Teachers Day Celebration

Teachers Day was celebrated on September 5 2023 at Christ Nagar College of Education. We were assigned student teacher duties so as to give a day off to our respective teachers by taking over their roles and responsibilties for the day. I was assigned the English optional class for the super juniors who had just joined the college. Henna maa'm, our English optional teacher gave me the portions for teaching before the onam celebration. I was asked to be prepared on the topic 'Language Teacher Competancies- Role and responsibilties of English teacher- Mentor, Facilitator, Scaffolder and Reflective practitioner.

 

Onam Day Celebration

Onam was celebrated at Christ Nagar College of education on 24 Augut 2023 Thursday. The major highlight of Onam celebration was the Pookalam and Onam Sadya. It was truly memorable as it was our last Onam at college. The programes and games were mind blowing as always and it ended with a fulfilling and positive note which shall forever be etched in our memories.     

Second Phase Teaching Practice Week-8 St Mary's HSS Pattom

                                            31 August 2023 Day-31

I taught the last portion of the chapter 'A Shipwrecked Sailor'. Then I asked them to come prepared for a test on the chapters 'The Boy Who Drew Cats' and 'TajMahal'. The test was out of 25 marks. Actually I had told about the test a week ago, but it could not be conducted due to the need to finish the chapter 'A Shipwrecked Sailor' as fast as possible especially was the onam exams were around the corner. 

                                             1 August 2023 Day-32

On Tuesday, I conducted the Achievement Test. The students wrote the exams within the alloted time. The teacher had asked them to write the test in their test paper books. 

                                             2 August 2023 Day-33

Wednesday, I explained to the students about the character sketches in the chapter and wrote the notes. Then I gave them the marks of the test and also gifted sweets to the students who got the first three positions in the test. During the study time, I made the students do INNOVATIVE WORK which consisited of Pictuonary and Jigsaw Puzzle. An exercise sheet consisiting of meanings wrer given as group activity due to lack of time. But the students actively and enthusistically did the work. 

                                             3 August 2023 Day-34

Thursday, I taught the grammar portion Degress of Comparison'. The students learnt it easily much better than what I had expected. It must have been easier for them as I had given them many practice questions.

                                            4 August 2023 Day-35

This was the last day at St Mary's HSS. We met the Principal and HM of the school to bid adieu. Then we gave sweets to our respoective students, clicked photographs and said goodbye to them with a heavy heart. 

Innovative work

As part of the Innovative Work, I made Pictionary and Jigsaw puzzle aiming to enhance the vocabulary of the students. Both the works were innovative ways to make the students understand new words and its meanings. It was different from the traditional rote method of learning. It was more of learning through doing activities where the students had the major role to play. The teacher was just a facilitator and scaffolder. 

Second Phase Teaching Practice Week-7 St Mary's HSS Pattom

                                              July 24, 2023 Day-26

Our second optional observation happened on Monday. Henna ma'am observed my my class at VIII-U during the third period. I taught the next portion of the lesson 'A Shipwrecked Sailor'. I asked the students to say the tongue-twister 'She sells seashells on the seashore' as part of the enty activity. I lost time by making every student say the tonguetwister. Then I explained the paragraph  by focussing on the meanings and vocabulary. Later I gave the activity on the vocabulary taught from the shapter as crossword puzzle,  but there was not enough time as the students took more time to finish it. This time, I was more confident that the first teaching observation and certainly when I compare both, I certain can see the improvement and believe me that is all that matters. 

                                              July 25, 2023 Day-27

On Tuesday, I taught the next portion of 'A Shipwrecked Sailor'. During the Hindi period, I repeated the audio part from the play 'The Importanace of Being Earnest'. I repeated the questions and made the students answer to them again. This helped many to clear their doubts as well as get a clear understanding about the context. 

                                              July 26, 2023 Day-28

On Wednesday, I continued on with teaching the next paragraphs of the lesson 'A Shipwrecked Sailor'. The students were engaged during the class as some wanted to know what would happen to the friends of the sailor whereas others wanted to know how they would die and what would happen to the sailor. During the fifth period, I played the audio of the play again. This time, The students were able to answer the questions easily and much faster than the previous time. This certainly proved that practice could really work wonders in improving English language skills. 

                                            July 27, 2023 Day-29

On Thursday, I taught the students the next portion of thr lesson and gave notes. The students were lazy and not that interested to learn as it was the sixth period.

                                             July 29, 2023 Day-30

Friday was a public holiday as it was Muharram. Hence Saturday was a working day with the tim-table of Friday. I got the fourth period as substitution at Class VIII-U and this taught the next portion of the shipwrecked sailor. Afternoon, the students had PTA meeting and hence we did not have classes.

Second Phase Teaching Practice Week 6 St Mary's HSS Pattom

                                              19 July 2023, Day-22

Monday, was the public holiday- Karkidakavavu. Tuesaday, we were shocked to know about the passing of our beloved former Chief minister Oomen Chandy. Wednesday, I taught the students about the poetic-devices simile, metaphor, and alliteration. It was a detailed study and helped the students to be aware of the poetic-devices while learning a new poem. 

                                             20 July 2023, Day-23

On thursday, I wrote the notes of the taught lessons. Since it was the sixth period, the students were lazy and so I made them do the activity 'Musical Perception' from the Action research. It helped the students to become active as well as enhance their listening skills.

                                              21 July 2023, Day-24

Friday was Arts Day Celebratuon and all were really excited. After days of practice and preparation, the students were ready to perform on stage. The stage was decorated with colourful lights. Even though the programmes were happening on stage, classes were on full swing at the other block. During sixth period, I conducted the activity, 'My Favourite Toss' again. The students actively responded and it was really fun. It helped them to improve their listening skills. 

                                              22 July 2023, Day-25

Saturday was a working day with the Tuesday's time-table. I had third period at Class VIII-U and started to teach the second unit 'Wings and Wheels', first chapter 'A Shipwrecked Sailor'. The students were enthusiastic to learn the next lesson and actively responded to the questions. 

An Action Research to enhance the Listening Skills of Secondary Students

 

The researcher conducted certain activities for Class VIII-U students of St Mary’s HSS Pattom so as to increase their listening comprehension skills.The researcher provided an awareness class on the need to develop listening skills,in our personal, social and educational lives, prior to the start of conducting the activities. This helped the students to have an idea about the concept of listening and the instructions that had to be followed during the course of the listening activities. 

A PRETEST to check the listening comprehension was given on 01 July2023, during the Hindi period. The researcher played the recording of the beginning of the play ‘The Importance of being Earnest’. The students had problem in understanding the name of the characters. Then the researcher read the same portion of the audio recording which helped many of the students to comprehend and respond to the first 10 questions with options. But they had difficulty to answer the rest of the questions in detail.

Day-1

The researcher told the instruction of the “Whisper Game.’ Then the researcher called ten students to the front of the class so as to avoid noise and told one of the students a famous line from the fairy tale ‘Snow White and the seven dwarfs’ – “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall who is the fairest among all”- The students were not able to get it right in the first go, but they insisted to do the same for a second time. The researcher gave them another tongue-twister “Betty bought butter but the butter was bitter, so Betty bought better butter to make the bitter butter better.” The students already knew the tongue-twister as the same example was used to teach them the poetic-device Alliteration. So they made sure to say the words slowly and clearly so as to not lose. But overall the students enjoyed the activity.

Day-2 

The researcher did the second activity during the study time from 1:00 pm to I:15pm. The researcher told the instructions to draw a snowman loudly and clearly. The students listened and drew the snowman, as per the instructions. The activity was not that interesting as the previous one but it was definitely unusual and good.

Day-3 

The researcher reminded the students about the opposites of certain words as they had forgotten many of them. Then the researcher told them the instruction which was to say the opposite of the said sentence as fast as possible. The researcher divided the students into two teams so as to spice up the competition and made the students of the opposite team B tell a sentence which the selected team member of team A had to tell and write the opposite of the sentence uttered within 60 seconds. The students enjoyed the activity as they were focused on making their team win. Eventually team A won and it was definitely fun in a healthy way. 

Day-4

My Favorite Toss is the type of activity were words are connected or linked to the previous sentence. The listening skill and memory can be analyzed with this activity. The first student started by saying that ‘My favorite game is Cricket.’ The next student continued the sentence by saying that Madhav’s favorite game is Cricket. My favorite game is Football. The students liked the activity as it was truly an engaging one where they were completely focused on their peer’s favorites so as to say it correctly,

Day-5

The researcher said the telephone numbers at a moderate speed which the students had to write correctly. The numeral ‘zero’ was said as the letter ‘o’ which the students had to write as 0. The activity was completely different from the normal ones given in their classes especially as it helped the students to lessen their tension of their monthly tests.

Day-6

The researcher asked the students to read a news report to which the students listened attentively. The students wrote news headlines appropriate to the one read. The students loved to write news headlines on the black board and actively responded with creative and funny news headlines appropriate to the news report read.  

Day-7

 

The researcher played the audio of the famous song by Boney M ‘Ma Baker.’ The students found it easy to comprehend the main word in the song ‘money.’ But they had to listen to the songs thrice in order to understand the lyrics of the song clearly. The students loved the song as it was really engaging and made them relieve of their stress of the upcoming exam. Also as it was a group activity, many minds worked together to fill the missing gaps of lyrics. The students loved the activity the most.

The researcher gave the post-test on 13^th July 2023, Thursday. The researcher played the audio-recording again, which the students were able to understand easily. They answered the questions much better than the pre-test. They certainly had an improvement in enhancing their listening skills. But overall, they understood the importance of listening to others by being present in the moment.

Second Phase Teaching Practice Week 5 St Mary's Pattom

                                               July 10 2023, Day 17

After two days holidays on Saturday and Sunday, we arrived refreshed on Monday. The students were having their monthly tests. afternoon. But we could take classes during the morning hours. During the third period, I taught the poem 'We're the World'. The boys listened to the poem with utmost concentration as it was the third period. During the fourth period, I conducted the next activity 'Telephonic Numbering'. The students actively indulged in the activity. It was definitly a different experience as writing telephone numbers was far from the normal experience for the students.

                                               July 11 2023, Day 18

During the English period, I conducted the sixth activity 'NewsHeadlines'. Since the students had to study about writing news reports and news headlines as part of their second unit, I was able to do the action research during the English period. The students actively responded by creatively forming newsheadlines after listening to the news report read by one among them. It was a shock for me to see their active response and it was a proof of their growing interest in listening/learning English.

                                                July 12 2023, Day 19

On Wednesday, I conducted the last activity of the Action Research which was 'Lyrical Perception'. I played the audio recording of the song 'Ma Baker' by Boney M. The students loved the song and really enjoyed it. They could not stop themselves from shaking their feet to the beats of the song. They filled in the gaps of the printed lyrical sheet of paper after listening to the song more than once. Then, I cleared the doubts of the students in English for their monthly tests during the revision time.

                                                July 13 2023 Day 20

On Thursday, I conducted the post-test on the same questions based on the audio recording from the beginning of the play 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. The students were able to answer the questions more easily than the pre-test time. The students performance were definilty better during the post-test when compared with the pre-test marks. The improvement of the listening skills of the students is the proof that the action research was effective to majority of the students. Practice, individual attention and time would certainly work for the betterment of the students.

                                                 July 14 2023 Day 21

On friday, I had sixth period at Class VIII-U. Many of the students were absent as there were three days of holidays in a row- Saturday, sunday and Monday was a public holiday (Karkidakavavu') So, I gave the revision of the chapter 'The Boy Who Drew Cats' by giving a summary of the lesson and clearing the doubts of the students.

Second Phase Teaching Practice Week 4 St Mary's HSS Pattom

                                                  July 4 2023, Day 13

We had class on July 4 Tuesday as it was a holiday on July 3 as part of St Thomas Day. St Thomas was the first apostle of Jesus Christ who came to India and thereby promoted Christianity as well as influenced the educational sector in India. 

I taught the question tag again as many of the students were absent on Saturday. I gave many practice questions on the question tag so that the students would be thourough with it. 

During the fifth period, I did the first activity 'Whisper Game'. The students loved the activity as they found it as a game. The students fount it exciting to whisper the tongue twisters and rhyming words to each other. The activity certainly helped the students to listen to the utterances of their friends with more focus so as to say the phrase/sentence correctly. The activity started making the students to listen to each other with more focus as well as to say the words with more clarity.

                                                July 5 2023, Day-14

It was a holiday for the other districts due to heavy rains, but we had schools. I was really relieved as the action research and portions had to be completed on time. During the fifth period, I did the second activity of the Action research during the study time from 01:00- 01:15 pm. The activity 'Listen and Draw' was unusual something different from the usual especially as the students never had such drawing activities in their classroom.The students listened to the instructions and drew the snowman. The activity was simple as I just wanted to make it more interesting to the students and not make it more difficult. During the English period, I gave the notes of the lessons which were taught earlier.

                                                July 6 2023, Day 15

The eighth standard classes were shifted to the main office block. There was a change in the time-table and thus there was a confusion regarding the same.  But by noon, everything had become norma. During the fifth period, I taught the students Noun Phrase and discussed the activities behind the first chapter 'The Mysterious Picture'.

I did the third activity 'Swapping the Opposites' during the study time. I asked the students to say the opposite of whatever their partner said. It was fun. I also asked some to come forward and listen to a sentence. They had to write the sentence using the opposites as fast as possible. By the activity, the students were able to recollect the opposites which they had learnt in their previous classes. Also their listening skills were definilty being improved especially as they were sub-consciously trained to listen to the other with utmost concentration and focus. 

                      July 7 2023, Day 16

On July 7, the subject teacher in charge had asked me to give more practice questions on question tag and noun phrase. Then I gave revision questions on the taught portions so that the students would be more thorough with it for their monthly tests. 

During the Hindi period, I conducted the fourth activity 'My Favourite Toss'. The students had to start a sentence about their favourite game, which the next student had to say it along with their own favourite game. The cycle continues till the last student. The activity helped the students to know each other better and also to say their friend's favourites along with their own by recollecting it in a logical manner. It served as a memory booster as well as enhanced their listening skills. 

Second Phase Teaching Practice Week 3 St Mary's HSS Pattom

                                               June 26, 2023 Day-9

Anti Drug Day 

World Drug Day is marked on 26 June every year to strengthen action and cooperation in achieving a world free from drugs. A competition was held as part of the World Drug Day (poster making) and it was displayed on the notice board. During the assembly, a pledge against using and associating with drugs was taken for life by the students. 

    

                                            June 27, 2023 Day- 10

It was raining cats and dogs from early morning till late in the evening. But all were in a jovial mood as the next two days were public holidays on the occasion of Eid al- Adha/Bakrid. Since, I had class during the third period, it was not that difficult to manage the students. I explained the poem 'Taj Mahal' again by focussing on the poetic devices simile, metaphor and alliteration. 

                                                June 30 2023 Day 11

After two days holidays, I came to school fully recharged. I had class during the sixth period and conducted the diagnostic test on the chapter "TajMahal" as my teacher in charge had asked me to do so. I had already told the students about the test on Tuesday and asked them to study well as they had two days holidays to prepare well. On friday,21 students were present and they were relieved after seeing the questions as they did not have to write long essays. Then I gave the notes of the lessons which were taught earlier on. 

                                                   July 1 2023 Day 12

1 July, another month with new HOPES, new DREAMS and new TARGETS. With the monthly tests advancing nearer, I was anxious about finishing the portions as well as the action research. Hence, I asked permission of the teacher for free periods so that the portions could be finished on time along with the action research, The teacher was kind enough to give me the Hindi periods for which I'm grateful. 

During the Hindi period, I asked the boys to cooperate with me for the some days and sometimes more if time was insufficient for the Action reserach on enhancing the listening skills. I assured them that it would be fun and exciting so that the students would be enthusiastic about it. Then, I played the audio recording of 6min 11 seconds from the first part of the play 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. Then I gave the students the paper consisiting of the pre-test questions in order to check their level in listening comprehension. The students found it difficult to comprehend the names of the characters in the play and the story line. Hence the audio had to be played more than once and also the teacher had to intervene in between and clarify the character's names by repeating it  again so that the students could understand it better. From the results of the test, the students had to improve their listening skills. Hence, the action research would definitly be of use to the students by creating an interest in listening to English by enhancing their listening skills. 

During the English period, I distributed the corrected diagnostic test answer papers. Majority of the students had got good marks. Then I taught the grammar portion- question tags. 

Second Phase Teaching Practice Duties

We had duties like discipline duty, substituition duty and noon meal duty. Contary from other schools, at St Mary's school, we had to administer extra duties like vegatable cutting duty. It was an unusual yet different experience to cut onions and vegetables in a school. 

Vegetable cutting duty