Consecutive Weeks of CHORD school sessions

Third Week of Chord School sessions:

Fo we third session only three volunteers were present because of personal commitments of other volunteers. We planned to take up formal grammar classes. We thought of explaining 'Parts Of Speech'. You people won't believe if I say I studied Noun and Verb on Friday for couple hours. Finally when we went to the class on Saturday, we started with Proverbs which we gave as homework in the second session. Later we gave sentences and asked the students to point out noun and verb. Also, we asked them to form sentences with Verb. Many students used present continuous form of verb like eating, playing etc.. That session lasted till 11:00 a.m. After break we started explaining Parts of Speech. But many of them were feeling sleepy and few were not able to grasp. So, we started another activity. We gave them names of some items and asked them to act like salesperson of that product. They came up with their own scripts with our help and they acted well. Couple of groups did well in the second attempt after some modifications. Girls group won finally. With that activity we ended the session.

Fourth Week:

I could not attend fourth week session. Praveen and Gowtham took care of the session. They explained about Adjective and Pronouns. Praveen gave details about Police Officer or IPS since few of them asked him about it as career option. I could not tell about this session since I was not present. But Iam sure Praveen and Gowtham managed it well.

Fifth Week:

I joined late to this session. By the time I went Rajesh and Kranthi finished grammar part and they started video session. The video is about interview of one graduated girl. We played the video in parts and we asked them to play the same like introduction, talking to receptionist etc.. We covered many students who played the video as skit. We gave her homework to prepare for any topic in their subject which they have to explain in the next session. Hope they do it well :)

Second week of CHORD school programme

Friends,
The blog is continuation of writ up on our visits to CHORD school.
Last Saturday was the second visit to CHORD school. We were happy that students remembered our names. Tejo, one of the volunteers narrated one story about "When do we stop questioning". It was interesting. The moral of the story was that we should ask questions at appropriate time otherwise we may miss the actual information. He asked students about the moral of the story. Many were able to answer but in Telugu..We asked them to tell the same in English. With few attempts many were successful. Interesting part was that one of the students came to tell the story.

The second story was about "Think out of box- Lateral Thinking". It was about money lender and farmer's daughter. This story goes like this. A farmer was in debt to a crooked moneylender who was fond of farmer's daughter. One day he went to farmer with officials, expressed his desire to marry her and he proposed that he would cancel the debt for his daughter. But farmer rejected the offer and pleaded for more time to pay the debt. Then moneylender came up with another option. He would take two pebble one white and another black. If farmer's daughter picks white one then she would not have to marry him and farmer will get time to pay the debt and if she picks black one then she has to marry him and the father would have all the time he needed to pay off his debts at a favorable rate. Then money lender went to pick the pebbles from the road with number of black and white pebbles. Farmer's daughter noticed that he picked up two pebbles rather than one white and one black. He asked her to pick one pebble. She decided instantly and as she drew the stone out she fumbled it and quickly dropped it. The stone mixed with those on the road and was lost among all the others before anyone could identify it. “Oh dear!” she exclaimed. “How clumsy of me!” Then she explained. “But it is ok,” she said calmly. “We can simply look in the bag and see which color pebble remains inside. Then we will know the color of the pebble I had picked.” The officials looked in the bag and saw the black pebble. Therefore, they assumed, the farmer’s daughter had picked the white pebble which meant she did not have to marry the moneylender and her father would have more time to repay his debts at favorable rates.
This story was regarding "Lateral Thinking".

Tejo gave one puzzle to make them think out of box. The puzzle is that one basket contains six eggs. Six eggs have to be distributed to six persons. But condition is that one egg should remain in the basket. We asked students to solve it. One boy came up with answer but had difficulty in telling that in English. We helped him to speak up in English. Few students volunteered to tell the answer in English. We made most of them to tell the answer. We were able to cover most of the students.
Just after the break, we played video "Mind your language" which is fun video on communication.

Next Praveen gave small presentation on Aeronautics. He has chosen this topic because in first session, couple of boys expressed their interest in Aeronautical Engineering as their career option. The presentation went well. They asked doubts and Praveen clarified most of them.

In the meantime Rajesh, Kranthi and myself asked three students (one girl and two boys) to perform skit which is in the video we played for them. We rehearsed the skit in separate room during presentation. After rehearsal three of them performed the skit in front of their friends. It was awesome. We had more fun than we had when we watched the video.

These were the activities of second week. Next week we are planning to take up grammar classes, however, with activities. Will come up with more posts on the coming sessions.

Visit to CHORD school

Hey friends,
After so many days came up with my experience during visit to CHORD school. This school is run by some NGO in Bachupally. They are providing free education to the poor children or semi-orphans upto 12th standard. I like the way they take the initiation to provide help to the needy. Every time I see the children begging near traffic signals or near some gates I feel can I make any difference to them.Earlier I used to think that I should have some power or authority to offer help to them. But now after visiting couple of schools (NICE school in Guntur district and Bachupally school) I came to know that we don't need any authority to offer help. The only two things we need is heart to help the needy and determination to help them. With these we can extend our hand to help them. They are not different from us. They are also human beings and they too have right to live their lives as they want. The life they are spending on roads is not because of their choice. Owww.. I have gone too far. Coming back to our visit to CHORD school.
The person named Suman who is among the board members running the school contacted our corporate to extend the help to the children. Students in +1 and +2 don't have full time English teacher. Also they need to improve in communication skills since after 12th standard they have to go out and seek the job appropriate to that level of education. We planned some activities for 2 hours like small introductory session, games related to communication etc.
Seven of us from our office (different groups) visited the school on Saturday i.e. 23rd Jul. The school is in 4-storey building. It is residential school. Suman talked to us first in his office and told about the students, their drawbacks, what they needed and how we can help them. Later he clubbed the students of 11th standard and 12th standard. I observed that many of them were not wearing slippers. Many were shy. Looking at us they were whispering among themselves.
Small introductory session was given by Rajesh(my teammate). We selected few students and asked them to give brief introduction of their best friends. It was fun. One of the two friends is confident and one is shy. For some the friends even their favourite actors are same :). We observed their introduction, asked them to repeat the introduction with few corrections. Next we introduced ourselves and asked our names again. Rajesh's name was heard loudly :). The next activity was Jumbled Words. We divided 40 students into four groups A,B,C and D.
I wrote the words jumbled and asked each group. Very few were active but they were helping their teammate in finding out the word. It went for one hour. Their mentor asked to take a break. But they were shouting that they don't want break. We felt happy at least we could keep up their interest with our activities. Even though they didn't want the break we took 10 minutes break.
After break we gave jumbled sentences. They answered many of them. Last activity was Dumb Charades. Paromita explained them how to play like how to show English, Telugu or Hindi word, how many words etc. They found difficulty in the first query. It was Lion's Tail. I showed it to them. I love this game and I am good at this one. I hesitated to act in front of our colleagues and students. But then I thought I came here to make them speak confidently and to teach them how to overcome shyness and now I am hesitating, I should not feel shy or hesitate in the first place. So, I signalled the word to them. They found the word with few attempts. Later we gave couple of words and they enjoyed the game. Their mentor came to remind us that time was over. He picked of couple of guys to come up in front of the class and introduce themselves to each other. They were tough guys. It took 15 minutes for us to make them ask each other's names. Later we sent back them to their places without completing their introduction. It happens like that in such schools. Few will be active. Many of the students in villages feel shy to speak in front of the audience. We appreciated the active guys in each team. I must mention girls team scored high :).
At the end we talked with Suman. He got excited about fund collection. I must not mention that stuff. Overall the visit was awesome. We planned some activities for next weekend. We are planning to make these visits valuable and useful to them. They have to overcome their shyness now itself since they have to look for the jobs immediately after 12th standard. Most of them can't go for graduation. If we make them to build their communication skills then we would be able to make some difference as I mentioned in first para.
Will post more updates on the activities in the coming weekends :)

The article was published in hindustan times regarding Prelims in 2011:

The first big reform in the way India selects its civil servants is around the corner.
The government has decided to replace the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination with the Civil Service Aptitude Test (CSAT), which will test candidates on their aptitude and analytical abilities rather than their ability to memorise.
The UPSC is further expected to push for changes in the Civil Service (Mains) Examination.“The CSAT is expected to come into effect from 2011,” Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Prithviraj Chavan, told Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
A government source said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had last month approved the revamp of the preliminary exam on lines suggested by the Union Public Service Commission. The UPSC is further expected to push for changes in the Civil Service (Mains) Examination.

But this will be only after examining the response to changes in the first stage.
Nearly 1.7 lakh candidates take the objective-type exam in May every year.
The prelims consist of two papers: the first is on general studies and common to all; candidates can then choose the second paper from a list of two dozen-odd subjects. The general studies paper might be tweaked but it is the second paper that will undergo a major change.
The UPSC had told the government two years ago there was a need to test not just the knowledge of aspirants in particular subjects but their aptitude for "a demanding life in the civil services". It had also recommended bringing down the number of attempts a candidate could take. But Singh has kept this aspect on hold.
A top government official said UPSC chairman Professor D.P. Agrawal has constituted a high-powered committee - under former University Grants Commission vice-chairman Professor S.K. Khanna - to work out the details of the two papers. “The committee has been given time till April-end. Then the UPSC will discuss its recommendations with the government and finalise the content of the paper,” the official said.

We are not sure whether it will come into effect from 2011 or later. They have to confirm it soon or else the effort put by many aspirants will be in vain. It is waste for the aspirants appearing for the first time to prepare in the current format since very few get success in the first attempt. I am in dilemma. Anyway this year my preparation is not that good. So, for me it doesn't matter. But, yeah I bought almost all books including books specific to prelims. We need to keep our fingers crossed for good to happen huh .......

Sources of important information on Civils preparation

I found few sites where the civil aspirants can get very useful information regarding the preparation, books, current affairs, forums on various subjects etc.

Those sites are:
http://www.indianofficer.com/
http://saptarshinag1.blogspot.com
http://mrunal-exam.blogspot.com

These three sites are very helpful. I found them very useful.
Mrunal's posts are very descriptive and give more information. He updates the with new information as well as give suggestions on how to prepare and what to prepare. He even gave the complete analysis like what chapters one has to read and make notes on public administration. And do you know he is not qualified Officer. He is one of the aspirants like me. He is doing fantastic job on his part.

We miss our friend

She joined office in December. She is very talkative. Her marriage was fixed by that time and she used to talk about her engagement and fiancee. She talks in such a way that everybody gets interested in listening rather than talking.
Her wedding took place in March of the following year. I planned to attend but could not because of lack of leaves. She took one month leave and returned in April after Honeymoon. She came up with bunch of sweet memories.
She is kind of girl who cannot hide her feelings or thoughts. She speaks a lot. She was good entertainer. Earlier (before she joined) our coffee breaks were short. But after she joined our coffee breaks were extended to half an hour. She is our lunchmate too. At the lunch time we spent in the park after having lunch listening to her stories.
She talks mainly about her husband and her life in the weekends when she visits her husband (her husband is working in other city). Except her remaining of us (lunch team comprises four) are bachelors. Sometimes she speaks about the things which were unknown to us (as we are unmarried and we don't know about married life and formalities to be done among in laws etc. :-)). Any topic we used to start that ended with the topic of her husband. This showed us how much she is fond of her husband and how caring she is.
She resigned recently and we also shifted from old facility to new facility. Here she is not with us. She is now with her husband. I hope she is happy now to be with her hubby :). We miss her gossip and her laugh. She was so caring that I used to share my feelings with her.
I REALLY MISS HER.

Feeling Lazy

I am feeling so lazy these days that I am getting up at 7:30 in the morning. I am doing nothing extra except my office work and that is also in office only. I have to prepare for Civil Services Examination. If I am going to write exam next year, I have to start preparation at least now. This year I had ruined my chance. I came to know at the time of last preparation itself that we have to start preparing for the exam immediately after the college. But the thought of applying for exam came to my mind after 1 year. Now see I am not at all reading. Reading means reading newspaper only till now. In college days (good olden days), we used to wake up at 5:30 or 6 though exams were far away. In hostel(working women's hostel), environment is such that I am disturbed or I myself not willing to even read. But I have to read anyway. I have to take it seriously and get myself motivated.
WISH ME ALL THE BEST YAAR :-)