Weekend Activities: 22 Nov 2009

This was a special day for UWF as two new people were joining us for the noble cause. It was none other than Siva and Dinesh. Siva is from Arupukottai and we got to know from a UWF member Kishore. Dinesh, who lives near Chikka Ballapur, is a relative of our volunteer Sridhar and is from Cuddalore. Both were much interested to teach students. Siva had well prepared Physics for X standard as he was informed in advance. But we were yet to allocate subjects and classes for Dinesh.

The plan was decided the before night that Siva and I will come together in Siva’s two wheeler. Sridhar would meet us at IGIA around 10 am. And, Dinesh will come directly to IGIA. Sunday morning, Siva and I reached IGIA by 09:30 and Dinesh joined us by 10:00. We met Kokilavani and called in IX, X and XI students to their respective classes. But we were told that she will ask all the students to assemble after their breakfast. Finally all students came by 11:00 am. I introduced Siva to X students and Dinesh to IX students. I left to handle XI commerce girls.

Siva handled Physics while Dinesh Mathematics and Social Science. Siva covered Gravitation lesson fully and an introduction to Rockets and Artificial Intelligence. All the students were very attentive and very interested to study about physics. Kamal had come and handled Kannada for X standard.

I went to XI students only to see them very dull. Then I decided to take them to the computer lab after they assured me to write the test in the evening. In the computer lab, I opened up a spare CPU and was telling about the motherboard, processor, RAM, SMPS, HDD, CD ROM, FDD etc. They were very much interested to learn and many people jotted down what ever I told them. Their understanding was revealed in the test which they wrote in the evening.

Sooner, Sridhar joined me to help out the basics of computers. He posed a few questions to check their level of understanding. I found it to be too good, expect the same from him! Later I told them about keyboard, keys, mouse etc and asked them to work individually. After the classes were finished for X and IX students, Kamal, Sridhar, Siva and Dinesh joined me in the computer lab. We decided to teach each student individually on the MS Office package. We started the work with making them understand the folder structure, how to create a file, how to adjust the font size etc.

After this, we went for lunch . During post lunch, we had one hour of computer practice and again we went back to our class rooms. Siva was busy with physics, Dinesh with Social Science & Biology and I with Accounts test.

Around 5:30 pm, after the tea break, a few XI boys approached us that even they want to go to the computer lab and learn about computers!!! It was a shock for us. We can even state that its a success story for our association. Congrats people!!! Each one of you are part of this success! One of the Diploma students approached us to teach some physics experiment. He told that he sees us almost all the weekends and so he decided that we would help him out. Though we were not helpful, he was happy with us and our work. This is the second success story. When XI students were writing the test, Kokilavani had come inside. I was not in the class. And asked her if there were any problem as she was in the class. She told “neenga irukra varaikkum engalukku endha problemum illa, pasanga rumba nalla padikraanga”. This is the third one!!! XI student Sutharshana who was once saying that she is not interested to learn/study has started to say that she is afraid of the exams because she just started to learn things with interest. This is the fourth one!!! The fifth one, Warden accepting what ever we say. Its because of the trust!!! 5 success stories in about 4-5 months.

We were close to 07:00 pm and were about to end up the day’s tasks. As Sridhar was busy handling XI boys, I went for collecting feedback for Siva and Dinesh.
Please find the comments from the students:
X Students:
“Naan idhu varaikkum classa kavanichadhae illa… aana siva anna edutha classa rumba nalla kavanichaen… endha timela endha question kaetalum answer pannuvaen”
“Siva anna edutha concepts apadiyae en manasula nikkudhu. Epo venum naalum test vainga”
“Physicsku Siva annava thavirthu vera yarum venam”

IX Students:
“Biologyku Dinesh anna dhan venum, avaru illana Shanmuga anna… vera yarum venam!!!”
“Supera edutharu. Endha subjecta eduka sonnalum, azhaga enga ellarukkum purira madhiri edutharu”

After the feed back session, we started from IGIA.
Members, let us bring in many success stories in the future. It’s a happy information that almost everyone at IGIA has started to listen to us. They have started to show interest in studies. We can achieve more if the same pace is going on.

~Anup