A Rewarding Day @ FDP | Sdnb Vaishnav College

When your students make you so proud! ❤️

13 October 2023 | Today

I was so glad to be a part of the FDP [Faculty Development Programme] organized by the IQAC and the UG Department of English, SDNB Vaishnav College.

The FDP was so well-organised, and towards the end of my talk, the teacher-participants had some highly thought-provoking questions as well.

And to me, personally, the cream of the session was, when a faculty member from the audience, sprang a surprise, by saying to those gathered - 

Friends, I wish to say one thing about Rufus sir. I was doing my II BA English in MCC, in the year 2007-08, when sir had given us all an assignment and he had asked us to come forward and speak in front of the class.

Initially I was very hesitant to come, since I was quite a bit nervous about public speaking.

But sir came up to my desk, and motivated me to come forward and speak in front of the entire class.

Added, sir carefully noted down each and every word of what I spoke, and immediately, he put it up on his academic blog as well. I felt so motivated and overjoyed. 

That was the first time I really spoke in public to such a huge class, in the Selaiyur Hall Indoor Stage. That’s when I overcame my fear of public speaking. Today I’m so proud to say that I’m standing before you as a faculty member.

The teachers then gave her a standing ovation.

Well, literally Sujatha’s words so moved me and literally moistened my eyes.

“What more does a teacher need?” I said, standing before our own vibrant student who’s doing so well as a Professor at SDNB.

In fact, I still treasure the beautiful personal email that she had sent me soon after her presentation in class. 😊

Reproducing it here below, dedicating it to all of us, teachers, in the noblest of vocations, who are so proud of our kids doing so well in life. 

More power to you dear Sujatha. You won’t know how proud we are, of you. So happy to know from your colleagues that you are doing so well, as a Professor. Keep up the good work.

You may want to read the entire article HERE.

I was also delighted to meet with yet another alumna of ours, Prof. Angela, who – the moment she saw me, said – Sir, you taught us Structuralism in our MPhil class!” 😊

So happy for all of you our dear students. Keep shining!

Today I also happened to meet with such a vibrant Professor Dr. Shankari, who gave a lot of valuable thoughts and ideas, on how to tap the creativity in the student, and make them engaged in academic activities.

Three points that she made were highly praise-worthy. Sharing those noble ideas here, so that, it will have the ‘butterfly effect’ and impact academia for the better.

The Word Bank is a game, in which each student has to deposit one difficult word per day into a box for a particular period of time [say a month’s time]. At the end of the month, the cards deposited in the Word Bank, will be taken out, and the students will be quizzed based on the words they’d deposited. If they answered all the words right,  they were appreciated and awarded prizes.

Yet another activity which sounded quite interesting, was the ‘peer-teaching’ method, wherein, students good at a particular subject, share their knowledge and learning amongst their classmates, thereby enriching each other in the process.

One more activity that was suggested by Dr. Shankari was – Students read a particular book and then post a review of the book on a blog. I found this to be a very innovative and highly laudable method by means of which students can make creative use of technology and at the same time, improve on their reading skills as well. More power to you, dear ma’am.

Dr. Karthika made an insightful observation, that, students felt happy when they were recognized and we followed up on their activities. But most of the time, we’d be having some added academic commitments when we are not able to follow up on their academics. I agreed with ma’am’s observations to a tee!

Journal writing was yet another good option suggested by a Professor.

‘Using Memes in the learning process’ as a pedagogic tool, was yet another lovely suggestion that came from a Professor.

Creating story outlines was yet another suggestion from another Professor.

I was so happy when Dr. Shankari and a few others said that they had read the article that I had posted just this morning at 6.50 am, on the day’s Editorial, from The New Indian Express.

And, finally, I was walking my way back with happy memories of the day, back to the car park, accompanied by Prof. Sujatha, when a research scholar came rushing towards me.

‘Rufus Sir?’ she asked, with a puzzled look!

‘Yes’, I said.

Sir, you remember me. Malini from QMC. I had asked you for guidance for my PhD, a few years ago. You guided me so well. Today I just finished my third DC here at SDNB, Sir. Just wanted to thank you, and this is the first time I’m meeting you personally, so wanted to say a hi to you, and thank you for your guidance, sir’, she said.

Best wishes for you, Ms. Malini. Keep shining!

And thank you so much dear Professors. Felt so happy. You really made my day today.

On the whole, a very rewarding day today at SDNB Vaishnav College, Chrompet.

And yes! even as I am writing out this blog, I am getting good news from our I & II MA students who have successfully completed their paper presentations at the Two-Day International Seminar on Social Sciences, Languages and Culture, organised by the Department of English, Crescent University today. 

Congratulations Lalitha, for sharing the good news!