Reporters' day out on World Heritage Day

Can an email get the young reporters out in the Sun to capture the heritage of the city?

It does at YOCee. 

A few groups have planned heritage walks and bicycle rides in the city this week end to mark World Heritage Day. We thought the cub reporters would also love to do a round capturing images of places of interest and of those that have history behind them. And they picked up the idea and went around shooting places in their neighbouthood.

We have laid out all the photos we received in a photo gallery on the website.

It was good to see Dhurai A N, who writes often on sports came up with a panoramic image of the 400 year old Somanathaswamy temple in Kolathur this time.

A few reporters who are holidaying have also mailed pictures from wherever they are. Sandhya Varadharajan is now spending her vacation in Srirangam and she mailed a picture of the Chitra therottam (tem[ple car procession) at Srirangam.

Here is the photo gallery for you!

 

Student Reporter Programme for this year is now open

It was the Summer of 2007, YOCee launched its first Student Reporter Programme. But it was a big surprise for Team YOCee when we looked at our inbox and saw more than a hundred applications.

We had to restrict our focus on a small number to run the programme effectively. And we selected 25 students from various parts of the city, studying in different schools.

From then on, around three dozen children train in reporting and writing. The number now includes the new set of students applying for the programme every year and those who continue from the past years.

The exercise has been a very enjoyable experience for us. Along with the kids, we too learnt a lot in working in the field, especially when the reporters are young and still in schools.

We have just published the details and the online application form for this year's programme. As in the past, many query us if this is an ongoing or weekend course. And we repeat our answer, "No."
The programme encourages the young people to gather news and to come up with their own story ideas. We too sometimes, find and suggest news for them to report. We guide them on how to go about with these stories. When they file their reports, we try and get those unanswered questions and gaps in their reports by them. We do not want to just edit and publish.

One thing we are clear about is, we do not want to push and pressurise the children. Their interest in writing should not become a burden on them with too many things to do in their list.

Children make documentary films

For the first time in the nine years, YOCee hosted a summer camp in documentary film making this year from March 25 to April 1, 2015. Ramya Vasudevan, a VisCom expert gamely worked with young people indoors and on the filed and made two films.
The films were screened on the last day of the camp.

Some pictures from the camp:

Cub reporters for the eight year at YOCee

Can't believe it is eight years since YOCee launched its Student Reporters Programme.
The records show that about 100 students from class 6 and above apply for the programme every year. But we would like to take focus on a smaller batch and train them well.

This year too we received four short of 100 entries. Most of them from the crucial years in school - class 10, 11 and 12! This is a little strange, as we have not received many from students of these classes.
A few of them have expressed interest in taking writing and reporting as a career. It is good to see young people looking at other options than the traditional science and arts apart from the crowded engineering courses.

But, we do not advocate any specific course for the young minds. We believe in taking up things of their choice. But, we do make them believe that writing is one thing which can be pursued irrespective of any career choice. Yes, many children, who trained with YOCee as Student Reporters have proven this.

Here is a list pf 35 young people who are going to keep the website alive for the year beginning June. http://yocee.in/2014/05/list-of-student-reporters-selected-for-2014-15/

Do read their report and encourage them. Your feedback is important for the young writers.

A directory for kids and parents - Chennai Kids Directory

This is the fifth year YOCee has brought out this little directory.
A directory of where you can find the resources for pursuing your passion.
Your interests in hobbies need to nurtured. You deserve a holistic childhood, don't you?

So, this is what we thought of and tried putting the information relating to all the places you could pursue your hobbies.

Broadly classified under the categories Aeromodelling, Art and Crafts, Computer and Technology, Dance, Language, Maths, Music, Playschools, Science, Self defence, Spoken English, Sports, Storytelling, Theatre, Yoga, the directory is a 144 page handy booklet.

Is the directory priced?
No, the directory comes for FREE! But, the information provided in the directory is priceless!

You could pick up a copy from the points mentioned here.

If you find this book useful, do spread word.
Drop us a line too. It will encourage Team YOCee a lot!

Shakespearean English? We use it daily!

For goodness sake, don't use all this flowery English with me! I am not that good in language.

Do you hear people saying this?
Not many, these days, because, many of the words and phrases that Shakespeare used 400 years ago have come to stay in daily use of English.
Surprising?
The words such as 'rant', 'fashionable' are among many words he coined.
"Haven't you slept one wink during examination time?" Shakespeare did it first.

Here is an article written on the occasion of William Shakespeare's 450th birthday.
Read it. Interesting!

Know your country, election and manifesto

If you think that elections are only for those above 18 and could cast their votes, think again.
Today's young people in schools are tomorrow's voters. The schools also conduct elections for Head boy and Head girl these days. Many Model United Nations (MUN) sessions are held in schools. All these introduce the young people to the administration of  countries, the ministers and their portfolios ...

When this is the season of elections in the country, we came across a website that has come up with information regarding elections for children.

The website http://smartur.com/elections/ has fun facts, info graphics and invites manifesto from children. There are some Bhangra, Lungi dance for the top contestants!
Check this and know all about elections the fun way.

Another batch of student reporters at YOCee get ready

For the seventh year, the students reporters meet in the month of June.
It is a different batch every year. A few continue to report while the new batch trains for the whole year.

We met recently for a briefing at Sastri Hall, Luz, Chennai.

It was hot outside, but the air conditioners inside this century old hall kept the temperature cool and set the perfect atmosphere for learning.

The walls were dull, the lighting was low, but the young people's faces glow. They glow with curiosity, willingness to learn and go out in the field to meet new people and report.

Welcome Young Reporters to a whole new year of fun learning!

An eBook of the best entries

We came across wonderful creativity about living in the moon, cute little wishes to go around the city and some strong ideas of redesigning Chennai city in the 'What if ..?' writing contest.

We have compiled the best 10 entries of each theme of the contest into a free downloadable eBook.
Here is it ...


Please do post your thoughts on these writings by children. It will go a long way in encouraging them to voice their views!

The Little People's Festival, as experienced by Vinod Velayudhan

It was a wonderful weekend with kids and parents equally enjoying the fun-filled activities at the Little People's Festival.

Here is an account of the experience at the Festival.

Vinod Velayudhan is a photographer, blogger, a friend of YOCee and loves all that is Chennai.
He puts together the pictures, experience and the feel at the festival.
Do read!

Thank you, Vinod for this lovely post.

A festival for the little people of Chennai

A fun day out for kids & their family. A day long festival in a quaint gallery & garden. The event will feature

- Pottery Possibilities by Kaveri Bharath
(Kaveri Bharath - Ceramicist In Charge at Dakshinachitra)
A hand and wheel pottery workshop for children.
Batch 1: 10:30 a.m | Batch 2: 11:45 a.m

- An ARTS & CRAFTS CORNER offering a fun range of hands-on art & craft projects by some super fun & talented folks.

- A fun PHOTO BOOTH, LIVE ART, CARICATURE BOOTH and a series of INTERACTIVE DEMOS and a PAINTING COMPETITION for children.

In addition to all of this, the festival will also feature a MARKETPLACE of great picks & easy buys for kids & their family, an ORGANIC STORE and a CAFE.

Do visit The Little People's Festival with your loved ones for a fun day out.

Entry is free.

For schedule of events and participants at the festival, visit : http://yocee.in/2013/04/the-little-peoples-festival-april-27-2013/

What if ... Just imagine, write and win!

What if you could stay indoors this summer, yet travel around the city and even transport yourself to the moon?

Yes, you can do and tell us about your experience. And win prizes too!
Excited?

Then, this contest is for you. Check here for details and participate.

Just imagine, write and win prizes.

How does it feel like as a reporter?

Ask YOCee's cub reporters, they would say it is fun!

But how does a reporter in a full job with a leading newspaper feels? It is fun again, but loads of work, commitment and strict deadlines, said Anusha Parthasarathy to the newly inducted student reporters of YOCee at the briefing session.

"I have seen your name in The Hindu. I am delighted to see you here," a young reporter pulled out a notebook and wanted an autograph from Anusha after her talking to the kids - na, the young reporters.

Anusha spoke about meeting people who wouldn't speak much at interviews. "How would I get a bite from such people!", she exclaimed. But she shared a technique that she adopts while she needs information from people of few words.

She also shared how she gets the photos she would like to go with her stories from the photographers. "It is not always you get what you wanted. You need to explain to your photographers about the angle of your report or feature that is on your mind," she told the children. But YOCee's reporters take their own pictures! "That makes you lucky!" Anusha said talking about the advantages of being a reporter cum photographer.

The real experiences of a professional reporter, sub-editor is an extra page of information added to the guidebook the YOCee reporters usually receive at the briefing session.

This time they also got a Reporter cap in their kit. The kit has a handbook, a reporter ID card, a notepad and a pen. And a cap too this year. Hey, we missed a photoshoot of all the reporters with their caps on!

No worry, YOCee is waiting to see the feathers they would add to their caps!

Reporters' group on Google

YOCee gets a lot of contribution from the student reporters who have enrolled for the year long programme. How do they get to report?
Some do have a nose for news and report on the events and happenings they observe.
Some need to be told why should share on where they had been to or what they had watched in their school.
Some need to be assigned to what they should report.
The YOCee team came up with an idea of making the assignments public and available to all the student reporters so that they can pick up the ones they line.
A Google Group exclusive to the Student Reporters.
All that is interesting and happening are posted there. The team posting them on to the group is just amazed at the speed with which the cub reporters respond to them!
In an hour the assignments are picked up!
Sometimes, we even receive two three reporters asking for reporting on the same event.
So, how do they benefit once they 'bid' for the assignment?
They get all the guidance on how to go about. They get to know the right contacts, who were earlier briefed about the role of cub reporters by the YOCee team. And file a great report for the readers.

Summer and the Directory comes back

Come summer in Chennai, the edition of ChennaiKids Directory gets prepared at YOCee's small office. The experience of putting the data and advertisements together is an interesting one.

Many services and business that cater to children are ready to advertise and support the revenues. Many more are ready to share the details for listing in the directory. Some even expressed that they liked the tit-bits found in the directory.

Whatever be the interests of the users, we are excited about making it and launching it every year.

This year it was puppets that came in before the launch. Bhanumathi, a good friend of us brought Chennai's flora and fauna alive on that day.

It was again the student reporters who graced the launch. Sruti, Sanjana, Smruthi and Nandini were proud to be at the event.

Read Sanjana's report on the launch here. 

Off the record?

Behind every reporting, the cub reporters have interesting stories to share.
They are not official, but go to say how much they love being reporters and see things at close quarters.
Recently Prerna Submanian was at the Chetan Bhagat's book launch. She enjoyed the Press privileges at the event, It was a just a Press seat though!
Back at home and after filing her report for YOCee, she sat down to pen the hilarious side of the event on her blog.
These writings are not just what the reporters think of sharing off the stage, but they do tell you many things. Give her a thumbs up if you liked her blog post.

Hunting around Chennai

When it was Puja Holidays -a long one week holiday - we thought the kids could be actively engaged online.

Who are the 'we'?

YOCee and Bambaram. Two independent outfits that cater to the city and its kids in completely different forms and ways.

Why online?

We knew the kids would anyway be online playing, chatting, 'facebook'ing and 'hangout'ing on Google Plus. So why not some Googling and learning?

That worked well. We launched ACID9 - Around Chennai in (9) Days, a Treasure Hunt completely online.

The experience was wonderful at our side when 76 teams (of two kids each) signed up for the Hunt. And what about the participants' version? To find this out, we had the finale face-to-face.

We had invited all the teams that signed up, participated, cracked or tried the daily clues and treasures. We got to know from them how much they enjoyed hunting online every day.

Many parents revealed that they had joined the hunt with their kids.

Yeah, we wanted and expected that!

The top 5 Hunters felt proud holding up their cups and sure they would remain in their showcases for ever!

Do you know what the question the kids, moms and dads asked alike was, when we signed off?

"When and what will be the next online fun?"

Who said the Internet is generally banned for kids in a south Indian city like Chennai?

Quizzing becomes a new weekend activity!

Of late. we see a lot of quiz for school kids.

Chennai is, of course, the quizzing capital as many would observe. But these quizzes are All India level quizzes and winning at Chennai region means another round of quizzing for these kids.

It was TCS IT WIZ last month. The team from SBOA won the regional finals and Bala Vidya Mandir team was the runner up.

It was then time for the Madras Quiz. Murugappa Madras Quotient was launched in a big way this year. Though it was for school students, an adult - a teacher or a parent- was also included in the finals. The team from PSBB Nungambakkam lifted the trophy. Vidya Mandir was the runners up.

Then came the Limca Book of Records quiz. The same team from Bala Vidya Mandir which was runners up in the TCS IT WIZ quiz was the winners of this quiz. And Bhavan's Rajaji Vidyashram team was the runners up.

Now there will be the Young World Quiz in October / November. The India Quizzing League's Republic Day quiz in January.

So how do these teams prepare for the quizzes? Or they just keep track of what is happening around them?

If you were part of any quizzing team, would you like to share a few tips for those starters?
Mail them to editor@yocee.in. Will be a nice gesture and we will publish them on YOCee.

Experience of walking with kids and with camera

For the second year YOCee hosted a photowalk for children.
It coincided with the Madras Week as in the past year.
Madras is a large city, so bifurcation of north and south Madras has been not only geographical but cultural too. So we chose to walk on both the places.

The first walk was on Royapuram. Yes, we started to walk from the famed old railway station. We ended at another important landmark - the math wizard Ramanajun museum on Somu Chetty Lane.
The Parsi fire temple, the Kal Mandapam, St. Peter's Church, Jamia Masjid all were found on the way we walked and shot.

The second walk was on the southern part of the city, Greenways Road.
A visit and walk inside Vasanta Vihar, the Theosophical society was a great experience for kids. The music college which was once Brodie's castle was another place many kids hadn't seen before.

Find loads of pictures here.

Tell us how did you like them?
Suggest us now ways to walk.

Madras - Chennai - children

Madras is Chennai to the younger generation.
Especially to those who are born after 1996.
Yes, that is when the official name of the city was changed to Chennai.

It has been on the records as Madras in English and Chennai in Tamil even before the official change of name. But now Madras is Chennai, though many in the city and many who are abroad still refer to it as Madras.

But then a celebration for the city reminds us of the old and new, history and geography of this city that has multiple faces.
One face of it is too conservative to accept the Western culture.
But the other face is very open to changes and modernisation.
Yet another face is exploring anything new within the parameters of tradition, culture and a little beyond them.

Yes, it is a fascinating city like many other cities in India.
And when it is August, it is time to celebrate every aspect of this city.

What is there for children? Hey, many things. Many firsts and many grand events, contests.
Just look at the array of events for the young people!
Happy Madras Day! Want to call is Chennai Day? Be it, but celebrate your own city!