The End of EDU 3217: Whole Course and Blogging

The whole course really taught us to interpret literature, especially plays and dramas, and at the same time appreciate the literary arts. Before this, I thought that literature was only of boring and dull stuff to be read, but after learning how to read and interpret the message in the plays and dramas, I found that literature is not merely entertainment or leisure, but it is all about understanding how the message in particular literary art connects to the world around us and how it is related to ourselves; of emotion, experience and spreading one’s sight to other part of the world. So far, learning literature field is best learnt from Dr. Edwin himself, I have never experienced this kind of study before with other teachers and lecturers. He taught us how to read and interpret plays, short stories and dramas in an entirely different perspective; not just reading and understanding the message directly, but with the anchor of other concepts, like the Greek mythologies, global issues, history, and also mockeries. I truly like the plays “The Swordfish, Then the Concubine” and “Oedipus Rex”; the storylines and the issues within. The plays are not just about telling stories, but they cater around the ironies of life, and mocking what’s not right.

Blogging is indeed a good way to reflect what we have learnt in the class, it is wide and motivating. Compared to online forum, blogging is freer to write our own opinions and sights, unlike online forum which is more formal and has the actual question to answer. The blog is the medium for us to share with each other. With blog, students would be free to express their judgments and reviews on the plays learned. Besides that, we can learn more by reading our friends’ blogs; learn from their opinions and their understanding of the studies. Well , blogs can be short and simple, it also can be pages long, depend on the mood of the blogger towards the play, in fact. Blogging also teaches us to widen our own our thinking, as different person has different ideas. One may think that a particular play is interesting and amazing (like Dr. Edwin said) and it might be total wreck of head (like most of the students said, haha..) nevertheless, blogging is a new tech of studying, unlike the on-paper reflections (some more, blogs can be edited, decorated and save cost). By blogging, we can also reflect on our friends post by commenting; opposing their judgments or giving supportive statements. Sadly, this EDU 3217 blog will end soon as the course has come to its end.

Last but not least, I would like to thank Dr. Edwin for the help and teachings that he has delivered to us. He has opened our eyes to the new sight of literature, wide and amazingly deep in meaning besides entertaining. I myself have gained the interest of reading literature after attending his lectures, honestly. It is sad that we are finishing the course soon. Thanks again to Dr. Edwin for lending a hand to give us tips, advices and his own experience. He even has given the effort to meet us with the famous playwright, Kee Thuan Chye.

I salute you, Dr. Edwin!

Next Stage: Pre and While

For my pre-reading, I drew some illustrations based on the titles of the chapters in “The Ring Doesn’t Fit”. I did this to explain how sequence of events work as I explained to the students that the illustrations simulated the flow of the play. I pasted the illustrations on the whiteboard, and the illustrations later be used for the while-reading activity. I managed to capture the students’ intention by showing the illustrations and injected the initiative to learn more on the topic.

For while-reading, I asked the students to form 4 groups. I distributed white papers and markers to each group and told each group to work on one chapter each. Each group was to summarize their chapter into short list, representing the significant events in the chapters. Then, I asked the groups to present their graphic form of events in front of the class and pasted them on the board according to the illustrations I pasted earlier. In the next activity, I distributed quiz sheets to the students and to be answered within 1 minute. The quiz was to arrange the events of the play in orders by numbering them. This session, I did not feel the fear of simulating the teaching, and I delivered the teaching with confidence and smooth. The reason: the students were my own friends, why should I be nervous? (hehehehe…)

This simulated teaching us somehow similar to how I was taught in the school. I thought that the activity was a good idea to practice (because we as the students at school liked the activity), therefore, I tried to simulate the idea into my microteaching. It was quite a good idea to do the activity, but since my students were of my own members in the class, therefore it was quite easy because the level of activity was quite low. Using paintings and illustrations are my strength in micro-teaching, because I can draw pictures that can attract the students, intentionally for secondary school students. I would maintain this strategy by using more interactive activities combining illustrations and questions, nevertheless, students in general like to see images, not entirely wordy activities. I have some weaknesses though, as I have the “natural ability” of speaking too fast. Even in daily conversations, my own friends cannot really catch my words, but “I dun rily care!” because it is tiring to wait if I were to listen to slow utterances from someone. I know this would be the major weakness if I were to be a teacher, therefore I should slow the “natural ability” (arrgghh…)

If I were to deliver the similar lesson again, I probably would use the same technique. This is because I found this strategy really works, especially for younger students. I would use more picture references for my teaching and prepare more interactive and interesting activities. Well, there might be some changes because students are made up of different levels and proficiencies, so the variety of activities depends on the classroom levels. I still have some questions in my mind regarding the simulated teaching though, like “Was my teaching really influential?”, “Have the students really understood what I was teaching?” and “Were my activities good enough?” Well, I think I would be able to solve these problems soon, there are times for improvements and learning from other people. For example, observing my colleagues presenting in class really opened my sight that there are varieties to prepare class activities and better ways in delivering the lesson. Other solutions; guidance from the lecturers and also prior knowledge of previous simulated teachings. The Internet as well, why not?

D Fe@R BeG!Ns! Activate and Initiate!

Simulated teaching is the most fearful progress in the field of studies. This is where our personalities and confidence are tested. Nervousness is a must, no one can and ever escaped from the feeling of uneasiness of presenting and simulating the teaching in class. And I myself, too, experienced these for every simulated teaching we had. I chose the short play “The Ring Doesn’t Fit” by Tan Kee Aun for my simulated teaching. I felt very nervous to present in front of the class. Well, it was not the first time, but as always, “What if it doesn’t work?” and “Will I be able to speak, not stuttering?” questions kept ringing in my head. The set induction was the vital part to initiate students’ interest of the teaching, so I thought of showing a line of comic strip to the students. I took the wedding pictures from the Internet and arranged them in Powerpoint slides, making the pictures as a strip of events more like the play itself. It showed the bride feeling nervous of her wedding ceremony and ran away. Later the bride was being consoled by the minister and the bridegroom. Together with the comic strip were talk bubbles to show what the characters were talking and thinking about. The students were very excited to read the comic from the slides especially about the “marriage is just like choking a banana, it’s huge, but you still eat it.” The dialogue was unintentionally written, it was actually spontaneously thought, but the students thought there was something fishy about it. Then, I asked what the students had in opinion of the comic strip, and they hastened to answer. Well, that proves my set induction was a good idea. I also explained about what I would teach for the lesson-of-the-day to the students so they would have the gist and scheme for the topic. And since there will be pre-reading and while-reading stages after this, the comic strip is a good idea to teach sequence of events!

KeeThuan Chye On the House

It was a great experience meeting the writer of the play The Swordfish, Then the Concubine. He is a playwright actor in fact. Well amazingly, I got to meet and speak to the person whom to me only appears as an image before. We had the session (more like a conference) with Kee Thuan Chye on Monday, March 30th 2009, thanks to Dr. Edwin for bringing him to us.
As a warmup, Kee Thuan Chye told us about his background; the school he attended, how he started writing, and what influenced his writings. Along the session, Kee Thuan Chye talked about Malaysian issues, from before independence until recent time. Although it was quite sensitive, what he talked about was in fact true, we do not really living the true “Malaysian” vision, and this was what he stresses in all his artworks. One of his saying that should be thought, “We do not really know what happened in the history”. Politics are dirty, politicians oppress not only among themselves, but entirely on the people of the country themselves. How far is our history true? How much truths are there in the history that we learnt formally? Who wrote the history? Do those writings really reflect what have happened to us? Why do we have to trust the history? Is the history that we learned reliable to be taught to the next generation? These were the questions he asked us to think about. He also talked about the politics in Malaysia; the case of Anwar Ibrahim, and the conspiracy before the process of Independence Day. All these made me think; while we are coming to lectures and other people live their daily routine, there are people on the institutions mocking, manipulating and oppressing others. These opened our mindview about what really happens around us; peace is in disguise.

At the end of the conference, we had the bookselling session with him, together with taking pictures, signing autographs, shaking hands and humoring. 4 books of his were on sale: “1984, Here and Now”, “March 8, The Day Malaysia Woke Up”, “We Could **** You Mr. Birch” and “The Big Purge” (this one I have read before for MLIE).

Thanks for the autograph, Kee Thuan Chye, and thanks to Dr. Edwin for taking so much trouble to let us meet the famous writer ;)