Life is a game…Let’s
play!
Language games are an essential part of any ESL classroom. It
makes teaching and learning fun and interesting. It adds beauty to a class. Let's go through some of the games that were used in peer teaching classes.
Picture Perfect!👸
“Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others
see” –Edgar Degas
The characters of Listen to the Mountain
The feeling of transferring one’s thoughts to a paper cannot
be described always. It’s the deepest form of communication. When you draw
someone creating them first in your mind and then on to a paper is a form of love.
You develop an unknown bond with the person that you try to draw. A paper could "catch the eye" very easily. That’s why they are considered a suitable
teaching aid for teaching English to students. For teaching the lesson Listen
to the Mountain I have drawn the portrait of all the characters of the play. It
felt as if I know all the characters after I pictured and drew them. A strange
form of connection was developed.
Origami Mountain
Creating something like a mountain from an A4 size paper within
minutes… The artwork behind it is amazing. How a paper transforms into a
beautiful creation. That’s why I decided to emulate the origami mountain and
use it as an activity in the online class. It was a very successful one!
Teaching new words with the help of film clips, videos and
pictures are interesting to the students. One needs to try it out. The
connection is established easily.
Gandhi
Jayanthi- The Online Way
Gandhi
Jayanthi Celebrations at GCTE, Thycaud
“Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become
your words
Keep your words positive, because your words become your
behaviour.
Keep your behaviour positive, because your behaviour becomes
your habits
Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your
values
Keep your values positive, because your values become your
destiny.”
-Mahatama Gandhi
2nd October 2020- the 151st birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. The relevance of the thoughts and principles of Mahatma Gandhi is more prevalent in the time where we are battling the pandemic Covid-19. Gandhiji’s principles should motivate and inspire us to keep fighting against the enemy without losing hope. That’s what the celebration was all about.
Celebration @ GCTE
The Gandhi Jayanthi celebrations at GCTE, Thycaud started around 10.00 AM with a prayer. Dr. T K Jayasree, Principal, GCTE, Thycaud welcomed the august gathering. The Gandhi Jayanthi celebration was inaugurated by Dr. M S Geetha, former Dean and Principal of GCTE. Dr. V K Santosh Kumar, HOD, Department of Social Science, Smt. Shiba T C, HOD, Department of Sanskrit and Greeshma Sujathan, Chairperson of College Union- Sargam felicitated the gathering. Dr. Joly S, HOD, Department of Malayalam proposed a vote of thanks. The programme ended with the national anthem.
Chief Guest of the event -Dr. M S Geetha
Even as years roll by, the Gandhian principles remain evergreen and hold power to enlighten the entire world. His simple life, rich values, and enriching wisdom made him uproot the mighty British Empire. On pillars of truth and non-violence, he offers solutions, through his different principles, on issues of society, economy, politics, and human substance.
I was the anchor of the function! A wonderful experience indeed. Enjoyed it a lot!
I
miss being a student!!!
Online
practice teaching: day 3
Being a student is a wonderful experience. The feeling of being a student can’t easily be replaced. I miss being a student and when I had to be a “student” during the online practice teaching of my peers my wish got granted somehow. I enjoyed it a lot. The student life is the golden period of our life. It is the period that we learn different things and acquires knowledge about the present world. In fact, our future depends on it. At this time our mind is just like clay. Our psyche additionally can be formed in various manners. During the lockdown period, everything turned topsy-turvy and being a student and teacher are like distant memories where schools are like a museum.
On day 3 of our online practice teaching on 30.09.2020 we had two
student-teachers – Dhanya Vikraman
and Vismi V
Dhanya Vikraman
“Hope is able to see that there is light despite of all the darkness.”
-Desmond Tutu
The class by the student-teacher was based on the theme Hope. The dictionary describes hope as a feeling of expectation and desire for certain things to happen. Hope is compelling because it is universal. It crosses all human boundaries: age, race, class, gender, ethnicity religion, political or any other persuasion. Everyone needs it and almost everyone exhibits at least some measure of hope if they made it as far as this day.
VISMI V
Nature is the most divine
creation. It is considered an integral part of mankind. Nature has bestowed us
with water, air, plants and much more to make us survive on this planet. But
are we paying back to our mother nature? The answer is no as we have not only
failed in paying back but also exploited nature to a great extent. Nature
provides beauty all around, it’s the nature that makes the surroundings
attractive and worthy to live in. Human life is possible because of nature and
its various boons. Nature is a gift of God and must be respected just like we respect
and love our mother. That was Vismi told us through her class. It was based on A Day
in the Country (Standard VIII)
The highlight of the class was the activity that the teacher gave. It was
very interesting and I loved doing it. It was indeed creative and innovative. It
was fun! With the activity, the teacher could give us a feeling that we are really in
the classroom.😉😉😉
What
happens when technology controls us?
ONLINE
PRACTICE TEACHING: DAY 2
“It’s not that we use
technology, we live technology.”
-Godfrey Reggio
Technology
is revolutionizing our lives beyond recognition. Human beings are now under the
clutches of technology. The complete control is in the hands of technology. The
lack of control when technology controls our pace of life was experienced by me
on 29.09.2020 on the 2nd
day of online practice teaching. It was all confusions. But it was fun too. And
an experience that everyone will remember. We can’t live with technology and
can’t live without it. The sword of Damocles….
That day we had two
classes by student-teachers – Aparna I
Joy and Dhanya A R.
Aparna I Joy
“so
much depends upon
a red wheel barrow
glazed with rain water
beside the white chickens”.
To
be able to creatively express ourselves is a great feeling. The class gave us
that opportunity, to creatively express ourselves in Haiku. The student-teacher
introduced us to a beautiful poem called The Red Wheel Barrow. She dealt with the
topic Maternity (Standard IX). The theme centres around love and care
for all. For love and sympathy,
there is no boundary. Love crosses barriers and borders. It is not necessary
that you will get love from your own people. You will get it unexpectedly from
strangers as well. Do not despise or hate anyone because of your prejudice. Love
all and expect love from all. Life will be beautiful then. Love is an intangible feeling that makes
us vulnerable to danger, pain and suffering. However, love is the foundation of
friendship; it brings us together and promotes cooperation.
DHANYA A R
Story
telling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. The
student-teacher told us an inspiring story. The story was about the importance
of doing smart work rather than hard work. The story felt appropriate and relevant.
It’s very vital for managing time too. It was like giving us something to think
about. After Dhanya’s class, I contemplated on the story and thought deeply
about it. The
difference between hard work and smart work is based on how we approach a task.
Hard work would mean spending long hours to complete a job without any
shortcuts. It definitely ensures results but the process is long and stressful.
Smart work would be aiming for the same results but with planning and
prioritization of tasks. Smart work and hard work together make a genius.
They are two different tools to complete a single task. Or you can say that
they are two faces of the same coin! A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes
sweat, determination and hard work.
Success requires 99% perspiration and 1%
inspiration. Success is the result of hard work, learning from your mistakes,
loyalty, persistence and perfection. Thomas Edison has once said, “There is no substitute for hard work”. The
surest formula for success is Success
= Hard work + Dream + Dedication + Perseverance.
Let’s Roam Around!
DAY 1 OF ONLINE PRACTICE TEACHING
“Travelling- It leaves you
speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
-Ibn Battuta
Who doesn't like to travel? Travelling is a luxury we can't seem to afford
in this lockdown. But when our minds have wings and wheels of their own what is
stopping us from exploring, from discovering ourselves and the world around? I think the exposure to new places and new
people can be really reviving personally and also eye-opening to see how other
people live. To see how life functions, whether human or natural life, in other places is really humbling. It's easy to have your status quo at home, but as soon as you're in a new place - all bets are off. You can do anything, and are so willing to try new stuff to push your own boundaries purely because you're in a new place.
That was what my friend Anija
U tried to convey through her class taken on 28.09.2020. . It gave us
an opportunity to explore the world, to travel with the wings of mind. Her
class was on A Shipwrecked Sailor (Standard VIII) by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez. When I heard
the word shipwreck what naturally comes to my mind is that
the image of Titanic.
While she was narrating the story of the protagonist my mind immediately
made a connection to the movie The Life of the Pie. The
story felt intriguing and it prompted me to read the story that day itself. The story goes like this: Seaman Luis
Alejandro Velasco of the destroyer Caldas is eager to return to Colombia after a long stay in The United States. When the ship sets sail, however, it is overloaded — in part
with contraband. When the vessel is caught in heavy waves in the Caribbean,
eight of the crew are washed overboard, together with much of the cargo. After
four days the search ends, with the missing declared dead. However, Velasco
found a raft and remained on the open sea without food and without hope. After
drifting with sea currents for ten days, he arrives with his raft on a coast
that he later discovers to be Colombia. He is received first with affection and
later with military honours and much money from publicity agencies
Highlights of the class:
Anija explored the
different tools available in the WPS application while taking her class.
Ø a. pointer
Ø b. whiteboard
Each day has something
positive stored for us. We just need to find that out. For me, that day was
about the beautiful story I read.😊😊😊
Listen to the
Mountain: Part I
[Standard IX- Unit
III]
“The finest poetry was the first experience” – Ralph Waldo
Emerson
The pandemic of Covid-19 brought the dawn of
“the new normal” culture of online learning. I had the opportunity to enjoy the
practice teaching for the first time on 28.09.2020. The online practice
teaching was held via Google meet and my classmates “pretended” to be my
students. It was all like “microteaching” once again, but with some difference!
I enjoyed the experience tremendously. It was fun to begin with. I never knew I
missed teaching this much till then. Nothing can replace a real classroom but
we can work with what we got. After all that is called survival when we
overcome the challenges that life throws at you.
The day before:
I have prepared a detailed unit plan of the
unit assigned to me from Standard IX- Unit III- Care for the Morrow. I divided the lesson Listen to the Mountain into 10 parts and
then prepared lesson plan and teaching aids needed for part I. In part I I
decided to include set induction- to the unit, to the genre-pay, to the chapter
and to the writer.
On the day of the class:
Even though I had to encounter network issues I
could start the class on time. I was able to follow the lesson plan. It taught
me the importance of having a well-crafted plan before teaching a class. Then
only the execution will be proper. I tried to be as “natural” as possible and
made it a point to make my class feel different from other online classes. The
students very well cooperated and that is the main reason I was able to make
the class interactive and interesting. After reminiscence I was able to list
out some of the highlights of the class as well as several drawbacks. I should
redeem the mistakes I made while taking the part I. Let's go through my own
thoughts, after all a teacher should be able to do proper self-evaluation!
PowerPoint Presentation
Highlights
ü New Strategies: I don't know how far one can call them new,
but I was trying to adapt methods that we usually follow in a traditional
classroom.
Eg:- taking attendance, making the students do
activities and later posting them in the what’s app group, giving instructions,
using improvised teaching aids like the picture depicting “dream world”
ü Proper Sequencing of the Content: I made it a point to properly link the
content to be taught. With the help of the lesson plan I was able to do that
from the beginning till the end.
ü Activity: To suit the purpose of online platform I modified the
activities given in the text. I felt doing the textual activities as such good
hamper the effectiveness of the lesson.
ü Time Management: Since our supervisory teacher stressed the importance
of managing time I tried to stick to the schedule. I was able to do that and even
had five minutes to spare for clearing the doubts of the learners.
ü Role of the “Learner”: Even though there were no real students there and the classmates were pretending I was able to make the class interactive and ensure that the students actively be a part of it.
Life is a game…Let’s play! Language games are an essential part of any ESL classroom. It makes teaching and learning fun and interesti...
