National Seminar 2020

Christ Nagar College of Education, Thiruvallam hosted it annual national seminar from January 31 to February 1, 2020. The seminar was entitled "Tranformational Leadership: A Call for Empowerment of Teachers". The two day seminar was organised in collaboration with The Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC), Association of International Researchers of Indian Origin (AIRIO) and Council for Teacher Education Foundation (CTEF) India, South Zone.

Day 1

The seminar began with the presidential address by Fr. Dr. Sony Sebastian CMI, Director, Christ Nagar College of Education. It was followed by the formal inauguration by Dr. Rajan Varghese, Member Secretary, The Kerala State Higher Education Council, Govt of Kerala. Following the inauguration, the key note address was delivered by Dr. Kennedy Andrew Thomas, Director & Professor of Education, Centre for Education Beyond Curriculum, Christ University, Bangalore on Emerging Concept of Leadership. There were two theme presentations by research scholars and parallel paper presentations by student teachers of Christ Nagar College of Education. Dr V Reghu, Former Controller and Dean of RGNIYD, Tamil Nadu made a theme presentation on ITEP: Developing Leadership followed by Dr. Giby Geevarghese who presented on Leadership and Performances.

Several student teachers presented their papers in the three venues. I received the opportunity to present my paper Envisioning Inclusive Education through VARK model: An Action Research on student teachers to gauge their understanding on Individualized Instruction. 

Day 2

The day two sessions began with the presentation of the report of day 1 by student teachers Jeenu Karthikeyan and Sruthy Rajan. The days session had two paper presentations; Teacher as a Change Leader by Dr. K Rajeshwari, Asst Professor M.Ed Dept, GCTE, Calicut and Teachers as Empowered and Transformational Professionals by Dr. Nimmi Maria Oommen, Asst Professor in Education, Titus II Teachers College, Thiruvlla. The presentations was followed by a panel discussion; Leadership in maintaining Peace and Environmental Sustainability. 

The resume of the seminar was presented by Ms Soumya Devi V and Ms Prabhitha Prabhakaran, Asst Professors, CNCE followed by the valedictory address by Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Mar Thomas, Bishop of Sultan Bathery & President of AIRIO, Global. 

The felicitations and distribution of certificates was done and the two day seminar came to an end with the presentation of vote of thanks by Ms. Sreekutty SS, Asst Professor, CNCE.

Presidential address by Fr. Dr. Sony Sebastian CMI, Director, Christ Nagar College of Education

Formal inaugural address by Dr. Rajan Varghese, Member Secretary, The Kerala State Higher Education Council

Dr V Reghu, Former Controller and Dean of RGNIYD, Tamil Nadu

Dr. K Rajeshwari receiving memento from Principal Dr. M S Geetha.

 Most Rev. Dr. Joseph Mar Thomas, Bishop of Sultan Bathery 

Receiving certificate for my presentation;

Envisioning Inclusive Education through VARK model: An Action Research on student teachers to gauge their understanding on Individualized Instruction.  

Ms Soumya Devi V presenting the Resume of the Seminar

Inter-collegiate Quiz Competition 2020

The annual inter-collegiate quiz competition was held in January. The competition was postponed from the date decided earlier as the the college's esteemed quiz master Mr. Aravind B S was not available to conduct it. Mr. Aravind, co-founder of Elite Quiz Club and a secretariat employee has been the quiz master for our college for many years. Every year the participants emerge with the same opinion that the quiz led by the master is the most intriguing one they ever participated in, hence the wait was worthwhile. 

The competition was held at college with a total of 8 teams participating including our home team, Ananthapadmanabhan and Archa. The quiz master had planned to carry out the quiz in 5 rounds with 5 questions each. He had asked us, the audience to be very keen participants as in addition to the momentary rewards for answering the questions which the contestants couldn't answer, there was a riddle question at the end which would be open to all. 

The questions were quite intriguing and so was the tight competition of the contestants. At the end of the five rounds; Radius, Axis, Cuboid, Trapezium and Atlas, the quiz master asked us the final question i.e, to find the relation between the titles of all the rounds. To our surprise we realized that the questions though adhering to titles were the parts of the human skeletal system. The winning team to take home the St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara ever-rolling trophy were the students from PTM College Balaramapuram. 

Quiz master Aravind B S

All set to begin..

Mr. Aravind explaining the rounds and marking scheme.. 

Teams ready for battle of the intellect

Home team.. Archa and Ananthapadmanabhan

Winning team from PTM College Balaramapuram

Prize distribution..

Founder's Day 2020

St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara is considered the patron of CMI institutions. His birthday; January 3rd  is commemorated every year with prayerful thoughts and recollections of his indomitable spirit by CMI priests or CMC nuns, who share their knowledge and history of the saint. This year as the spokesperson was not available on the same day, we had the celebration of the founders day on the 9th of January 2020. 

This year, instead of having guest faculty speaking on the history of St. Chavara, we had our dear teacher Fr.Sony Sebastian CMI and two of our seniors, Sr. Delna Jose CMC and Sr. Linda CMC to take sessions for us on the life, history and contributions of St. Chavara. The three of them briefed us on the various stages of the life of the saint and reflected on the incomparable qualities that we ought to imbibe from his life, deeds and vision for a better world.

St. Kuriakose Elias Chavara was born on 10th February 1805 at Kainakary, Kerala. St. Chavara was instrumental in founding two Catholic religious congregations – one for men, Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) and the other for women, Congregation of Mother of Carmel (CMC), for the spiritual renewal and all round development of the society.

Starting seven ashrams and a convent in different parts of Kerala, Chavara initiated a spiritual movement among the people of Kerala. He established the first Catholic Sanskrit School, a major seminary and a printing and publishing house at Mannanam. He directed that every church should start a school attached to it and encouraged children even poorer section to attend that schools by supplying mid day meal and dress for them. 

  

Essentially St. Chavara was a man of prayer and great charity. He lived for 65 years and died on 3rd January 1871. His Sanctity was officially recognized by the church, when Pope Francis declared him 'Saint on Nov 23, 2014. Saint Chavara is the heavenly patron of all CMI institutions.

A sketch of St. Chavara by Sr. Delna Jose CMC

Session by Fr.Sony Sebastian CMI, Sr. Delna Jose CMC and Sr. Linda CMC

Food for Thought!

Welcome 2020!

The new year 2020 began graciously, with an educative beginning. Hopefully this year would be an intellectually and spiritually enriching one. The new year was welcomed with a reflective speech by our teacher, Fr. Sony Sebastian. The message reminded us of being rooted to our families and morally duty bound to our learning. 

New Year message by Fr. Sony Sebastian

Cake cutting

New Year treat!

Happy us!