (available here, for those who are interested), covering what happened, why it happened, what were the consequences, who was responsible, what actions were taken by the government and judiciary, what's the company's stance, where is the struggle today... a comprehensive coverage of the disaster and the struggle for justice... only problem was the movie would play only in a small screen window, and that affected the viewing experience... but still, the movie played to a packed audience... with the laptop on a chair, kids sitting on the floor, on benches and standing on top of desks... the kids were shocked to see what had happened!
after the show, i asked them what they saw, what they understood... i got all kinds of answers ranging from mahatma gandhi (there was a statue of gandhiji in a shot in front of the Indian embassy in US) to gas leaked/cylinder burst etc... after a lot of pushing and prodding, name calling etc., i got some kinda summary of the video from a couple of kids... that there was a gas leak, many people died, the water at the place got contaminated, people fell ill... this was all i could get them to say...
then, i started a bit of a filling in, generally following the flow of the movie itself... we talked about what happened, how, what were the consequences... asked the kids who was responsible and what should've been done... they said, government should compensate, the manager of the company is responsible etc... and when i told them that the company refuses to accept any responsibility or respond to the court summons, they couldn't quite digest the fact...
all my talk was in english with questions in between to make sure they were following... at this point, dhana (7th std) somehow got hold of some kinda guide/exercise book (for PU, i believe), which had an essay on the bhopal incident! so, i asked one of them to read out the kannada version... padmini did... i believe that greatly enhanced the understanding for many of the kannada medium students... it had a mention of the meagre compensation (some 5k or something) that was allocated for the victims (the kids told me so, otherwise i wouldn't know... ;p)... most of them felt that it was inadequate, in the light of the struggles and expenses and lifelong treatment that the victims have to endure... we briefly talked about the current status of the struggle and the tata's involvement with the issue...
a couple of girls wanted to see the movie again, as they'd not seen it properly the first time... so wound up the session with a rerun of the movie for the 5 kids who wanted to see it again... some minor discussion, questions, explanation et. al... and we wound up for the day..
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Sunday Regular - 29 Jul '07
reached V around 2.30.. and was surprised to find many kids seated in the classroom, and this was because suma had come...!! suma is the dental doctor, for those who don't remember... srinka had messaged that she'll come in by 3.. so, that was bonus!
i'd a group discussion or something like that in mind... but to be frank, i wasn't prepared... thankfully, suma started with a small refresher of her dental session... asking them about the various types of teeth, how many milk teeth etc... and then how many teeth we've... all of us started counting... some had 20, some had 28... i've 32 and i was quite shocked!! i keep getting those wisdom tooth pain often, but the teeth never come out... so how and when did it become 32!!! but this didn't go on for long... kids started with shouts for stories... and that's how rest of the session went...
guna led the session with a story in kannada... and i am quite impressed b'cos guna generally used to be silent and indifferent... but over the past many months, she's becoming more and more vocal, though not a word in english... but that's okay...
then kalpana, a new 1st PU student, narrated a another kannada story... i couldn't make out much, i asked (literally begged) for a translation to english... general requests, targeted requests... nothing worked...
anjali (7th std) came and narrated another story... this too, in kannada... she did this on popular demand... and the wonderful thing was the natural emoting that she was doing while narrating... again, my request for translations went unheeded...
then, the kids asked suma for a story... and she narrated one in kannada on the condition that they will translate afterwards... finally, with lot of coaxing and pleading and pushing and all that, ramya and jhansi kinda translated the story to english, with lot of help... wonder why they were so shy...
srinka had joined in already, by this time... another girl, jeevitha, then sang/recited a composition of hers (both lyrics and music, apparently)... then jyothi sang a couple of kannada songs...
by this time, navya had seen the book (akbar and birbal) that i'd in my hand... and she was quite interested in it... so i asked her to read it loudly.. she read a couple of lines, but it was difficult for her as she is in kannada medium... and it was evident she didn't want to continue... she told me in broken english, that english is her enemy!! soon, the story reading/translation was taken over by jhansi... by this time, most kids were gone... jhansi read as well as translated the story in kannada for those who remained...
with the story over, we broke the session for the day... srinka, suma and i'd a general chat about how things are going at V... and then, we dispersed...
i'd a group discussion or something like that in mind... but to be frank, i wasn't prepared... thankfully, suma started with a small refresher of her dental session... asking them about the various types of teeth, how many milk teeth etc... and then how many teeth we've... all of us started counting... some had 20, some had 28... i've 32 and i was quite shocked!! i keep getting those wisdom tooth pain often, but the teeth never come out... so how and when did it become 32!!! but this didn't go on for long... kids started with shouts for stories... and that's how rest of the session went...
guna led the session with a story in kannada... and i am quite impressed b'cos guna generally used to be silent and indifferent... but over the past many months, she's becoming more and more vocal, though not a word in english... but that's okay...
then kalpana, a new 1st PU student, narrated a another kannada story... i couldn't make out much, i asked (literally begged) for a translation to english... general requests, targeted requests... nothing worked...
anjali (7th std) came and narrated another story... this too, in kannada... she did this on popular demand... and the wonderful thing was the natural emoting that she was doing while narrating... again, my request for translations went unheeded...
then, the kids asked suma for a story... and she narrated one in kannada on the condition that they will translate afterwards... finally, with lot of coaxing and pleading and pushing and all that, ramya and jhansi kinda translated the story to english, with lot of help... wonder why they were so shy...
srinka had joined in already, by this time... another girl, jeevitha, then sang/recited a composition of hers (both lyrics and music, apparently)... then jyothi sang a couple of kannada songs...
by this time, navya had seen the book (akbar and birbal) that i'd in my hand... and she was quite interested in it... so i asked her to read it loudly.. she read a couple of lines, but it was difficult for her as she is in kannada medium... and it was evident she didn't want to continue... she told me in broken english, that english is her enemy!! soon, the story reading/translation was taken over by jhansi... by this time, most kids were gone... jhansi read as well as translated the story in kannada for those who remained...
with the story over, we broke the session for the day... srinka, suma and i'd a general chat about how things are going at V... and then, we dispersed...
Monday, July 23, 2007
Sunday Regular - 22 Jul '07
landed up at V around 2.30.. no dance class... but its too early... found rajani, she is slowly turning into my deputy of sorts at V... kids apparently have tests on monday... and they wanted no session... i wasn't quite convinced as there would be tests every often and we can't have a culture of off-for-tests... but i didn't want to force the kids either... left them to decide... most of them pulled out.. rajani said 'aunty, nobody will come... only i will be left'... then i said, okay let the two of us sit...
and so we went to the ground.. sat on either seats of the see-saw... and started talking... i started with a brief outline of the concept of the sessions, their purpose, why it is important et. al.. i won't bore folks with the transcript of the hour long talk we'd... suffice to say that we talked about communication, interviews, jobs, some typical job scenarios, what kind of jobs are available at tata indicomm (because she asked me), jobs a 10th pass can get, the typical job scenario that akhila would've had at food world, what could be some improvisations that can be done at a department store to help customers (i told her there are only 5-6 staff at a department store and there would be 100s of customers coming in day in and day out, and asked her how could the place make it easier for the customers to find things in the store, she eventually came up with a solution of putting up sign boards/labels showing what items are where), how interaction with people completely define and shape up our experiences everywhere, at V, at school, at jobs, some of the problems i'm facing at work, what is something that should change at V (and she said wardens telling them always to sit in a corner, and study, don't play, don't do this, don't do that et. al), what are percentages, how it is a useful measure, interests in banks, population growth, what is a majority, what %age of kids are doing well in their studies (we found that it is around 20%), why its difficult for 2-3 people to handle 50 kids, the challenges i'm facing at V, the kind of misgivings and bouts of desperation that i go through (and she even tried consoling me, saying when 3 wardens can't together handle the kids, its only natural that i'm not able to get them together! :p), trekking, himalayas, marathon running, why air is less at higher altitudes, geology, various soil types, what makes them so, how scientists study them, water, where does it come from, division of labour at homes, hostels, friends staying together et. al, why she doesn't like some kids (and she made the most simple, yet profound statement that it is because they don't like her!!), a vision for the kinda place V should be, and how it is up to us to make it so, a vision for our program at V...
well, that was almost a transcript... but we did talk about all that! and that must be sounding scary too... it does, to me!! i don't know how much of a lecturing it was... to be not too harsh on myself, i've to say that conversation flowed naturally... though rajani appeared interested and it wasn't a completely one-sided conversation, i really am not sure how much of it made sense to her... and how much it helped converting her to a supporter and sales-girl for the initiative, at V... i just hope i've not lost my budding deputy!!
and so we went to the ground.. sat on either seats of the see-saw... and started talking... i started with a brief outline of the concept of the sessions, their purpose, why it is important et. al.. i won't bore folks with the transcript of the hour long talk we'd... suffice to say that we talked about communication, interviews, jobs, some typical job scenarios, what kind of jobs are available at tata indicomm (because she asked me), jobs a 10th pass can get, the typical job scenario that akhila would've had at food world, what could be some improvisations that can be done at a department store to help customers (i told her there are only 5-6 staff at a department store and there would be 100s of customers coming in day in and day out, and asked her how could the place make it easier for the customers to find things in the store, she eventually came up with a solution of putting up sign boards/labels showing what items are where), how interaction with people completely define and shape up our experiences everywhere, at V, at school, at jobs, some of the problems i'm facing at work, what is something that should change at V (and she said wardens telling them always to sit in a corner, and study, don't play, don't do this, don't do that et. al), what are percentages, how it is a useful measure, interests in banks, population growth, what is a majority, what %age of kids are doing well in their studies (we found that it is around 20%), why its difficult for 2-3 people to handle 50 kids, the challenges i'm facing at V, the kind of misgivings and bouts of desperation that i go through (and she even tried consoling me, saying when 3 wardens can't together handle the kids, its only natural that i'm not able to get them together! :p), trekking, himalayas, marathon running, why air is less at higher altitudes, geology, various soil types, what makes them so, how scientists study them, water, where does it come from, division of labour at homes, hostels, friends staying together et. al, why she doesn't like some kids (and she made the most simple, yet profound statement that it is because they don't like her!!), a vision for the kinda place V should be, and how it is up to us to make it so, a vision for our program at V...
well, that was almost a transcript... but we did talk about all that! and that must be sounding scary too... it does, to me!! i don't know how much of a lecturing it was... to be not too harsh on myself, i've to say that conversation flowed naturally... though rajani appeared interested and it wasn't a completely one-sided conversation, i really am not sure how much of it made sense to her... and how much it helped converting her to a supporter and sales-girl for the initiative, at V... i just hope i've not lost my budding deputy!!
reading sessions.. .where to?
i'm getting more and more skeptical about the reading sessions... the session with the 7th std kids gave me a glimpse of the possibilities... that with reading session alone, things would soon become boring... or else i've to find something gripping enough for them to read... the disparity in the language skills of english and kannada medium kids will also mar the interest in the session for the kannada medium students.. it shouldn't become an ordeal for them... and what's making this disparity more of a handicap is my poor kannada skills (among other things)...
when teaching keerthi later in the evening, on 15th, rajani came in to talk to me... then i told her that i want to have sessions happening there irrespective of when and whether volunteers turn up... and i want the kids to decide what they want to do... but it should be not just play, but something more...
well, without really wanting to... without being fully convinced of it, looks like i've got sucked into R's forum!! what worries me is i'm not convinced of this idea yet... i won't be able to pull it off...
when teaching keerthi later in the evening, on 15th, rajani came in to talk to me... then i told her that i want to have sessions happening there irrespective of when and whether volunteers turn up... and i want the kids to decide what they want to do... but it should be not just play, but something more...
well, without really wanting to... without being fully convinced of it, looks like i've got sucked into R's forum!! what worries me is i'm not convinced of this idea yet... i won't be able to pull it off...
Sunday Regular - 15 Jul '07
supposedly a group discussion session... one of the topics we'd kinda vaguely considered last week was that the kids could talk about how they want the evenings at V to be... i'd thought that it would be easier for them to talk about something that affects them closely, than some random vague topic...
anyway, i reached by 3 as two journeys back to back had just tired me out... by the time i reached, ms. committee member is already teaching some kids dance... and some other kids were watching... i asked some kids to find me rajani or someone so i could gather some of the interested ones and have the program or something...
the already going on dance session was kinda dampening my enthu, which was very less to begin with... i was getting pissed off with the committee member for landing up and grabbing our session slot... and i waited around for some time for rajani or any other kids to turn up... i thought enough is enough, and just walked out...
spent my time on the pavement outside the park, till around 4pm... then went back in for my session with keerthi... ms. comm member was coming out... so i decided to have a word with her... she said kids should've exercise, art, dance et. al... i said, fair enough... but lets not confuse the kids with two things happening at the same time, and some missing out on one or the other.. let them have the chance of taking part in both activities... i asked her if she can do it some other time... and she said no... and asked me to move our session to saturday... i said i'll think about it... i'm a bad negotiator! that's all there is to it... period.
anyway, i reached by 3 as two journeys back to back had just tired me out... by the time i reached, ms. committee member is already teaching some kids dance... and some other kids were watching... i asked some kids to find me rajani or someone so i could gather some of the interested ones and have the program or something...
the already going on dance session was kinda dampening my enthu, which was very less to begin with... i was getting pissed off with the committee member for landing up and grabbing our session slot... and i waited around for some time for rajani or any other kids to turn up... i thought enough is enough, and just walked out...
spent my time on the pavement outside the park, till around 4pm... then went back in for my session with keerthi... ms. comm member was coming out... so i decided to have a word with her... she said kids should've exercise, art, dance et. al... i said, fair enough... but lets not confuse the kids with two things happening at the same time, and some missing out on one or the other.. let them have the chance of taking part in both activities... i asked her if she can do it some other time... and she said no... and asked me to move our session to saturday... i said i'll think about it... i'm a bad negotiator! that's all there is to it... period.
Sunday Regular - 08 Jul '07
greatly enthused by the morning at lalbagh, i thought the kids could've an outdoor session... we could go around V, the garden et. al and the kids could observe the various kinds of plants, leaves, flowers, stems, thorns whatever... note down their observations, whatever catches their attention... i was, of course, ill-qualified to answer any questions that would've come up from the kids during such a session... but that still didn't deter me from going ahead with it...
asked rajani to round up the kids from 6th to 10th... and i told all this to the kids in english... of course, i didn't express it simple enough, they didn't understand it properly... that was clear from the kind of questions i got from them later...
another interesting thing that was happening side by side at V was... one of the committee members was there and couple of other visitors... it was all confusing... but this committee member started calling the kids to learn dance!
many of the kids had gathered outside... and this call for dance, of course, pulled a lot of them back in... a few stayed on... and they essentially wrote down the name of the plants/flowers around... and they took me around showing me the plants and telling me the names et. al... and some general banter here and there...
tried to talk to them about what we could do next week, group discussion on some topic or something like that... they said yes, yes and all that.. but i could see that it didn't really enthuse them..
altogether, though i'd some grand vision and all that, it was a flop show... (shilpa couldn't turn up, as she wasn't well..)
asked rajani to round up the kids from 6th to 10th... and i told all this to the kids in english... of course, i didn't express it simple enough, they didn't understand it properly... that was clear from the kind of questions i got from them later...
another interesting thing that was happening side by side at V was... one of the committee members was there and couple of other visitors... it was all confusing... but this committee member started calling the kids to learn dance!
many of the kids had gathered outside... and this call for dance, of course, pulled a lot of them back in... a few stayed on... and they essentially wrote down the name of the plants/flowers around... and they took me around showing me the plants and telling me the names et. al... and some general banter here and there...
tried to talk to them about what we could do next week, group discussion on some topic or something like that... they said yes, yes and all that.. but i could see that it didn't really enthuse them..
altogether, though i'd some grand vision and all that, it was a flop show... (shilpa couldn't turn up, as she wasn't well..)
Sunday Regular - 01 Jul '07
better late, than never...
this week the plan was to read with the 7th std kids... the biggest number so far... megha, ramya, amreen, anjali, navya... and i think i'm missing some one (or two)... after leafing through some of the books available, we settled on a collection of the chandamama issues... shilpa too joined me on this session...
amreen volunteered to start reading... the idea was to rotate among the kids, with each one taking off from the other after a while... but not every one was enthusiastic to read... and of course, many were there just because i asked for all the 7th kids and not because they all wanted to read or sit in a session or anything like that...
some kids are from kannada medium, and are not good with their reading yet.. and so are extremely shy to read in front of everyone... so the reading stayed with the already good few... tried to get them to stop and recap the story in between... or ask another kid to repeat the story... sometimes in english or in kannada... sometimes, when certain words seemed hard, we explained the meanings of the words...
soon, the reading session migrated into a speaking session of sorts... the kids were asked to speak for a minute in english on any topic of their interest... they didn't do all of it in english, often resorted to kannada... this soon became chit-chats, but at least the kids were talking... the talks touched up on topics ranging from the real and nick names of the kids to salman khan's muscles!! i was a bit shocked at 7th std kids liking salman khan's muscles and all (i must have had a retarded growth, a film actor's muscles were nowhere in my consciousness when i was in 7th std), but i think i successfully managed to mask my emotions for fear that it will tick off the kids from talking...
anyway, though the reading session migrated to a speaking session to a chat session, it was a good interaction... the kids were talking, though not all as open and confident as i would've liked...
still as confused as before, about going forward... R keeps bombarding me with forum vatsalya and i continue to be apprehensive about the prospects...
this week the plan was to read with the 7th std kids... the biggest number so far... megha, ramya, amreen, anjali, navya... and i think i'm missing some one (or two)... after leafing through some of the books available, we settled on a collection of the chandamama issues... shilpa too joined me on this session...
amreen volunteered to start reading... the idea was to rotate among the kids, with each one taking off from the other after a while... but not every one was enthusiastic to read... and of course, many were there just because i asked for all the 7th kids and not because they all wanted to read or sit in a session or anything like that...
some kids are from kannada medium, and are not good with their reading yet.. and so are extremely shy to read in front of everyone... so the reading stayed with the already good few... tried to get them to stop and recap the story in between... or ask another kid to repeat the story... sometimes in english or in kannada... sometimes, when certain words seemed hard, we explained the meanings of the words...
soon, the reading session migrated into a speaking session of sorts... the kids were asked to speak for a minute in english on any topic of their interest... they didn't do all of it in english, often resorted to kannada... this soon became chit-chats, but at least the kids were talking... the talks touched up on topics ranging from the real and nick names of the kids to salman khan's muscles!! i was a bit shocked at 7th std kids liking salman khan's muscles and all (i must have had a retarded growth, a film actor's muscles were nowhere in my consciousness when i was in 7th std), but i think i successfully managed to mask my emotions for fear that it will tick off the kids from talking...
anyway, though the reading session migrated to a speaking session to a chat session, it was a good interaction... the kids were talking, though not all as open and confident as i would've liked...
still as confused as before, about going forward... R keeps bombarding me with forum vatsalya and i continue to be apprehensive about the prospects...
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Guest Sessions: Proposed Plan
Guest sessions are those where a resource person (most likely external to the regular volunteer pool) comes to V and engages the kids on specific topics for the purpose of knowledge sharing, creating career awareness, or just creating some fun 'n entertainment for the kids.
Points to ponder, when planning guest sessions:
Points to ponder, when planning guest sessions:
- sunday regular slot to be untouched, except in unavoidable emergencies
- space out guest talks. a general guideline could be not more than one session per month. reasons: i) it makes sense to have an evenly distributed program, so as not to have an overdose. ii) it becomes difficult to get the management's permission if we've too many things happening consecutively (i faced this while getting permission for the dental talk)
- plan ahead, so we can inform all stakeholders sufficiently early
Monday, June 25, 2007
Assessment sessions - rationale?
well, the idea of these quick assessment sessions was to decide on a particular class/standard with which i can do some activities... but now i'm totally lost about why and how this will help...
there is something or the other that you can do with every class, every bunch... each level has their own set of challenges, which we can try and help them overcome... i'm sure a lot of innovative and creative ways can be developed (or may be already available) to help them do better at any level, with any set of challenges...
if i want to have real reading sessions, nothing less than class 7 would make sense, i believe, because the others are not yet in a level to comprehend what we read as a whole... reading the words, understanding them, and maximum making sense out of a sentence.. that's the level the 3rd and 5th kids are at, now.. (4th and 6th standard has one kid each, i believe they would be in more or less comparable levels)...
it might be possible to find much simpler books, but the simplicity we need is in terms of the language and not the content... and i'm afraid if we look for simplicity, along with the language, the content too might end up being too simple, making it boring to read (well, i'm not sure if folks followed that.. anyway!)...
so, here i'm back to square one... i still don't know which class i will narrow down to... i was hoping that these assessment sessions would give me an idea... but what they have done is opened my eyes to the fact that you can do reading with any bunch, each set will have its own special needs and will require us to devise something that suits them...
srinka was suggesting the idea of rotating between students... something like, sit with 3rd and 4th std for say, 3 weeks... then 5th and 6th for another 3 weeks... then 7th for say, another 3 weeks... at the outset, i feel that will be too many threads to handle, plus insufficient time with any group... but i guess, there are variations that probably can be worked out... need to think about it... folks, comment, if you've opinions, suggestions, ideas...
next week i'll sit with the 7th kids... hopefully that session should proceed faster than this week's... and somehow, i'll get an enlightenment about which class i want to work with...
there is something or the other that you can do with every class, every bunch... each level has their own set of challenges, which we can try and help them overcome... i'm sure a lot of innovative and creative ways can be developed (or may be already available) to help them do better at any level, with any set of challenges...
if i want to have real reading sessions, nothing less than class 7 would make sense, i believe, because the others are not yet in a level to comprehend what we read as a whole... reading the words, understanding them, and maximum making sense out of a sentence.. that's the level the 3rd and 5th kids are at, now.. (4th and 6th standard has one kid each, i believe they would be in more or less comparable levels)...
it might be possible to find much simpler books, but the simplicity we need is in terms of the language and not the content... and i'm afraid if we look for simplicity, along with the language, the content too might end up being too simple, making it boring to read (well, i'm not sure if folks followed that.. anyway!)...
so, here i'm back to square one... i still don't know which class i will narrow down to... i was hoping that these assessment sessions would give me an idea... but what they have done is opened my eyes to the fact that you can do reading with any bunch, each set will have its own special needs and will require us to devise something that suits them...
srinka was suggesting the idea of rotating between students... something like, sit with 3rd and 4th std for say, 3 weeks... then 5th and 6th for another 3 weeks... then 7th for say, another 3 weeks... at the outset, i feel that will be too many threads to handle, plus insufficient time with any group... but i guess, there are variations that probably can be worked out... need to think about it... folks, comment, if you've opinions, suggestions, ideas...
next week i'll sit with the 7th kids... hopefully that session should proceed faster than this week's... and somehow, i'll get an enlightenment about which class i want to work with...
Sunday Regular - 24 Jun '07
Reached V early, and they were cleaning the dining hall et. al... So, sat aside for a while chatting with Megha, Sumalatha (shashikala? i always confuse those names..), shivagami, mohanakumari, et. al... we were listening to songs on my phone... and the kids wanted to know my religion, and apparently, they were quite scandalized by my looks vs. my religion... they wanted to know whether i do the religious prayers (which i don't), we talked about my personal fundaes about god and prayers etc... wow! what a conversation to have on a sunday after lunch...
shilpa called up to say she won't be able to join.. checked with sonia, but she was held up elsewhere... srinka, having spent the morning half at V for the dental session, took the other half off... expecting all three to join us next sunday afternoon... lakshmi was out of town this weekend... mamata, i couldn't sync with her to see if she could come...
moved in, gathered the 5th std kids... preethi, akshatha, divya, kavya... kavya is in english medium, has been studying english for the last 5 yrs and is quite comfortable with the language... however, the other 3 are in kannada medium and have started english this year... i gave a book to read, and soon realized i'm grossly off the mark... we quickly moved to alphabets and words starting with a letter... that too, soon realized that they hardly know any words in english starting with a given letter... at least not how to write them or the spellings... the rest of the day was spent in learning 6 words starting with a, their kannada meaning, english equivalent and spellings... the kids then drew the objects, wrote the words against them and then i quizzed them a li'l on what's the english for the kannada word, the spelling etc... what was interesting was that kavya, though well ahead with her english, was still actively involved helping out the other kids... megha, 7th std, also was around helping the kids who were having difficulties spelling and identifying the words... and harshita, 3rd std (remember her from last sunday?), was also helping out and joining the exercise, while also doing her homework... :-))
jhansi, seeing the books with me, wanted to read 'akbar and birbal'... gave the book to her, i am quite happy that she asked for it... movie time started, and keerthi was waiting for me... so, we stopped the session by around 4... 7th std, next week...
shilpa called up to say she won't be able to join.. checked with sonia, but she was held up elsewhere... srinka, having spent the morning half at V for the dental session, took the other half off... expecting all three to join us next sunday afternoon... lakshmi was out of town this weekend... mamata, i couldn't sync with her to see if she could come...
moved in, gathered the 5th std kids... preethi, akshatha, divya, kavya... kavya is in english medium, has been studying english for the last 5 yrs and is quite comfortable with the language... however, the other 3 are in kannada medium and have started english this year... i gave a book to read, and soon realized i'm grossly off the mark... we quickly moved to alphabets and words starting with a letter... that too, soon realized that they hardly know any words in english starting with a given letter... at least not how to write them or the spellings... the rest of the day was spent in learning 6 words starting with a, their kannada meaning, english equivalent and spellings... the kids then drew the objects, wrote the words against them and then i quizzed them a li'l on what's the english for the kannada word, the spelling etc... what was interesting was that kavya, though well ahead with her english, was still actively involved helping out the other kids... megha, 7th std, also was around helping the kids who were having difficulties spelling and identifying the words... and harshita, 3rd std (remember her from last sunday?), was also helping out and joining the exercise, while also doing her homework... :-))
jhansi, seeing the books with me, wanted to read 'akbar and birbal'... gave the book to her, i am quite happy that she asked for it... movie time started, and keerthi was waiting for me... so, we stopped the session by around 4... 7th std, next week...
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Dental Talk - 24 Jun '07
I couldn't be there for this one... Srinka will update about how it went, what happened et. al... This is a place holder, till she writes in...
'07/'08 10th batch
this year's 10th... jyothi, rajani, sumalatha (or is it shashikala?) and mohanakumari (a new admission)...
jyothi, of course, has been a star performer through out... she can score well, we just need to make sure she stays on track... rajani is doing quite well too, but she has potential.. but have seen her being pretty lax about her studies the last year... she can do much better..
sumalatha/shashikala... i don't have much idea about how her performance has been... she says she doesn't remember her marks!! but, she tells me except maths, she is okay with every thing else... mohanakumari also says the same thing... that maths is tough, other subjects are okay... but i am not sure, are they talking about scoring well or just passing the exams??
no specific plans for them as of now... srinka and i were thinking whether it makes sense to do something for the promising kids at least... not sure if it makes sense to ignore the others, but given the amount of time we can spend on them, it might make sense to concentrate on something that can bring results, than something that could very well be a zero value-add situation... but then, again, i think jyothi and rajani can manage on their own... we don't need to do anything beyond keeping a watch and occasional motivators...
jyothi, of course, has been a star performer through out... she can score well, we just need to make sure she stays on track... rajani is doing quite well too, but she has potential.. but have seen her being pretty lax about her studies the last year... she can do much better..
sumalatha/shashikala... i don't have much idea about how her performance has been... she says she doesn't remember her marks!! but, she tells me except maths, she is okay with every thing else... mohanakumari also says the same thing... that maths is tough, other subjects are okay... but i am not sure, are they talking about scoring well or just passing the exams??
no specific plans for them as of now... srinka and i were thinking whether it makes sense to do something for the promising kids at least... not sure if it makes sense to ignore the others, but given the amount of time we can spend on them, it might make sense to concentrate on something that can bring results, than something that could very well be a zero value-add situation... but then, again, i think jyothi and rajani can manage on their own... we don't need to do anything beyond keeping a watch and occasional motivators...
'06/'07 10th batch updates
parameswari, mamata and mathura left vatsalya... parameswari is apparently doing some evening classes... not sure what she's doing in the morning... mamata too, i'm not clear what she's up to... have both the kids' numbers, will call up, find out and update... mathura, no information...
prathibha and manju have taken up PU commerce in hombegowda... oorvashi is doing PU science in hombegowda... A apparently wants her to do commerce, and seeing her 10th performance and attitude towards studies, i too think that's better for her... but, apparently, her bro wants her to do science... and she's quite keen to do it as well... not sure if i should try to discourage her from doing science... she's been generally dull, falling ill often etc. the past couple of weeks.. something is on her mind... tried talking, but couldn't make any headway...
pallavi had lost two papers in the regular exam, wrote the supplementary, cleared one paper... but lost the other (science, i guess)again... she is doing some vocational kinda course with saree.... er, well.. i don't know how to put it... but some kinda tying the loose threads at the end of the saree etc. (i guess, girls can make out what i'm trying to say)... she has no idea about the course duration, course details, prospects after that etc.. have asked her to find that out by next week...
prathibha and manju have taken up PU commerce in hombegowda... oorvashi is doing PU science in hombegowda... A apparently wants her to do commerce, and seeing her 10th performance and attitude towards studies, i too think that's better for her... but, apparently, her bro wants her to do science... and she's quite keen to do it as well... not sure if i should try to discourage her from doing science... she's been generally dull, falling ill often etc. the past couple of weeks.. something is on her mind... tried talking, but couldn't make any headway...
pallavi had lost two papers in the regular exam, wrote the supplementary, cleared one paper... but lost the other (science, i guess)again... she is doing some vocational kinda course with saree.... er, well.. i don't know how to put it... but some kinda tying the loose threads at the end of the saree etc. (i guess, girls can make out what i'm trying to say)... she has no idea about the course duration, course details, prospects after that etc.. have asked her to find that out by next week...
Sunday Regular - 17 Jun '07
Shilpa and I landed up by 3 at V...
Usual hi, hellos... a quick chat with nagarathna, with some sharing of info, material etc. Shilpa had collected on clinical research and other course/career options that she can pursue given her interest in science... i believe, nagarathna will go on to take nursing in any case... clinical research apparently is a course option after nursing... but we will have to wait and watch how things pan out for her...
I had a quick chat with kalavathi (the warden) to figure out the student distribution across classes... apparently, there are 3 in 3rd standard... 1 in 4th... 4 in 5th standard, another 1 in 6th... i asked the other numbers as well, but promptly forgot...
shilpa, in the meanwhile, got to talking wiht jeevitha (8th standard)... she has apparently written some songs... i'm not sure if it is her own writing, she is even supposed to have given it some music... that's quite surprising... but probably, shilpa can throw more light on it... she sat with jeevitha and made her sing those songs... and he was generally chatting with jeevitha and other kids, getting familiar with the place and with the kids... shilpa, it would be good if you can share your experience as well...
during this time, i decided to do my reading assessment or whatever with the 3rd standard... harshita, pavana and pavithra... harshita was pretty good with her reading... she was able to read quite fluently and even figure out most of the unfamiliar words too on her own... the other two were distinctly behind in their reading... pavana, for instance could read is, has, what... but was unable to read 'was', inspite of my trying to show the connection with other similar sounding words etc... pavithra was also struggling with the words...
i'd to however, soon, let them go... i'd started a li'l late after catching up with nagaratna and others in general... and 4 o' clock, of course, the movie time starts... so had to let them go...
shilpa left for home, the kids went for the movie and i moved on to my tryst with mathematics, along with keerthi...
Usual hi, hellos... a quick chat with nagarathna, with some sharing of info, material etc. Shilpa had collected on clinical research and other course/career options that she can pursue given her interest in science... i believe, nagarathna will go on to take nursing in any case... clinical research apparently is a course option after nursing... but we will have to wait and watch how things pan out for her...
I had a quick chat with kalavathi (the warden) to figure out the student distribution across classes... apparently, there are 3 in 3rd standard... 1 in 4th... 4 in 5th standard, another 1 in 6th... i asked the other numbers as well, but promptly forgot...
shilpa, in the meanwhile, got to talking wiht jeevitha (8th standard)... she has apparently written some songs... i'm not sure if it is her own writing, she is even supposed to have given it some music... that's quite surprising... but probably, shilpa can throw more light on it... she sat with jeevitha and made her sing those songs... and he was generally chatting with jeevitha and other kids, getting familiar with the place and with the kids... shilpa, it would be good if you can share your experience as well...
during this time, i decided to do my reading assessment or whatever with the 3rd standard... harshita, pavana and pavithra... harshita was pretty good with her reading... she was able to read quite fluently and even figure out most of the unfamiliar words too on her own... the other two were distinctly behind in their reading... pavana, for instance could read is, has, what... but was unable to read 'was', inspite of my trying to show the connection with other similar sounding words etc... pavithra was also struggling with the words...
i'd to however, soon, let them go... i'd started a li'l late after catching up with nagaratna and others in general... and 4 o' clock, of course, the movie time starts... so had to let them go...
shilpa left for home, the kids went for the movie and i moved on to my tryst with mathematics, along with keerthi...
Nursing Career & First Aid - 16 Jun '07
A quickie on the first aid session...
Kalaivani, FoCh Nursing student, came over and talked to the kids... A, M, Sonia and I were present too... We took the 7th plus kids in for the session...
Kalaivani had a very genuine/earnest way of talking... An inclusive way of sorts, I liked that... And I guess, the kids feel part of the session when people talk like that..
She started with nursing as a career option.. Talked to the kids about the various nursing courses available... ANM, which is equivalent to a diploma kinda course, that you can do after 10th, but doesn't have much of a value as far as hospital postings etc. are concerned... apparently, after doing an ANM, you can be a midwife/community nurse who works with health centres in rural areas, and visits the homes and helps people in the villages with their health issues etc.. Another option is GNM, i forgot the expansions for all these... But, you do this one after PUC, and its a 2 yr course (??)... its preferrable to do this in government colleges, as you get more exposure, direct hospital experience while studying itself, real case handling, practical experience etc. during the course work itself... Also, this course is accepted for hospital recruitments etc.. After this course, if you work for a year, you can do BSc. Nursing in 2 yrs which is otherwise a 3 1/2 yr course... Also, GNM is much less expensive than BSc. Nursing... BSc. Nursing also requires PUC qualification... Both GNM and BSc. Nursing requires 80% and above for PU, apparently... There was a mention of the total number of seats available, but I forgot the detail... The subjects that a GNM student has to study was quite exhaustive and eye-opening... Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, Sociology, Community Health, Nutrition, Surgery and a whole lot of stuff... Whew!! Nursing, I'd always thought of it as a narrow limiting kinda field... which is the case... But the amount of things that they have to learn and the community service, rural health centre and the sheer amount of service to humanity that a nurse can do... I begin to see it all in a new light (esp. in the backdrop of my other quests in life ;p)...
After the career part, we moved on to the first aid section... Kalaivani talked about how to handle falls... How to handle bleeding, that first priority should be to stop bleeding.. one of the kids asked about cleaning the wound, Kalaivani said that it should be after the bleeding has stopped... I could only get a general idea of the proceedings as the talk was in kannada...
Somewhere in between, Sunand also came in and gradually took over the session... He started with accidents, how to handle the situation, how to handle the victim, how to handle yourself, what to check primarily (airway, breathing, circulation?), the posture for the victim, how to lift the victim, how to keep the spinal chord straight, and then some fundaes about spinal chord and the brain, nervous system, then dehydration, how to prevent it, how to treat it, handling certain kinds of wounds, then akash mentioned something about how the airway and the foodpipe is connected and controlled with a single valve etc...
the session was interesting, lively, quite interactive and generated a lot of enthusiasm etc.. A couple of watch points for future...
1. we went a li'l over the board for the kids' level... we could've kept it slightly simpler for the kds...
2. the content/talk time share/whatever between multiple volunteers handling the session could be managed better...
3. the session could've been shorter... particularly the first aid part... considering the kids have been sitting for long...
Kalaivani, FoCh Nursing student, came over and talked to the kids... A, M, Sonia and I were present too... We took the 7th plus kids in for the session...
Kalaivani had a very genuine/earnest way of talking... An inclusive way of sorts, I liked that... And I guess, the kids feel part of the session when people talk like that..
She started with nursing as a career option.. Talked to the kids about the various nursing courses available... ANM, which is equivalent to a diploma kinda course, that you can do after 10th, but doesn't have much of a value as far as hospital postings etc. are concerned... apparently, after doing an ANM, you can be a midwife/community nurse who works with health centres in rural areas, and visits the homes and helps people in the villages with their health issues etc.. Another option is GNM, i forgot the expansions for all these... But, you do this one after PUC, and its a 2 yr course (??)... its preferrable to do this in government colleges, as you get more exposure, direct hospital experience while studying itself, real case handling, practical experience etc. during the course work itself... Also, this course is accepted for hospital recruitments etc.. After this course, if you work for a year, you can do BSc. Nursing in 2 yrs which is otherwise a 3 1/2 yr course... Also, GNM is much less expensive than BSc. Nursing... BSc. Nursing also requires PUC qualification... Both GNM and BSc. Nursing requires 80% and above for PU, apparently... There was a mention of the total number of seats available, but I forgot the detail... The subjects that a GNM student has to study was quite exhaustive and eye-opening... Anatomy, Physiology, Psychology, Sociology, Community Health, Nutrition, Surgery and a whole lot of stuff... Whew!! Nursing, I'd always thought of it as a narrow limiting kinda field... which is the case... But the amount of things that they have to learn and the community service, rural health centre and the sheer amount of service to humanity that a nurse can do... I begin to see it all in a new light (esp. in the backdrop of my other quests in life ;p)...
After the career part, we moved on to the first aid section... Kalaivani talked about how to handle falls... How to handle bleeding, that first priority should be to stop bleeding.. one of the kids asked about cleaning the wound, Kalaivani said that it should be after the bleeding has stopped... I could only get a general idea of the proceedings as the talk was in kannada...
Somewhere in between, Sunand also came in and gradually took over the session... He started with accidents, how to handle the situation, how to handle the victim, how to handle yourself, what to check primarily (airway, breathing, circulation?), the posture for the victim, how to lift the victim, how to keep the spinal chord straight, and then some fundaes about spinal chord and the brain, nervous system, then dehydration, how to prevent it, how to treat it, handling certain kinds of wounds, then akash mentioned something about how the airway and the foodpipe is connected and controlled with a single valve etc...
the session was interesting, lively, quite interactive and generated a lot of enthusiasm etc.. A couple of watch points for future...
1. we went a li'l over the board for the kids' level... we could've kept it slightly simpler for the kds...
2. the content/talk time share/whatever between multiple volunteers handling the session could be managed better...
3. the session could've been shorter... particularly the first aid part... considering the kids have been sitting for long...
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
V - going forward...!
Hmmm... another year begun.. last year's pathetic programme motivates us to scale down majorly this year... with a view of thrashing out something, ami, D, A, M and i met up a couple of weeks back at A's place...
we did some soul-searching... obviously, we need somebody to coordinate/lead the programme, hold things together... folks think i will do it ;-p
after a bit of discussions and all, we arrived at two of the fundamentals that we arrived at last year (and probably, every year too)... ;-))
1. we need more volunteers
2. we need to start young, and start with basics..
but what's different this time is that we have agreed that our model should be
3. independent of the number of volunteers
4. scalable up or down based on the volunteer flow
5. flexible enough to accomodate varied volunteer interests
6. involving volunteer-group of kids (5-6)pairing
and we'll start with
7. reading sessions with a batch of kids (this is mainly due to the fact that i'm obsessed with reading sessions)
8. the class to be arrived at after a series of quick assessment
any new volunteer coming in can
9. attach herself with a class (standard) she is comfortable with
10. and carry on an activity that she's interested (preferrably with a goal)
sonia will
1. plan out science program, the way she wants to take it forward (others to help her)
2. follow up with jhansi (and i've asked her, if possible, to see if she can kinda take care of the rest of the 9th kids too)
new volunteer shilpa joined us two weeks back, she will
1. spend a couple of weeks just getting familiar with the program
2. and then decide what she wants to do
we've two more new volunteers joining us this sunday
1. lakshmi
2. mamata
and yeah, srinka will be back!!!
and in no time, the number is already 6 (and that was our target for july/aug)!! i just hope they all will stay without me having to do anything about it (or should i say inspite of me doing anything about it???)
we did some soul-searching... obviously, we need somebody to coordinate/lead the programme, hold things together... folks think i will do it ;-p
after a bit of discussions and all, we arrived at two of the fundamentals that we arrived at last year (and probably, every year too)... ;-))
1. we need more volunteers
2. we need to start young, and start with basics..
but what's different this time is that we have agreed that our model should be
3. independent of the number of volunteers
4. scalable up or down based on the volunteer flow
5. flexible enough to accomodate varied volunteer interests
6. involving volunteer-group of kids (5-6)pairing
and we'll start with
7. reading sessions with a batch of kids (this is mainly due to the fact that i'm obsessed with reading sessions)
8. the class to be arrived at after a series of quick assessment
any new volunteer coming in can
9. attach herself with a class (standard) she is comfortable with
10. and carry on an activity that she's interested (preferrably with a goal)
sonia will
1. plan out science program, the way she wants to take it forward (others to help her)
2. follow up with jhansi (and i've asked her, if possible, to see if she can kinda take care of the rest of the 9th kids too)
new volunteer shilpa joined us two weeks back, she will
1. spend a couple of weeks just getting familiar with the program
2. and then decide what she wants to do
we've two more new volunteers joining us this sunday
1. lakshmi
2. mamata
and yeah, srinka will be back!!!
and in no time, the number is already 6 (and that was our target for july/aug)!! i just hope they all will stay without me having to do anything about it (or should i say inspite of me doing anything about it???)
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Forum Vatsalya
Getting the children sit for a session (academic or non-academic) has its challenges, which we have all experienced. There are two primary reasons for it, and if we address them properly, I'm quite confident that there can be a difference. However, this requires a minimum amount of discipline from everybody involved.
The reasons are fairly simple to deduce. Although both may sound similar, there's a subtle difference.
1. The kid/student doesn't see the value of the time spent in the session and has other attractions (including not doing anything) to command her attention
2. There is a serious lack of respect for the session itself and hence a lack of accountability and commitment towards all that goes into it.
The first one threatens the possibility of holding the session itself, while the second one threatens sustainibility of the activities. To address this, I suggest that we bring in a layer of formality that encompasses any serious session with the children. This is not just for lifeSkills, Science/Knowledge club or academics, but for everything. Small talk has its important place, but outside this 'forum'.
Yes, if your thoughts have raced faster than my words, you got it right. What I am suggesting is having a standard forum for holding the weekly activities at Vatsalya. The forum ought to have a minimum frame-work that must be respected by the kids and the volunteers alike. The framework may and must keep evolving, but should never be done away with.
Here's more on it.
Given the range of ideas that we've been shooting, the regularity and the sustainibility of any of the activities is quite doubtful, the reasons being
-> dependency on core volunteers
-> too much to cover in too little time
-> getting the kids' serious involvement
So, what I propose is that the weekly session at Vatsalya be transformed into a regular 'forum' within the framework of which, the activities take place. Sounds like what we've been doing all these years. So what's the difference?
The difference is that each 'Forum' here will have a broad but set agenda, the meeting or Forum will be conducted by the students and there will be a mix of pre-planned & impromptu activities by the volunteers and students. And most importantly, the meeting will be on, even when the volunteers are not there, since it would start and end at a fixed time. There will be brief minutes documented (again by the students), agenda setting for the next week by the students and so on. And even if there is a necessity of students being split into groups to be taken outside to play, etc. the starting and the closing protocol (though extremely brief) ought to be maintained.
And what activities do we put in this? - everything under the sun. Science experiments, discussion on current affairs, games, quizzes, dramas, academics, NIE, lifeSkills & adolescent issues, jokes, song and dance, public speaking activities, and even guest talks....
What needs to be worked out is the modalities of kids' involvement (it has to be on a rotational basis) and an understanding of how we want the session to flow.
Hmmm. I realise that there's nothing path-breaking that I've written despite the length of the mail, but I guess the way forward has to be one which gives the children more responsibilities and experience of serious involvement in discussion, debate and decision making. What say?
(I would even recommend that a forum of this nature could be started at FoCh, St Teresa too.. infact, I reckon that it has a better chance of success there)
The reasons are fairly simple to deduce. Although both may sound similar, there's a subtle difference.
1. The kid/student doesn't see the value of the time spent in the session and has other attractions (including not doing anything) to command her attention
2. There is a serious lack of respect for the session itself and hence a lack of accountability and commitment towards all that goes into it.
The first one threatens the possibility of holding the session itself, while the second one threatens sustainibility of the activities. To address this, I suggest that we bring in a layer of formality that encompasses any serious session with the children. This is not just for lifeSkills, Science/Knowledge club or academics, but for everything. Small talk has its important place, but outside this 'forum'.
Yes, if your thoughts have raced faster than my words, you got it right. What I am suggesting is having a standard forum for holding the weekly activities at Vatsalya. The forum ought to have a minimum frame-work that must be respected by the kids and the volunteers alike. The framework may and must keep evolving, but should never be done away with.
Here's more on it.
Given the range of ideas that we've been shooting, the regularity and the sustainibility of any of the activities is quite doubtful, the reasons being
-> dependency on core volunteers
-> too much to cover in too little time
-> getting the kids' serious involvement
So, what I propose is that the weekly session at Vatsalya be transformed into a regular 'forum' within the framework of which, the activities take place. Sounds like what we've been doing all these years. So what's the difference?
The difference is that each 'Forum' here will have a broad but set agenda, the meeting or Forum will be conducted by the students and there will be a mix of pre-planned & impromptu activities by the volunteers and students. And most importantly, the meeting will be on, even when the volunteers are not there, since it would start and end at a fixed time. There will be brief minutes documented (again by the students), agenda setting for the next week by the students and so on. And even if there is a necessity of students being split into groups to be taken outside to play, etc. the starting and the closing protocol (though extremely brief) ought to be maintained.
And what activities do we put in this? - everything under the sun. Science experiments, discussion on current affairs, games, quizzes, dramas, academics, NIE, lifeSkills & adolescent issues, jokes, song and dance, public speaking activities, and even guest talks....
What needs to be worked out is the modalities of kids' involvement (it has to be on a rotational basis) and an understanding of how we want the session to flow.
Hmmm. I realise that there's nothing path-breaking that I've written despite the length of the mail, but I guess the way forward has to be one which gives the children more responsibilities and experience of serious involvement in discussion, debate and decision making. What say?
(I would even recommend that a forum of this nature could be started at FoCh, St Teresa too.. infact, I reckon that it has a better chance of success there)
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