Technology is so much of a magic at times! Whenever I read Harry Potter I felt it was science at its magical best. Today, when I saw the demo of the Interactive Board, I thought that it was magic at its technical best.

Ah, the many ways in which teachers could use it to hold attention, to highlight a point, to save a brilliantly executed lesson, to use a technique which proved right with one class, to organise the presentation live, to let words rule the space, to allow students to experiment with spellings, to explain grammar, to import images right away, to write with a flourish and style, to bring pre-written formulae right before the eyes, to help review the previous day's class, etc. mmm...the possibilities are immense. I'd love to have an Interactive White Board in the class.

A group of 35 students have left on a ' Festember' talent hunt. I wish them all success. The script for an English play has been accepted. Hooray, to the script writers from ELA.

The two toppers in BULATS Aravind.T.M and Ajay Paul, both from Mechanical, have been asked to go to IRTT on the 24th to enter the competition to fly to Cambridge on a study tour. Hope they excel themselves.

The only thing that saddened me today was that when cleaning the entrance to the department for the inaugural function of SAECE 09, our student volunteers have pulled up about 12 neem saplings about knee high that had grown by themsleves, gently helped by Mother Nature along the walkway. Particularly because just the previous day I had counted them and thought to myself, " Ha, nature at her rejuvenation best!" Spoken too soon and too fast. Couldn't restrain myself from pouring my heart out to a senior student in the lobby, who assured me that such a thing would not happen again. GCE must retain her lush crown of tall and green trees to remain beautiful. It is one of Salem's green spots. We can't afford to take it away from future generations of students.

Visited the spectacular digital library in the fourth hour today, since I had the hour to myself instead of having to rush from one class to another, as has been the necessity these past two months.
What a breath stopper in terms of infrastructure...the well laid out systems and hushed ambience lead to an academically encouraging atmosphere.
I accessed the Springerlink to access journals. Unfortunately, I could not open full papers in the Journals of Children's Literature, Language Learning and Education. Though the page identified the institution in a sidebar, only those that were available for free viewing were accessible, the others requiring username and password.
Though it was a personal disappointment for me, I am totally amazed by the availability of scholarly treatises and papers available to scholars and faculty. One could spend hours and hours just soaking in the reading...
The PG students who were there were prevented from opening YahooMail, as they should be, since I feel that otherwise the whole affair might just become a netcafe and not a knowledge cafe; pendrives were prohibited, though CD-ROMS weren't. Though students tell me that CDs are not virus proof, the risk is less when compared to a pendrive's infinte capacity to paralyse and immobilise systems. (I believe that browsing centre managers in Salem blanch at the sight of a GCEian armed with a pendrive, since they are carriers of deadly viruses and destructive malaware).
Another good measure adopted by the Principal is a request for the logbook records of visits made by his students, since that one single gesture prevents students from straying into forbidden and unacademic territories.
I hope that our students will use the library for productive research and scholarly pursuits in order to enrich their learning and academic skills. Love the library for the promises that it holds for a lover of reading and research.

This year's TCS Best Student Award went to Ms.Gomathi of CSE. It was presented by Shri.Vasu, Senior HR, TCS.
What I liked about the winner is that she gave such a nice thank you speech. Short, sweet and spontaneous. We are proud of you, Gomathi.
I certainly will be killed by my CSE boys and girls, if I overlook their Progeni 09. As if I would!
It is such a splendidly organised and well conducted programme that one would be committing a serious error of oversight, if one did not attend it, much less talk about it.
Progeni09 brought students from all over the state who presented their papers. For a day, the campus saw a lot of hustle and bustle near the auditorium where the rangoli of the Progeni09 logo greeted the visitors. With a lot of warmth we were all welcomed to the inaugural function.
The souvenir was released...and oh, was it impressive! A very well laid out, aesthetically prepared and almost most carefully edited one...I loved it. The articles were all very interesting and informative...of general interest.
The MCs were highly impressive...I get the feeling that they have blossomed very well and are a good example of what a search for perfection can do.
Once again, one had to admire Ms.Kalpana for her complete control of the whole show, though students ran it through and through. Delegation at its best!
Don't forget, student power is awesome here.
The Chief guest was a very simple and friendly person. He sat through the paper presentations, since he wanted to listen to the papers on internet security. He also evinced a lot of interest in the digital library when Ms.Kalpana and I took him around with some of our students;; he spent time checking out the security checks at the library server and giving a few valuable suggestions.
He was also highly appreciative of the Language Resource Centre and the efforts taken by the department to enhance the language skills of our students. The powerpoint presentation on the Language Lab Highlights was an opportunity to allow a guest to see the facilities available and our efforts to give our students all resources to tap their potential to the utmost.

There were two listening task activities in the lab and the children simply enjoyed the classes, especially the thrill that comes with understanding the British and American accent and doing complex listening tasks based on conversations of native speakers.

I think I am also honing my listening skills, cos I have found that I usually make mistakes while listening and these exercises are helping me as much as they do the children.

I am very happy that questions that make us think are the kind found in these exercises. There are no run-of-the-mill, monotonous, challenge-less questions. I am glad that this book for the first time meets the needs of students.

Change is the face of education and any thought process which follows the trodden path will never experiment, learn and innovate. I am glad that English Language Teaching is undergoing such transformations, where the teacher cannot depend only on questions that test knowledge , but must be ready to accept tests of skills. Teachers have to be at the vanguard of change in order to accept the changing environment of learning. Any effort to cling to what is familiar and conforms to the comfort level of the teacher will hinder the progress of learning. Challenges must be accepted if we wish to improve our students. Like Robert Frost, the 'path not trodden' may be a little difficult, but not impossible.