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Category: Olcott School

Blog, Olcott School, Photography

Photography at Olcott School

Children can never be stereotyped and should never be! Because, you never know when they can pull a surprise on you. It happened at the Olcott School… I’ve not seen this bunch of Children at the school as excited and happy, as they were last saturday, showing off the photos they clicked.

Photos clicked by the children…

Usually, it takes some coaxing to get them to talk – but today was different. We had students enthusiastically come to the front of the class, show us what they clicked, describe the photo and explain how they clicked.

Usually, the children wait for the ‘school bell’ at 12:30 pm – today , was different . We had to close the class at 12:45 , against their wishes!!! The children were hanging around at the class, eager to show what they clicked and also to listen & learn from the volunteers on photography.

These sessions drive home the point real hard – Make learning more fun for the Children. Every child is curious and wants to learn. Through an activity that engages the children , our class must utilise their natural curiosity and enthusiasm, to make them ‘learn’.

This method is not just for Photography – Can we extend the fun learning to English & Computers too ?

Btw, The activity for the day was to split the class into groups of 4/5 students. Each group was guided by a volunteer with a Digital Camera. Children were free to go around the school and click photos on 2 themes – what they like about the school and what they do at school.

Blog, Kakkan Colony, Olcott School, pudiyador, UK

Deepam Sessions Aug 1-2 weekend

Centre Day Timings Center Location Centre Lead Contact
Olcott School 1 Aug 9-30am to 1-00 pm Near Besant Nagar Beach Dr.Karthick 9444440713 drkarthick[at]ledentiste[dot]in
Uroor Kuppam 1 Aug 2-30 to 4-30 pm Near Besant Nagar Beach Balaji 9884277487 braghavan[at]gmail[dot]com
Kakkan Colony 1 Aug 4-30 to 6-30 pm Besant Avenue, near Fruit shop Basu 9940064384 shankarnarayananbasu[at]gmail[dot]com
Pudiyador 2 Aug 11-00 to 1-00 pm Vannathurai Anupama 9003269018 anupama.s3[at]gmail[dot]com

apologies for the late post

Blog, Deepam, KC, Olcott School, pudiyador, UK

Deepam Sessions July 18-19th weekend

Centre Day Timings Center Location Centre Lead Contact
Olcott School 18 July 9-30am to 1-00 pm Near Besant Nagar Beach Dr.Karthick 9444440713 drkarthick[at]ledentiste[dot]in
UK 18 July 2-30 to 4-30 pm Near Besant Nagar Beach Balaji 9884277487 braghavan[at]gmail[dot]com
KC 18 July 4-30 to 6-30 pm Besant Avenue, near Fruit shop Basu 9940064384 shankarnarayananbasu[at]gmail[dot]com
Pudiyador 19 July 11-00 to 1-00 pm Vannathurai Anupama 9003269018 anupama.s3[at]gmail[dot]com

Blog, Computers, Deepam, KC, Olcott School, pudiyador, UK

Deepam Sessions July 4-5th weekend

Centre Day Timings Center Location Centre Lead Contact
Olcott School 04 July 9-30am to 1-00 pm Near Besant Nagar Beach Dr.Karthick 9444440713 drkarthick[at]ledentiste[dot]in
UK 04 July 2-30 to 4-30 pm Near Besant Nagar Beach Balaji/Anu 9884277487 braghavan[at]gmail[dot]com
KC 04 July 4-30 to 6-30 pm Besant Avenue, near Fruit shop Basu 9940064384 shankarnarayananbasu[at]gmail[dot]com
Pudiyador 05 July 11-00 to 1-00 pm Vannathurai Anupama 9003269018 anupama.s3[at]gmail[dot]com

Anniversary Celebrations, Blog, Deepam, Education, Nalamdana, Olcott School, pudiyathor

MarkYour Calendars-Deepam Annual Day -7th March 2009

First Saturday of March every year Deepam turns another year old.

This year its on Saturday 7th March 2009 that Deepam celebrates its First Anniversary.Its been a roller coaster year- our first year with loads of activities that have kept us busy on all the weekends.Deepam from a 20 member group has more than 200 members on facebook today.New programs have been launched, New centers have been approached and courses have been launched there , reach to several underprivileged students across Chennai city , computer and other resources have been provided to the centers, new activities, additions to curriculum etc etc .All this has been possible only bcos of the dedication and commitment of volunteers off-line and on field.Thank you all for your support!

Its time to celebrate now.None of you needs an invitation as you are all a part of one big “Deepam Family”
So “BE THERE” on the 7th March between 2.00 PM and 4PM to witness the Annual Function of Deepam at Nalamdana Centre, Besant Nagar.Meet all our students from different centers, interact with them, perform with them and take home a bunch of good memories and smile that will last for a long time.Guests are welcome.

Anniversary Celebrations, Blog, Deepam, IQL, Nalamdana, Olcott School, Quiz

Did You Know-what gas is filled in electric bulbs? What do we call the study of birds?

The answer to such similar questions as above unfolded at the Deepam Annual Quiz 2009 that was organized by the volunteers at Nalamdana and Olcott High school this week.

While the quiz at Olcott school had three teams with one volunteer and two kids in every team and Basu playing the quiz master ,Nalamdana had Moorthy and Karthik Narayan from the IQL who were the quiz masters for the day and the centre had five teams with 3 kid in every team,

The quiz had several general knowledge rounds, audio rounds and visual rounds, We had rounds on Indian Epics, On Indian Monuments, Musical Instruments, Famous Personalities etc The kids were eager to know their question and answer them and win more points than others. A big thanks to Anupama, Shwetha, Pramod, Karthik and Moorthy for having helped us with the questions and organizing the various rounds and making them simple yet interesting. Our Quiz masters, scorers and volunteers at both the centers’ again deserve a huge round of applause for making it another success story.

The Irony : The ultimate winners were TEAM A in both the centers’. Special prizes wIll be given to them on the final day of anniversary celebrations on 7th March 2009. If you wish to sponsor this event or any other event do contact us.

PS:The answers to the questions above are Argon; Ornithology



Besant Nagar Class, Blog, dancing, Kids, Nalamdana, Olcott School, singing, Talent Hunt

Deepam Talent Hunt 2009-Anniversary Celebrations Event 2

For all those who couldn’t be there…this is what u missed.Hope to see u all next week 🙂

Deepam Talent Hunt 2009 –Olcott School
Judges: Paras and Dr Karthik
Winner: Karunakaran
Sang two numbers : Prayer song and on public request a Tamizh Movie song
His USP over others: Confidence and made the right choice to perform what he was best at Deepam Talent Hunt 2009 –Nalamdana
Judges: Paras and Anuradha
Winner :Hemesh Danced for Taxi Taxi- one of the most popular Tamizh numbers of 2008
His USP over others : He did what he loved doing – Danced carefree and dint bother about any one around.Choreography was original and appreciated by the judgesSpecial Mentions
Pavithra and Priya (Deepam Sisters )
Sang Munbe Va Anbe va – yet another famous Tamizh number sung by Shreya Ghosal
Their USP: They complemented each other and neither overdid the other..total sync
Group Dance by Nirmala- Rajni Troupe They displayed “Kolattam”-south Indian Dandiya for the song Mukunda Mukunda Their USP: Planned well, rehearsed well and simple choreography
Other Highlights :
Paras on the guitar and lending his vocal chords for “Orrey Nyabagam-Minnale“ Anbu singing melodiously a yester year tamizh movie number :Rasathi Unnai

Dr Karthik choosing to sing and also beautifully completing the song Mundinam from Vaarnam Ayiram
Karthikeyan (KK) at the strings bringing back the nostalgic Titan tune -a bonus for the Olcott kids
Balaji keeping up his promise and singing the number “Its amazing when you say nothing at all” Anuradha cheering every single participant and consoling the kids that there is still a good chance next year if they did not make it this year 🙂

Blog, Olcott School

The Connect

The Connect is a ‘high’ – Like the dancing the right moves to the beat , timing the ball perfectly well with the cricket bat , Pacing a 15 km run well over the course and sprinting to the finish, picking the right song for that car drive at night, packing the right “to-do’s” in a day – never too much or little , business meetings going the way we’d prepared for and many more.

Yesterday i found a few more connects and high’s during the Deepam class at Olcott School.

  • The kid we taught at the school trying to reply in English – His Tamil response and the sentence being translated and formulated in English by him ( and the joy on his face when we said he was right !! )
  • This other kid ( after being “talked to ” by me ) going back to his computer and working along with his team mates and helping them with tricks of using Word processor
  • The class listening to Basu teach them and stopping him to ask questions !
  • Kids coming to class on time and finishing the ‘home work ‘
The little joys on saturday afternoon !