A Peek into the Life of a Student Teacher

Came back to college after spending the weekend at home. First hour was by Giby ma'am where we discussed about the learning process. She stressed the fact that the process is much more important than the end result. Learning is not about scoring marks in the exam but about the paths you took to gain the knowledge to write the exam. Later ma'am described the Swan effect which tells that one should swim through life as gracefully as a swan while the efforts taken by the swan to reach the destination is known only to it. We also discussed about the 80-20 rule where 80 percent of our efforts in life goes in vain and only 20 percent of it will be fruitful. When we are focused only at the end product, I think this principle will help us keep going. During the optional hour we had reading and reflection oresentation by Sajin. He chose the book 'വേരുകൾ' by Malayattoor Ramakrishnan. Later Neema did her presentation on how different civilizations contributed to the development of...

 The day as usual began with the prayer at the chapel. The day began with Maya ma'am's class where we compared idealism and naturalism. The next hour was taken by Archana ma'am where we continued our discussion on other schools of psychology like behaviourism, cognitive psychology etc. The highlight of the day was the surprise class taken by Benedict sir. Sir emphasized on how teachers can create an 'Aha' experience for the learner, importance of giving positive strokes inorder to show appreciation for the students.  Later sir, asked all the firstborns, middle child and the youngest in their repective families to form seperate groups. Each group was asked to list the advantages and disadvantages of their positions in the family. A lot of interesting points came up. Among us, the firstborns Uthara from the English optional presented the points. While Caran and Shilpa represented the middle and youngest children respectively. Being the firstborn in my family has helpe...

 Today we arranged our classrooms for the NCTE visit. The first class was by Maya ma'am. We discussed about the demerits of naturalism and started the topic, realism.  During Giby ma'am's class we discussed about the different ways to make a child ready to learn. She used the analogy of a horse for this. The question was 'How to Make a Horse Drink Water?'. The class had variety of interesting answers. One of them suggested to mix its favourite food in the water, then it'll drink as it eats the food. This can be applied in classroom as well. Make the class more lively to make chikdren interested in it. Another person suggested to use another horse as an example to show the horse how to drink water. This can be interpreted as the comparisons often teachers and parents make between students. This is not right and can affect the mental health of children badly. The right approach is to add salt to its favourite food which will make the horse thirsty.This is called t...

 Today unlike other days started with the morning assembly. It was conducted by the first year M.Ed. students. The lines of students standing in front of the college took me back to my school days. Today was the first time in nine years, I said the pledge.  During Giby ma'am class we discussed about the experience a teacher must provide for a learner. A teacher must be clear about each and every topic and use her time to acquire as much as knowledge pissible. A teach must be able to transact the concepts to the children. She illustrated this using the song used to memorize 'Do Re Me Fa So La Ti', the seven notes of music. Moreover, she explained the importance teaching gradually fron simple to complex concepts with the help of a small story. Hope my future classes will be filled with such fun stories.

 The day as usual began with a prayer. Goday we inaugrated 'The Phonetic Club' which is to improve the vocabulary and pronounciation of students who needs help in English language. A mirror is placed to understand one's mouth movements while pronouncing words. During Maya ma'am's class we had a discussion on education implications of naturalism. While naturalism suppirts and encourages self expression idealism forces one to always be on his/her best behaviour. An education system must have the right combination of idealism and naturalism. During our optional hours, Archana did her 'Reading and Reflection' presentation on Vaikom Basheer's 'Pathumede Aadu'. She did a great job in narrating few instances from the book in an interesting way making us eagerly wait for each and every sentence. Later Kavya did a seminar on 'Scope and Characteristics of Maths'. It felt like she has been teaching for years. She was able to turn a dry topic into an...

 The day began with a prayer. During Giby ma'am's class we had a revision of the topics taught in class for the students who joined the class last week. Ma'am talked about how a teacher must always expect the most unexpected questions from the teachers and must be competent enough to answer it. Ma'am explained this with an instance from her life. Later in Maya ma'am's class we learned about forms of naturalism. During the optional hour, I had my 'Reading and Reflection' presentation. I had chosen the book 'When Breath Becomes Air' by Paul Kalanithi.  Today was the end of our 'Talent Hunt'. Malayalam and Social science optional classes performed today. Both the classes did a wonderful job. Social science class had a lot of props and did a great job on their costumes. Malayalam class surprised all of us at the end with a horror-themed dance performance. Both the classes did a great job in ending the 'hunt' with a bang.  

 The day began with a prayer at the chapel.We had a three hour talk by Dr G.V. Hari, who was also a former student of MTTC. The topic was 'UTL: Understanding Teaching Learning'. Initially, when he said the session was going to be three hours long, I was skeptical about him having everyone's attention till the end. But to everyone's surprise sir brought out a tambourine. Sir, sang a song and instructed us to clap our hands as he played the tambourine. He caught each and everyone's attention with the help of a simple tambourine.  The talk had three phases:' Where do we stand?', 'Understanding Concepts before becoming a Teacher' and 'Personality of a Teacher'.  During the class sir asked two of our classmates to say five sentence on cow from the perspectives of a grade 1 and a B.Ed student. This was done to check the progress in our knowledge. If we don't have any difference in these two perspectives then our level of knowledge hasn't pr...

 Today we had our Talent Hunt, Meraki 2021. We arrived at the college before 8.30 am to practice. But none of the classrooms were open, so we chose the parking lot to practice. The intro video for the program was edited and scripted by Sajin, who did a fabulous job and took our show to another level. The song performance by Revathy, Aby and Aleena was refreshing and had an element of surprise.  Our theme play had a few hiccups along the way but the audience didn't seem to notice it. Altogether the show went much better than expected. But the highlight of the day was the show put up by the physical science optional. Each and every person's performance exceeded the expectations. Their musical drama based on the socially relevant topic 'Female Foeticide' gave me goosebumps. The dance was well choreographed with dancer's each movement matching the energy of the song.  Hope the other optionals will continue to exceed the expectations.

 We were officially inaugrated to the college today. Our parents were invited to the first meeting of PTA. Unfortunately, some of our parents couldn't make it. Later, we were busy finding time to practice and clean our classroom. As usual we couldn't finish choreographing our dance. But we are almost done with the theme play with a slight confusion on how to end it. We don't even have the complete list of programs yet. The organizers Shilpa and Pranav are doing their best. The Talent Hunt officially began with the first year MEd students. Within the limited time they put up the best show they could.

 The day started with Joju sir's class to discuss about tomorrow's PTA meeting. Few ideas were suggested by the students to make the meeting more lively.  Later our class was busy cleaning and decorating the class for NCTE visit. At the same time we were busy adding and removing items from the programs list for the Talent Hunt to be held on Thursday. Unfortunately, Maths optional will begin the programs and we are still not ready. After the great theme play we had put up for the Republic Day, all eyes are on us expecting us to outperform ourselves. But none of us are confident and moreover, two of our classmates will not be there on the day to perform. Also, Aswathy joined the class today. Looking forward to getting to know her.

 The day began with Giby ma'am's class. Ma'am taught us about shrinking one's  glass of expectation and then gradually increase its size with our effort and hardwork. Today Benedict sir, our principal spoke to us for the first time. Sir, talked about how there'll always be a generation gap between teacher and students. Especially, when Gen Y has to teach the millenials, the teachers must update themselves constantly with the latest technology to keep up with the millenials. During the last hour, Joju sir conducted a panel discussion with representatives from each optional class. The presentation by each person was informative and enlightening.

 Today is the first Friday of February. The first hour was by Maya ma'am. She discussed about the 'Strengths and Weakness List' each of us made the previous day. The discussion made me realize that most of us face the same problem, but some are good at hiding it than others. Later, ma'am made us sit such that no two people from the same optional class gets to sit together. I sat next to Rakhi from Malayalam optional. She seemed to be as uncomfortable as me for the first few seconds. But we got along with each other after a while. Hope we'll have more elaborate talks as this course continues. Later we had Ancy ma'am's class, where we discussed about the development in the early childhood phase. In our college, spirituality is an important part of education. We had the holy mass for the first Friday of the month. For the rest of the day we continued our discussion on Talent Hunt. But it seems like we are running out of ideas, hopefully we'll come to a deci...

 The day began with a prayer at the college chapel. The first class was yoga. Sir, demonstrated Vajrasana. Few of us found it difficult to do but I hope with practice we'll be able to do it properly. During Maya ma'am's class, ma'am explained how philosophy and education are interdependent. We did a fun activity where we found out which animal represents our personalities. Most of them in our class got the animal, lion which means they are born leaders. I got Wolf  whose description was quite close to my nature.   During Ancy ma'am's class we learned about pre natal and post natal development. Later we discussed about our ideas for the 'Talent Show'. We have come up with an outline but hope we'll be able to execute it well. In our last hour Joju sir, continued with the panel discussion on ' Advantages and Disadvantages of technology'. Each and every presenter did a great job.

 The day began with Deepthi ma'am's class where we discussed about the program we are going to put for the 'Talent Show'. A lot of ideas were put forward, hopefully we'll be able to fix it by tomorrow. During Giby ma'am'a hour we discussed about Freud's Psycho analytic theory. During the class ma'am quoted,"You are okay, I am okay" which means each person behaves the way they do because of their experiences. So, one does not simply become a good or bad person but their circumstances turn them into the person they are. Therefore, instead of judging a person try to understand why the person is behaving the way theh do. Later in Joju sir's class we did a panel discussion on the topic 'Advantages and Disadvantages of technology'. The discussion will be continued tomorrow. 

 We walked to the college expecting Ancy ma'am to question us on Piaget's theory but to our relief ma'am straighaway started the next topic,' Eric Erickson's theory of psycho-socio development'. After the class we were given a chance to see the programs put up by our seniors as a part of their Art and Aesthetics evaluation. Every team put a vibrant show. During Joju sir's class, we learned the college song and later sir shared two inspiring stories. Out of which the story of Thomas Alva Edison and his mom was really touching.

  It’s a new day and a new month. We walked to the college anticipating a dull lecture but had the opposite experience. We had a very unique talk by Sri Joby Kondoor on the topic ‘Reflective Self Discovery ‘. It included a variety of activities. The activities were done to convey the following ideas:  A teacher must always give clear instructions to students with room for very few or no doubts. Always address a child by their given name because each name represents their likes, heritage, culture, religion etc. So, refusing to call the child by their name can hurt their feelings.       Learn to say 'No' when required.           When a student tells the wrong answer in class, appreciate the student for trying and then point out where he/she went wrong.       Always respect the opinions and ideas of the student.       Friendship is the only relationship where the following qualities - respect, understandin...