Lake House press impresses Anandians
Ruwanthi ABEYAKOON
VISIT: The corridors of Lake House were packed with teenagers last
week. Grade nine students of Ananda College visited Lake House and on
their way out they stopped for a while to express their thoughts to
Daily News Teen.
Sithira Selaka Arriyapperuma, 14 said he has never come to Lake House
before.
Chathusha
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Dharshaka
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Indunil
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âI saw how the newspapers were printed. It was very interesting. I
gained a lot of knowledge. We are going to make a newspaper in class. I
enjoyed this visit,â he said.
âI thought it was a big press but I have never seen a press. Today I
experienced the making of a newspaper.
There were lots of things to see. We got a lot of knowledge,â said
Chathusha Wijenayake, 14.
Darshatha Gamage, 13 said the visit was important for a lesson they
had in school. âThere is an English lesson in our book about printing
newspapers. The visit was important and it gave us the main idea of
printing a newspaper. It was very enjoyable,â he said.
âWe learnt everything from designing to printing. It was quite
interesting. The knowledge we gained will help in our studies. We will
do a project on our visit to Lake House,â Naveendra Malalgoda, 14.
Indunil Herath, 14 said he found newspaper printing very interesting.
âI saw how newspapers were edited. We went to the proof reading section
also. I have seen a small printing press but not a big one like this,â
he said.
Sadeepa Basnayake, 14 said the visit was fun. âWe learnt a lot about
publishing and printing newspapers. It was interesting and fun. We will
do a newspaper in school and I am its editor,â Sadeepa said.
âThe visit was interesting. We have only read newspapers. We didnât
know the procedure. The Lake House staff explained all the steps. I was
impressed,â said Chandula Padmasiri, 14.
Himal Jayatilake, 14 said the visit was fantastic. âI have never seen
such huge equipment before. I couldnât imagine and I have never
witnessed such sights. The printing was super fast.
The staff gave a good understanding about the procedure of printing a
newspaper. It was a brilliant experience,â Himal said. Thisal Gamage,
14, added that the visit was interesting and he gained a lot of
knowledge about printing newspapers.
âI have seen the printing of newspapers on television but I got the
opportunity to experience it. The machines
were huge and the process was
amazing. I thank the teachers for organising the visit. I liked it very
much,â said Vasura Jayaweera, 14.
Sahan Samarasinghe, 13 added that he was surprised by the technology
used for printing. âI have only read newspapers. It was a great
opportunity to see the printing of the newspapers. We learnt about the
machines used. I gained a lot of knowledge,â he said.
Nadun Dissanayake, Devin Indula and Oshadha Thamarasa added that the
visit was interesting. âWe saw a lot of things. The visit was very
interesting. We enjoyed a lot and it was a great opportunity to enrich
our knowledge,â they said.
The teens thanked their teachers and the Lake House staff for
providing an opportunity to enrich their knowledge.
Devin
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Oshadha
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Shihan Eyeing the top rung of the ladder
Chaminda PERERA
TALENTED: U D Shihan Moses of Enderamulla St. Sebastian College who
displayed outstanding performances at the Western Province Inter-School
Sports Festival at the Sugathadasa stadium recently, is also equally
good in his studies.
Shihan became the champion in the 100 and 75m running events and 75 m
long jump surpassing students from more than 125 schools.
Shihan has bagged several awards and certificates in painting and
musical contests at St. Sebastian Church
SHIHAN:going places. Picture by Mahinda Vithanachchi
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School.
âI feel I have the right sort of skills to ascend the ladder to the
next level,â he said.
âMy father gave me all encouragement and motivation to unearth my
hidden potential. He took me for practises and was in constant touch
with my coach and without him I would not have achieved thisâ.
He made an special mention of his coach Tuan Rajs Hasuna Jamad. âHe
gave me all the support and guidance and strove to derive the maximum
out of me. When I think of the Western Province Sports Festival where I
won the first place in 100 and 75m athletic events, it revives all my
positive dreams,â Shihan says.
He was just a few points behind the national school record for the
100m event.
âThis is an unexpected achievement. I did not think of victory when I
entered the game,â he said.
I have represented the school many times at inter-school sports meets
and shown exceptional performances. That is why the school selected me
to represent at the Western Province School Sports Meet.â
âThe success or failure of a game rests with our perserverence and
fortitude. My aim is to reach the top in the ladder of sports,â he said.
How television/electronic games affect our studies
PROS AND CONS: The widespread use of video games, the question arises
naturally as to the effect of these games on childrenâs studies. I
myself am an ardent video game player and I know how they can cause us
to neglect our studies. I myself confine playing video games to around
an hour on weekends and holidays.
However I too have found myself on more than one occasion, glued to
the screen for several hours.
Although this may not severely impact studies as such occasions are
rare for the majority of children who play video games, a few children
make it a habit to play video games for several hours every day,
sometimes from morning until night on holidays and not only does this
cause them to fall behind in their school work and studies but also
affects their health as they become âcouch potatoesâ, seated for hours
in front of the screen without engaging in any physical activity.
What can be more damaging to the majority of those who play video
games is the fact that after playing video games for a long time and
sitting down to study or do homework, you cannot concentrate on your
studies as best as you could because it is natural for the mind to
wander back to the video game you have left behind if you have been
playing it intensely for many hours.
In addition, after playing video games for several hours on end,
headaches and eye strain can occur, making it impossible to study
afterwards. The next important aspect of video games which affects
childrenâs education is the type of game they play.
For example constantly playing violent games can corrupt the minds of
younger children especially and make their vision of the world narrow.
In short, video and computer games appear to be a waste of childrenâs
time which could be used to spend studying, negatively affects their
health and perverts their minds, so their studies are adversely
affected.
However, as with everything, video and computer games have several
advantages, including benefits for childrenâs studies as well. There are
many games which are designed for educational purposes and this gives
children the opportunity to learn the âfunâ way, instead of merely
reading and memorising boring books.
Such games make studying more interactive for children and therefore
help them in their studies. Some say that gone are the days when
children used to read books for entertainment and actually learn
something instead of seemingly useless video games nowadays.
But to my own personal experience, I believe that even ordinary
action games which may appear at first to be of no use, can be
educational to children.
Many popular action-shooting games are set in the battlefields of the
Second World War and Vietnam War, and these games take us through the
major events of the wars with accurate dates and descriptions, making it
a more interactive way to study and helps us to learn more effectively
than a big history text book.
Such action games also make a childâs brain sharper and make them
think fast as such action games require instant decisions to be made,
making the child more alert and responsive to his/her surroundings.
There is also a certain genre of game known as strategy games, where
the player controls a village or a whole regiment of an army and the
player has to collect resources, establish a base, improve the army or
village, defend the base and win battles to complete the game.
Such games are not only educational as they are usually set in
important wars or are about ancient civilizations, but they also help
children to be more organised as playing such games require organisation
skills and actually involve a lot of planning and thinking ahead, which
are skills required by children if they are to succeed in their
education and future career, whatever it may be.
In conclusion video and computer games can affect our studies and
education both positively and negatively. It depends on how we children
use it.
The best way to play video games is to limit playing them to around
an hour or two per day on weekends and holidays, but not to play games
for a straight hour, instead to break it up into around half an hour or
15 minute periods during study intervals to relax their minds and learn
something at the same time.
In this way children will not become too engrossed in the game and
disturb them when studying and it will not pose a health hazard or
affect their studies, instead it could help them.
Children should also select the correct type of game, limiting
playing very violent games but instead playing games from which some
useful skills and knowledge could be gained as well as being fun to
play.
Using video games in this way would not only affect childrenâs
studies positively but will also help them to acquire skills such as
planning ahead and quick thinking which will help them in their future.
TRISHAN FERNANDO - Colombo International School, Wattala
Focus on childrenâs issues at âWalk for the Childâ
WALK: Childrenâs issues will be the poignant theme of the culmination
of Gateway Collegeâs 10th anniversary celebrations, one of the main
events of which will be a charity walk titled âWalk for the Childâ on
July 28.
The walk will be preceded by street dramas held a week before at
Excel World at 7.30 p.m. and Nugegoda junction at 5.30 p.m. on July 21
and 22. These short dramas will focus on some of the problems faced by
children. They will be largely bilingual to attract a wide audience.
Around 5,000 are expected to join the walk which will start at
Bauddhaloka Mawatha and end at Gateway College in Rajagiriya.
On the same day, an exhibition titled âA childâs worldâ will be held
at Gateway College.
âUsually such an event is held to raise funds for the organising
institution,â said Dr. Harsha Alles, Director, Gateway Group.
âHowever our focus is on charity and we have singled out two special
charities to which the funds raised by this event will be donated. One
is the Childrenâs Heart Project of Sri Lanka and the other the Maithri
Nivasa orphanage.
âWe chose the Childrenâs Heart Project of Sri Lanka because the
problem of children with congenital heart disease in Sri Lanka is severe
and heart-rending.
Around 1,800 children are diagnosed each year with congenital heart
disease and the State can cope with only some 600 operations.
Therefore at any given time, there are over 1,000 children waiting
for a life-saving operation and because of the large number the wait for
an operation is about two years. Many children do not survive the wait.
âWith a timely operation however, most can go onto living a normal
life. So itâs just lack of funds that kills children for most of them
hail from backgrounds of grinding poverty.
The Childrenâs Heart Project of Sri Lanka aims to eliminate the
waiting list by collecting funds primarily to support the Government to
build capacity; and in the interim to also provide financial assistance
to a limited number of children requiring urgent intervention and having
to seek private sector facilities in Sri Lanka.
âPabasara Warnaâ: a victory through effort
Ruwini JAYAWARDANA
ACHIEVEMENT: Pabasara Gunasekara, 13, is studying in grade four at
the speech rehabilitation school, Nawala. She is a victim of Autism, a
brain development disorder that manifests itself before the age of three
and has a steady course without remissions or relapses.
Art helps to develop the mind. It is a form of communication for
those who prefer isolation. Art brings its creators in contact with
nature. It was a slow and gentle process of learning for the teenager
but under the guidance of her parents and veteran artist Champani Devika,
Pabasara had emerged victorious.
Her exhibition of paintings titled Pabasara Warna will be held at the
National Arts Gallery on July 16 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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