Aeroplane Ta Ta

HAL Museum visit

2008-02-28T05:34:00.000-08:00

23rd Feb 08, 11:40 to 16:20, Chalghatta school kids.

Second year in running for the 7th kids. The big difference was the volunteers. Last time, tons of people had turned up, but this time, it was just me! A reflection on my marketing skills ?? The teachers had other chores, and they left the 32 kids to me. 26 girls & 6 boyz. And soon, after their mid day meal, we marched along the wind tunnel road, passed a choclate to each, and we walked merrily, as we walked along the bridge across the gutter, I felt like a pied-piper. No wonder, as we descended the bridge, the HM stood there, waiting for us, saying she would also like to join. Ok! with her retirement in a week, guess she wanted to take no chances!!

We first checked out the galleries - itz all 'bout HAL history - threw some pointers here & there, kids asked quite a few questions, and took them out of the gallery quick before they got exhausted. Kids seemed more disciplined than last time. I could handle most of them as a group.

Next scene, at the cockpit, a simulator, the kids watched as the fighter tookoff, turned left-right based on the instructor's joy-stick, and soon crashed!! Some kids had to lifted onto my shoulders to view the happenings. Guess, itz major pain if you are short, and the tall ones crowd in front.

Next scene, was at the...observatory....where U get to see the run way......kids just lazed around happily as we waited for the flights.

And then, we went to audio-visual centre, where a movie on the Kuwait war was shown.....with the role of aircrafts being depicted......it was a well made documentary....and kids were glued.

Then the aircrafts came in to picture....had explained earlier 'bout how they fly....wings...rudder..propellor etc etc.....and some of them remembered it.....It was fun for them to see the real machines...touch them...look into the cock pit etc etc

The sight of flowers in the garden, mango trees, made them swarm towards it. Luckily, the security guard, an old man, gave one good look, and kept quite. With minimal damage I took the kids away, and got them to the fish pond......again helter-skelter......they just loved it.

After some biscuits, and choclates, we started back....guess...it was good to see the kids who grew up watching the planes take-off- & land so close to their homes...get a first hand feel of it.

Bus back, HM went home, and we walked back on wind-tunnel road. It wasn't a hot day, and soon all of us got treated with a vanilla ice-cream. Most kids handled choclate wrappers, ice-cream cups well.

Soon...it was the bridge across the gutter....as we walked over it...the kids started calling a girl in the gutter..'Roopa...Roopa...Roopa...'...I looked across and found two small girls rag-picking in the gutter. Thats a big gutter that cuts into the airport, guess goes under the runway, come out & feeds to the Bellandur lake. So, here were these two little girls, around 10 years, walking on the debris of the gutter. Both were wearing pretty clothes. The kinds I would like any little girl to wear to a wedding. And, they were busy looking into the amased debris, & pulling out useful stuff.

'Roopa...Roopa..' continued...the kids gushed....'Saar...shez from our school.....was in 5th std......and now has dropped out'.....................Roopa looked up, became conscious of the peering heads, and just kept to her rag-picking. I wanted to have a chat with her....calling her failed......so I decided to get close to the gutter....the kids followed enmass....and soon....after convincing her I just wanted to talk to her...she came over climbing the sides of the gutter.

A shy little girl, had the dried up black sewage mud plastered all over. Her brother was in the gutter at some distance. Conflicting replies came from her & the students. No father...mother is a sweeper, mother wants her to study..she is not interested....she is interested....but they need money at home etc etc. Decided to speak to her mother to get her to school from next year. The other girl with her, was younger, and as I called her to come over, she simply ran into the waters away from us. The kids gasped...'Uncle, see how shez running in the gutter'

We walked back to the school. The kids for a while, kept talking of their friend in the gutter......and soon as their homes and school came close....they ran...with big leaps....and joy on their faces.

IDay at Bellur Nagasandra School

2007-08-15T23:09:00.000-07:00

In this academic year, this was my first visit to the school. But the recognition and pleasure of the chlidren at seeing their dear "aunty" was instant.

The festivities began with the children walking the area carrying a Gandhiji photo and to the accompaniment of the drums beating.

The mood just got more festive when the children were back at school. They all danced to their hearts content to the beats of the solo drum.

Finally they settled down, wondering what all the fuss was about (especially the anganwadi kids - they were so lost that they looked cute... )

This was followed by ample poojas of Gandhiji and Nehru, a rendition of Vande Mataram (Akash still thinks its a torture to his kids, but my kids dont seem to think so ;-) ), the flag hoisting and finally the rendition of the national anthem.

Shekhar, one of the two teachers at the school for the last 13 years, has been transferred from school to the main BEO office in K.R. Puram. There was a tear-filled felicitation ceremony for Shekhar and it is sad to see him go..

The day ended with chocolates for the children, and that had the children overjoyed. But yesterday also got me thinking. Is this education going to improve the lives of these children in anyway? If not, what are we achieving from this whole drill of making them mug to pass exams? Are these children going to grow up to be daily-wage labourers with children studying in this very same school? Are their grand-children going to have a better standard of living, better food, better infrastructure?

60 years under the national flag, and we still have so many open questions. Is there anything we can do to answer any of them?

6th std Math test

2007-04-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

These tests were conducted by Nagrathna who has been predominantly handling the 6th std batch, and Chetna. Good info for us to follow up, as these kids move to 7th std soon.

HAL Museum visit

2007-03-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

These children have their home very close to the airport runway. They grow up with the sound & sights of all kind of flying machines. So, one saturday afternoon, after their classes, we decided to take the 7th std kids at Chalghatta school to the HAL museum. The kids were quite excited as usual. They wanted to skip their mid-day meal and start. I used that day to explain 'How airplanes & helicopters fly'......a quick read of the book HowStuffWorks early morning majorly helped. Simple concepts, how they move forward, upwards & turn were explained, 'Propeller, Engine, Wings, Rudder' were introduced. And soon, couple of students explained it to the class.

So, 22 of the students, 4 teaching staff, 7 volunteers landed at the museum soon. The museum authorities seemed to be very happy to see the children, and all thru they treated us warmly.

And for the next 2 hours the children looked at aeroplanes, touched them, heard about them, played simulator games, ran around joyusly and so on...

Mission accomplished.

As we went thru the place, a few things seem to attract the kids wildly.

1. The Fishes in the pond.

2. Mangoes on a tree: There was a wild run for it. (The Rose garden besides was majorly eyed, but we guyz were in sufficient force by then).

3. An Air Conditioned room we walked into, almost every one said 'AC...AC...'

As I watched the children running around & playing, some inevitable thoughts cropped up. Will they make it big ? Would they be an Engineer etc. What sort of jobs would they get into ?

Well, their learning levels have been a serious concern. Its quite bad, simply not comparable to others from private schools. They seem to belong to classes many rungs below. At times, the classes, resemble a creche, the kids simply come & go for years.

Government schools remain a challenge. How do we as volunteers transform the school. Get these children to fulfill their potential. How ??

Chalghatta 4th standard assesment

2007-02-27T02:02:00.000-08:00

The following is the assesment for kannada and maths ( addition ) of 4th standard class chalgatta school. One poem in kannada was given to read and students were assessed based on their reading speed, word formation, fluency in kannada. Some students were not even able to frame words using kannada letters. The condition of few students is really bad, need to do lot of effort to improve thier kannada reading skills.

Maths (only addition) was assessed. Some students dont even know how to place commas for numbers. Some dont know units, tens, hundreds etc place. Addition without carry is done by almost all. Addition with carry some students had problems. But almost all students could not identify ten thousand and lakh numbers. Here is the assessment details. Next week will try to assess subtraction, multiplication, division and give final assessment of maths.

Name, Kannada assessment, Maths ( addition and general number concept)

Venkatesh A A
Vijay A A

Martin Luther B A
Swati B B

Vijayalakshmi C A
Triveni C B
Priyanka C C

Gopal D B
Manjunath D C
Deepika D C
Bagya D C
Preethi D D

A. Very Good.
B. Good.
C. Average.
D. Poor.

Chalghata 3rd std assesment

2007-02-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

The school continues to surprise me.

Narendra (new volunteer), Madhu & me landed to find the 5th, 6th & 7th occupied by teachers. So, we decided to check out the 3rd & 4th who sit in the same classroom taught by teacher X (Vandana/Muktha).

Initially Kannada assesment was done (read a para from their textbook) followed by Math assesment (addition & subtraction). The kids seemed to be surprisingly good in maths. The small class strength helps.

Name Kannada Math-add Math Subtract

Priyashakthi M G G
Dhanalakshmi M G G
Mary G G G
Suma M G G
Ajith B G ND
Joseph G M ND
Venkatesh B G ND

G - Good
M - Medium
B - Bad
ND - Test not done

Madhu looked at Kannada, while I looked at Math. Math was more of oral addition & subtraction, followed by paper problems. Didn't have much of carry etc.

Two Bad's in Kannada is a concern. Math skills seem to be good, need to test more. And this was the BIG surprise, the kids both 3rd & 4th seem to be real good with maths.

Narendra to update on his assesment of the 4th std.

English B5

2007-02-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

Most of the kids in the school are learning words by rote. When told to read, they guess the words instead of reading them. Except for Chetan who puts in some effort into really reading the words, all the others find it difficult. One possible cause is that these kids dont know the small case alphabet.

Also, Madhu is very restless and seems totally uninterested in learning or questioning about anything at all. :(

Eng c4 Bellur

2007-02-18T22:05:00.000-08:00

Bellur school, following kids in 4th std are bad at English alphabets - can't write -

- Vidya
- Lingaraju
- Suhaas

Shud teach them b4 schools close.

-A

First computer lesson for Std 7th

2007-02-12T02:44:00.000-08:00

"Just give us one week, and we will know computers" This was the sentiment in the 1.5 hours computer session I had for 5 students from the 7th standard.

Selecting the 5 students was a task in itself. Almost everyone wanted to go and try using the computer. :-) So we promised the remaining kids that we'd have a session for 5 kids each every week. That pacified them for a few mins.

Moved the 5 kids to the HMs room, and spent a lot of time trying to start up the computer. Finally two engineers got this one computer working!!!

I started with a brief description of the terminology of the computer - CPU / Monitor / Mouse / Keyboard. And then showed them how to open Paint and then let them paint. The purpose was to accustom them to using the mouse - both pointing and clicking. The paintings took different hues and different shapes - circles looked like eggs and the sun had rays going till the roots of the trees :-)

Could give two chances to each kid to use the computer and still the session went on for over 1.5 hrs! Would like to provide more time to each child in the coming few sessions. Would also like to go to some level of computer internals such as RAM, hard disk, motherboard - atleast teach them the terminology.

At the end of the session, they didnt want to leave the computer. And their words were "Just give us one week...."

7th std English assesment

2007-01-30T08:36:00.001-08:00

The idea is to do a crash course on English for the 7th. The focus will hopefully remain on their textbook. So, Madhu, Chethna & me went around assessing them last saturday. Asked them to read out a paragraph from their English book first chapter also asked them to copy & writedown a paragraph. And, based on these, we have catagorised them to Good, Average, and bad.

The idea is to handle the kids based on these groupings, and we would need atleast 3 volunteers for that!!!

The list more for records, is as follows, I seem to have misplaced the list prepared by Madhu. Need to extrapolate that data!

Good

Rajesh, Prabhudev, Nagaraj, Manjula

Average/Medium

Yellappa, Annapoorna, Kamala, Narayana, Chandrika, Geeta, Priyadarshini

Bad

Vinodraj, Umarani, Arun kumar, Sunil, Jyothi, Prabhavathi, Manjula

Yellapa is the restless kid around, looks quite sharp, need to channelise him.

An extraordinary experience...

2007-01-29T01:58:00.000-08:00

I've been contemplating this idea of joining an NGO since long...am glad that I could finally move one step ahead & get associated with the Dream School Foundation...

There goes a saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side"...My experience at the school has only reinforced my realisation that I am one of those lucky ones to have my foot on the greener side...
I have read quite a few articles about the under-privileged sector of our society, but it's nothing close to experiencing the veracity in person...Come face to face with the kids & you sure will be left rapt !! It's amazing that even though they are deprived of the very essentials, that every child has a right to, they radiate so much of exuberance & are so eager to learn...These kids so convincingly portray all the rare qualities that maybe even I, as a child, might have been nervous about; then why must they be deprived of their right to chilhood ? Just a thought to ponder...

Am sure it's only the beginning...I hope to make a positive difference...

Ganarajyothsava

2007-01-27T21:14:00.000-08:00

India's Republic day means & doesn't mean a lot of things to people. But to school children, itz fun time again. Marchpasts, community processions, speeches, flag hoisting, songs, skit, dramas & chocolates!!! It was 9ish in the morning, when I reached the Chalghatta school. For a change, all the kids were neatly seated, and awaited the proceeding to start. The chief guest was to arrive, and there was no sign of him. And soon, there was these colorful distant objects in the sky that got the kids excited. Parachutes, balloons ? None of us cud make them out.

The 6th std kids rehearsing

Shivaji & a look-alike!
Awaiting the chief guest.

Finally, we decided to go ahead.
The culturals started, but we guyz had to move to the Bellur school.

Initial photshot with Chetna & Hena.

' Bharath Matha ki Jai'

The Anganwaadi kids.

The Vande matharam song. Chetna & Hena had trained these kids for it. One complicated version, with tounge twistors galore.......I regarded it as pain & torture to my kids.......but to my surprise they pulled it of with aplomb.

Loose control... One more time!

Man...now for THE skit. The 'Punyakoti' song. Chethan, who sang was running away with the song. I barely managed to click a few snaps.

We had wonderful masks for the cows & tiger, but the one for the calf wasn't available, and we had to make do with a rabbit mask!!! Here Punyakoti is talking with her calf....'bout her impending surrender to Mr. Tiger.

After sentimental scenes, Punyakoti goes to Mr. Tiger, who for reasons I haven't fathomed all my life, feels sorry for wanting to kill her and instead of sending her back & going home, jumps from a cliff, and ends life!!!!

Teaching with my 5th std kids goes like this....45 minutes of English...restlessness.....and suddenly they jump and say 'Uncle, we will dance'......and thats it...they have their 'n' dances...that includes Dhoom machale!!! Here, we have them as Gopika's cribbing 'bout Krishna!!!

Speech in English. Chetna came with a simple written speech, and thrust it in my hands. None of the 4th & 5th were ready to speak it out, for they can't read it in the first place. Shocked. Well, thats the way it is. And, as I loudly contemplated writing the English in Kannada, and getting it read. Manjunath, a 3rd std kid, jumped, and forcefully said, he wud do it, and did a wonderful job of it. Long way to go for us.

3rd std kids singing the poem 'Bannadha thagadina thuthuri'

Man...this song has climbed up to the top of my charts. Something like 'Jannadha pannadha mangagallee'......Monkeys... please don't see, speak & hear evil! A dance, that evokes lot of laughter amongst kids.

End of celebrations. Lots of volunteers missed. Sunand, Dharin & Ami joined. And, the best part was the culturals at the Bellur school. Last Independence day, the kids just watched as Pooja & speeches took the centre stage. But this time it was the otherway.

After we left the school, came across this injured Brahminy kite. It may have done well with some attention & care, we left it to nature & moved away. And, so are these govt. schools ?

Ramnagara school trip

2006-12-28T18:20:00.000-08:00

Thorns made red by bleeding hearts.

Well, if not a bleeding heart, I indeed was in a quandary. Chalghatta school - 200 kids - never been on a school trip - wow! lets take them out - but how ??

The logistics was turning into a nightmare. A bus can take 50-60 kids, a long journey makes it 9k/bus, and entry fees. And, food expenses. Mysore beckoned, but entry fees & quite long a journey. Same tale with Shravanabelogala-Tallakad-Bellur circuit.

Thorns.

My morning run ---> solution thrashed. Check with Sunand. 'Yes! we will do it', he says. Bliss.

Funda: Thorns are mostly in our imagination, as in the pic above. The locust intimidates other predators with it thorn like legs.

And, so on a saturday morning 9th of Dec 06. All the 6th & 7th std kids were taken on a outing. The 5th std kids from Chalghatta, along with 3rd to 5th from the Bellur school will be taken to Fun-world sometime in Jan. An elaborate pooja for the bus, seemed to satisfy the bus driver. He had cribbed heavily that only 46 passengers are allowed, and we were 66 kids, 8 teacher staff, & 6 volunteers!!!
And soon, Sunand & Shweta got some major Anthakshari going in the bus. Latest Kannada songs from FM 137.66
Ramnagara was the destination. A rock-climbers paradise. A quite place, with vultures above ur head, place to be. We wanted to introduce the kids to trekking and rock-climbing.
And soon, after breakfast, Sunand launched onto what trekking is....rock climbing is......the equipment used...how you need to be.....water bottles.....discipline....etc etc. At the end of the briefing, a boy promptly fainted!!!!
And soon, the 66 kids were divided into groups with volunteers Leena, Chetna, Shweta & Navrathan leading them. Sunand & Mallesh were the rock-climbing experts and leading the trek/climb. The teachers, esp the school HM Mary had a tough time in the small trek. She kept saying 'Since when have you been scheming this on me'...she struggled.....the kids literally ran.....and after some time 2 kids came back to help their HM!!!

Soon, we reached the base of Ramdevar betta. The joy here is the natural slide thats on this rock....the kids went up & slid down merrily.

We climbed up the hill, pitched in the equipment, and introduced rappling.
And after swift instructions from Mallesh & Sunand, the kids rappled down. It was a good test of their confidence, courage and trust.

Soon boyz & girls clamoured to get down. A few kept away, having a single rappling rope was becoming a botlle-neck. Shwetha took upon securing the harness & gloves.

Mmmmm......

By 5pm, we had finished with the last rappling kid, and went down for lunch. A good number of the kids had rappled down. The plan was also to visit Kokrebellur, some museum at chanpatna, and Rajarajeshwari temple. But, with rappling taking all the time we ditched it.

The school had raised Rs 2300 from the kids 50Rs each, from all those, who could pay. They covered food charges and also bought some canvas shoes for those needing it. Transport charges was covered by DSF. Rock climbing charges raised from volunteers.

The way back, the back benchers started with some major Ayyappa bajans, and soon being tired gave up and slept. It was 8:40pm, when the bus reached the school. Sunand wanted me to 'de-brief' the kids. And so, for the 66 kids seated in a corridor, that glowed in a yellow light lamp, for those who rappled, and those who didn't, with some of their parents watching, I spoke of 'Why adventure'....'Why push the body'...'Striving beyond the limits'...'Marathon running'.....'Rock climbing'....'Their exams'.....'their studies'.....'little more marks' The kids starred back sleepily, and their parents were quite.

Well, we managed to pull thru this outing safely. And, the kids enjoyed it. A new experience.

A zillion thanks to my buddy & Man Friday (Man Saturday ?) Sunand, who made this happen.

Raja Majaa - Part II

2006-12-18T03:12:00.000-08:00

This time the children are going on Christmas vacation starting 23rd Dec.. But Mrs. Mary said that the Challaghatta school children for 6th and 7th standard will be studying through the vacation - extra classes for them..

School reopens on 2nd Jan...

raja majaa :)

2006-09-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

After a looong time got a chance to feel that happiness again when Akash gave the
news that schools will be closed starting from 23rd to 2nd October. :)

Yes I'm back to school, but only for one day in a week. I teach Hindi (rather learning Hindi with the kids) for 7th class. It happens every Saturday for 1 or 2 hours (duration depends on the kids capacity to bear their 'Hindi Miss'). The experience is soooo good. First I thought it will be difficult to make time every Saturday but once you start, the time manages for itself. As in my case, i started and started liking it and now I cann't miss it. Suddenly I have started feeling good about myself feel a sense of responsibility when the kids call me miss :)

So, for sure the kids will be busy enjoying their vacation... and their Hindi miss is really going to miss them for 2 Saturdays :(... let me plan something, I'm in the mood of vacation ;)

Wish me happy holidays...
leena

First experience at teaching

2006-09-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

My first day at the school was pretty confusing & also extremely memorable.. I didnt know what to expect, and I guess the kids were finding my Kannada funny (I dont speak very good Kannada :p)

But once I started teaching them the English alphabet, the kids were so keen to have me teach them that even those whom Akash was teaching (those of them who were familiar with A-B-C) started pretending that they dont know the A-B-C.. :)

Most of the children were extremely concerned about me. So, they got me a chair to sit on, and then when I sat on the floor, they kept warning me that i was not sitting on the mat and my clothes may get dirty!! I guess this is what touches the heart......

When I go now, they still find my Kannada funny, but I guess now they understand better what Im trying to say and its fun teaching. These are the best two hours of my week.. :)

Perot, chalghatta & mummies

2006-08-30T03:14:00.000-07:00

Chalghatta school, a nice looking govt. primary school with a small ground interspersed with Ashoka trees. The kids run around like prince/princess. They really own this school. 200 kids, make such ruckus, that some new volunteers go back home to terrible headaches (seriously, ask Leena).

The school has a fundu HM Mrs Mary Angela (left most), a superb PR person. And, another teacher Bhuvaneshwari, whoz fast becoming my favourite (rightmost lady). Bhuvaneshwari is real good at culturals, no wonder, we had so many children vying to sing/dance & perform.

Ha...oh..3 similar shots....lots of back light, so only this angle permitted decent shots. Hey, who are these lovely ladies ??? They are singing 'Hum honge kamyaab ek din'......well, Ladies & Gentlemen, Sep 2nd 06, over 20 employees from Perot systems dropped into interact with our kids. To keep matters simple, the 1st to 5th kids were let off at their usual closing time, and we continued interacting with the 6th & 7th. Amit, hardcore DSF volunteer, also happens to be a Perot, and so it worked cool for both parties ;-)

Event A was collage making. 8 teams with volunteers thrown in, and 30 minutes. The teams took on this with all seriousness, with volunteers majorly guiding them. And, soon we saw some lovely stuff.

Event B was to mummify.....yeah...seriously, take a kid and mummify....for bizzare reasons only girls got choosen....and boy...it turned out to be real fun.

My favourite shot of the day.

The kids were all real excited by now....and the volunteers strongly identified themselves with their teams & kids. I guess, the event had achieved its purpose.

Yes, kids got a double-decker box with pencils/scale etc and some nice snacks/Icecream.

Perot systems is also sponsoring a LifeSkills session here at the school for the 6th/7th on weekdays, conducted by Mrs Sadhna. A nice corporate-NGO partnership.

We still need people for the bread & butter stuff, my kids are pathetic when it comes to reading English. And Math ? not far either. So, if volunteering & making a difference at the primary level appeals to you, join us.

Chinnarangala 4,5,6

2006-05-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

Action continues. The children still come to school. They run around.... fight majorly....play or climb trees...... and when tired stop, sit, listen to the teacher - write/paint. Thats children, at their very best!

With each passing saturday, I take out my camera less often. The kids & their actions are no more novelties ;-))

We have had good support from other groups.

Firstly, it was the Reuters gang...they came...they saw...they played.....and left behind a lot of crayons/books/stationaries and hazzar clothes for the kids. This coupled with the cloth collection, we had from other donors was distributed 2 weeks back. Except for a few kids, almost everybody got 1/2 clothes. Somehow, more of girl clothes than boyz.

TI had a cloth drive as part of their Annual day. And, pushed them to us. Here, we had clothes of all ages, and in the children category have ended up with clothes for very young girls & babies.

Then entered FSL India, and after a good look-around, they were clear 'bout what to do....A medical camp.....and a day of funNGames.

So, last saturday was medical camp. Dr Anand lead. It was over 40 kids I think.....most of them very diagnoised with some hygine related disorders. Each kid a toothbrush/paste/soap and some multi-vitamin tablets.....to be given along with their lunch at school........and ofcourse, the prescribed medicine. Lotz of very young girls were crying & totally uncomfortable in seeing a doctor. My job was to talk to them...get their names....and their ages....had to guess majorly......and their sex....had some problems with a young children with long hair. You think...itz a girl...until they announce their names.....and you look startled......then ask the surrounding kids...'Hey, is this a boy!'...YES, they declare....I take their word. The camp went eventless until a 4 year old girl slapped me for pestering for her name!!! The other volunteers took the weight, height, pulse & temperature. And, the doctor, who was very enthusiastic checked them up. Lot of Telugu speaking kids....so he needed the teacher to translate. Pretty good medical camp. The doc's came back after a few days with the prescribed medicine & passed them on with neccessary instructions.

And that afternoon, we had one of our expert volunteer joinig us. Meet Mr. Chaitanya, a 12th std student, he was keen on having some drawing/painting for children. Charcoal painting. And, off kids went in drawing a house, trees, clouds etc. And, then using charcoal on it. I had never seen such stuff before. The kids got going.....once they get in...itz tough to stop them.....they draw...they paint/color....and then most of them get so carried away they color/draw all over the place ;-)

Today...the FSL gang came carrying in lot of things.....a crayon box/pencil/drawing book for each kid. And, 2 footballs......and hold ur breath....2 cricket bats...stumps...3 tennis balls.....the kids were overjoyed.....they have been pestering me for cricket bats for weeks now.....I had been evasive.....now they were maha-thrilled. They somehow think I am behind it ;-))

So, we started with the painting session....the kids soon settled down to it....and furiously got going.....they crayoned colorfully. Some of the volunteers drew pictures/scenes for them to color up. And, met up with Pooja....a volunteer with FSL...a 2nd year BBM student......she zapped me with her push....asking those searching/uncomfortable questions. She wanted that proactive approach. And, as we parted, she said 'Once, you come to volunteer, you should not stand and laze around......start doing things'......wow! thats volunteerism for me ;-)

Yes...we got the kids to kick the football......the kids chased the ball like mad.

Guyz...thats how Chinnarangalla is progressing, we are seeing a good turn out, after 6 weeks too. And, hope to get them to continue with the regular school. We have a couple of saturdays to go, interested, join us.

Coolie inda skoolige

2006-05-08T08:40:00.000-07:00

-RS

Chinnara Angala 3

2006-05-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

Chinnara Angala, Chalghatta School May 6th. 30++ kids, 2 teachers, 7 volunteers.

Morning sessions had children enacting stuff. Most of the young kids were shy to speak out and enact things. Children need lot more exposure. And, with we big guyz around, with our high voices wonder how they find us ;-)) And, the vocab we use........becomes very important.

Megha was painting lovely little flowers using the children's fingures. Unfy I didn't capture them. Outside, some games happened. Interesting was Tug-of-war where the boyz shyed away to hold on to the girls ;-) Getting the kids all excited was Vinay with his train......the kids happily ran with the chikubuku train.

The teacher Bhuvaneshwari quickly seized the opportunity, got the train to stop at various stations kannuru(Eye station)...mooguru(Nose station)....kiviyuru(Ear station)....and gave some hygine funda's .

Joining us in the morning were other school DSF chaps Shridhar, Avinash, Vinay & Megha. And, greeting us were lot fewer kids than I am used to. Apparently, the previous day, lot of chaos in the class, so one kid was chided/beaten by a teacher.....he immediately got his 'gang' togather......and lo...they happily marched out of the school ;-)) So....this morning, with poor attendance, the HM had to send a teacher to get the gangsters back!

The kids had their mid-day meals. And, we went out to have our meals. Bad idea. By the time we get back, half the gang had vanished ;-)

With the elder kids, I got to teach/test some maths. Priya & Santhosh were getting the rest on to painting with crayons. Priya drew some fundu outlines, and the kids colored them amazingly.

Nagaraja seems to be highly talented, here are his creations. This is a 'Jeebuba' in the making.

Well, we have just 4 saturdays left, need to get in lot more and newer activities to make school real attractive for kids. Remember, many of these kids will not continue with schooling, so need to make the school, a great place on Earth.

Interested ?, Join us, Saturday's 10:30 am onwards.....

Chinnara Angala 2

2006-05-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

Chinnara Angala@ Chalghatta school, April 30th. 60 kids, 4 volunteers.

Rajarshi went to check up other migrant labour sheds with a school inspector. Santosh down with fever, didn't turn up.

The kids got new notebooks, and got to write all that they know, and the new ones got to practise kannada alphabets. Sudhakar & me hung around. Rohit pulled out some disinterested kids. and got them playing games.

Later, the teacher was getting the kids play Dog 'n Bone.....itz a hit game anywhere...... I soon ran out of ideas.......and ended up putting them thru some simple Kalaripayattu jumps, kicks & poses. Here the kids try a peacock stunt.

Terribly short of volunteers, join us on saturdays 10:30am onwards. Clothes & toys badly needed.

Chinnara Angala

2006-04-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

The nicities stop with the name: Chinnara Angala (Children's playground)

Its a world one hardly notices. Make shift huts. Families. Both father & mother work. Work in constructing those appartments coming up all around Bangalore. Kids at home. Playing in their own Chinnara angala.

A play in a devilish field. Wasted childhood. No learning. Child labour. Soon a construction worker. Marriage. Kids. The devilish field again.

Solutions ??

I guess you can tackle the problem at various levels - macro, mini, micro - Lots of people already on the job. Yet, the construction worker kids remain in those devilish fields, the Devil very happy.

One solution is to educate the children. Give them a good education. An education that will be second to none. Well, does that sound too optimistic ? Lets settle for atleast basic literacy for ALL the kids. And, for lot more take them to 5th std, then 7th std and then yes, 10th std. And, then vocational/skill based training(ITI's , Diplomas). And, for those who really want to study furthur. Lets give them the opportunity that you and I had.

We at Dream School Foundation share this dream. Quality Education for everybody. We work to strengthen the govt. schools. These schools reach out to the under-previleged.

The education department has this programme called Chinnara Angala. 60 days during summer vacations. The primary school teachers focus their attention on the construction worker kids, school dropouts, and kids who have never been to school. The 60 day course, full time, Mon to Sat, 9:30 to 3:30 with support interms of meals & snacks helps in getting the child back to school. And, soon many are part of the regular school.

The Chalghatta school (right behind the B'lore airport) is running one such programme. And, volunteers from DSF assist it. We plan to have a lot of fun based learning. Lots of outdoor games are planned. With activities like painting, clay models, etc etc

Today, the programme started with around 20 kids. Many of these kids brought their baby brother/sister along. Later, we went on a drive to talk to parents, and get more children. Another 25 enrolled. The Chalgatta school HM Mary, along with teachers Lalitha & Bhuvenashwari went from hut to hut. A few regular school kids joined us in the march.

The construction worker kids are either Kannada speaking people from Raichur/Gulbarga or Telugu speaking crowd. We saw a few from Orissa too.

So, knowing Kannada/Telugu would be fantastic, but the lack of it shouldn't stop you. Our experience shows that the enthu of the volunteer makes all the difference.

Interested ?
Dash a mail to our DSF co-ordinator Maitreyee, or to Santosh or me.
Join us any saturday 10:30am onwards until June 14th 06.

You are needed to move the devil out of the Chinnara Angalla.

5 5 3

2006-04-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

Well, my 5th std kids....perhaps the last few saturdays I teach them....and then the summer holidays...and they become too big for our school.....and would have to walk upto the Chalgatta school for their 6th std.

We were seated on a 'jumkhana'....I hate indoors....so I always take them out....we sit on the cement floored corridor.....the sun is bright....the aeroplanes so close.

Me: Naayee..
They: D..O..G....dog....
Me: Naay chitra bidsee

That was it.......

The dogs came alive!!!!

Back to School

2006-03-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

Fortunately the Govt is getting organised off late. http://www.schooleducation.kar.nic.in/ gives a lot of statistics on education in Karnataka. There are about 51,000 govt. schools in Karnataka and over 1300 in Bangalore URBAN itself !!!

Also find lot of good statistics on http://www.azimpremjifoundation.org/html/statistics.htm There are many more such useful links - don't want to cram too much info here.

Check out the School search links on the Kar.nic.in site and try to find your schools -

Our Belur Nagasandra school is represented as GLPS Chalgatta at http://www.schooleducation.kar.nic.in/SchoolSearch/pssearch.asp

I'll upload some other important files on the egroup soon.

Back to School

Namma Shaaley

2006-03-22T08:33:00.000-08:00

Our School

Yes, itz our school.

The little school beyond Bangalore Airport. Its called the Bellur-Nagasandra Govt. Primary school. It has very bright & cheerful kids. First std to fifth std. Around 40+ totally. And, also an anganwaadi (creche) for the babies ;-))

What I really love 'bout this school is the numbers.....almost single digit kids in each class.....and that means soon you get to know ALL the kids.....and that you can teach ALL the kids............wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A lot of DSF volunteers reading this would surely feel envious of us ;-))

Yes, now the challenge is to make this school, a wonderful place for education.

Dream School Foundation has adopted this school, and Santosh Kumar & Preethi Ramesh have been the prime numbers ;-)

We would like to see a whole lot of volunteers coming in, and contributing.

We visit the school on saturday mornings.

Interested, dash us a mail or write to our DSF boss Mrs Maitreyee.