"When you win and the other fellow loses, what do you see? A losing face. There is great joy in losing and making the other person win and have a happy face. Who will be the happiest person? The one who brings happiness to others."
.. Swami Satchidananda
V-Excel News
The Ayudha Pooja was done on 11th October, paying our respect to those implements and things that help us make learning and teaching a significant activity for children's progress. On this day, we clean and prepare our premises, classes and departments to welcome a fresh new term.
The music concerts have become a very enjoyable monthly event. This month, on the 18th, we had lovely vocal singing by Smt. Geetha Rajashekar, an accomplished Carnatic vocalist. She was ably accompanied by Karaikal Subramaniam on the violin and Delhi Sairam on the mridangam. As usual, it was a treat for our children and the staff!
A Unit Heads meeting was conducted on 21st October where many important issues were discussed. The focus was on seeing how a more systematized way of working can be evolved for increasing both, efficiency and effectiveness. Many valuable suggestions were given and we shall be working on those in the coming months.
Grandparents Day was conducted by Sarmishta and Anandhi, our Counselors. The objective of such events is to provide a platform to the family members of our children with special needs. The concerns and issues faced by them are unique and in this case too, being the immediate extended family, the grandparents were found to be deeply affected and openly shared their feelings. We hope to be able to help them help themselves as well as their grandchildren.
Deepavali celebrations were a runaway success this year! Many of our parents brought their children along and enjoyed the colourful burst of pattas (crackers). Sweets were distributed to all. Thanks to the Rotary Club of Chennai Port Trust for their contribution and for joining in whole-heartedly in this fun event.
Kaleidoscope Learning Centre
We had Navratri celebrations just before the school break. The whole school gathered in the foyer; some helped with arranging the dolls and then sang bhajans which is the traditional celebration of 'golu'. The school reopened on 14th October, the Vijayadasami day which is auspicious for new beginnings. Bala a new child, joined prevocational class from our Remedial Center.
The school went through some maintenance work during the break, for which the administrative staff represented by Sivaprakash and the Akkas were formally thanked by the children during their first music session of the new term; they sang and gave a letter of appreciation to the staff.
The classes are now getting spruced up for the new block and the physical environment is changing for many classes as some classes move up to the next grade. So Grade 2 has now become a bluish green in keeping with Grade three and Grade three becomes more blue as they also move up to Grade 4. So curtains and daris are changing and Grade 5 who explore the battles and history of the Trojan war has a new doorway forming an arch in line with the Greek block that they are going to embark upon. All children have helped in the spring cleaning and this too forms a very important part of the curriculum as children play an active role in taking apart and putting together activity.
We are also hoping to start a reading group with some remedial help from Kejal of our Remedial Unit who will be taking two students from every class for enhancing reading skills.
In a small but significant and touching ceremony Grade 2 graduated to Grade 3 on Thursday 25th October. Parents and staff attended the event. The manner in which the children sat, accepted the gifts from other classes and conducted themselves really made the audience feel that the children were certainly more self aware and understood the whole essence of moving up to the next grade!
Academy for Teacher Excellence
As we have almost reached the end of the term for the IGNOU CESE MR course, students had to complete their practical work A, B and C. This means they have to assesses the child, make home visits, set goals as well as teach 120 hours each for each Practical. This is being done by both the Chennai students as well as our Solapur students. Visits to observe their teaching practices were done. Their enthusiasm, motivation and commitment are evident in their course work! Their examination is in December and their last contact class culminated on the 26th October '13. The last class was very exciting for them as we created a lot of teaching material, puppets, and learnt about "Thematic Approach" a teaching method.
St. Ebbas, an inclusive school, had been requesting V-Excel to conduct a one day training program for their Teacher Assistants. This was held on the 19th October '13 and about 35 teacher Assistants and 5 Special Educators attended. The response was very good and they felt that the topics - listening skills, being conscious of the childrens' needs, attitude towards work and a brief outline of different disabilities - were much needed and would help them to a great extent.
Admissions to Parents Awareness program are on for the November '13 batch. We are encouraged by good enrolments from both, our Erode and Tirunelveli satellite centers, especially since the knowledge about different disabilities and intervention is very low in these areas.
Planning for the World Disability Day which falls on the 3rd December is already on, as we plan to join hands with Ethiraj College, a prestigious Womens' College in Chennai to organize a meeting for parents as part of the celebration.
Counseling class was conducted last week. Our practical work with the students will start soon. Some of our students need cases for submission and these cases are being supervised by Sushama, Parimal and Anandhi.
Early Intervention Unit
Evaluation of the early intervention program is in progress. Parents of children who have undergone intervention with us are being interviewed. So also, every member of the early intervention team including the front office staff has been interviewed to understand their experiences.
A parent from Bombay whose child was in our early intervention program donated a few things to the department and thanked the V-Excel team for their efforts and contribution in the development of the child. The child came to us with concerns of speech delay. At present the child is verbal with good expressive communication and is attending U.K.G in a regular school.
Apart from the group program which is happening in early intervention we are planning to start one more group for very young children who are physically normal but have difficulties in speech and socialization. The emphasis of the group program is to enhance communication though play.
V-Excel Satellite Centres
Our centers at Tirunelveli and Erode are planning to celebrate children's day with cultural events and games for children. This is the first year they are undertaking such large group activities and we look forward to active participation by the parents and children.
In Solapur, new and existing team members have been taken on board and the accounting system is being set. In terms of the work, our team met the Occupational Therapist and worked out an arrangement for children to receive therapy on a regular basis.
The new special school in Nashik is shaping well with more children coming in through word of mouth as our service is consolidating. The special educators and therapists are sincerely at work ensuring positive outcomes with special children.
Each center celebrated Diwali in its own unique way, bringing joy and light in the life of the children. These are occasions when fun and learning are intertwined joyfully as they ensure effortless social interaction and social inclusion.
V-Excel Remedial Centre
This month four new assessments were done and individualized remedial programs have started. One of them, a ten year old from a mainstream school had age-appropriate skills in all areas, but due to competition and pressure from school and family, she developed exam-fear and performance anxiety, further affecting her academic scores. We are now working on building her confidence and motivation, along with academic skills. We have also planned some counseling sessions.
We concluded a short term program for a six year old outstation child. His major difficulties were in attention, body co-ordination and handwriting. The mother was trained to work with child at home on the basis of home remedial program designed by us. She expressed her sincere thanks as she felt she had much better understanding of her child and was far better-equipped to handle him.
Mothers, being the prime care givers of special children, must be empowered. Group sessions are an ideal choice that gives a platform to all the mothers to share, motivate and help each other and so we organized a meeting of mothers of our students. Counseling department addressed them on understanding the difficulties that the child goes through while learning. The feedback from the mothers was very positive and we hope to organize such meetings at periodic intervals.
VRC teachers attended workshop conducted by one of our Counselors Puja Bhalla on the 'why' and 'how' aspects of wet-on-wet painting. It was an extremely interactive and insightful session which helped teachers to work with deeper understanding of colors in the context of the mood it sets.
A formal meeting of VRC teachers was conducted to discuss progress of children and plan for next term. The teachers together experienced some movements, rhythm through their own bodies before practicing with children. It was a real joyful experience for all the teachers to come together.
Many of our children took part in Diwali celebration and were very enthusiastic and thrilled to be a part of V-Excel family and celebrations.
Vocational Training Unit
This was a month of festivities and celebrations! During the first half the trainees were busy preparing for Golu at the VTU. They helped arrange the dolls in the conventional manner, practiced for the drama, enacted two short mythological stories and also got products ready for Dassera sales. In the second half of the month the trainees were busy painting diyas for Diwali. All the trainees thoroughly enjoyed the Diwali celebration organized at the Mandaveli centre.
Parent counseling is an ongoing requirement as there are many behavioural issues that ememerge. Two parents were given guidance during counseling sessions on ways to handle self injurious behaviour of their children.
Dr. Elaine Walker, a visitor from the US who is also guiding us on a research project, visited VTU and was very impressed with the work done by the teachers and trainees.
Our production unit Samarth is showing that it is truly capable of delivering quality products. A large order for bags and paper cups from an upcoming IPMT conference has kept the interns really busy!
Independence in day-to-day functioning is one of the basic goals of a special needs program. It requires reinforcing from time to time for it to become a part of the individual's life. Program for regular ADL's (Activities for Daily Living) for the boys was discussed with Occupational Therapist Prabhu. He would be restarting this program from Monday.
Counseling and Assessment Unit
Our Counselors, Anandhi and Sharmishta, held art and de-stressing activities with the Akkas. They had an introductory activity of name and action, before moving on to painting and story; and then a song and dance in the end. The Akkas, who all year through support the children in every way, had a well-deserved relaxation time and thoroughly enjoyed the new experience!
We welcome the new counselor Niharika who has joined our department. She has been spending time in every class over the last week and now has started taking children from different units for play therapy. Young and enthusiastic, she is eager to start a day in a week with our vocational team and work with the trainees in a group as well as individually. Christina, another new counselor, is settling down in Early Intervention Unit. She has been seeing children for observation, assessment, assisting in a group session for Cerebral Palsy, meeting teachers individually and meeting parents.
Our work with Cognizant continues across different locations. One more center got added to our list last week; we shall periodically visit there and lend support to the associates there.
Parimal, Head of our Counseling Unit, and Counselor Anandhi took a small interactive session with eight parents of children with learning disabilities (LD) from VRC. It was very well received but we realized that laws alone will not change the scenario; a lot of awareness needs to be created about LD in general, and about its integration in education in the mainstream schools.
All members of the department and Maria, our ATE Coordinator, addressed M.Phil students from Madras University on Tuesday. We visited their Psychology Dept. and oriented them about different relevant courses.
Contact Information
V-Excel Educational Trust
#1 Norton 2nd Street
Mandaveli Chennai 600 028
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24620243
91 - 44 - 24956373 E-mail us or visit us at www.v-excel.org
V-Excel Center for Research and Rehabilitation
(In assocation with S.V. Sarada Foundation)
50 Sreyes, M.G. Road
Shastri Nagar, Chennai 600 041
Tel: 91 - 44 - 24522061
91 - 44 - 24521986 E-mail us
Academic Concepts, Inc.
33 Pine Street
East Brunswick New Jersey 08818
Tel: (732) 619-7944
Tax ID: 22-3632715 E-mail us
