Patna Women's College conducted an orientation programme for first-year BCom students last week a few days before its mass communication department organised a workshop on amateur photojournalism. Students treated themselves to beautiful photographs and learnt from their guest's experiences. The institution had another workshop for its teachers-in-training as they learnt how to use aids at hand to impart lessons to others. Last Wednesday, St Xavier's College of Education in Kurji also trained its BEd students in classroom teaching.

Photogenic talk

On Saturday, freelance photographer Suman Srivastava conducted the lecture on amateur photojournalism and creative photography at Patna Women's College department of mass communication for the bachelor degree students. He spoke to the girls on creative analogue and digital photography, following it up with an interactive session and slideshow. His brought his photographs from spots in Bodhgaya, Jaisalmer, Odisha and Varanasi and Taj Mahal to spark the students' curiosity.

At the time of displaying his work, Suman explained the techniques and visual language behind the photographs.

Head of department Minati Chaklanavis attended the lecture's interactive session with the other faculty members.

"This was a fulfilling experience for the students and they got an opportunity to learn creative photography," said Chaklanavis. "They interacted with the guest lecturer and learnt from his experiences."

Second-year student Khushboo Sinha who wants to become a photojournalist said the session helped polish her skills. "His photographs were marvellous and I believe that costly cameras won't help in taking a good picture but the eyesight of the photographer does," she said.

Teacher training

The department of education of Patna Women's College organised another two-day workshop on "Craft Your Teaching Aids" for trainee teachers last Wednesday. The chief guest was Esha Gupta, a faculty member from National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi.

The workshop aimed at making teaching interesting for students with simple and cost-effective aids. Esha spoke to the BEd students about 3D designs the first day and used her second day to prepare them with teaching aids.

Pastel sheets, chart papers, old newspaper, A4 sheets - things found easily around - were used for the workshop. Head of department Upasana Singh said: "The workshop aimed to increase effectiveness of teaching with attractive aids."

St Xavier's College of Education held a three-day seminar of its own from Wednesday too. Its topic was micro teaching when the first-year trainees learnt of different ways and techniques of teaching.

The seminar began with an introduction to microteaching by college faculty member Madhu Singh. "Specific objectives play an important role in classroom teaching and a teacher has to enter the class once he or she has framed the specific objectives," she said.

The second day was spent on explaining to the participants Bloom's Taxonomy - the different levels of learning and how a teacher should introduce a lesson from the known to unknown, concrete to abstract.

One of the students, Jaya Kumari, said she learnt how to write the lesson plan and ways to prepare different level of questions under supervision of the faculty members.

Faculty member Deep Kumar explained how every activity of a teacher in a classroom attracts students' attention on the final day of the workshop. Vishal Kumar, one of the teachers in training, said he learned how to use audiovisual aids and their importance in a class. The second-year students also pitched in to help train their juniors during the workshop.

First steps

A three-day orientation programme was organised at Patna Women's College from July 21. Part I BCom students attended the programme which started with an address by principal Sister Marie Jessie.

Head of department, geography, Sister M. Rashmi, head of department, psychology, Meena Kishore also interacted with the students. The second day programme started with the college anthem.

Patna University teacher Maya Shankar, an alumna, shared her experiences from her college days. Head of the political science department Shefali Roy also spoke on gender awareness while geography teacher Amrita Chowdhury talked about the short duration add-on courses students could apply to learn various vocational skills.

Zoology head Shahla Yasmeen started the orientation programme's final day with a lecture on eco-friendly measures taken by the institution's eco task force.

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