30 Days in September

After reading Mahesh Dattani’s brilliant play, “30 Days in September”, I wonder that are woman and child abused issues been highlighted in Malaysia? I think there are less people who care for the welfare of them. We hardly know where and who to seek for help? In our Eastern culture, it is very ashamed for you and your family to tell the truth of it and talk about child abused. Normally, it takes time just like the protagonist, Mala to reveal the truth. Besides that, it is very hard to recover form it. I think many of them will choose to be silent for a long time just like Shanta. I am going to be a teacher in the future, I hope that I would be able to help out the students who have child’s abused problem.

A view of life

By compare and contrast the poem of The Four Ages of Man by William Butler Yeats, a famous soliloquy from William Shakespeare's As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques and the riddle in Oedipus Rex ,I think that the three literary works share the same theme. The theme is about humanism in the world that experienced by man starts from the age that we were born until the end of our life.
In the speech As You Like It, Shakespeare writes more on the description of both physically and behavioral changes in every stages of man. Besides that, he divides the life of man into seven stages that are infant, school-boy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon, and second childhood, "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything". Shakespeare portrays human as the actors and we have to keep on acting from the baby until the old age on the theatrical stage. The descriptions are more visualized because the man’s acting is what we can observe in life. While, The Four Ages of Man divides the whole life of human into four stages begins with the infant followed by teenager, adult and ends with old age. The description of the stages is more abstract because it is not only deals with the physical of human but also the feelings. As in the poem, human struggles with the heart and mind. The last stanza discuss about the strength of God and the weaknesses of human. On the other hand, in Oedipus’s riddle human life is only being portrayed as three stages. As a baby he crawls on fours, then as a man he walks erect, then as an old man he uses cane. The riddle is very simple but it traces the changes of man vividly. Again, I think that the riddle is also focus on physical condition of man.
In a nutshell, the three literary works clearly give me the idea about humanism. As an ordinary man, we shall have gone through all of the stages but nothing last forever. I can sense that how incapable of man to control our life because gods will shall decides the end of our life.

HOW IT IS IN EVALUATING OTHERS IN SIMULATED TEACHING?

There’re some aspects that I would considers in evaluating other people in simulated teaching. Firstly, I would evaluate base on the image, the attire of the teacher as the first impression is very important to students. If you dress properly and pleasantly, you can attract the student’s attention. So, they will be pay more respect to you because you take the class seriously and you are able to set an image of a teacher.
Secondly, I would evaluate the teacher base on their language and teaching proficiency. They should use accurate grammar and give short and clear instructions to the students. Then, they should also ask for student’s feedback to show their understanding. Sometimes, the teacher can try to use anecdote and joke to release the tension in class. In short, the way they teach can stimulate student’s learning process.
Thirdly, I would evaluate in term of the way the teacher handle the class. For example, they should greet the students before start the lesson. The teacher must be able to control the situation in class, that is to make sure that the students won’t lose attention to her and don’t make noise in the class. Other than that, teacher needs to encourage the students to participate in the class lesson. A teacher should be approachable by the students.

How Simulated Teaching to be evaluated by others.

Simulated Teaching is just a very short presentation about fifteen to twenty minutes. So, I think my friends will not have too much time to focus on many criteria during my presentation, at the same time they also have to work on the activities or worksheets that we gave. Generally, they can judge on the flow of my teaching process whether it is interrelated and well designed or not. Besides that, I think they can focus on my set induction whether it is interesting, stimulus and creative or not. While on the Pre-Reading Stage, they can consider about the appropriateness of the text that I choose. Next is While-Reading, they shall take notes on the activity whether it is within the student’s ability or not. As they can grade that the worksheet is challenging, easy or too simple. Moreover, my friend can also evaluate my language based on grammar, accent and fluency. Is my instruction clear? Do I ask for feedback? They can also grade my confident during presentation and my preparation for it. Furthermore, the facial expressions, eye contact with students are also important because this is also a kind of communication between teacher and students. Time management can be evaluated to see whether the student is able to finish the task within the time frame. I hope my friends will pay attention to my simulated teaching and comment my presentation sincerely.

Reflection on the movie ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’.

The movie that I watch is the first production of this play and it was show at the Aldwych Theatre on Wednesday, October 12th 1949. It is directed by Laurence Oliver, setting and lighting by Jo Mielziner and costumes by Beatrice Dawson. Besides that, it is a black and white movie. There are not many differences by comparing to the movie and the text of ‘A streetcar Named Desire’ because the movie also run from scene one to scene eleven. Both movie and the text supply to my understanding.
There are advantages of watching the movie because it provides the whole picture of the setting in the play. The movie really set up the real situation of the play and it shows how the place, New Orleans looks like, how small the apartment is and how it is compartmentalized. It helps me to understand the social-economy status of them. Because there’s a generation gap between I and the period that is set by the play and I have never been there. After watching the movie, I just knew how a streetcar looks like. So, by watching the movie helps me to figure out the image that is described in the book.
By watching the movie, it also helps me to further understand the characteristics of the characters. While the actors and actresses are acting out the play, they showed the facial expression, gestures, postures and the tone when exchanging the conversation portrayed the characters vividly. The eye contact is also important as this we can’t sense it while reading the text because sometimes there’s just the eye movement without even utterance a word to show your expressions. From the movie, I also can trace the relationship of the couple, how they quarrel, how rough they are and they make up very soon, like Stanley and Stella, Steve and Eunice. Besides that, the sound effect of the movie helps to set up the mood of the scene. For example as describe as in the play, the sound of ‘Blue Piano’, ‘Polka Tune’, and’ music of Negro’.
However, there is disadvantage of this black and white movie. I cannot see the colours of the costumes that they wore as describing in the play. Blanche was wearing a White clothes which suggests her behaviour is like a moth.
In conclusion, I think that I can understand better about the setting, characteristics and the theme of the play by watching the movie. I had enjoyed watching it!

Movie session

Recently, I had watched four movies which are Shakepears’s Wallah and Macbeth, Pygmalion and Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. All of them are tragedy movies except Pygmalion is a comedy. The first movie that I watch is ‘Wallah’, actually I don’t understand what is the show about because there’s no subtitle. Next, I watched ‘Macbeth’; the story is about how a tragic hero fails and dies in his country. Because of his desire to become a king, he manages to betray and kill a kind and righteous king. However, he is torn between the desire and self-consciousness. I think that the movie is very violence and bloody. On the other hand, ‘Pygmalion’ is the only movie that entertained me because it has a happy ending and it’s romantic. I was amazed and curious about how can a person be trained to acquire a new language in such a short time? Can this happen to me too? In the movie, the professor successes to turn a girl from lower status to become a well-manner lady. So, hopefully it is possible for me to improve my English Language proficiency in another two years. If I were the lady in Pygmalion, I feel that the learning process is tough and abusing. I will be mentally corrupted because I’m not being myself and it’s like a parrot. ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ let me think of the relationship between the husband and wife, the importance of honesty and sincerity. Try to accept the reality and be strong. As a girl, I pity Stella who is a weak character in the movie as she dare not opposed her husband, Stanley.
By watching the movies, it helps me to realize the beauty of literature and I’ll be more appreciating to the contribution of the literature production. At first, I found that watching this kind of movie is quite boring but I realize that not only the utterances but also the action of the characters has underlying meaning. Then I learn to predict what will happen next. I enjoyed watching these movies but I feel heavy-hearted when watching the tragedy movies. It really influences my emotion and mood.

Simulated Teaching

Since two weeks ago, our class has carried out the simulated teaching during tutorial. The activity is carried out as individual work in about five minutes. I found that it is very interesting because all of us come out with various creative ideas for set induction. For example, some of us use songs, games, pictures, short movie, sketch, story telling and others to start a lesson. The set induction must relate to the theme that you want to teach later. I like these activities because it is not only can enhance the relationship between the teacher and students but also get the attention of the students. By the simulated teaching, I had learned some teaching skills and questioning skills in order to lead the students to the theme of lesson. I prefer simulated teaching than micro teaching because our mistake is being corrected immediately. Then I will remember my mistake. Besides that, I also learn how to choose an appropriate text for the theme and not to give too many tasks at one time for Pre-reading. In conclusion, I had enjoyed myself in Simulated Teaching and we have a lot of fun while carried out the games. I hope I can learn more from this course.

Tiresias, the Powerful Seer!

I had discovered that in several stories and Greek Tragedies, Tiresias appears as the name of a recurring character concerning the legendary history of Thebes. In The Bacchae, by Euripides, Tiresias appears with Cadmus, the founder and first king of Thebes, to warn the current king Pentheus against denouncing Dionysus as a god. Tiresias also appear in Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Antigone.

In my opinion, Tiresias is such a powerful seer and often plays an important role in many stories in Greek is because of his ability of knowing the truth and foretelling it. Besides that, he is the one who has the power to deliver the god’s will and he has the prophetic sight. Hence, people will believe in what he said. Then the king always feel threaten by the power of religious. For example, In Sophocles' Oedipus the King, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, calls upon Tiresias to aid in the investigation of the killing of the previous king Laius. Half of the inverstigation, Oedipus wanted to punish Tiresias and claim that he has snare with Creon. After the revelation, Tiresias’s foretelling is proved to be perfectly matched with Oedipus’s deed. Then, Oedipus physically blinds himself in the end of the story. It shows that the prophet Teiresias, though literally blind, “sees” the truth and relays what is revealed to him. Tiresias is also serves as a comparison to the people who has clear eye sight but blind to the truth. The writer uses the prophetic knowledge and his intelligent to mock the people in the story.

In conclusion, Tiresias has the strong influence in Greek culture and sometimes we will seek advice from him as a precaution from doing things wrongly.

My Perception of Life after Reading Oedipus The King.

After reading the Oedipus Rex which is written by Sophocles, I feel that life is being predestined as the protagonist, Oedipus who is the king of Thebes was suffer from his unavoidable dooms. In my opinion, I strongly feel that our fate is being controlled by god and it is unpredictable. As I read the play, I believe that "The gods" made the prophecies that led Oedipus into disaster. The sphinx appeared and she must have been sent by the gods, and Oedipus solved her riddle when he first came to Thebes. The chorus says he must have been guided by the gods in order to solve the riddle. At the beginning, Apollo's oracle simply says, "Find the killer" of King Laius then this leads to the cruel ironies of the play. Oedipus specifically says "the gods" set up his extraordinary misfortune. And at the end, Apollo merely gives Oedipus the strength to carve his own eyes out of their sockets. The ending is very ambiguous as the dead are more fortunate than the living, because they do not experience pain. Is life really that bad? Therefore, I think no matter how hard is my life and what obstacle that I will be going to deals with, I will always remember that “What we can’t duck, we best welcome”. I do cherish every moment in my life and not take everything for granted.

First time blogging.

I have heard about blogging before but I never tried it before although my friends keep persuading me of trying it. So, I feel very curious that why everybody is busy following the trend of blogging? Maybe the reason why I don’t create a blog is because I was lack of courage to expose my ideas, feelings and thoughts to others and I’m not the kind of person who likes to express my opinion. Besides that, I’m also afraid that people will laugh and comment about my blog. By taking this course EDU 3217, it is compulsory for me to create my own blog. After creating it, surprisingly I feel a sense of satisfaction because of my writings is being published on the net.In addition, I realize that it is a very interesting and unique style in learning. I’m very glad that I have an opportunity to reflect on what is taught in class, my own experience of reading the plays and also response to my colleague’s posts.

Short Performance

The things that I will consider for my short performance are as follow,

1. Setting

2. Tone

3. Proxemics

4. The Stage, Performing area.

Setting is one of the things that I would consider for my performance because it helps me to set up the scene and prepare the prop. Then, I can imagine who the characters are and where they are. Tone is the way they speak with intonation, emphasis, pace and attitude to trace the plays vividly. I also consider the proxemics in my short performance that is the attitudes of people in relation to each other. It will decide whether the character is sitting or standing, threatening or friendly and etc. The stage plays a role in the organizing of the stage. I can choose where to enter and exit from the stage. All of these things help me to get ready my performance.