Enrichment in English Programme

A three day training "Enrichment in English Programme" was organized at Youth Hostel premises at
Indira nagar, Chennai from 9 Dec, 2013 to 11 Dec, 2013. Forty four (44)
select participants from various districts underwent the training. The programme was aimed to address two issues 1) Improving language skills 2) Providing awareness on various dynamics of living for VTs staff at the grassroots level.

The President of VT set the tone for the programme by outlining the objectives. Mr. Sri Sridharan one of the benefactors of Vidyarambam inaugurated the programme. He praised the commitment of the President and the achievement of VT over the last 11 years.

To the participants besides praising them for their efforts, he stressed the importance of listening, reading and writing. He advised them to listen to English news bulletins, and other programmes in the language on television.

Later Mrs. Jyothi Thomas, a Consultant and Trainer introduced Ms. Neelam from Kalvi Trust. Ms. Neelam is a young teacher who specializes in Montessori method of education for children.

Ms. Neelam dealt on the following :
The life of Maria Montessori, her analyses and the philosophy behind the system of education she designed.
The articles of faith in the system which are:
i) follow the child
ii) place faith in the child
iii) respect the freedom of the child.

The children normally are grouped in three age bands: 0-3, 3-6, 6-12
The learning materials and the ways are designed for aiding basic movements and progressively taken to complex activities according to the age group. Plenty of physical objects are designed with in-built error avoidance as to aid children to develop their cognitive skills.

Activities are carefully designed to nurture their social sensitivity and other virtues.

Largely the activities are carefully designed towards an integrated development of children.
At the conclusion of the session, Mr. Ranganathan contrasted the phonetic system in the Montessori system with the one designed by Vidyarambam. Three of the participants Selvakumari, Rajapriya and Revathi demonstrated the a few of the phonetic ways devised for VTs English sessions.

The post-lunch session started with Mr. Ashraff of Life Academy, on Life Skills. He started out with exercises for thumb and other fingers, which he called “neurobix”. The exercise he explained was aimed at stimulating the nerves and improve the neuro-motor functioning.

He explained us the distinction between knowledge and training. While knowledge is completely a mental activity, training involves understanding as well as well as working on skill, both mental and physical for achieving perfection in a task usually by repetition. Also he explained the linkage between success and happiness.

Participants were given a puzzle were given 5 random flat pieces and were asked to arrange in a square form. Quite a few participants could successfully get the pieces in the required shape.

In the last session, Mrs. Jyothi Thomas and her daughter Kavitha enthralled the participants with the music with guitar as accompaniment. It was a participative activity and all enjoyed.

II day 10 Dec.,2013

Ms. Sukanya recapitulated the previous day's programmes. Then Mr. Sri Sridharan went about "Ask me Questions". The participants were are asked to guess about a person, whose identity was not revealed. The participants have to zero in on the personality based on the correctness of guesses. None among the participants could guess the person. Finally he revealed the personality. He then went through the exercise on pronunciation, memory link and the techniques to construct words.

In the second session of the morning Mr. NandhaKumar, a Trainer and an HR professional talked on "Magic of Mind". Skills according to him can broadly be classified into 1) Technical skill 2) Soft skills. According to him the conscious mind makes up only 10% and the unconscious mind influences 90% of our external decisions. He explained us the relationship, the dynamics between the Conscious mind, Intellect, Ego, Cognition and memory. He said that the Ego which identifies the self with the mind-body, and gives us the notion of individuality. The sub-conscious is seen as the seat of long term memory, emotions, habits, instincts and creative imagination.

He briefly touched on the left-right brain functions. Researchers he said believe that while the left part of the brain is associated with conscious mind, the right brain with the unconscious mind.
He explained the power of visualization for achieving the goals. The mind, body works on achieving the goals visualized.
In the post-lunch session Mrs. Geetha Raghavan, an educator, cousellor and who works on dyslexic individuals started her session. She elaborated on the Left and Right brain functions. There are eight types of intelligence which are:
1) Inter-personal
2) Intra-personal
3) Movements related like sports, musical, dance and kinesthetics
4) Verbal (languages)
5) Logical (like maths, accounting and scientific)
6) Visual-spatial (like that in artists, architects, designers and gardeners)
Each individual can be endowed with a combination of a few of those intelligences.
She ended her session by asking the participants to be positive and cultivate self-belief.

The last session of day was conducted by Dr. Arumugam Gurusamy, Country Programme Manager, Christian Children's Fund of Canada.

There are two types of knowledge, according to him : Information knowledge and Technical Knowledge. He explained the difference between ordinary and extraordinary as well about source and resource.

He too stressed the importance of reading is language learning. He narrated his personal experiences in learning English in unfavourable circumstances.

He showed us the video clip of the former Prime Minister Shri. A.B. Vajpayee touching the feet of the humble lady Chinnapillai while giving away the Sri Sakthi Puraskar for her initiative in mobilizing rural women.
He said we are mostly obsessed with our position and recognition. He reminded the participants of the importance of setting goals and working towards it. One has to be in competition with one's own previous achievements, he said. His session was laced with humour and all the participants were in splits.

Day III, 11 Dec. 2013

The day started with a session by Mr. Karthik of ALERT on dealing with emergencies on accident victims. He briefly introduced the participants on the nature of activities in which ALERT is in. He was to say that the former President Sri. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was involved in setting the goals for their organization. It now has over 23000 trainers in just 6 years of its existence. They sensitise the people of the "Golden hour care"and emergency responses that have to be followed.

He went about on the responses that have to taken on road accident victims. He explained the two widely adopted measures, Circulation - Air- Breathing (CAB) and Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and demonstrated using a mannequin. He explained the proper way of arresting blood wastage due to injury. Also he talked of steps to be followed for resuscitating victims who get drowned.

Mr. Karthik conducted the session in a thoroughly professional manner.

After the lunch-break, Mrs. Felicity Saldhana, formely with YWCA started her session on Child Rights and Development.

She briefly spoke on:

a) Freedom of Speech,
b) Caste, religion at work
c) Culture in community
d) Pollution in environment
e) Life as a free movement
f) Right to life

She talked on the factors inhibiting the growth of children and also how they are abused widely. The Right of Child to Education and the facilities it requires for full growth are a matter of concern. Also she reminded the participants on the role of women especially the mother in the growth of a child.

In the last session of the day, Mr. Ramesh Nahar, a Chartered Accountant and a Rotarian introduced the participants to the technique of "Mind Mapping". The term was first used by one Tony Buzan in the year 1976.

In an exercise that he took up he took up a subject "School". The physical and intangible features of a school are to be connected to SCHOOL placed at the centre of the chart. This he said gives a comprehensive understanding of a subject. Students have greatly benefited by the technique, he said.

The 3 day programme ended with a round-up by the founder-Trustee Sri. V.Ranganathan.