GLOVIS PROJECT REPORT – AUG/SEPT 2019

Glovis Sangamam project continues to support 61 schools in Poondi (53), Ellapuram (7) and Thiruvalangadu (1) blocks of Thiruvallur Dist. Here is a report of the various activities that took place during Aug and Sept 2019.

Education and Sport Materials

Every year we distribute educational and sports materials to all the supported schools. We started this process of this academic year in August. Educational and sports materials were purchased and distributed at all 61 Glovis Sangamam schools. Unlike the previous years, this year we gave materials directly to the children as well as some materials to the schools. Materials directly given to the children included,  Class 1 -- A notebook for writing numbers.  Classes 1 to 4 - A pouch with pencil, eraser, sharpener and scale.  Classes 1 to 5 -- 2 ruled and 4 ruled notebooks.  Class 5 -- A geometry box, a pen and a pocket dictionary.  Class 6 to 8 -- A dictionary, a pen and 5 long size unruled notebooks.

Besides these we also gave stationery and sports materials to the schools as well. These included,  Chart paper.  Picture charts.  Chalk, slates, and palpam.  Mats  Cricket bat / ball, shuttle racquet and cock, and a football and pump.  Other materials

Materials were ordered and were delivered to Thiruvallur in early September. Teachers sorted these and these were delivered to the school after 10th of Sept. On the 13th of September, Arun the CSR Coordinator from Glovis came with 3 more members of their staff, Vignesh, Sivakumar and Ruban to distribute the materials at 5 of the schools. Rajaram and Venkat from Asha also participated. We visited the schools at Pattarai Perumbudur, Melvilagam, Manjakuppam, Ramanjeri and Thirupakkam. At all the schools, the teachers there organised a small function for the distribution and were very appreciative of the support provided by Asha and Hyundai Glovis.

The distribution continued for the whole week. Materials were delivered to most of the schools. Our computer teachers checked the contents for each school and distributed it to the school and the children.

Click here to see all the photos from the distribution function on the 13th as well as the distribution of materials at all the schools in mid Sept.

End of Term

All the schools closed for Term I holidays on the 23rd of Sept. They had holidays till Oct 2nd. Before that the Term I exams started on the 16th of Sept for all the schools.

Teacher Training

Asha Chennai conducts a 5-day residential training for all its teachers in May. This is followed up by termwise trainings in Sept/Oct and Dec/Jan holidays. We recently held a series of training sessions. Further during the exam week the computer teachers cannot perform their normal work at the schools. During these weeks, the computer teachers come to the office. We try to have training sessions for the computer teachers during these weeks.

The week of Sept 16th was the exam week in Tamilnadu. Therefore on Sept 18th and 19th we organised training for all computer teachers in Thiruvallur. Since 20 of our computer teachers are in Thiruvallur, it was easier to organise it there. Asha Chennai has also started a new project with our sister chapter at Rajatalab near Varanasi, UP. The project there also aims to impart computer science education at government schools in that area. Three teachers have started working in that project and are going to 6 schools. They also came to Chennai for training along with their coordinator Suresh Rathour. Further computer teachers from our other projects Pearl, Thulasi and Poorna Vidhya also came for this training.

On Sept 18th the training focussed on how to use the Asha Kanini app for teaching general curriculum subjects to children. This covered general details on how to use this app as well as how to use the specific contents in various packages. The training was handled by Muthu as well as many of the computer teachers from the Sangamam project in Thiruvallur. Each teacher talked about the packages that they are knowledgeable in.

On Sept 19th the training focussed on how to teach computer science to the children. Three of our senior teachers, Kumari, Seetha and Rajkumari have been developing the curriculum and lesson plans based on the curriculum. They did most of the training for the new teachers. They were also informed about the Asha Impressions and also about what we look for in our computer science assessments. As part of this we also trained the teachers themselves on various things in the Openoffice Imrpess presentations as well as the Blockly and Scratch programming. The training from Sept 24th to 26th was mainly for the regular teachers. The training sessions were all held at Olcott Memorial School. They graciously hosted our training sessions like they usually do. On Sept 24th and 26th we had Maths training by Mrs. Meena Suresh and Mrs. from Ramanujan museum and centre for Math resources. They covered all topics in term II from classes 1 to 8. We have usually not been covering classes 6 to 8 in our training. This is the first time this is being done. All the regular teachers from all our projects attended the training sessions. Computer teachers from Sangamam and Poorna Vidhya also attended the sessions.

On Sept 25th there was a repeat of the Sept 18th training. Teachers from Thiruvallur did not participate in this. The training sessions were handled by Radhika and Kumari from Thiruvallur with some help from Muthu. Rajaram also gave general inputs to the teachers. This was attended by the regular teachers from Thulasi, Pearl, and Poorna Vidhya projects. We will handle this for the Sangamam teachers separately. Teachers from Olcott Memorial school and the Manigal project also attended these trainings. Click here to see the photos from all these trainings.

Upcoming Events

The regular activities will continue on to the next two months. We have started the process for the purchase of stationery materials, play materials and mats for the schools for the new school year. This will be completed during the next two month period.

New version of our contents and software for the computers will be ready by this time frame and we will install it in all the Asha and school computers.