Community Living Camp

For nearly 10 months we were all locked up at our homes and were jam packed with our works and were totally drained. We longed to have our offline classes and earnestly hoped that our community living camp would not be cancelled. Though initially there were rumors that the camp would be cancelled, thankfully the university mandated that we have day camps. 

Our college management decided to have the camp from March 1st-5th. Our camp titled MERAKI 2021 was themed on 'Education- it's creative and social aspects'. The coordinators of the camp were Ms Soumya Devi and Ms Chinju. 

Online Peer Teaching - Week 3

 16/2/21, Tuesday

Today we had the session at 7 PM. I was the first one to take class. I continued with the lesson 'Horegallu' written by Sudha Murthy. Keerthi had the second session of the day. She continued with the lesson 'Vanka'. MaryJaya had the last session of the day. She continued with the lesson 'Maternity'. 

 17/2/21, Wednesday

Today we had the session at 7 PM. I was the first one to take class. I continued with the lesson 'Horegallu'.  MaryJaya had the second session of the day. She continued with the lesson 'Maternity'. Keerthi had the last session of the day. She continued with the lesson 'Vanka'. 

19/2/21, Friday

Today we had the session at 3 PM. I had the first session. I took the lesson based on Advance Organizer Model. The pattern was quite different from those I followed previously. Keerthi had the second session. She took the lesson using Direct Instruction Model. Fathima was also there in our peer group. She took the lesson 'The Race'.

22/2/21, Monday

Today I took the lesson based on Concept Attainment Model. The topic I handled was Types of Sentences. I discussed the four types of sentences. I took the lesson using the e-content I had prepared earlier. Meera had the second session of the day. 

23/2/21, Tuesday

Today was the last day of my online peer teaching. I took the lesson using the Direct Instruction Model. The topic I handled was Gender In Nouns. The students loved the session as they had a lot of guess work to do. I took the class using an e-content I had prepared earlier. My peer group consisted of Fathima and Keerthi. 

School Teaching Practice - Week 4

 22/2/21, Monday

Today I administered a diagnostic test to the students. As we were six in number, we divided the children amongst us and each of us conducted out test in 10 students each. We conducted a 15 mark test and through it identified the major areas of difficulties our children faced. 

 23/2/21, Tuesday

The major finding of the test was that the students had difficulty with the spelling of words. I had opted for a few remedial techniques as the children were of different proficiency level. One technique I chose was incidental method. But the most effective technique was that of oral drilling. I asked the students to spell the word before writing it down and I asked them to practice persistently.

 23/2/21, Wednesday

Today I conducted an achievement test to the students. I was happy to see that they all performed fairly well. As it was our last day of teaching practice we distributed sweets to them. We asked them to prepare well, wished them the very best for their future and parted with them. 

A few snaps of the week

With our dear teachers Ms Sangeetha and Ms Ambily

Online Peer Teaching - Week 2

10/2/21, Wednesday

Today we had the session at 7 PM. Awani was the first one to take class. She began the lesson 'The Trio'. Keerthi had the third session of the day. She began the lesson 'Vanka'. I had the third session of the day. I began with a new poem Mother to Son written by Langston Hughes. Meera had the last session for the day, she took the lesson 'The School for Sympathy'.

11/2/21, Thursday

Today we had the session at 7 PM. I was the first one to take class. I continued with the poem 'Mother to Son'. Reshma had the second session. She continued the lesson 'The Trio'. Awani had the third session of the day. Meera had the last session for the day, she took the lesson 'The School for Sympathy'.

12/2/21, Friday

Today we had the session at 7 PM. I was the first one to take class. I continued with the poem 'Mother to Son'. Reshma had the second session. She continued the lesson 'The Trio'.  Meera had the third session for the day, she took the lesson 'The School for Sympathy'.Awani had the third last session of the day. She continued with the lesson 'The Trio'.

13/2/21, Saturday

Today we had the session at 11 AM. I was the first one to take class. I began a new lesson Horegallu written by Sudha Murthy. Keerthi had the second session of the day. She continued with the lesson 'Vanka'. MaryJaya had the last session of the day. She began with a new lesson 'Maternity'. 

15/2/21, Monday

Today we had the session at 7 PM. I was the first one to take class. I continued with the lesson 'Horegallu'. Reshma had the second session. She continued the lesson 'The Trio'. Awani had the third session of the day. Adithya had the last session for the day, she took the lesson 'Crime and Punishment'.

School Teaching Practice - Week 3

 15/2/21, Monday

I had made it a point to ask students the meanings of the previously learnt words so that they were familiar with their meanings and spellings. Most of the students had a difficulty with spellings. As I was continuing with the lesson, the children asked me to give them guidelines on how to write answers to score marks. 

16/2/21, Tuesday

Today I concluded the lesson and discussed the question answers. The children were able to answer well when compared to the previous days. I made them answer a few questions from their model question and they were able to do it well.

17/2/21, Wednesday

Today I began a new poem Any Woman written by Katherine Tynan. The central theme of the poem was the selfless love and care of a mother and her efforts in keeping a family intact. I went on with explaining two stanzas of the poem and we discussed the question answers.

18/2/21, Thursday

The poem had a lot of metaphors of significance and I detailed them about its relevance in the poem. The students were quick to grasp the concepts and the class went on effortlessly. 

19/2/21, Friday

By today I completed the lessons that were assigned to me and I made a quick recap of the lessons were dealt with and clarified all their doubts. Towards the end of the class I showed them several images of discourse activities so that they were thorough with their formats. 

Online Peer Teaching - Week 1

 28/ 1/21, Thursday

I began the second phase of my peer teaching with the lessons from grade X. The first lesson I took was The Castaway by Rabindranath Tagore. When compared to the lessons taken so far, this lesson was a bit difficult for the students to comprehend and gradually it took me longer to go on with the lesson.

6/ 2/21, Saturday

Today we had the session at 7PM. Athira Sreekumar began the session with the lesson 'Song of a Flower'. The second session was taken by Reshma and she took the lesson 'The Trio'. I took the last session of the evening. I continued with the lesson 'The Castaway'. 

7/ 2/21, Sunday

Today we had our session from 2PM. My peer group consisted of Feba, Annie and myself. Feba took the lesson 'The Race', Annie 'The Last Leaf' and I continued with the lesson 'The Castaway'. 

8/ 2/21, Monday

Today we had the session at 3 PM. Fathima began the session with 'The Village Blacksmith', it was followed  by Divya's session on 'The Last Leaf'. Feba had the third session of the day and she continued with the lesson 'The Race'. I was the last person of the day and I continued with my lesson. 

9/ 2/21, Tuesday

Today we had the session at 2 PM. Fathima began the session with 'The Village Blacksmith', it was followed  by Annie's session on 'The Last Leaf'. Feba had the third session of the day and she continued with the lesson 'The Race'. I was the last person of the day and I completed the chapter 'The Castaway'. The lesson was a bit complex when compared with the other lessons and I felt happy on completing it well. 

School Teaching Practice - Week 2

 8/2/21 Monday

I could notice that the children were more frequent in the classes. The teacher had said that the children were not very keen on attending school and therefore the pass percent of the school was as low as 40%. In every class I spent sometime to speak to the kids about the significance of education in improving our quality of thinking that would in turn improve the quality of our life. Today I dealt with the significance of learning in empowerment. 

9/2/21 Tuesday

Though the children were quite casual with their learning initially, by now they were a bit serious with their studies. They were able to recollect their previous class learnings and were quite familiar with the discourse activities. 

10/2/21 Wednesday

Today I began with a new lesson Matchbox written by Ashapurna Debi. The children were all very eager to learn the story. A major change I could notice was that those folks who were disinterested to learn English were all now impatient with the delay in beginning a lesson. This lesson was one relevant with the happenings of the society, so I wanted it to be more of a discussion that a regular lecture and the students interacted well.

11/2/21 Thursday

The children were all very much involved in the lesson and I could notice that as I read, their expressions revealed their discontent with the unfair treatment to which the protagonist was being subjected to. When I asked the students whether they had something to add on, almost all the students spoke of the instances of injustice they had to face in life as women. 

13/2/21 Friday

One of the discourse activities I gave them was character sketch. The children had an in-depth understanding of the text but their vocabulary in English was poor. The students asked me to give English words for certain Malayalam words. This was a difficulty faced by students of all batches so I decided to give them a few related terms of the themes they were learning so that it would be easier for them to prepare from the examination point of view.

A few snaps of the week

School Teaching Practice Week 1

 1/2/21, Monday

We reached the school by 9:15 AM as instructed by the Principal and were all ready to meet our kids. The coordinator Ms Dahlia Deepu informed us that the student who were of four batches: Science (2), Commerce and Humanities would be attending the classes in batches that too on alternate days. Ms Dahlia helped us in setting our personal timetables and was there with us on the first class.

Ms Dahlia briefed us on the focus areas (7 chapters) that was to be covered and asked us to prepare our lessons for the coming days. As it was our first class, we assisted Ms Dahlia for the day's class so that we were accustomed to the class climate and get an idea on how to go about with our lessons.

 2/2/21, Tuesday

Today we went to our respective classes. We got students from the Science and Commerce batch. I began the lesson Rice written by Chemmanam Chacko. Within the first day's interaction I understood that the students were more comfortable with code-switching. To capture their attention, I played a lyrical video of the poem in Malayalam. Once the students got the theme of the poem in mother-tongue they all synced well with the rest of the teaching. 

 3/2/21, Wednesday

As I went on with the classes I could notice that the children had a very short attention span. It was indeed a herculean task to have them on the same page. The only way to that was to relate the instances of their text with famous movie scenes.. that always worked. While I took the lesson, I also gave them question answers based on their previous question paper pattern. 

4/2/21, Thursday

Today I completed the poem and was consolidating its central themes. The discourse construction for these children were often based on the themes they learn throughout the year. So I made them practice writing a formal letter. I was shocked to learn that being 12th graders, they still had no clue on writing formal letters. I showed them a few examples and made the format clear to them. 

5/2/21, Friday

Once I ensured that the children were thorough with the lesson, I moved on to the next one The 3L's of Empowerment, a speech by Christine Lagarde. The class was an all girls batch and they were all motivated to learn the lesson as it was exclusively applicable to them. The children gave a lot of thoughtful remarks on several social constructs and it was indeed a wonderful session. 

A few snaps of the week

Teaching Practice Phase II

As per notified by the University of Kerala, the second phase of our teaching practice was  to commence by the first week of February. As we had our first phase of teaching practice completely in the online mode I had earnestly hoped that I could get an opportunity of taking direct classes to students. Thankfully six of us got that much awaited opportunity. Me, Keerthi, Reshma, MaryJaya, Adithya and Athira Sreekumar of our class got the opportunity to take class for the 12th graders of Government Higher Secondary School, Kumarapuram, Medical College. We were to take classes for them from February 1-24. 

We were quite nervous as it was the first time that we were going to be with the senior most students of the school. However, our teachers gave us immense support and made us confident enough for our roles.