SPARKZ : Strategic Program for Assessing the Resourcefulness Knowledge and Zeal
The college has organized SPARKZ- a creative program to develop the head, heart and hands of student-teachers of Kerala state. The two day program aimed to find out the Best Talented Prospective Teacher in the state of Kerala, the Best Prospective Science Teacher of Kerala, the best brains in Malayalam Literature (a literary Quiz), the best brains in general awareness (inter-collegiate Quiz), the best Shuttle Badminton Players (Men & Women) from the Teacher Education Colleges and the Best Performing Teacher Education College(overall award). The program was conducted on 04/10/2018 and 05/10/2018. Seventy Six talented student teachers from twenty two teacher education colleges participated in the SPARKZ festival. Mar Theophilus Training College identified the Best Teacher and the Best Science Teacher of the College before the commencement of the program. Student-Teachers who competed in Best Talented Prospective Teacher and Best Prospective Science Teacher award were expected to take a model class, showcase their talents, perform in the group discussion and interact in the question answer round. Mar Theophilus Training College won the Best Prospective Teacher Award, Shuttle Badminton Award (Men), Inter-Collegiate Quiz (Runner Up) and Best Performing College Award. The program provided the student-teachers of the college the opportunity to watch exemplary classes by the student teachers from eighteen Teacher Education Colleges in Kerala. The external team of evaluators highlighted the strengths of each class. The College Union got an outstanding opportunity to showcase their leadership quality and organizational ability. The program enabled the student teachers to streamline their teacher competencies. Students got an opportunity to meet, befriend and share knowledge and experience with outstanding student teachers from other institutions. The program fostered inter-institutional collaboration and society participation. The panel of judges included 5 eminent teachers who had expertise in cultural and artistic arena. The students of Mar Theophilus Training College were divided into 8 groups to attend the model classes taken by the contestants. All the classes were ICT based and innovative. The student teachers of the college were instructed to note down the creative elements of the class and innovative strategies employed. Judges conducted a SWOC analysis of each of the classes. The cultural performance of the participants of SPARKZ showcased the possibilities of infusing pedagogical elements with an aesthetic and artistic dimension. The question answer session and group discussion focused on weighing the various approaches in educational arena. Questions included opinions on robotic teachers, punishment, campus politics, partiality in evaluation, student evaluation of teachers, pedagogical dramatics, learning apps, gurukul system of education, teacher as a social engineer, relevance of whole brain approach, relevance of constructivism, significance of blended learning, changing paradigms in education, etc. The inter-collegiate quiz and literary quiz enabled the students to imbibe the values hidden in Malayalam literature, and to enrich general awareness. Through ‘SPARKZ’, the campus witnessed a two days of Academic Reality Show in Teacher Education which was of the first of its kind in the entire state of Kerala.