Seeing it my way...

       Some moments in life are beyond words. Our visit to the Magic Planet & Different Art Centre as a part of the practicum of EDU-07: Perspectives of Learning and Teaching was a collection of million such moments...!! As Helen Keller said, "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."       Different Art Centre is a unique example of  inclusive education. As prospective teachers,  we read and learn a lot about individual differences and the necessity to incorporate elements that cater to the varying demands of individual learners in the curriculum. However, considering the educational scenario as a whole, the initiatives to address the aptitudes and challenges of children with special needs are still in the budding stage.       We, the 8 teacher trainees of the Department of English, accompanied by our teacher Dr. Jayapraveen J., visited the centre ye...

       Teaching is essentially modelling the models. Today we got an opportunity to observe the demonstration class of our senior teacher trainee Ms. Shijin Shaji. The lesson was organized in the Concept Attainment Model. She engaged the 9th standard students of NSS Girls High School Pandalam with the concept "adjectives". As she had already introduced "adjectives" in the previous class, she distributed the copies of a story among the students and asked them to circle the adjectives. Concept through the story         When the students finished the activity, the teacher trainee picked out three adjectives "clever", "cleverer" and "cleverest" to make them familiar with the concepts of positive, comparative and superlative degrees of comparison. From the Class     Then, she made the students take part in an interesting activity modelling on the recent social media trend "What's in my bag?". After dividing the students into fo...

" Yoga for Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (Yoga for the welfare of all, in the form of 'One World - One Family')        With this theme, the 9th edition of the International Day of Yoga highlights how Yoga as a way of life, promotes the overall well-being of the whole humanity.  As a part of the International Yoga Day celebration, the Physical Education Department in the college had organized a practice session on Yoga under the guidance of Shri. K. C. Vijaya Mohanan.       Through the session, we got acquainted to Tadasana, Vajrasana,  Bhadrasana, Marjaraasana, Mandukasana, Thadiparivarthaanasana and Bhramari Pranayama. From the Session         The Resource Person also enumerated the various benefits of the yogic postures introduced. It was a totally revitalizing experience to the body as well as the mind.

           Today, June 19, being National Reading Day observed in honour of Shri P. N. Panicker, the Father of Library Movement, the Malayalam Association of our college "Amogha" had organized a reading competition, "Vayana Jalakam". The competition focussed on clarity and fluency in reading Malayalam.           One student each from the seven optional subjects participated in the competition. I had the opportunity to participate in the programme representing the Department of English.  An excerpt from O. V. Vijayan's path-breaking novel Khasakinte Ithihasam was given to us for reading. The novel, famous for its use of raw rural slang of the village Thasrak in Palakkad, was so influential that the literary history itself got marked as two epochs - the one before Khasak and the one after Khasak. Through the world of Khasak       It was a challenge to read the book with absolute commitment to its essence, beca...

   Field trip - an exciting and educative journey that we always look forward to. Our field trip for the second semester was conducted yesterday and we journeyed to Kayamkulam, a storehouse of Kerala history. The "Sunrise" traversed the 26km distance with a whole batch of inquisitive minds and a versatile team of teachers.  Kayamkulam, the ancient maritime trading centre and the medieval feudal kingdom known as Odanad, welcomed us with its treasure of historical moments and artefacts, amazing art works and the charming seasides.     O ur first destination, Krishnapuram palace, built by Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma, presented us with a replica of past. Besides showcasing the features of ancient royal life, the palace also has a variety of old sculpture collection, ancient tools of measurement and coin collection and early models of war weapons including the renowned double-edged sword which goes by the name, "Kayamkulam Vaal". The famous mural painting "Gaje...

 Today we had a wonderful resource talk on the models of teaching, organized by Bhoumitra, the Geography Association of our college. Prof: Dr.  Rosamma Philip from Mount Tabore Training College,  Pathanapuram was the resource person. The session proved to be an exemplary and systematic introduction to the various models of teaching. We could gain insight into the nature of various models and their scope and utility in effective classroom instruction. From the session Snippet of the slide presented

June 5 - World Environment Day; Today literally marked a return to nature!! Our class conducted the morning assembly and it was suffused with sparkling thoughts on environment and the need of living in harmony with nature. We took the environment day pledge and Miss. Neha S. Remanan shared her ideas on this year's environment day theme "#BeatPlasticPollution, Ecosystem Restoration". I  had the opportunity to share a few lines from the Malayalam poem "Achan Piranna Veedu" by Sri. V. Madhusoodanan Nair. Through the lines, I presented my thoughts on harmonious existence with the environment and the inseparability of human life and nature. Miss. Mithu Mariam Sam delivered an ecocritical analysis of the popular song "Enjoy Enjaami" conscientizing the viewers about the politics of the song that is perhaps stronger than its beats. We also conducted an environment day related quiz and gave seeds and environment day cards  t o our teachers. From the morning ass...