October
Save Girl Child …
The hand that rocks the cradle, the procreator, the mother of tomorrow;
a woman shapes the destiny of civilization.
Such is the tragic irony of fate, that a beautiful creation
such as the girl child is today one of the gravest concerns facing humanity
World girl child day (11th October)
The aim of this program was to create a positive image for girls in society
and hence change the perceptions and mindsets of people who still opt for
boy children. The audience witnessed presentation, which showed how
innovations have been introduced to achieve the education for girl child
women and so as to empower women to contribute to the society. There
was a speech on the theme of ‘Save the Girl child’’ which sensitised the
audience. Apart from this the event also included a poem which depicted
the cries of girl child. The students through the events depicted
that the girl child can be a boon and not a curse. The event
reflected that the need of the hour is to ask yourself a question; if
every man needs a wife and a mother then why not a daughter?
Ramadan Id Celebration
4 weeks of barkat,
30 days of forgiveness,
720 hours of guidance,
43200 minutes of purification,
2592000 secs of Nuur..!!
That composes of a recipe for Ramadan
In order to prove the recipe for Ramadan the students came up with the event which was celebrated
on 7th Oct to mark the end of Ramzan; the Muslim month of fasting. Prayers were recited with an
aim to sensitize towards the association with God. This event created awareness on the importance
of fasting and reasons for doing the sacrifice. Students presented the five pillars every Muslim
person follows. Few students recited poems in the Shayarana andaz to create an ambience of the
festival. Festive delicacies that were prepared for the day included Shahi kheer. It was distributed
among the students and the staff of the institution. Overall this event sensitised the students
K J Somaiya College of Education, Training & Research
Simhavlokan, October 2014
towards the basic five pillars of the Muslim culture, where a person ensures to help the
disadvantaged.
Club activities
“All that is worth knowing cannot be taught or learned in the classroom environment.”
Club activities were initiated to provide appropriate challenges and avenues, beyond the classrooms,
for achieving and establishing a balance between educating for academic growth and educating for
transition to self-hood.
The English club set a platform that helped the students to focus
on whole language experience of English coupled with exercises to
sharpen specific linguistic skills. In order to induce interest and
foster individual and group learning atmosphere many activities
were introduced. Ms. Takshashila Jadhav carefully planned the
activities for the club. To bring out the creativity students were trained in making work sheets
along with innovative lessons. An introduction to concept maps for relating the contribution of
great authors to literature, their famous anthologies and biography was made. Students were
encouraged to make substitution tables’ chart for parts of speech.
The Commerce Club: The year started off with great enthusiasm on
the part of the commerce students. Though the number of students was
only 12, they worked honestly to make the club activities really
happening. Under the able guidance of Ms Kruttika Bhat, the activities
were discussed with the members of the commerce group and decided.
A bulletin board was allotted to each club so as to display the literature,
concept maps, news articles etc. Students came out with charts and models for various topics.
Students conducted general knowledge sessions, quiz and games. The economics club students left
no stone unturned in channelizing their energies in most productive ways. Students came out with
ideas on what kind of activities can be done under this club. Again here the bulletin board was the
most important activity which the students really enjoyed. They prepared concept maps, charts,
pictures, graphs of economic activities, thereby involving all the students. Games like Quiz
competitions puzzles, etc were played to rejuvenate the students in the class. Students planned to
prepare a report in the form of Scrapbooks.
The History Club: To bring History alive Ms Hema Peese set a platform
where the student teachers had the opportunity to discuss the movements
and revolutions that took place in the past through co operative learning
techniques. It included Simple Jig saw, Round Robin, Roundtable
K J Somaiya College of Education, Training & Research
Simhavlokan, October 2014
Brainstorming, Numbered Heads Together and Think pair share. It was wonderful enthusiasm among
the students since they could review history through their lens and use critical thinking.
The Mathematics Club: The Mathematics club students took the initiative of utilising the bulletin
board for displaying maths tricks, riddles, and puzzles. Students brainstormed and prepared charts
on various topics in Maths. Students came up with ideas on how the Maths Club activities can be
conducted. A common blog was created so as to collaborate with innovative ideas. The orientation
to the concept of Multiculturalism was done by Ms Usha Sharma here in order to create awareness
for the need of Multicultural education in today’s world. It enabled to identify the students, who
would work to further take up the task of preparing lessons and presenting them after a fortnight. A
few of the researches based in Maths were read as an additional activity in the Maths classes so as to
broaden the mental horizon of the students. Apart from this Maths Lab activities were conducted in
classroom through paper folding and paper cutting method for verification of various properties as
Maths experiments.
The Science Club : The Science students along with their teacher Dr.
Sreetanuka Nath of B.Ed Somaiya College, Vidyavihar had organized a
workshop on improvised apparatus preparation on 13/10/14 and then
a Science Exhibition was held wherein all the student teachers had
displayed their improvised apparatus made by them. This was an
initiative to provide interactive, participatory, hands-on, innovative,
creative learning experience for all, which shall be beneficial for further teaching.
Workshop on Joseph D. Novak’s concept map was also conducted where the
science students found an opportunity for preparing concept
maps. The workshop lead to development of curiosity among
the students and also helped in making their concept clear
regarding how to make a concept map. Students prepared
concept maps on the topics like Heart, Work, Matters, Eco system, cell division
of animals, respiratory system, substances, motion, health etc.
Some of the topics on which improvised apparatus were prepared are Process of Digestion, Solar
System, Rain Alarm, Electrolysis, Seperatory funnel, Respiratory Model etc. The
science students also participated actively in the preparation of concept map.
Preparation of concepts maps lead to development of curiosity among the students
and also helped in making their concept clear regarding how to make a concept
map. They were enthusiastic as they were now drawing something new and most
K J Somaiya College of Education, Training & Research
Simhavlokan, October 2014
important thing on chart paper’s with use of sketch pens.
“You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.”
Proctorial system –A helping hand
To bring out this realisation is the main task of any teacher. Even in our institution every faculty
was allotted as a mentor to a group of student under the proctorial system. On a week day from 14th
October onwards began the proctorial meet where the mentors would meet the students and direct
them in academic difficulties. Practice of writing answers to university questions was provided to
the students with in the stipulated time. Mentors guided the mentee to bring in effective results
keeping in mind the time management, organisation of answers and presentation of points for the
given question. Every faculty proved to be a quintessential mentor as they ensured to share all their
experiences and knowledge to empower the mentee.
The victory of good over evil, to begin new things in life…………….
Navratri Celebration
Navratri celebrations gave the opportunity to bring out this victory in
every individual. The day splurged a festive spirit among everyone.
The colour code was green and the dress code for the day was Chaniya
Choli or Bandhini Saree or Anarkali for girls and Kurta and Pyjama
for boys. The Navratri function started in the evening with a beautiful
bhajan of Ma Durga, praising her qualities and the triumph of good over evil. After the bhajan, there
was an informative talk in the form of question and answer session by the students. An extempore
competition on Navratri gathered a huge round of interest and applause from the students.
Presentation on the diversity in the form of celebrations across India with a special highlight on the
origin of Navratri enriched the cultural know how. It revealed that different opinions and
presentation of different forms of celebrations in all states of India and also outside India has
developed an emotional bonding among diversely different people
following different religion and culture. Unity in diversity rocks!!
This
was followed by a Gujarati theme based group dance. The
entertainment quotient was more spiced up with group dance depicting
the story of innocent girls going through the trauma of sexual
harassment and how they come out of such evil with courage and willpower. The function concluded
with a speech from Principal Dr. Vasundhara Padmanabhan and a vote of thanks to all the
supporters. No Navratri celebration is complete without Dandiya and Garba raas. So after the
function all the students and teachers of B.Ed. department had a gala time playing Garba on the
beats of old as well as new Navratri theme based songs. So in totality, it was an experience worth
remembering for years to come.
K J Somaiya College of Education, Training & Research
Simhavlokan, October 2014
EYES (Enlighten Yourself Every Saturday) Seminar Series
“We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone is arguing over where they're
going to sit”
To remove such selfish intentions and prepare ourselves to face a common problem which if
unsolved can lead to drastic consequence for all of us, we need to create awareness among the future
entrants of the society. The institution offers instances where students get opportunities to here
experts on various sensitive issues. On one such platform, Department of Environmental Science, K.
J. Somaiya College of Science and Commerce in association with the University of Mumbai
organised ‘EYES 2014’ Enlighten Yourself Every Saturday – a series of lectures on environment
for the future. Eminent personalities shared their experiences to bring awareness related to
environmental issues. One of the experts Mr. Bittu Sehgal, Editor of Sanctuary Asia showed the
need for the hour to save the endangered species from getting extinct. Several videos were shown
for sensitising the students towards the environmental issues of these kinds. Apart from this under
this series students got inputs by Dr Vandana Shiva the environmentalist who enlightened the
students about the concept of GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms).Through the session she led
the lecture series on ‘Environment for the Future’. Here students were made aware about the side
effects of such foods on health but also the side effects on the agricultural land of India resulting in
the degradation of the soil fertility and inability of Rotation of crops in case of crops like Beta
Cotton, the farmer’s income. The solution given to this problem was to use Organic Food. The
response from the students was beyond expectations since one of the students came up with the idea
of creating awareness among the people as a part of social responsibility. Ms Kajal Gada initiated for
the program where she made students in three groups –one as ‘The Informacions’ working for
gathering information on Open Field Trials of GMO, make their acquaintance aware about the
same, write and post letters to seek permission from the different institutes of Somaiya.Yet another
group ‘The Artistique Group’ who made charts and posters on GMO. While the other third group
‘The Agents’ were responsible to prepare an Informatory Street Play on GMO and execute the
same. The areas planned were Ghatkopar, starting from the campus of Somaiya moving towards
Vikrant Circle then towards SVDD School and last location was Odean.
Inhale love, exhale hate.
Inhale confidence, exhale doubt.
Inhale beautiful, exhale ugly.
K J Somaiya College of Education, Training & Research
Simhavlokan, October 2014
Yoga sessions by Dr Prakash Soni began on 16th October. It gave a platform to explore self through
the self. Dr Prakash Soni, the expert in the field of Yogabhyas enlightened that all problems are the
illusions of the mind and through a proper practice of relaxation techniques one can overcome these
problems. The students were taught a carefully practiced Pranayam and it was convinced to all that
if everyone can breathe then everyone could practice Yoga deals with conscious working on self
rather than working out. Overall students found out the session very fruitful because they realised
the solution of all problems was not for touching toes but in unlocking ideas from mind and realise
where you have to go & how it would be achieved.
Student Development:
Statistics Workshop was conducted in Educational Evaluation Course III on October 29 and
October 31 by Ms Hema Peese using co operative learning strategies
like think pair share and buddy system and group work was given to
them. The topics covered were:
Calculation and interpretation of Mean and Median.
Interpretation of Standard Deviation with reference to Normal
Probability Curve
Interpretation of Percentile and Percentile Rank.
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K J Somaiya College of Education, Training & Research
Simhavlokan, October 2014