Eureka Schools

"Every Student can Learn, Just not on the Same Day, or the Same Way...." --- George Evans

Volume 1, Issue 1

Newsletter Date - 3rd Nov 2011

Special points of interest:

Eureka School teachers training by our Research Group Sudheshana a volunteer shares her spoken English class experience Shankara Netralaya conducted Eye Camp at Vembakkam School Umarani, English teacher, Koovathur prepared her own grammar worksheet for children. About Pongal festival a write up from Rajeshwari 4th grade, Vembakkam School Visitors comments about our Eureka School Koovathur A case study about gaiyathri, 5th grade in Koovathur school

Training for Primary School teachers by ERG

Eureka Schools teacher training was held on 15th of October, 2011, Saturday at Eureka Block office. 6 Teachers, 5 Resource Person, 4 Staffs from Laya and Periyammal Trust and 6 Volunteers participated in this training. This is the first training we are organizing in this academic year. Math Training: The math training started with the review of last quarters goals. This training was mainly focused on training teachers on simple techniques for teaching areas and perimeters for regular and irregular shapes. Mr. Tarnus involved the teachers actively while demonstrating the activities. He also gave some inputs on fractions and integers to our teachers. Pre-primary Training: Ms. Deepa and Ms. Revathi gave the training for the pre -primary teachers. In Tamil and English Jingles with actions, weather charts, and Fine motor skills was the focus. In language training on how to teach Uyir Mei Ezhuthukkal was the focus. In Math the training was on number identification from 1 to 40 for LKG and up to 100 for UKG. In Science they trained teachers on doing 5 simple experiments. English Training: Ms. Sumangali, Ms. Nalini and Ms. Mala conducted the training on English reading, writing, and speaking components for teachers in Std1 to 3.

Sudheshana, a volunteer shares her English Class experience ...

The weekly trips to the Eureka Kids' School at Walodai have been quite an experience. It has been almost two months and our group of volunteers are still zealous about continuing the English classes. Since this was going to be an English conversation class we thought it best to make them proficient enough to speak a few lines about themselves and be able to question and answer about several basic information. In our 1st class, in an attempt to get familiar with the students, we had played word building games. The vocabulary of some of the students in standard six is noteworthy. In English they must have a basic understanding of the language before they can hold conversations. For example, they tend to construct sentences in English as in Tamil. The school has successfully provided the children with an overall educative environment. I was highly impressed by the teacher-student relationship in this school. Now we started taking English classes for the teachers of Eureka and nearby schools. It is very inspiring to come across such a well-coordinated school in the middle of nowhere. But I think the assessment procedure should be a little stricter. There are a few students who should be more comfortable in lower classes. Also, I would like to point out that if the voluntary classes have to be fruitful, at least one Tamil

Kids Work

Eye Camp at Vembakkam

AID Indias Health Team Arogyam along with Sankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital, St. Thomas Mount conducted Eye Camp for our Eureka School, Vembakkam on Gandhi Jayanthi (2nd of October). 145 kids benefitted from this camp. 12 kids were advised for another screening, for which they have to come to Chennai during November.

Teachers Initiative
Our Koovathur School English Teacher, Ms. Umarani, took help from Mr. Siddharth and Ms. Sowmiya, TCS Volunteers who were teaching spoken English for our IV, V and VI grade Koovathur kids regularly for the grammer component and she designed few grammer worksheets herself and took notes from their classes, clarified her doubt with them and she started teaching those in her regular class as reinforcement. They both praised her curiosity to make her kids to do well.

Visitors Feedback about our School

On 2nd September: Ms. Shalini Shastri, No Logo Group It has been our pleasure visiting this school and knowing more about Eureka Child, It is fascinating to know that the level of learning among children is so high here. Thanks to the dedicated teachers and their commitment towards making education a fun process. Keep it up!!

On 20th September: Mr. Raghuveeran and Bhaskaran, Present administrator of Sri Valli Varadaraj Matric School, Theni The Scarcity of words in English language makes me not to express my beautiful thoughts. I enjoyed teaching and learning with the children. The innovative teaching aid simply superb. Excellent work. Keep up the good work. October MonthKalpakkam Township KG School: 2 staffs from DAE KG school from kalpakkam township visited our school. They loved the way we are handling kg classes. They particularly liked our skill charts and methodology. They are interested in getting our training and using our resources.

On 19th September: Ms. Shalini Umachandran, The Times of India Did Maths and Science with the children. I think some of them add faster than me! I have enjoyed seeing how much the children know and how creative the teaching methods are!!

School Addresss
Eureka Primary & Middle School Anaicut Road, Walodai, Parameshwara Mangalam Village, Cheyyur Taluk, Kancheepuram (PO) 603 305 Eureka Nursery & Primary School, Main Road, Venkatrayanpettai, Vembakkam PO, Cheyyar Taluk, Thiruvannamalai 604 402

Gayathri, 5th grade love problems!

ing flowers for their living. They are earning around 3,000 rupees per month. They say that even this they wont earn during the rainy season. She is very good at mental math and also solving some complex word problems, which involves lots of procedure, and also fractions. She proudly said she wanted to become a Math Teacher in our Eureka School itself. Her favorite subject is English and Math.

Gayathri is studying in V Standard in our Eureka School, Koovathur. She comes from a very poor family. Her parents are sell-