Film Review of Gifted
The Heart of Education: Nurturing Talent and Humanity

- Dr. Anjana Prajapati

  Assistant Professor,

  Marwadi University,

  Rajkot.

One significant barrier to be happy is the relentless pursuit of societal expectations that define success. This pressure is especially acute for gifted individuals, who are frequently urged to maximize their potential in narrowly defined areas. This can lead to an unhealthy sense of obligation, often at the expense of their emotional well-being.

While striving for achievement can be beneficial, it tends to serve society's interests more than the individual’s growth. In this pursuit, we risk losing sight of what truly matters in education: the nurturing of connection, joy, and the richness of human experience. We must recognize that our worth extends beyond conventional measures of success, fostering a compassionate view of ourselves and our students.

The film Gifted offers a compelling lens through which to examine these themes. Directed by Marc Webb, the story revolves around Mary Adler, a seven-year-old gifted girl, and her uncle, Frank, who raises her while navigating the complexities of her extraordinary abilities. Frank's journey emphasizes the balance between nurturing talent and ensuring emotional well-being, a crucial lesson for educators.

Mary's mother, Diane, was a brilliant mathematician whose legacy became a burden after her tragic death. The pressures surrounding giftedness can create emotional struggles that overshadow academic achievements. Frank’s devotion to Mary’s happiness illustrates the heart of education: prioritizing the emotional needs of students alongside their intellectual growth.

Throughout the film, Frank articulates a vital perspective: “I want her to know that her worth isn’t tied to her achievements; it’s in who she is and how she treats others.” This reflects an essential truth in education—that our role extends beyond imparting knowledge; it involves nurturing the character and humanity of our students.

The dynamics among the characters reveal the importance of understanding and valuing the whole person. Mary wrestles with her identity beyond her intelligence, expressing a desire to be seen for who she is, not just her achievements. She reflects, “I just want to laugh and enjoy the little things without everyone expecting me to be a genius.” This longing for authenticity in a world focused on accolades resonates with many students.

Moreover, Mary’s teacher, Bonnie Stevenson, embodies the philosophy that being gifted doesn’t require sacrificing one’s sense of ordinariness. She guides Mary through the challenges of balancing exceptional abilities with everyday experiences, emphasizing the importance of emotional support. “Don’t let the pressure to succeed drown out your own voice,” she advises, reminding us of the significance of emotional well-being in education.

As educators, we hold many responsibilities, some clear and others more subtle, often shaped by our own wisdom and intuition. Recognizing and addressing these subtleties can create a meaningful impact on our students’ lives. By fostering an environment that nurtures both intellectual and emotional growth, we empower our students to thrive, fostering a sense of belonging that can last a lifetime.

Education should not merely be about meeting academic benchmarks; it must be about cultivating a rich tapestry of human experiences. It’s about creating connections, fostering love, and celebrating the joy of learning. True fulfillment comes from embracing our potential while prioritizing the relationships we build along the way.

Ultimately, the heart of education lies in acknowledging and nurturing the humanity in each of us. By focusing on the holistic development of our students and encouraging genuine connections, we can cultivate an enriching educational experience that celebrates both their talents and their individuality. In doing so, we prepare them not only for academic success but for a fulfilling life, grounded in compassion and authenticity.

 Effective Learning through Classroom Activities

We, at department of Communication Skills, believe in teaching students English language and literature through various classroom activities. In this series, we are presenting our first activity Effective Listening through Interviews.

Effective Listening through Interviews

The activity was planned and executed by Ms. Niti Vachhani for the students of B.A. Hons. (Faculty of Law Semester-1). The students were assigned the roles of an interviewer and the interviewee, where the interviewee assumes the role of a famous personality of their choice, and answers the questions asked by the interviewer carefully. The other students were then asked to identify the type/mode of listening required. The activity aligned with an ongoing topic which was Listening In Context in Effective Listening Skills Course, and the students got a better and first-hand understanding of how each type/mode of listening works.

Number of Participants: 8 

Skills Targeted: Attentive and Active Listening

Objectives:
Improve communication skills  
Improve and enhance Active, Attentive, and Responsive Listening

Role of the teacher:
Facilitate and monitor the activity 
Provide feedback 
Provide scaffolding when necessary

Role of the student:
Prepare for the role assigned
Engage actively

Role of the audience:
Listen carefully and identify the mode of listening
Give feedback  

Time consumed: 40-45 minutes 

 

Teaching English Language in Higher Education Institutes in the Present Time

 

The Faculty Forum on "Teaching English Language in Higher Education Institutes in the Present Time" was held on July 27, 2024, at the University Seminar hall from 2:30 to 3:30 PM. The event was organized by the Department of English and included participation from faculty members. The forum aimed to address contemporary challenges and opportunities in teaching English language in higher education institutes and to share innovative strategies and practices.

 

                                                                    Panel Discussions

As the forum is an in-house initiative, panelists included the three faculty members from the department:  Dr. Kuldeepsinh Jadeja, Dr. Vidhi Mehta and Ms. Niti Vachani. The panel had a rigorous discussion on the following key points.

                                

    ●       Role of session planning in making teaching effective

    ●       Challenges of digital literacy among students.

    ●       developing courses that align with students' career aspirations.

    ●       Methods for continuous assessment and feedback.

    ●       Ways of facilitating language instruction, making learning more                                                     accessible and engaging for students.

                            

                                                             Open House Discussion

Following the panel discussion, an open house session was held, allowing participants to engage in an interactive dialogue with the panelists. Key topics raised during the open   house included:                                

        ●       Student engagement

        ●       Managing discipline related issues in large classes

The Faculty Forum provided valuable insights on teaching English in higher education Institutes in Present Time. The panel discussion and open house fostered a collaborative environment where participants could share experiences and ideas. The event highlighted the importance of adapting teaching methods to keep pace with technological advancements and the diverse needs of students.

 

MONO ACT COMPETITION

 All the world's a stage,

       And all the men and women merely players;

       They have their exits and their entrances,

       And one man in his time plays many parts.

       - 'As You Like It, William Shakespeare

'Eng-Lit', - English Literary Club, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Marwadi University had organized a 'Mono Act' competition for the students across the University. The event was held at the auditorium on the 14th of March 2022.

The students had participated enthusiastically and had played varied roles of characters from various literary books and movies.  The event was coordinated by faculty coordinator Mr. Jay Jivani and first-year B.A. English students coordinators Tatsat, Hardi, and Shakshi. 

Department Initiative

Creative Impressions Club

Department of Communication Skills

Marwadi University - Rajkot

The first activity of Creative Impressions was conducted on 29/8/18 from 10.00 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. at MB603. 14 students participated in the event. The session was conducted by Dr. J. Vijayalakshmi and Ms. Pratixa Parmar.

The session was planned to cater to the needs of the reading, writing, speaking skills of the student along with the aspect of creativity. The students participated actively in the event. The students were very enthusiastic to present their own compositions. They recited poems, short-stories, quotes based on the theme of life and philosophy. The creativity was unique in the sense that the students had innovative methods of recitation with complete grip over the tone and language. In the second section, the students were given various poems and articles based on the theme of education, independence and technology. They were given 15-20 minutes to read and to interpret the meaning. This was followed by presentation by the students. The session ended with Q&A and feedback.

Department Initiative

Certificate Courses

The Department of Communication Skills

Marwadi University - Rajkot

Exciting news for the students of Marwadi University!!

Now, the students can also do certificate courses to improve their English Language Skills. The good thing is that there is a range of courses to address the specific needs of the students. They  can choose a course based on their needs. If somebody wants improve speaking skills in English, there is an exclusive course on it. If someone wants to prepare oneself for interview, there is a special certificate course for that. If some student wants to improve writing skills, there is a special course on that too. And there are many more such courses to cater to the specific requirements of the students. The students can pick and choose a course based on their requirements and strengthen their English. So, identify your requirement and enroll for the courses from the Marwadi University online portal.

Teaching Practice

Teaching Vocabulary through ICT: Quizlet

Dr Vipul Solanki

School of Languages, Marwadi University – Rajkot

As we know, building vocabulary is very crucial for learning any language. It is the familiarity with the words that help to read and comprehend a piece of text. Hence, teaching or familiarizing the learners with the words of the text which they are supposed to learn is necessary as well as helpful for them to understand the text well. Such an effort was made for the graduate students (BBA, BCom) who are learning English through an article Paytm: The Wonder Wallet, which is a part of the course Reading and Writing for Business, published in the business magazine Forbes – India.

Before starting reading of the article in the class, a group of words, which can possibly be difficult for the students to understand, was identified. Then, using an online tool Quizlet a lesson was prepared. Quizlet is a tool through which different methods of teaching and evaluating a topic can be created. Once the details of the lesson are feed on the portal, it will automatically generate a learning lesson, or various evaluation tools as shown below.

It generates the lesson under various categories like Flashcards, Learn, Write, Spell, Test, Match, Gravity, Live for learning and evaluation the topics.

The learners will be able to learn the words in terms of its meaning, pronunciation, and spelling. They will also be able to see how much they have learnt and retained by the evaluation tools and interesting games. To teach the aforementioned article, it was thought to be deemed fit to teach the words of the article first. To engage the students in the learning process and to make them retain the words, the ICT tool Quizlet was used which proved to be very helpful.

I am sure using Quizlet in your class too will be very interesting so give it a try and share your teaching stories here. It will also be fun to read about your experiences of such other innovative teaching practices. So keep blogging it here.

Book Released

A Postmodernist Critique of the Select Works of Amitav Ghosh

By

Dr J Vijayalakshmi

Assistant Professor

Department of Communication Skills

Marwadi University

The book entitled A Postmodernist Critique of the Select Works of Amitav Ghosh by Dr J Vijayalakshmi, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Skills, Marwadi University was released by the renowned writer Ms. Bharathi Pradhan at Ahemdabad International Literature Festival on 24^th December,2017. After unveiling the book, Ms. Pradhan congratulated the author for her hard work. Dr. Vijayalakshmi was given a session of 15 minutes to present her view points about her book. She spoke about the totalitarian concepts, consumerism, alienation and the technique of eternal ‘space’ and ‘time’. The postmodern values of totalitarianism are a struggle against the idealist concepts which are silenced by the society.  Man of today’s era lives in solitude due to the virtual boundaries of time and space. The truth and the real knowledge are decoded but it never comes to limelight as the rhetoric falls short of revealing the ‘Truth’ as ‘Truth’. Hence, it is the individual who struggles continuously to fix the truth:

 He struggles believing that,

 in every end, there’s a new beginning;

 in every failure, there’s a new lesson inscribed;

 in every disappointment, there’s a new confidential stance;

in every untruth, there’s a truth waiting to be explored;

Which tunes the ‘one’ to the ‘other’--the final truth.

 Yet, the rhetoric with its ‘gaps’ and ‘silences’ prevents

the declaration of truth.

But, the individual embarks on a mission, to legitimize the ‘Truth’–the beyond

with a hope that, the world will experience the truth,

 and the truth of inevitability

 and the truth of the ‘Other’,

 which, indeed defines the postmodern canon.

The programme ended with the Question and Answer session.

Book Published

“Unravelling the ‘Gay Plague’: A Study of William M. Hoffman’s As Is, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart and The Destiny of Me, and Paul Rudnick’s Jeffrey”

By

Mr Jaykumar Buddhadev

Department of Communication Skills

The book looks into the various counter-discourses born out of the urban gay community since 1981 (to 1996) as a corollary to the mainstream discourse engendered by HIV/AIDS that added to the existing anti-gay rhetoric in the USA.

Movie Screening

Department of Communication Skills

As a part of English Day Celebration, a movie screening of ‘The Hundred-Foot Journey’ was organized by the Department of Communication Skills on 10^th February, 2018. More than 50 students participated in the screening. Many faculty members from Department of Communication Skills also participated in the screening including Dr. Deepak Mashru, Dr. Vijayalakshmi, Mr. BhautikLumbani, Ms. Ateesha Srivastava and Ms. PratixaParmar.

The objectives of movies screening include but not limited to the following:

•      To improve English

•      To enhance vocabulary with context

•      To learn ‘how’ (not just ‘what’) natives speak

•      To learn to read and review a movie

•      To understand human emotions & reactions

The student attended the screening based on the pre-registration. Before the screening of the movie, a brief background of the movie was given to the students along with the trailer of the movie. The screening was followed by the discussion and feedback.

The screening was third of its kind in the series as a part of CS – Elective i.e. English though Movies. This elective is offered to the 2^nd semester students of Marwadi University. It has been decided to have a movie screening every Saturday – 9:30am onwards.

The screening was coordinated by Mr. Jay Buddhadev and Mr. Mihir Dave of Department of Communication Skills.

Poem by Jaykumar Buddhdev

art and talents

with twenty and nine candles

here i am burying them

sometimes burning too

both with a practiced quietness

this art not learnt

but ‘tis a taste acquired

and a habit born on

empty dinner tables with

unworn rings - unclaimed lips

beds unshared and peerless nights

now no more them i see

opened or closed eyes

yet flashes of fancy

emerge rise and sink

staying momentarily but

the seeds of this art

sown slow and sudden

at ten and eight

just before adding ‘nother

to the tally of years

this bilious activity grew

gradually ‘twas nurtured

making them gangrenous too

seeming slightly simple to you

maybe ‘tis too

sans dancing and chanting

‘round their remains with

a wooden stake through

for even cold and buried

or burnt and bloody

they became someone new

with these talents

and hands sanguinary

glistening eyes

i am ready

with a cleaver

and such arts

should you begin

to seem enticing too

This poem has been published in the international journal The Criterion (Vol 8, Issue IV)