Smile Summer Camp 2011

TENSE MOMENTS

The Month of May is always special for students.

It’s filled with suspense, action & drama as the results get published this month…., especially for +2 students, who await in the cross-roads of their future.

The month is a tense period for Smile members too.

As the Punnagai Paalam (PP) team awaits the outcome of efforts put by them for the whole year, they start with the next batch of +2 students

EDITION 5.0

This year too, the exciting Summer Camp started on 1^st of May and would go on till end of the month. This is the 5^th edition of the camp.

It’s conducted in Kosapet & Waltax Road Government Orphanages every May.

This year, 22 students (15 from Kosapet & 7 from Waltax Rd) are appearing for +2 Public Exams.

“So, what’s new this year?” I asked Tamil, co-organizer of the camp, and he enlightened me a few minutes on their plans & schedules.

“This time our aim is just not to finish 30% of the +2 syllabus, that even the school is doing. Our approach is focused on to get the students out of the stress mode”, beamed Tamil.

“Oh! It sounds interesting… so how are you going to do that?”

“We are focusing on subjects on the weekdays, and the weekends are purely fun filled…. with mind games, personality development and many more.

Most of the +2 students in our country don’t have time to understand their subjects. They simply memorize all the maths formulae, physics laws & chemical equations.

They actually don’t have time to ask the WHYs & HOWs of what they study. This year the camp is concentrating on these aspects.”

This is a well thought out approach. Our students lack the basic fundamentals of the subjects, the consequence.., they find difficulties in learning under graduate subjects.

Tamil also briefed me on the ways in which they are going to train the students. They are conducting sessions to understand the derivation of maths formulae, interactive fun math sessions and practical applications of physics laws and video demonstrations of the important laws.

Is that all?? …. No, lots more are happening and would continue in the following weeks.

ADD-ONs

Vijayalakshmi (Viji), an Assistant Manager in an IT-based company takes Spoken English classes every Sunday;

Nanda & Velu, Smile volunteers have planned to take basics in Computer Proficiency;

Preethi, also a smile volunteer conducts mind games every weekend;

The team would be conducting Yoga classes from next week for 15 days continuously; (That’s amazing…!)

And this time it’s not going to be 30% of the portions, the target is 40% of the +2 portions, concentrating on Physics, Chemistry, Maths (PCM), Biology & English.

HELPING CRACK THE PUBLIC EXAMS

“It’s just not completing the portions quickly, our aim is to make all students score high and secure them seats in reputed colleges” says Tamil.

They are bringing in experts in PCM to teach students the knack of scoring high marks. These experts are school teachers in different schools across the state. They would teach students on the ways to structure the answers, on weightage given to each chapter/portion and the types of questions.

Whenever I happen to visit these homes, I always see a batch of students writing tests. Though it’s been very long since I last visited, I’m sure this practice would not have changed, may be the frequency of tests would have increased. Team Punnagai Paalam (PP) always believes in ‘daily tests strategy’.

This strategy of conducting regular tests is also taking place in the camp. Every day, 10.00AM to 1.00 PM is test time, and 2.00 to 3.00 PM is dedicated for maths formulae.

The cheerful part is that Sadhana 08 & 09 students like Nagalakshmi, Nirmala & Viji take care of the test sessions.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

As always, the students are given fresh fruits as snacks in the eve!

This initiative was taken by the Atchaya team couple of years ago, providing different fruits each day. Atchaya team also takes care of regular food during the course of the camp.

The books & stationary too are provided by them.

“We’ve also planned a Medical check-up for the students, to check out for symptoms that would lead to illness during this crucial year. We want all of them sound & healthy for the whole year.” - Nanda, in-charge of Atchaya activities told me.

END NOTES

Camps like these are the best way to inject motivation into the minds of the students. The way in which the programme has been structured is the best in recent times.

The team of trainers this year is a mix of government school teachers like Mr.Thandabani, smile volunteers including Viji & Dilip and PP veterans like Guna, Valli, Rajesh, Diwakar & Tamil.

A good start to the new academic year. I wish all the +2 students and Punnagai Paalam volunteers for yet another successful year!

With Smiles,

V.V