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KJ Somaiya Comprehensive College of Education,

Training and Research

Vidyavihar, Mumbai 022-21022265, 21024458

www.somaiya.edu/bed

Annual Report 2015-16

Fulfilling Student Aspirations with Innovation &

Enterprise

Principal

Dr.VasundharaPadmanabhan

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Faculty Members

Dr. Kalpana Kharade

Ms. Rupal Thakkar

Ms. Hema Peese

Ms. Usha Sharma

Dr. Sreetanuka Nath

Ms Takshahila Jadhav

Dr Pooja Birwatkar

Dr Divya Sharma

CONTENTS

Academics

Practicum

Beyond Academics

Outreach

Newsmakers

Development

New Initiatives

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Education at Somaiya is

transformative

“We aspire to be an internationally recognized

premier institution that Offers to the society

globally competent teachers who are humane,

Collaborative and multicultural in their

outlook”

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A message from the Principal

My dear young students,

Your role as teachers in the new millennium has become

multifaceted and challenging. Teachers are nation builders. Youwill

need to cultivate social, moral and spiritual values in children.

Your role as facilitators for social transformation will require you

todevelop in children nationalism and internationalism;prepare

them to be global citizens; develop in them self learning skills

and ICT skillsand develop in them high emotional and spiritual

quotient.

To play this role effectively, we at the K. J. Somaiya

Comprehensive College of Education, Training and Research strive

to equip you with the appropriate knowledge, habits, attitudes and

values. You should not only develop the necessary competencies

as a teacher but alsohave a desire for lifelong learning and for

‘reaching the unreached'.

With this mission, our institution endeavors to instill in you the

urge to be creative andinnovative, inspiring your student fraternity

to strive for equity and social justice. It is with asense of pride

that I look at the alumni of our institution who have gone on to

transformsociety as the institution enters its 25th year of the

existence.

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The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

- John Dewey

The above mentioned quote by John Dewey personifies KJ

Comprehensive College of Education, Research and Training in the

truest sense. The activities done here are done keeping in mind

the formation of self and an understanding of self. Our activities

are planned in a way to keep the vision and mission in mind.

The highlights of the year 2015-16 are:

Academics Extended Content Enrichment Program As a part of student progression this year onwards the main focus was to broaden

the mental horizons of student through an extensive content drilling program .All the

faculties began with identifying the main areas of the content or the core concepts

under different branches. Days were allotted for these concepts and again the

extensive drilling was done under these concepts. For the new enrolments too the

same program was carried in order to bridge the gap. It had begun in September and

was continued till October 29, 2015. Previous years question papers were given by

the faculties for solving. Overall the students found it beneficial as this program also

had the feature of clarifying the concepts at own pace

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Orientation to EPC The new B Ed curriculum aimed at empowering students with reading and reflecting

skills in language. Dr Kalpana Kharade & Ms Takshashila Jadhav began the

orientation to the EPC assignments on „Literary Analysis of a Story‟ as well as

„Exploratory writing‟ respectively .The students were familiarized with the formats

of writing the assignment through proper illustrations. Dr Kalpana Kharade presented

an example of how to do a literary analysis of a story and explained how to reflect

and write the assignment.

Directing for a better leap: Orientation to Lesson Planning Dr Sreetanuka Nath took the initiative of orientating towards the different aspects of

a lesson plan-entry behavior to general objectives, teaching learning experience, the

recapitulation etc. These were aimed so as to enable student teachers to prepare an

effective lesson plan. Overall the session was very fruitful since the students used

the inputs given by the faculty incharge and developed lesson plans in their method

groups.

Orientation on Bloom's Taxonomy On December 8 ,Ms Hema Bhadawkar oriented the students of B Ed towards the

concept of Blooms Taxonomy. It aimed at students knowing about the different types

of objectives- lower order and higher order. The students benefitted through the

session as they learnt to differentiate between the different types of objectives. This

would make their class teaching effective.

M Ed internship The Internship program by all the M.Ed. students began from 18 January to 22

January, 2016. As a form of training the aspiring teacher educators, this was highly

emphasized. During this period M Ed students got an opportunity to present demo

lessons to show how an ideal lesson is presented in the classroom .They also

shared their experiences and the challenges faced in class teaching .They were

required to help out B Ed students with lesson plan guidance & lesson supervision.

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In addition to these they collaborated and helped out in various academic and co-

curricular pursuits of this institution.

Guest Lecture on the Concept & Types of knowledge Students get the opportunity to get the best of the knowledge through the lectures of

field experts. The expertise of Dr Kalpana Chavan and Dr Bijoy Thomas from St

Xavier Institute of Education enabled them to give a talk on „Concept, Types and

Sources of Knowledge‟. Lots of illustrations based on different types of knowledge

enabled the students to get a clear picture of this concept.

Innovation Google Classroom were again mandated by the IQAC cell to be used as teaching

learning platforms for all subjects. All the faculty members made extensive use of

Google classroom .students who never participated in the traditional classroom got

the opportunity to contribute their best and learn at their own speed .Google

classroom helped to be an effective students learning portal.

Sitebased learning at Kanheri Caves On September 15, the students went

for the Site based learning with an

objective to move into the unknown

.when all the B Ed students started an

interesting venture of unraveling the

history of Buddhism through the Site

based learning at Kanheri Caves. The

109 ancient caves helped to have a

glimpse of the Buddhist influence on

the art and culture of India. The hall of the caves contains the Stupa, which is a

Buddhist Shrine. The students reflected what they gained post the visit.The students

developed a sense of appreciation of the Indian arts created by chiseling a massive

basalt rock.

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Co teaching by the faculty The concept of co teaching introduced in the month of September gave a platform to

all the faculty to collaborate and showcase their collective expertise on the topics of

M Ed. Under this concept it began with Dr Kalpana Kharade & Ms Rupal Thakkar.

Both collaborated for the topic of Education Studies. Ms Thakkar took the concept of

Poverty, Casteism, Gender & their impact on the tribal community under the expert

guidance of Dr Kharade . The students appreciated the approach since they were

benefitted by the actual display shared responsibility and did justice to the different

topics.

Psychological perspectives through Film Reviewing. As a part of practicum the B Ed students were expected to do a film review and give

critical comments.Thus Ms Rupal Thakkar, the faculty member took up the initiative

of picking up films with psychological implications. The student teachers from B Ed

group were shown clippings of different film scenes like Taare Zameen Par & Black.

Post viewing the scenes Ms Rupal Thakkar discussed how the movie scenes help to

give recommendations for parents and teachers. The film reviewing helped the

student teachers to get answers to real life challenging situations for school teachers

Beyond Academics

Teachers Day

Every year on the event of Teacher‟s

Day ,it is celebrated to give clear aims

for the students in life through inspiring

stories of Dr Radhakrishnan .Even this

year the event was celebrated on

September 5, 2015 with full zeal but

there was something different as the

students projected a successful team

work through organization of wonderful

programs. The program included a skit on Gender Equality, Removal of Social

Barriers and Inculcation of Scientific Temper. Overall this skit actually gave

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awareness of how the seeds of gender discrimination is sown in the family itself and

that to fight this issue we have to work at the grass root level.

“Ekta ki jaan hain,Hindi Desh ki Shaan hai”

Hindi Diwas

On September 14, 2015, the

institution gave an opportunity to the

students to realize the unity in

diversity through the celebration of

Hindi Diwas .Here the students came

out with wonderful quiz based on the

translation of English dialogues from

Bollywood using Hindi

language.Apart from this there was an Extempore competition which included

different topics based on use of fluent Hindi language, grammatical error, impactful

diction etc. Finally the ambience of unity was created by the choir group through

melodious songs.

Gandhi Jayanti celebration On October 3, 2015,

Gandhi Jayanti was

celebrated with an aim of

highlighting India‟s

freedom struggle and

paying due respect to our

national leaders. The event

started off with a brief

introduction to the man

who needs no introduction,

the Father of our Nation, Bapu. This was followed by a skit performance depicting

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the life of Gandhiji. The actors sure did connect with the audience leaving an

impactful message as they concluded their act. Apart from this a quiz competition

was organized. Questions were based on the life of Gandhi, his philosophy &

contributions made by him in his life time .Next the talented performers from the

class performed monologues of different national leaders. Students chose to

present monologue based on Sarojini Naidu, Lokmanya Tilak and Gandhiji. All the

acts were thoroughly enjoyable. With this the celebration on Gandhi Jayanti was

wrapped up taking a few moments of our daily busy schedule to recognize and

appreciate the struggle and the fight for Independence and against violence feeling

privileged to be living lives at ease and exuberating pride for the rich History India

boasts of.

Mohorram celebration On October 23, 2015, on the occasion of Moharam, a few participants from the class

promptly came up to share the significance of the day. Since there were students

with diverse religious backgrounds, a majority of them were oblivious to the

significance of the day, some others had partial knowledge gained through

interaction with colleagues. Students with Islamic faith shared with the entire class

the reason Moharam is celebrated. One of the students elaborated the story of

Moharam. The event achieved its aim of promoting a sense of secularism through

the celebration of diversity and secularism thereby developing an attitude of religious

tolerance. Events such as are need for the hour since these promote harmony and

brotherhood and instills within us a spirit of appreciation towards one and all.

National integration day The History club students came out with the celebration of the event of National

integration day which was celebrated with zest and zeal on October 29, 2015. The

event was to realize that amidst all the differences in linguistic backgrounds, foods,

costumes we still have something in common. The students did a catwalk with

costumes of different states. To this was added the flavor of different languages

which actually spoke of the cultural diversities existing in India. Following this the

students created an ambience of patriotism through the different patriotic songs. The

patriotism brought about by the entire event actually spoke about the core values of

„Unity in Diversity‟ being inculcated amongst the prospective teachers.

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United Nations Day Celebration As a part of Sociology club, United Nations Day was celebrated on October 23,

2015.Students of cultural club organized the event with an aim to bring awareness

related to formation of United Nations. A competition was organized where the

students presented the costume, food, currency and also sang the national anthem

of different countries. Audience enjoyed the event as the participants were

successful in creating ambience of the homes of the participants. Criteria for

judgment was costume, dialogues, innovation.The winner for the competition was for

the country Australia which included the following participants

Dr Abdul Kalam‟s Birthday On the event of Dr Abdul Kalam‟s birthday

the cultural committee organized a quiz on

October 15,2015 keeping in mind the

contributions of Dr Abdul Kalam in the field

of Science .All the members actively

participated in the quiz.It gave an opportunity

for all to appreciate Dr. Kalam for his

contributions.

Children Day celebration In the hectic schedule of two year B Ed the students needed a break.On the event

of Children Day ,the students relived the moments of childhood. They danced to the

tunes of childhood songs. The ambience created by the student & teacher

conversation on stage reminded the audience of the good old school days when

there was no jealousies, there was fun even in small things, there was naughtiness

still there was respect for a teacher. The cultural committee ensured that each

faculty member also shared their experiences of school old days.

Pre Republic Day Celebration The pre Republic Day celebration

took place in our institution on

January 25, a day prior to the

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Republic day. The activity was organized by the B Ed students . It was an on the

spot event and many performances were given impromptu, which was highly

commendable on the students‟ part. The events included singing, dances on patriotic

songs, speech to inculcate value of unity in diversity. Our institution gives

opportunities to student teachers to develop leadership qualities through organizing

of co-curricular programs. Through these kind of activities, student teachers gain

insight as to how they can make use of celebrations to instill important values in the

children, who are the future of the country

Trailblazers visit A Teacher training workshop was conducted by Trailblazers Foundation which was

sponsored by Dow Chemical International Pvt. Ltd. The main purpose of this training

was to train teachers on the techniques of teaching with special reference to using

environment. The students participated in various activities like food web, food chain

from where they understood that how teachers can use environment to explain the

different concept in schools. The student teachers were also taken for a short trail in

Karnala Bird Sanctuary where they were given a knowledge about biogas and how it

is produced. Students had a great visit experience and they gained a lot more

knowledge about teaching. They understood that by engaging the children in various

activities the students learn even faster and easily. They also learnt that Experiential

learning was the main tool in the hands of a teacher and that proved to be beneficial

to the students.

Fire mock drill sessions The institution has been creating a

synergy by developing linkages with

sister institutions & utilizing the

resources. One such initiative has been

in relation to guest lectures of field

experts within the campus. In order to

empower students with skills essential for

disaster management they had an opportunity to hear the field expert Mr Phodnekar

from K J Somaiya Arts, Science & Commerce College. His expertise in the field

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enabled him to familiarize with the concepts related to disaster. Students got hands

on experience in handling a fire extinguisher. Students benefited with the session as

they could actually learn handling a crisis.

Indoor sports The Sports Day was conducted on January 27, 2016. Ms Rupal Thakkar and Ms

Hema Bhadawkar took initiative of organizing a very well thought of sports event.

The events for the indoor games were Carrom and Chess. Students were

encouraged to take part in the event as per their ability. Initially the qualifying rounds

took place, it was followed by semi final rounds of each game. Finally, with the final

round the winners for both the games were declared. The college stresses on indoor

games as much as it does on outdoor games because indoor games are a feast to

the mind and brain while outdoor games are a feast to the body. This lead to an

overall development of the participant

Club activities Club activities actually enabled the student teachers to come out with creative

endeavors. All the clubs were active since 30 September. Unique activities were

conducted in the different clubs. Under language club, Takshashila Jadhav gave an

interesting introduction to arouse the curiosity in students towards the art of story

writing. Students were oriented to story writing, illustrations were presented and then

competition was conducted. Students chose the idea of their interest and wrote

beautiful stories. Under Maths Club the In charge Ms Usha Sharma conducted Paper

folding activities to give hands on experience in deriving certain concepts. Apart from

this certain Mathematical articles were reviewed from Edutracks. Under Science

Club different experiments were conducted during the club activities. Specifically

Chemistry experiments were conducted. Under the guidance of Dr. Sreetanuka

Nath, Science Teacher, in the Chemistry lab of Vinay Mandir Junior College the

students conducted the experiments from Grade XI. Overall students could clarify

different concepts practically. Under History Club, Ms Hema Peese conducted a quiz

competition for History students based on Indian History. Apart from this Commerce

club had presentations by the students on Success & Failure Stories of

Entrepreneurs of the society under the guidance of Mr Vijay Mahida. Overall the

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students find the club activities as a way to channelize their energies into the right

place and get the best outputs.

Science Club Activites Chemistry Experiments Chemistry experiments were conducted on October 10 & October 17, 2015 under

the guidance of Dr. Sreetanuka Nath at Vinaymandir Jr. College Chemistry lab. The

purpose of this experiment was to determine the concentration of a Hydrochloric acid

solution using acid‐base titration. Apart from this, salt analysis was conducted by the

B.Ed Science students on October 31, 2015. The aim of the experiment was to

analyze qualitatively the given salt and detect one acidic and one basic radical

present in it. Finally the systematic procedure for qualitative analysis of an inorganic

salt was explained.

Biology Experiments On October 7, 2015 the B Ed Science students carried out Biology Experiment under

the guidance of Dr. Sreetanuka Nath at Vinaymandir Jr. College lab. The aim of the

experiment was Transverse section of Hibiscus Leaf to observe a structure of plant

cell and TS plant stem to observe tissue structure and Osmosis. The specimens

used were hibiscus leaf, sunflower stem, potato, water, safranin and sugar solution.

On October 14, 2015 again another experiment was conducted with an aim to

determine the carbohydrates, fats ,glucose, and urea present in the given samples

whereas on October 21,2015 the experiments helped students to make a „Study of

the specimens and their identification with reasons.‟ Overall the students developed

conceptual clarity in various concepts in Biology

Physics Experiments Physics experiments were conducted on October 15, 2015 under the guidance of Dr.

Sreetanuka Nath at Vinaymandir Jr. College lab. The aim of the experiments was to

measure the thickness of the given iron bar using screw guage and to measure the

thickness of the given iron bar using screw guage. Students used vernier calipers, a

spherical body and a magnifying lens to carry out the first expt. For the second

experiment they used screw guage, iron bar and magnifying glass.

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Literary club activity Literary club came up with activities to boost the creative skills of the students. On

27 October, 2015 Story writing competition was conducted by the club members. Ms

Takshashila Jadhav gave an interesting introduction to arouse the curiosity in

students towards the art of story writing. Further she gave pointers on how to go

about the thinking process starting beginning with the characters of the story and

then moving on to its plot. She then went on to give examples from various popular

stories in which the students gave their inputs. Students chose the idea of their

interest and wrote beautiful stories, which were duly submitted to madam after the

period.Thus the entire activity introduced the creative part of the students‟ mind

towards lateral thinking and story writing skills.

Celebration of Literary week The Literary Week was organized

from November 23 to November 27,

2015 under the guidance of Ms.

Takshashila Jadhav. The event was

open for participation to all the

students .The literary week was

introduced with a presentation on

what is the significance of literature in our professional and personal lives. The

activities were lined up in an interesting manner so that there can be multiple

contests like Monologues, Elocutions, Plays and Extempore running simultaneously

so as to keep the audience at the edge of their seats. The program was a success

with maximum students‟ participation. All the activities were hugely applauded and

appreciated by students and teachers both. The major attractions of the event were

Monologues on Malala and Literary character from the book The Kite Runner,

performed by Gloria and Tejal, B.Ed. students and the two plays by Shefali and

Mathangi‟s group on „The Merry Wives of Windsor‟ and „The Merchant of Venice‟.

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Maths club activity Students in the Maths club were given a platform to create instructional resources in

the form of charts. The two maths students took up the task and came out with the

charts on the different topics of Maths.The students also took up the task of

designing worksheets & a few innovative lesson plans as instructional resources.

These included the Multiple intelligence lesson plans, the constructivist lesson plan

based on CRA approach, Polya‟s problem solving approach. They were oriented to

the model lesson plans & explained about the various phases of these lesson plans.

Students implemented these ideas and came out with the resources.

Maths week celebrations Ms Usha Sharma took the opportunity of guiding the Maths method students - Ishita

Biswas & Alifiya Arsiyawala to be able to organize the different activities under Maths

club .The aim of Maths week was to remove the fear of mathematics from the minds

of the students who were not having Mathematics background.The activities began

from November 30 to December 3, 2015.It included 3 different activitiesTreasure

hunt which was put in the form of murder mystery. Mathematical expressions were

used as clues such that basic knowledge of math and applying logic was required to

crack the clues.Apart from this a Maths Collage making competition was organized

on the theme What is Maths to me? The

most innovative game included for the

Maths week as a tool to develop interest

amongst the non Maths students was a

dialogue making competition called Ajab

Maths ke Gazab Dialogues.The

students used their creativity and

successfully came out with many

dialogues using the term Maths.

Practicum Book reviews Book reviews typically evaluate the written works. They offer a brief description of

the text‟s key points and often provide a short appraisal of the strengths and

weaknesses of the work. A book review gives readers a sneak peek at what a book

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is like, whether or not the reviewer enjoyed it, and details on purchasing the book. In

the B.Ed. course it is one of the compulsory criteria and has been assigned 10

marks. Orientation of the Book Review was held on September 8, 2015.Each student

was assigned 10 to 15 minutes for the presentation. The method wise list of the

students along with the names of their guiding teachers was put up on the notice

board. The presentations started from September 24, 2015 and continued till

October 15, 2015, a slot of 50 minutes was given for conducting the presentations.

Students gave wonderful presentations on different books and as each student got

different book to review in all 100 different books were reviewed and presented. In

this way despite of not having read all the 100 books of the library students got the

chance to know about the wonderful books through their peers book review

presentation. The reviews varied from literary to non-literary, scientific to

environmental, historical, logic and mathematics to trade and commerce, the books

were assigned to the students as per their respective methods and interests.

Film Review by B Ed students When we think of these lines of media s portrayal of social injustice for the backward

people .As we think about the different movies then what we get in our mind is the

film Manjhi a film with a social message. This movie was selected by Ms Takshashila

Jadhav as a part of practicum for Contemporary India & Education. The film “Manjhi

– the mountain man” was chosen for the reason that it deals with social exclusion in

contemporary India. Through the movie review the students were shocked to realize

the stark realities of the outcast in India. On September 19, 2015 two consecutive

sessions were utilized to watch the movie. Students were moved by the plight of rat

eating backward community in Bihar. As the movie was in progress students were

jolting down pointers to be included in their film review report. At the end of the film

students appreciated the character Manjhi‟s relentless efforts, reminding that it takes

passion, madness and motivation to achieve the impossible

Workshop on SUPW On September 28 there was an SUPW workshop. The aim of this workshop was to

develop the aesthetic skills related to Quilling & Mehndi. Our institution gives

opportunities for student development by giving a platform for utilizing the

potentialities of the students. So two of the students Ms Sushama Yadav & Ms

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Sheetal Yadav taught the remaining students the art of Quilling & Mehndi. The

students were enthusiastic as they had an opportunity to learn a new form of art.

Community Work From November 16, 2015 the community work began. Under the silver jubilee year it

was decided to contribute to Slum Development Program. In light of this the area

near Vidyavihar station ie Bhim Nagar & Ambedkar Nagar was adopted. Under the

initiative of Slum Adoption Program each group decided to cater to the needs of the

slum dwellers. Ms Usha Sharma faculty in charge for Community Work firstly

oriented the class to the practicum of community work, its purpose and the format in

which it had to be documented. Each group was allotted to the different faculty

members. The faculty and the students conducted a need analysis on December 16,

2015.After this program was designed with the concern of different teaching faculty.

Following this each group went for field work with an aim of catering to the needs of

the disadvantaged people of the society

Sr No Program Objective Target group

1 Understanding concept of light Conceptual

clarity in certain topics of science Visually challenged students

2 Ujwal Bhavishya Abhiyan Financial

literacy, Counseling & career guidance Slum people

3 Life scale intervention and awareness on

social issue. Women & kids

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English Vinglish Analysing impact of

English language teaching on

communication skills of marginalized

students.

Primary & Secondary School

going students.

5 Basic computer skills Developing

technological skills

Primary & Secondary School

going students

6 Vocational Training as women

empowerment initiative

empowerment House wives &

young unemployed

7 PIPE Program Experiments Visuals

Posters Games School going students

8 Pre-natal & post-natal care-An awareness

program for the pregnant ladies Women in reproductive age

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Neighbourhood Cleanliness Day As a part of the contribution to the community, the student teachers picked up the

opportunity to clean the neighbourhood thereby setting an example to be followed by

the other members of the society. On December 5, 2015 the students conducted a

cleanliness drive in the vicinity of the institution .At the end the students were made

to reflect their service to the community by writing their experiences in the reflection

logbooks. The students showed enthusiasm as they felt like being worthy to the

society.

World Disability Day Our institution has been consistently contributing towards inclusion either through

teaching, research or extension. On December 3, 2015 on account of the world

disability day, Dr Kalpana Kharade was felicitated for her valuable contribution to the

visually challenged group of people. Her outstanding contribution to the inclusion of

disabled has been commendable. Finally to conclude such moments would be

inspiring for our pre service teachers.

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Senior Scholar Seminar Series (23rd

)

National Seminar on Education for Peace

As rightly said by our great leader Mahatma Gandhi Realizing the crucial importance

of peace, K J Somaiya Comprehensive College of Education, Training and Research

in collaboration with Global Foundations had organized a National Seminar on

Education For Peace‟ on March 9-10, 2016 which was 23rd in annual Senior

Scholar Seminar Series. The Chief Guest for the inaugural seminar was Shri P.K

Hormis Tharakan (IPS of Kerala Cadre; Former Chief of RAW, India‟s External

Intelligence agency). He focused on very important topic which is terrorism. He

stressed on guiding the next generation in peace and conflict resolution. Another

interesting session was by the guest of honor and keynote speaker was Dr Subhash

Chandra (Founder Trustee, Global Peace Foundation, New Delhi). He threw light on

two main objectives which were creating social awareness for global peace and

religious harmony and developing global peace consciousness. He stressed on the

concept of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam which means world is one family. The book

Global Peace Science 2016: Victory of Peace over War in XXI century was released

in the inaugural session. The chairperson of the session Shri V. Ranganathan,

focused on teachers training, improvement in textbook and curriculum. He also

asked the teachers to communicate the ideas of peace in different schools. The

seminar had 4 broad subthemes on which papers and essays by educationist,

school teachers and students were presented across the two days. Subtheme 1 was

on „Striving for outer peace Causes of Disharmony in the Present World‟. Under this

subtheme 6 papers were presented. The Moderator of the session was Dr.Ranu

Jain. Professor at the Centre for Studies in Sociology of Education, School of Social

Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. In this session there were a few

essays presented.

Subtheme II was on Striving

for Harmony Within. Under

this subtheme, 7 papers

were presented on areas like

role of music, yoga and

dance for fostering peace,

reconciliations and also on

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social apps and selfies as threats to peace. The seminar also had sessions for

expert talks. The first expert talk was on Peace: Learning to Live Together which was

delivered by Ms. Shreya Jani, Managing Trustee, Standing Together to Enable

Peace Trust (STEP). She talked of her experiences in conflict prone areas and

stressed that it is importance to listen than being judgmental for the process of peace

to take place. The other expert talk was on Art as Peacemaker by Dr Radha Kumar ,

Associate Professor, St Xavier‟s College, Dept of Ancient Culture. She reflected on

the universal features and appeal of art and how art can promote peace. On day 2 of

the seminar there was a panel discussion where 7 experts shared their experiences

and insights.Ms Shubhadra Shenoy, Principal, Shishuvan School was the moderator

the panel discussion. Other panelists were Ms Rufina Fernandes -Trustee, Global

Foundations ,Ms Shreya Jani,Dr Jaya Kuruvilla - Principal, Hinduja College of

Nursing, Ms Kavita Vaidya- Principal, The Somaiya School, Kamna Arora- Principal,

D J Doshi Gurukul School & Junior College ,Mr Sandeep Singh - Principal, Datta

Meghe World Academy.

Subtheme III was on „Strategies for Developing a Culture of Peace‟. Dr. Sunita

Wadikar was the moderator of the session. The first presentation was given by Dr.

Kalpana Kharade where she pondered on the coping strategies of visually impaired

college students and suggested strategies for scaffolding the students with disability

in the process of overcoming social exclusion. Under the able guidance of the faculty

who were to train the students on writing a good quality paper .Thus a few B Ed & M

Ed students also presented a paper in the seminar. Among the essay presentations

by the participants Ms Madhavi Padiyar (M Ed student, 2015- 17) was the winner

followed by Ms Trupti Saraiya and the third winner was Ms Naina Panigrahi.

Then came subtheme IV which

was on „Evolving a Curriculum for

Peace Education‟ The

chairperson of the session was

Ms. Kavita Vaidya.This session

had 7 papers. It also had a

workshop on Designing a

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Curriculum for Peace which was conducted by Dr. Vasundhara Padmanabhan,

Principal, K.J Somaiya Comprehensive College of Education, Training and

Research. The workshop saw an eager participation to evolve a peace education

curriculum. Finally for the Valedictory session the chief guest was Dr Kalpana

Venugopal, Principal, Demonstration School, Mysore and Dr Rajan Welukar,

Provost, Somaiya Vidyavihar. The future teachers ie the batch of B Ed students

ended with a hope in the eyes and a beautiful song on „Heal the world‟ so as to bring

harmony in the society.

Somaiya Alumni Reunion meet On January 16, 2016 Somaiya Vidyavihar organized a grand reunion for all the alumni across institutions

within the campus. In order to welcome the alumni warmly, the entire campus was lit

up with colourful lights, posters and exhibitions displaying innovative models

invented by students, and a series of stalls were set up for the alumni to entertain

themselves with games, karaoke, nail art and many other such activities to indulge

themselves in. The college received an overwhelming response with alumni pouring

in throughout the evening dressed elegantly adding charm and beauty to the campus

On the same day K.J. Somaiya Comprehensive College of Education, Research and

Training also welcomed its alumni from B.Ed, M.Ed and PGDME. A small program

was put up by the current B.Ed batch to welcome its alumni. Post this, all the alumni

members present were encouraged to voice a few words on their most treasured

memories during college days. This sure was the most nostalgic part of the entire

day. The event culminated with refreshments provided to everyone. Sweet smiles

were exchanged time and again; warm hugs and trendy selfies were the highlight of

the day. All in all, the event was a hit with each and every one- alumni, organizers or

otherwise having a gala time.

For the event of SSSS under the theme of Education for Peace a collage competition

was organised on March 7,2015.It was aimed to get students to think on how

cartoons could be used for developing Peace .All the students came up with great

ideas. The criteria for the same is neatness ,innovation ,etc.The winner of the

competition was Deepak Rao & Priyanka Solanki (First).

23

“As we let our own light shine we give permission to

others to do the same.” -Nelson Mandela

One of the major events of the institution, the intercollegiate competition Pratyush

sets the stage for the teachers of different institutions to come forward and shine in

their own light. This year the event Natyatarang organized on March 19, 2016 again

gave an opportunity to the teaching community to perform on stage by expressing

through dance and music. It is planned to be a group event where the focus was on

classical, semi classical and folk dance. Performances were related to a message

stating the brighter side of our values and social issues. The criteria of evaluation of

performance was originality/creativity, synchronization, use of props,

style/Grace/expression, use of multimedia and attire. The duration of performance

was 10-15 minutes. Three prizes were announced. Apart from this the participants

also were given certificates. Including our own college there were six colleges which

participated in the competition –Royal college of Education, RBT College of

Education, Vispute College of Education, MCT College of Education, Pillai‟s College

of Education .The winner was Royal B Ed College, the participants gave a brilliant

performance by sensitizing the audience towards the issue of women exploitation in

our society. Our institution bagged the third prize with the theme of inclusion of

Transgender in the community.

For the event of Pratyush the cultural committee organized a competition on the

theme of Dowry, Transgendered, Domestic Violence, Child labour, Rape,

Corruption .the date chosen for the same was March 16 ,2015.

24

News makers

Global Leadership Program Part 2 at Ahmedabad:

With the vision of transforming city into a smart city the Global Leadership Program

Part 2 was held on July 27-30, 2015 at Ahmedabad. All the CSC Leaders got

opportunity to take part in the program. Dr Vasundhara Padmanabhan was one

among the CSC Leaders who bagged the opportunity to attend the program.The

theme of the session was „What Makes a City Smart?‟ The objective of the visit was

to get a sense of the place so as to immerse in a city & understand its challenges

and opportunities. It also focused on understanding the „smart‟ approaches being

taken to help Ahmedabad and India on its journey to becoming „smart‟. It also aimed

to gain insights into the leadership required to deal with complex problems such as

water, health, housing, law and order – areas of complex change and transformation

in Indian society. The participants got the opportunity to visit Darpana Academy of

Performing Arts , an arts centre where the arts meet society, to inform, educate and

transform. They met Ms Mallika Sarabhai, Founder/ Director of Darpan who is a

passionate social activist. Her major focus is to sensitize people to women related

issues. She made use of the movie clippings and discussed the challenges,

especially the financial constraints in carrying it on big scale. Another visit was made

by the participants was to The Riverside School, a vibrant research centre for school

25

education, where insights from

cutting-edge research are turned

into working models of

pedagogical practices with a

single-minded focus: student

wellbeing. Finally, there was a

group work and presentation of

learnings from the visits and

ideas to cope with challenges.

Thus a hope lies in the hands of these CSCLeaders who have started the initiative of

developing Smart cities .The future of our country could be taken by the youths of

future generations so as to transform the entire India into a Smart country

“Together we can make a difference” Winning the laurels with a collaborated effort –

A grade for the institution by NAAC (3rd

Cycle)

NAAC visit was scheduled on

December 10 to December 12,

2015.The institution team

efforts were directed to project

the institution at its best from

almost a year under the able

leadership of Dr Vasundhara

Padmanabhan (Principal) The

well planned efforts of the

entire team focused on

showcasing the best practices of the institution. Proper documentation by the entire

team was displayed well by Dr Pooja Birwatkar.The hospitality of the committee

members was carefully planned by Ms Rupal Thakkar. Apart from this a wonderful

cultural program was planned under the able leadership of Dr Kalpana Kharade and

Dr Sreetanuka Nath. All the faculties used the opportunity of training their students

for making their presentations in respective subject wise department.This included

26

the best of each club in the form of models, charts, CD s etc. Overall the efforts of

the team was fully geared to bag an A grade

Student news makers

Collage making competition for Wild Life Week Celebration True we often see people talking of love for animals but rarely do we see it in action.

We need to voice out for those who can‟t speak In order to develop love and

sensitize the students towards the issue, the wild life week was celebrated on

October 5, 2015.MsRupal Thakkar organized Nail art competition & Collage making

on the theme of wild life. The students projected variety of designs in nail art. Even in

collage making innovative ideas came up. The winners of the two competitions were

as follows

Winners for Nail art competition

Position Student name

First Amee Chadva

Second Anita Tanpure and Jinal Thakur

Winners of Collage making

Position Student name

First Nida Desai and Namita Dhuri

Second Farheen and Nikita

Third Poonam,Sapna and Mathangi

27

Happy Eco Ganesh Chaturthi & Ozone Day Celebration The students began the auspicious event with the name of Shree Ganeshaya

Namah.The event of Ganesh chaturthi was celebrated with the true zeal and

enthusiasm.The event included Ganesh arti which was recited by students of all

religions .The aim of the institution which has been Sarva Dharma Samabhav was

again projected through the event of Ganesh Chaturthi .A few students who were

Muslim beautifully created Ganesha through used CDs. The students with different

talents came ahead with Dance on a Ganesh song, Shloka reciting, Speech. Apart

from this even Ozone day was celebrated .This event included a presentation on

Ozone Depletion & discussion related to it .The event also had the scope of raking

brains through a quiz on both the events Ganesh Chaturthi festival as well as on

Ozone day.

There were two competitions organized here Ganesh Sketching & Slogan writing for

Ozone Day. The winners for Ganesh Sketching were as follows :

Winners of Ganesh Sketching(Ganesh Chathurthi)

Position Student name

First Sheetal Yadav and Tejashree Tambe

Second Sheetal Singh and Ishita Sengupta

Third Maitri Wadia, Khushboo Shah and Poonam Jatolia,Sapna

Chauhan

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Winners for Slogan writing for Ozone Day

Position Student name

First Shaista and Saroj

Second Jinal Thakur and Denita D‟souza

Third Maitri Wadia

Navratri Celebrations Being a Guajarati minority college, Navaratri is celebrated on a grand scale every

year. On this occasion (October 17 & October 23, 2015) various competitions such

as Best costume, Best Ornaments & Best Dancer were conducted to judge their

potential .Students performed Garba Raas & enjoyed to the tunes of Bollywood &

Falguni.

The following were the winners of the competition

Position Student name

First Best Costume Rushika

Second Best Dancer Priyanka Mishra

Third Best Ornament Charmi Mehta

Diwali Celebration One of the festivals which helps to bring all the people of cultural diversities together

is Diwali. The students of cultural club organized a grand program for Diwali on 31

October ,2015.Different competitions were organized so as to showcase the

students potentialities .They were Diya making & Lantern Making .The winners for

lantern making competition were as follows

Position Student name

First Anita Tanpure

Second Namita Dhuri

Third Alefiya Arshiyawala

29

The winners for Diya making competition were as follows

Position Student name

First Ruhi Khan & Mishra Priyanka

Second --

Third Hemangi Sawant

Sports Day Seeking inspiration the institution conducted its Sports Day on January 29, 2015 at

the sports ground of the campus. The students assembled bright and early at 7.00

am in the morning. Their enthusiasm knew no bounds as they started with the march

past first. It was led by our Principal Dr Vasundhara Padmanabhan who marched

with the students through the ground followed by the oath, promising sportsmanship

on the field. Various races were then conducted to the delight of all the students. The

events conducted were 100 meters race, 4*100 meters race, potato race and three

legged race. The winners were as follows:

SR.

NO. EVENTS PARTICIPANTS NAME

1. 100 mts run

I Sushma Hariprasad Yadav

II Jenifer Selvanathan Sagayamary

III Savita Ramlakhan Yadav

2. 400 mts run I Sushma Hariprasad Yadav

30

3. 400 mts Relay Race I

Ishita Sengupta

Jenifer Selvanathan Sagayamary

Sushma Harprasad Yadav

Savita Ramlakhan Yadav

4. Marble & Spoon

I Needa Varis Desai

II Anita Ashok Tanpure

III Sushma Hariprasad Yadav

5. Long Jump

I Avni Kher

II Savita Ramlakhan Yadav

III Jenifer Selvanathan Sagayamary

6. Shot Put

I Nikita Sanjay Rege

II Maitri Manish Rambhiya

III Anushree Mishra

7. Potato Race

I Priya Murugan Thevar

II Maitri Umesh Wadia

III Sushma Hariprasad Yadav

8. Three Legged Race

I Avni Kher

Nikita Bhalchandra Jambhale

II Ruhi Munauwar Khan

Aska Hasan Khan

III Charmi Uday Mehta

Gloria Roland Xavier

9 Carom I Jenifer Selvanathan Sagayamary

10 Chess I Deepak Rao

31

BEST SPORTSWOMAN FOR YEAR 2015 – 16: Sushma Hariprasad Yadav

Convocation Ceremony The convocation program was

held on 23 January, 2016 with

collaboration of University of

Mumbai in our institution where

the students of B Ed received

the degree certificate by a very

eminent personality Dr D

Padmanabhan, Deputy

General Manager, BARC

(Radio Pharmaceuticals and

Quality Control) All the students

were appreciated for successful completion of the course. Students wore their

academic attire ie their graduation gown and hood. The ambience was full of joy and

happiness since the ceremony had given a platform for celebrating the success with

all the team members who contributed for success of each student.

“It is not where you are but where you are going that matters” Faculty Development Initiatives: Refresher courses for the upgradation of the Faculty The faculty of the institution chose where they want to be. The major aim of the

institution is professional development of the faculty keeping in line with the mission

and vision & preparing them for the global era.

32

Under faculty development program, one of the faculty member Ms Usha Sharma

got the opportunity to attend the refresher course in Environmental Studies from 9

June to 29 June which was conducted by Human Resource Development Centre,

Academic Staff College, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Different eminent

resource persons were invited for addressing the various issues related to the

environmental degradation.54 students from all over different states attended the

course. The course began with inaugural address by Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Dr. D. Sandhu,

Vice-chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra who gave a rationale for

selecting the environmental issue as a theme for the course.Dr Avinash Nagpal

(Director of Academic Staff College, GNDU) along with the course co coordinator Dr

Rajinder Kaur planned the course very well as it included various topics like Disaster

Management, Diversification of Agriculture in Punjab, Wetlands in Environmental

Sustainability, Electro pollution and Human Health and many more. The course was

a very enriching as it was a multidisciplinary one and truly refreshing as it included

cultural activities as well.

Another faculty Dr. Sreetanuka Nath aiming for the professional development also

attended the UGC sponsored Refresher Course in Education at Academic Staff

College, Mumbai, conducted from June 22nd, 2015 to July 11, 2015. The refresher

course was based on different aspects of NCTE 2 yr B.Ed curriculum. 44 participants

from all over Maharashtra attended the course. The themes covered under this

course included topics like Film reviewing ,Cybercrime ,Understanding self, Rubric

making etc. After the completion of the course everyone was geared up to face the

challenges of two year B.Ed course.

Paper Presentations One of our faculty members, Ms Rupal Thakkar, presented a paper at the Indo-

Canadian International Conference of Business and Behavioral Sciences, Goa on

July 3, 2015.The title of the paper was „Opening up the minds of Vernacular

Medium English Language Teachers with ICT tools language.‟ The aim of the

study was to make a conscious attempt in training vernacular medium English

language teachers with the competences of creating ICT integrated learning

environment for the English language teaching (L3) based on ASSURE model.

33

Overall the conference was very enriching as it had different experts from the fields

presenting the paper.

Ms Usha Sharma presented a paper titled „Exploring Multiple Intelligences in a

Maths class: Perception of Pre service teachers‟ at TIME 2015, the 7th National

Conference on Mathematics at Vidya Pratishthan College of Engineering Baramati

organizing in coordination with IIT Mumbai (from 4-7 December, 2015) The

opportunity helped Ms Sharma to present the findings of how the pre service

teachers perceived the use of Multiple Intelligence Approach in Maths. The

presentation was appraised as it involved interdisciplinary approach in Mathematics

.It enabled the teachers to provide an environment where the talents of students

could be tapped and student‟s creativity can be vented out.

Dr. Pooja Birwatkar and Dr. DIvya Sharma made use of the opportunity of attending

post- epiSTEME workshop organized by HBCSE on December 22, 2015. The title

of the workshop was 'Teaching the Nature of Science through Historical Case

Studies' .The discussion was facilitated by Prof. Douglas Allchin who was one of the

review speakers in the epiSTEME.The workshop was meant primarily for science

teachers interested in experiencing and discussing a sample class using a historical

case study to teach the nature of science. In the workshop, investigations of

Christian Eijkman, who studied the cause of beriberi in Java in the 1890s and

eventually won a Nobel Prize for his efforts was discussed. This was followed by

the discussion on the method of teaching cases and practical skills for teachers. The

participants were from different backgrounds and interactive approach along with

group discussion was used.

Publications One of our senior faculty members Dr Pooja Birwatkar managed to publish article in

a reputed magazine called Teacher Magazine for July- Sept edition 2015.It is a

publication by The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).Dr

Birwatkar‟s expertise in the education field has been encouraging her to publish

quality papers and articles year after year. The article titled „Evolution in the Indian

curriculum and classroom‟ focused on how evolution is being dealt with in the

34

school curriculum at highlighted certain gaps in the quality and quantity of

information being provided.

Consultancy: FDPs This was the feelings what was seen among the inservice teachers at Sharada High

School, Kopargaon at the Teacher Training Program on July 13, 2015 .Ms Usha

Sharma & Ms Hema Peese got the platform to use their expertise as a resource

person and train the in service teachers. The aim of Faculty Development

programme was to train the teachers for making use of „Web tools‟ for class

teaching. The program included use of Story Jumper, Power Point Presentation &

Movie maker. Both the faculties managed to get the teachers motivated to use the

web tools for the class purpose.

Dr Vasundhara Padmanabhan conducted interview for screening out teachers for

Sharada Junior College, Sakharwadi on July 13, 2015.Other panel members who

were present were Dr Rajendra Vartak & some of the Faculty members from the

sister institution K J Somaiya College of Arts. There were candidates from different

fields like English & Commerce.

Faculty Training for use of Language Lab The aim of the faculty development program was to equip the faculty on use of O‟rell

Language Lab. Ms Rupal Thakkar began the initiative of training the faculty on 20

July ,2015.Ms Thakkar oriented the faculty to Teacher console, features of the

software, different type of conversations: formal as well as informal communication

through native speakers. The faculty tried out different features of chat, listen and

repeat & so on. Overall the session enlightened the faculty how this software could

help the students in analyzing and correcting the communication skills.

35

“Leaders don‟t force people to follow .They invite them on a journey”

-Non teaching staff training through Orell digital Lab In order to empower the non teaching staff a Faculty Development Program was

conducted from July 22 to July25, 2015 .The aim of the program was to groom the

support staff members of KJSCCERT in English communication skills. Two of the

language lab faculty members empowered to lead the staff through effective

communication skills ,Ms.Rupal Thakkar and Ms. Takshashila Jadhav helped the

non teaching staff with the very basics of communication - Introducing Oneself

(formal and Informal) and Introducing Others at various situations (Formal and

Informal).The support system for the program was a digital language lab where Ms

Thakkar initially demonstrated how the software Orell Language Lab could be used

for correct spoken English. Each candidate was given special attention as each one

did the task by individually logging into the system wherein with the help of the head

set they were able to practice by repeating the given conversation and comparing it

with the native speakers with the help of the options given on the system. Overall the

participants were enthusiastic throughout the program & benefitted through it since it

included grooming for the day to day conversations expected by them.

HR orientation training The faculty and non-teaching staff have been given HR orientation training in

November, 2015. Training for EBSCO Database Service (EDS) for faculty and M.Ed

students in October, 2015.This training was beneficial for the participants since it

helped to utilise the facilities to the optimum.

Faculty forums for staff With an aim of sharing the knowledge the institution provides a platform in the form

of faculty forums. Here the faculty makes presentations and discussions are made.

In August four faculty members made presentations on the following days:

36

Date Faculty Topic

7/08/2015

Ms. Takshashila Jadhav

Value Education in SchoolsPractices and Strategies

7/08/2015 Ms. Kruttika Bhatt

Case Study- Tips to Risk Mitigation (Seminar Paper)

12/08/2015 Ms. Usha Sharma Amritsar

Refresher Course on Environmental Studies - Amritsar

12/08/2015

Dr. Sreetanuka Nath Review on – Silenced Dialogue by Lisa Delpit

26/11/2015

Dr Kalpana Kharade Impact of Various Policies on the development of TE in post independence period

27/11/2015 Ms Rupal Thakkar Opening up the minds of Vernacular Medium English Language Teachers with ICT tools

31/10/2015 Mrs. Hema Bhadawakar

Stepping into a Silent Zone: A Dialogue with the Warli Pre-service Early Childhood Education Teachers

Somaiya Vidyavihar Scholarship

Ms Usha Sharma and Dr Divya Sharma got the opportunity to be as the member of

the interview committee for the Somaiya Vidyavihar Scholarship Program. The

program was led by Ms Kanchi Daiya along with an initiative of providing financial

assistance to the needy students .The interviewing process began from November

30 to December 2,2015. Students who had filled up the online forms were

interviewed and their documents were verified. Finally the eligible students were

identified and an overall list was prepared. Two of the students could bag the

scholarships.

Participation of Faculty in conferences and workshops Ms.Hema Peese (Faculty member) and Ms.Apurva Joshi (Librarian) got the

opportunity to participate in workshop organized by The American Library, Mumbai

and Department of English, N G Acharya and D K Marathe College of Arts, Science

and Commerce on July 22,2015.The aim was to acquaint the participants with

„Accessing American Library Resources‟. The session focused on use of

extensive resources of online journals, kids resources, e-books. Participants were

37

informed that all the online resources could be made available through individual

membership only. The participants also got insight into how new resources are

added from time to time to the membership as per the usage of the members.

Subjects like education, social sciences, English literature are covered extensively in

theses resources. Overall the session was really helpful for the teachers and

students as they are the ones who are involved in the research

Participation of Dr Divya Sharma in the Seminar based on CAS

Dr. Divya Sharma attended one day workshop on API for College Teachers

organized by the University of Mumbai in association with IQAC cell. Rizvi College of

Arts Science and Commerce, DTSS college of Commerce, J M Patel College of

Commerce and Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and economics on 29 August

2015 at Rizvi College of Arts Science and Commerce. Key resource person were

Shri S B Mantri, Dr. D N Sarkar, Mr. Jagtap nominee of Joint Director, Ms. Yogini

Ghare, Dr. M A Khan. There were two presentations - Documents and Process for

CAS, by Yogini Ghare, Debajit Sarkar and S B Mantri and Simplifying Academic

Performance Indicator by S B Mantri.

Workshop on Education for Peace in collaboration with Global Telecom Foundation K J Somaiya College of Education in collaboration with Global Telecom Foundation

organized 4 day workshop on Education for Peace from August 25 to August

28,2015 from 2 pm. till 5 pm. On the first day Inaugural comments were given by Dr.

Vasundhara Padmanabhan, Principal of K J Somaiya College of Education. She

welcomed Rufina Fernande's(Head, Corporate Communication and CSR),Vishakha

Bhagnani (Director Purple Iris), Shantala Kasarkod ( In charge EFP Program),Global

Foundation. The objectives of the program were to transfer teaching to peace

education, to build essential competencies to promote a culture of peace,to focus on

holistic development of child, to spread the concept of peace education through

value inculcation. The activities focused on development of three key competencies

out of the six Key Competencies-Holistic Thinking, Interpersonal skills, Execution

Excellence, Transformation leadership, Communication and Etiquette, Problem

solving and Decision Making The session ensured active participation by all the

members through role playing mode, video reviewing, co operative learning sessions

38

& student poster presentations. Overall the participants gained a lot as they had

reflective session at the end of the workshop.

Consultancy - Rupal Thakkar and Usha Sharma got the opportunity to provide consultancy

services in the following areas.

- A one day training program for the in service teachers of Sharda English Medium

School, Kopargaon for Use of Power Point & Movie Maker in July 2015;

- A survey on identifying the causes of dropouts of students at the junior college after

class X at K J Somaiya School, Sameerwadi in Nov, 2015;

- Training in techniques of personality assessment of students for in-service teachers

of Manohar Kotwal MadhyamikVidyalaya, Mumbai in Feb, 2016

Research meet for Six Monthly Progress Monitoring The IQAC of the College organized the First Research Meet on October 16, 2015 at

4 pm. In this session, the research scholars presented their research proposals.

Among them were Ms. Rupal Thakkar, Ms. Bharati Hajari & Ms. Priya Rajwade. All

of them took up this meet as a platform to present their six monthly report of their Ph

D work. It was an active brainstorming session so as to enable the researcher to

identify Presentation has to be made in 20 minutes followed by question answer

session for 10 minutes.Out of the newly enrolled students Ms. Surabhi Negi spoke

about her prospective research area for 3-5 minutes each. There were inputs from

other research experts for her research topic.

39

Under the research meet Dr Divya Sharma organized three presentations .Ms Hema

Bhadawkar presented her proposal.Ms Usha Sharma and Ms Rutika Sankhe

presented the area of their research The aim of this program is to share the

expertise in the area of research with other faculty members. This also helps the

researcher to get peer reviewed their work since active discussions relate to the

research is encouraged here. Apart from this new researchers take this meet as a

platform to present their ideas and get collective suggestions on the research area

Pre PhD course From January 23 ,2016 every alternate Saturday ,the students who have enrolled for

Ph D were oriented to the fundamentals of research .In all 6 students attended the

program . Dr Kalpana Kharade, Dr Divya Sharma, Dr Pooja Birwatkar & Dr

Sreetanuka Nath were the resource persons for the session. The students got the

opportunity to understand the basics of research. Students were given assignments

so as to make use of the theory learnt in class. The resource persons made use of

Google classroom for giving assignments. Overall the session were beneficial since

the students could discuss about their own research proposals.

Student Development -As a part of student development program, 10 students got the opportunity to attend

the Annual HEF on creating a student centric great higher education institution on

March 5, 2016;

-Five students presented papers in Senior Scholar Seminar under mentorship of

faculty;

Opportunities for Students‟ Creativity under Club Activities: With this view the students in science method came out with the innovations in

different concepts of science by designing improvised apparatus. Improvised

apparatus enables cheaper faster method of making teaching and learning process

easier for teacher and student. One such attempt was done by science method

students under the guidance of Dr. Sreetanuka Nath in presence of Dr Kalpana

Kharade. The students had chosen different topics from school curriculum and had

made model and charts from cheap and waste materials. The models were

40

presented to the fellow batch mates of different methods, teaching staff and

Principal. The models which were presented were Energy efficiency and

conservation. (Importance of sanitization, Periscope.Lemon battery, Solar oven & so

on. All the above models were prepared by using cheap resources which is one of

the main requirements for improvised apparatus.

Student empowerment -SUPW organised by students Under the guidance of Ms Takshashila Jadhav, students were introduced to SUPW

activities wherein the skilled students trained the other class mates in some special

skills through the hands on experience. The purpose of the activity was to develop

the aesthetic sense and perform skilled tasks with accuracy & neatness. Some

students with artistic skills were identified and asked to form a group of student-

peers interested to participate/ learn and enhance the particular skill. There was an

overwhelming response from students willing to add up to their skills. Almost the

entire batch voluntarily took part in the same. Various activities were carried out such

as quilling, calligraphy, Lantern and Thoran making (from wool) and origami.Rukhsar

Khan, Sushma Yadav, Jenifer Selvanathan, Amee Chadva were amongst the peers

who carried out these activities.

Opportunities for attending Inter collegiate festival Year after year the students move out of the institution to utilize their abilities or

talents at intercollegiate level. Ms Usha Sharma, the Cultural in charge oriented the

cultural secretary Ms Shweta Gupta about the intercollegiate event to be organized

at S M Shetty College. The students were encouraged to take part in the events

based on their interest and abilities.19 colleges participated in the event. The

students who got opportunity were Priyanka Solanki & Sheetal Yadav for Mehendi,

Jenifer for Singing,Ms Manju Navami for Fast Typing Competition. Student

development being the main aims of the institution the cultural committee took

initiative to organize within the institution and identify competitions out of college so

that the students excel using their abilities.

B Ed CET Orientation Before taking their admissions, the B Ed students were to appear for CET

examination as per Mumbai University directive. Every year the institute provides

CET orientation to the B.Ed aspirants free of cost. Dr. Sreetanuka Nath gave B.Ed

41

CET orientation from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Dr. Sreetanuka Nath enlightened the B.Ed

aspirants on how to go for the exams, each and every aspect of the entrance test

was touched upon and also guided them regarding preparation of the contents. This

year she conducted the orientation twice for different groups of B.Ed aspirants. The

first orientation was on August 19 , 2015 and the second one was delivered on

August 22, 2015.

Orientation to counseling Cell To make students realize this, on September 21, 2015, Ms. Shweta Padmanabhan

oriented the students towards the need for counseling students. Through her session

she focused on child psychology and its implications on school students. Students

benefited a lot from her real life examples. Ms Padmanabhan offered to give the

students one hour free counseling session every Wednesday which will help B.Ed as

well as M Ed students to enhance their self concept. The session also contributed to

understand the child sensibilities of different age groups. Students looked forward to

taking appointments and making the most of this golden opportunity. .At the end of

December she presented a consolidated report of the clients and the problems dealt

with confidentiality of clients well maintained.

Orientation to Multipurpose lab & learning resources The pre service teachers needed to realize the truth behind the statement. It was to

stress the fact that students would do well if the learning resources are effective. In

order to train the pre service teachers towards this a session was kept on 22nd

September 2015 where the students were oriented to the learning resources

prepared by the earlier batch of students. Post this session they were explained the

importance of learning resources through many club activity sessions. It was an

introduction to a holistic understanding to different teaching methods. The students

had an exposure to the concept of lesson plans and activity based learning. The

activity was focused on skill development for eg: in literature the lesson plan is

focused on LSRW (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) skill. The history

students from past academic year had made P.O.P models of historical monuments.

The Maths students were familiarized with the paper folding activities, worksheets,

lesson plans to make students actively engage in class teaching

42

Orientation to Language Lab The ability to communicate effectively is the key to success in relationships,

education and work. It is a process where we try as clearly and accurately as we

can, to convey our thoughts, intentions and objectives. Imparting communication

skills with the help of digital language lab motivates student‟s learning attitude and

provides an interactive learning environment. Digital Language lab provides

tremendous scope and opportunities for teaching and learning of the essentials

related to the acquisition of basic skills, understanding and application of a new

language. To enhance B.Ed. student-teachers English Communication skills they

were given thorough orientation on September 22, 2015 by Ms. Takshashila Jadhav.

In order to enable the students to benefit maximum out of it regular sessions were

kept on every Saturdays. The exposure enabled the B.Ed. students especially the

vernacular medium students to improve their English language skills.

Community Work With Pratham NGO Pratham programmed a campaign called „Lakhon mein Ek. The main aim was to

make people realize the need of good education in children and to enable them to

help the children who are somehow not upto the mark. They allotted the pre service

teachers in a group of two to three under the guidance of a group leaders who were

working for Pratham.The program went on for 4 days from December 27 to

December 30.In all 9 groups were functioning in the different areas like Mhada

colony Chembur, Gautam Nagar, Sivaji Nagar,Mogra Pada ,Beganwadi.The

students got the opportunity to do assessments of children (from std.3 to 8 .The

assessment focused on reading capability and simple math. After the assessment it

was found that 90% children could not read or solve the simple subtraction being

admitted not only to municipal schools but also children from private school. The

overall program sensitized the pre service teachers towards the needs of these

students and made them responsible in the teaching learning process

Library Orientation for EBSCO Discovery (Eds) & Data base Service Ms. Apurva Joshi (Librarian) oriented the students of M Ed on 2nd September, 2015

at 4pm & for B Ed students on 8th September, 2015. Students were acquainted with

the facility of EDS. The institution provides students with opportunities to access e-

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books and journals, full text articles and other form of resources however this has to

be done only at the campus level. EBSCO Database Service(EDS) was another area

which was oriented by Ms Apurva Joshi.Students were oriented to the concept of

segregation of search results screen was explained - Left side panel & right side

panel. Sign in procedure is explained as one student completed her sign in. The

students could search the e-book successfully. At the end all the doubts of the

students are addressed and answered.

Inauguration of Women Development Cell In the 21st century we expect the

women to empower herself. Thus the

institution also aims in empowering

the girl students through the initiatives

of the Women Development Cell. The

day selected for inauguration was

September 26, 2015.Ms Usha

Sharma began the inauguration by

formally reading the objectives of the

Women Development Cell. Ms Anita

Bafna, Advocate form Supreme court along with Dr Lalita Jogad, Social activist

inaugurated the cell. Ms Bafna spoke on the legal support for Women in Indian Law

& Dr Jogad focused on Mutliple roles of women in Indian Society.

Women development Cell activities The major disadvantaged group in the society being women, she faces a lot of

violence. Our institution focuses on empowering these women using the activities of

Women Development Cell under the able leadership of Ms Usha Sharma. On

October 3, 2015 one of the alumni Ms Vipula Naik was invited with this mission so as

to handle the students facing Domestic violence. Her experience in handling such

cases empowered her to strengthen through her talk. She began with an explanation

on the different kinds of violence. Students could clarify their doubts. Finally she

presented a thought provoking question using a video that who is responsible for

domestic violence & rapes.

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Guest Lectures Sociology Club –Guest lecture by Mr Laxman Gaikwad As a part of Sociology club initiative on September 28 ,Ms Usha Sharma

invited Mr Laxman Gaikwad the famous Marathi writer for a guest

lecture. A combination of leadership, honesty & sincere efforts towards

social justice.Mr Gaikwad has been working for human rights of the

marginalized group of people paradhis. The students got to hear about

his best work, The Branded or Uchalya.The focus of his work was on the

issue of exploitation of paradhis. The student teachers got sensitized

towards the disadvantaged lot with the narration of the life experiences of paradhis.

Guest lecture by Ms Kalyani Subramaniam Alumni collaborations with the institution helped us to have them speak about the

experiences. Such talks inspired the student community as they could speak out all

their hidden queries related to the field. One such opportunity was when Ms Kalyani

Subramaniam was invited for a guest lecture on Job Expectations in a CBSE

school. Students got the take away that teachers needed to equip with skills and be

empowered.

Time and again, B.Ed students are enriched with expert talk and guest lectures. Ms.

Kalyani Subramanian from The Somaiya School conducted a lecture wherein

aspiring teachers were informed about the current school scenarios and the desired

behaviors expected out of newly recruited teachers. Ms. Subramanian‟s lecture

came in very handy in changing trends of school which requires change in teachers.

Student-teachers were oriented to different teaching-learning styles that need

implementation in schools. The need for autonomy and discovery learning in a

classroom were emphasized upon. Effective ways of dealing with a parent during

parent-teacher meets were also highlighted during the session. To wrap up the

session, a quick demo was conducted involving students to highlight the dos and

don‟ts during a placement interview. The session was a much needed one,

encouraging aspiring teachers to constantly update themselves on the current trends

of schooling.

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Guest lecture for M Ed students Student development programs help to broaden the student‟s perspectives on

different concepts. Under this for the M Ed group of students, a guest lecture was

organized. On November 28, 2015 Mr Saiprasad Shetty from University of Mumbai

presented a session on the concept of Distributive justice & Theories of justice. His

vast expertise in the field of political science could help him do justice to the topic.

Students appreciated the lecture.

Micro Teaching Orientation by Ms. Parveen Sheikh

Ms. Parveen Sheikh the Coordinator of the Primary Section of The Somaiya School

was invited to the college. She gave tips on what to observe during internship, what

is to be kept in mind while the student teachers are in school observing. She also

gave tips on what is to be done specifically in The Somaiya School. Moreover, she

also put light on the fact that teaching is not the only job that a teacher has. The

teacher has to maintain many documents. She enlightened the student teachers

about the administrative work associated with a teacher‟s work.

Guest lecture on Success redefined by Ganesh Om To find this stair leading to success

on 18th January, 2016, a guest

lecture was organized by Shri

Ganesh Om who is a director of Om

Linga Centre for Yoga. The title of

his talk was “Success Redefined".

He led the staff and students on a

path of self-revelation and

introspection as he highlighted what

is meant by success and how to

achieve success. He concluded the session with chanting of Om and brief mediation

session.

Radiations and Radioisotopes for Human Welfare by Dr D Padmanabhan The B Ed students got the opportunity to have an expert talk by one of the eminent

persons Dr D Padmanabhan, Deputy General Manager at BARC who spoke on the

topic of “Radiations and Radioisotopes for Human Welfare". His expertise in the field

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of radioisotopes helped him to achieve quality control through his contribution in the

field of pharmaceuticals and is responsible for quality control. In his expert talk he

briefed the B Ed students about the different types of radiations. He explained the

industrial, agricultural, medicinal and commercial use of radioisotopes. He also gave

details regarding auto radiography and the role of electron bean in killing germs

.Overall at the end of the session the students were interested to make a visit at

BARC to know more about radioisotopes.

Creating student Profiles –Somaiya Vidyavihar initiative Somaiya Vidya Vihar has initiated a drive for preparing the student profile of the

students studying in Somaiya Vidya Vihar. In the first stage student data was

compiled from different faculties. A detailed form has been developed for the same

after discussion with the coordinators. The first meeting was conducted with

coordinators successfully on 4th Dec 2015.The coordinators were briefed about the

procedure on carrying out the survey within their respective institutes. There were

some suggestions made by the coordinators regarding the questionnaire, which we

will surely look into and modify on the document.An excel sheet was prepared on the

basis of the information sent to me by HOI's and coordinators. The excel sheet

states the sample size for each course for each college/institute, to ease the process

for all coordinators. I will be mailing it shortly.

Student Health Free health checkup camp Fortis Hospital Fortis Hospital, Mulund conducted a health checkup for staff and students on

November 21, 2015. The students of B.Ed , M.Ed , PGDME and teaching as well as

non teaching staff availed this health check up. The Fortis hospital medial team

consisted of two Doctors- Dr Vivek and Dr Shweta Sharma, along with Mr Nelesh

Kadam and their support staff comprising of 4 nurses, one assistant and one

attendant. A demonstration regarding CPR was given by one nurse and an assistant

staff. A model was used and students were given hands on training using the model

regarding the technique of CPR. The medical checkup consisted of height, weight,

random blood sugar, BMR and blood pressure. The doctors present were consulted

by most regarding general health issues and medications. Files with health records

were given to those who had the checkup done. This time Fortis conducted medical

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health check for free and also offered discounts on next visit to the hospital including

even discounts for family members

Session on Yoga by Dr Prakash Soni Every year under the student support the institution has many student development

programs .For this the institution focuses on achieving synergie through the

utilization of resources from sister institution .One of them being the yoga sessions

.On September 26, Ms Divya Sharma invited Dr Prakash Soni for a session on Yoga.

The aim of this event was to distress the B Ed students .As B Ed is modified into a

two year enriched program, this year the Yoga sessions was extended even to

October. To enable the pre service teachers achieve a mental peace and emotional

balance Dr Soni focused on Pranayam. Through the relaxation techniques the

student teachers even developed the power of concentration.

Student Support facilities through Eye checkup With this aim the institution ensures proper opportunities for health checkups

throughout the year. In the month of December the students got a chance to get their

vision tested. The entire staff also got the vision tested. Overall the institution attends

the health needs by getting routine checkups done periodically.

Financial assistance: Scholarship for student support As a part of student support till date the institution has been focusing on fulfilling the

financial needs of the economically disadvantaged .However from the year 2015-

16scholarship initiative has focused on catering to the needs of students according

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to their abilities. Somaiya Vidyavihar has started an initiative of which our institution

is a part .The institution from the current year developed categories under which

students can avail the financial help. The categories were need based, interest

based and merit based. So now on a greater number of students could avail the

facility of securing financial help from the institution.

Initiatives: Learning Foreign languages As a part of student development program the institution has started the initiative of

providing students with an opportunity to learn foreign languages.The initiative was

begun by Ms Rupal Thakkar who collaborated with sister institution Somaiya

Buddhist Studies for Learning for learning languages.It began from November

28,2015.8 students opted for French & 3 students Japanese. . Ms Rupal Thakkar

initiated the conducting of foreign languages courses by Ms Swati every Saturdays

within the institution from 10 00 am to 12 00 noon.Students are willing to learn

Spanish which might be started in the near future. Overall this program would help

the student group to get placed in International Schools.

Sports Coaching Student development being the main focus of our institution we provide the students

a platform where they would be trained in different events. This was also started

from Nov 28, 2015.The students could use the campus infrastructure and there get

coached by experts. The sister institution Vinay Mandir provided the infrastructure

for conducting sports .Many students participated in the sports events. Introduction

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of and systematic coaching for sports like badminton, squash and utilization of gym

facility for students was introduced.

Administration of Psychological Tests for student Self awareness

To sharpen the wisdom the instrument used were psychological tools. On October

10, Ms Rupal Thakkar, Dr Divya Sharma & Ms Usha Sharma began the initiative of

administrating the psychological tools on the B Ed students. This initiative was

carried every Saturday .The aim was to create self awareness among pre service

teachers. The tests included Eysenck‟s Personality Questionnaire, Mangal‟s

Emotional Intelligence Inventory, Achievement Motivation Scale by Pratibha Deo &

Asha Mohan, Leadership Effectiveness Scale by Dhar & Pethe & Online Learning

style inventory adapted by Odessa Student Success Centre. Students Profile was

made for each student. This greatly helped the individual student to have self

awareness. Student profile has been uploaded on the website.

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