37. Report of IX Meeting

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum- KUETEF]

Venue: Karmela Rani Training College, Kollam

Date: 11 June 2011

Overcoming minor inconveniences caused by the change of venue from Trivandrum to Kollam, the following teacher educators representing government-aided institutions, University Teacher Education centres and Self Financing Colleges, attended the IX Meeting of KUETEF.

Fr.Joseph John, Dr.C.Praveen, Mr. E.K.Jijan, Ms. Susan George, Mr. Scaria, Ms. Annie K Ommen and Ms. Ambili.

Two teacher educators, interested in joining the Forum Ms Nitha and Mr. Anoop also attended.

The meeting commenced at 10.45 AM with a prayer.

Fr. Joseph John, the Vice President of KUETEF welcomed the gathering. He expressed his immense happiness at the regular annual meeting organized by KUETEF albeit fall in attendance. He fondly recalled the day on which KUETEF was formally inaugurated in the very same venue a few years ago. He thanked all the members for volunteering to attend the IX meeting.

Fr. Joseph congratulated the President of KUETEF Dr. M.S.Geetha (in absentia) on her appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Education of the University of Kerala. Dr. C.Praveen, the Secretary of KUETEF was also congratulated on being awarded a doctorate by Kannur University.

After the Welcome speech, the participants introduced themselves.

Next Dr. C. Praveen, the Secretary, presented the Report of the eighth meeting and activities of the Forum since the VIII meeting. In the report mention was made of the refreshing trend among English Teacher Educators of the University of Kerala to get in touch with members of KUETEF to clarify doubts regarding curriculum transaction.

Since the eighth meeting, it was pointed out that the Blog posts have risen from 18 to 35 and the visitors to the KUETEF Blog have crossed the one thousand mark. The members present found the report quite satisfactory and it was accepted without any change.

Next, the Secretary presented the agenda for the day’s proceeding which included the following:
•Discussion regarding the introduction of the new Course Book for Standard X
•The change in duration of Teaching Practice
•Topics for Practicums
•The Interactive Model
•Innovative work


The discussions lasted nearly three hours.

Fr. Joseph arranged for a cake to be cut in honour of the Secretary’s achievement (for being awarded a doctorate). He also invited the participants to lunch.

The discussions during the short afternoon session focused on the ‘Innovative Work’ to be taken up by trainees. It was also decided to bring to the notice of the Dean of Studies in Education and the Board of Studies in Education of the University of Kerala, the problems in transaction of the BEd. Curriculum discussed during the day’s meeting.

Before the meeting concluded two proposals were made by the Secretary:
First, the organizing of annual meetings of KUETEF along with a regular Workshop or a Seminar which would draw more participants.

Second, if many members deem it necessary, a One-day Workshop to familiarize with the transaction strategy proposed by SCERT, Kerala for the newly introduced Standard X Course Book may be organized by KUETEF.

The meeting ended around 2 PM and Mr. Scaria offered the vote of thanks. All the members thanked Fr. Joseph who is now holding charge of the Principal of the college for his warm hospitality. The members were thanked for their whole-hearted participation in the discussions.


Secretary,
KUETEF

36. Crossing The One Thousand Mark

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum – KUETEF]

•The viewer count of this Blog crossed the one thousand mark in June 2011

•Besides India, there are visitors from countries including the US, the UK and Singapore.


The KUETEF fraternity would like to thank GOOGLE for providing this free site.


Secretary,
KUETEF

35. Change of Venue

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum - KUETEF]

We had planned to hold the next meeting of KUETEF in the Open-air auditorium in the Museum Complex at Trivandrum. But quite unexpectedly the monsoon season has arrived early this year and it is likely to be inconvenient to hold the meeting in the Open-air auditorium. Hence it is decided to hold the IX meeting at Karmela Rani Training College (KRTC), Kollam.

The Vice President of KUETEF Fr. Joseph.J who is a faculty of KRTC, has consented to make all arrangements for the meeting.



C.Praveen
Secretary, KUETEF

34. An Invitation to Join KUETEF

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum - KUETEF]

Dear English Teacher Educators,


If you have recently joined a Teacher Training College affiliated to the University of Kerala, you are welcome to join the Forum.

Please attend the IXth Meeting of KUETEF scheduled for 11 June 2011
Details available in Previous Post # 33)


Join KUETEF and empower yourself…

With warm Regards


C.Praveen
Secretary, KUETEF

33. Announcement IXth Meeting

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum - KUETEF]


Owing to several unforeseen circumstances it had not been possible for the members to meet after the commencement of the new academic year (2010-11). Last week a few members met at Govt. College for Women, Trivandrum which was the venue for the Centralized Valuation of the First Semester answer scripts. An informal meeting was held and many felt the need to hold a meeting prior to the commencement of the Second Spell of Practice Teaching. Accordingly it was decided to conduct the IXth meeting of KUETEF on 11 June 2011 Forenoon (Second Saturday). The venue will be the Open-air Auditorium, near Snake Park in the Museum Complex, Trivandrum.


The members are being intimated through Postal mail, email and SMS.

The proposed agenda for the IXth meeting:

•Compiling a List of Practicums in English (Problem-based and other studies) to be given to trainees.

•Identifying the phases, likely hypotheses and sources of data collection of select topics.

•Identifying appropriate strategies for analyzing the data that is collected.

•Identifying a set of common scoring indicators for use by the teacher educators for assessing the Problem-based Practicums and normal studies conducted by trainees for Internal Assessment.

•Compiling a list of Innovative work which could be undertaken by the trainees.

•Listing down the steps of the Interactive Model for teaching English and the preparation of a specimen Lesson Plan.

•Clarifying doubts regarding Content Analysis.

•Identifying strategies for developing communication skills of trainees.




C.Praveen
Secretary, KUETEF

32. A Format For Diary Writing

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum - KUETEF]

Some colleges in addition to the practice of making trainees write a Diary during the two spells of Practice Teaching, insist on writing diary every day. Unfortunately many trainees tend to turn the diary entry into a mere record of daily events. A typical Diary entry would look more or less, like this:

“ I reached college at 9.15 am, Mr. X engaged a class on Educational Psychology. Then we had our optional classes. Our optional teacher taught us ‘....’. The first two periods of the after noon session was free because the teacher was absent. The last period we had Physical Education class”.

Well, don’t you think..., such writing is meaningless? Only trainees who are really bright and good at studies will make an attempt to reflect on what they learned that day.


This academic year (2010-2011), I am planning to make my trainees observe the following format for writing a diary entry:

In addition to details of day, date, time, name of teacher educator and topic taught, they should write a two-line summary of the content taught during the period. Each day’s write-up should conclude with a reflection on what the trainee learned that day with regard to class room practices. These could include the following:

•Any novel teaching strategy/ Principle you have learned.

•Problems in classroom transaction you have learned, with specific reference to the role of the teacher and the learner in addressing such problems.


Well friends, do post your valuable comments...

C.Praveen
Secretary, KUETEF

31. Lessons From a Practical Exam

[Kerala University English Teacher Educator’s Forum - KUETEF]

September- October this year had been unique in every respect for members of KUETEF. Most of us could visit a minimum of three institutions as an external examiner. It was indeed refreshing to learn from the Chairman of several Practical Examination Boards, that there was very little disagreement among the English Teacher Educators regarding expected trainee performance. Let us all..., the English Teacher Educator fraternity of Kerala University, give ourselves a pat on our back for a job well done! This is a clear evidence of the success of our workshops and networking, particularly through email and mobile phones. I gathered with great satisfaction from fellow teachers that whenever teacher educators were in doubt regarding instructional pracatices, they did not hesitate to contact our Forum members.


During the Practical Examination while serving as an examiner, I did notice a few areas which most of us tend to overlook. They are listed below:

•Some trainees during the examination, taught the first Unit of the Course Book. This being the middle of the school term, most pupils knew the content which was being taught and so assessing the ability of the trainee was difficult.

•The performance of the trainees with regard to teaching skills in most cases appeared to be only slightly above average. Perhaps it would be a good idea to begin the academic year with practice of Micro Teaching.

•There were instances where trainees failed to prepare their Achievement Test based on Mental Process. Some trainees did not have a good idea about Mental Process.

•The entry made by some trainees in their diary did not seem to be a ‘reflection’ of teaching, but a record of the list of things that happened.

•Very few trainees had a good idea about Problem-based Practicums.

•In some colleges, instead of the actual demonstration of a lesson by an expert, a recorded video of a lesson by an expert was shown.

•The use of teaching aids- particularly pictures, flashcards etc. was limited.

•Non- availability of atleast three trainees in the same school during Teaching Practice resulted in the Shared Practice Lessons of the First Semester being limited to two.

•In some teacher training colleges, the teachers who observed classes of trainees during Practice Teaching (the Headmaster of the school, the local Supervising Teacher, the Teacher Educator and the teachers of General Papers) made an entry in the Diary details of the trainees’s classroom performance. This was particularly useful for the external examiner who usually observes the actual teaching of a trainee during the Pracatical Exam only for 20 to 25 minutes.

I hope in future workshops of KUETEF, we would be able to address some of the issues I have identified above.


Best Regards

C.Praveen
Secretary,KUETEF