Parody and Limericks….25 September 2008

Today class was interesting as we were introduced to something new that is Parody. Parody is actually a satirical criticism or comic mockery that imitates the style and manner of a particular writer. It emphasize on the weakness on the writer. One of the Parody that was introduced in class today was from Ambrose Bierce, Preface to the Devil’s Dictinory. According to Dr.Edwin, Ambrose Bierce is always cynical and known as the hater of mankind. Dr.Edwin also told us that Parody could be used in class and it works well with high English proficiency students, as the student must know the original meaning to understand the cynical meaning that is given. Some of the example in the Handbook that interests me was the meaning of life that was given Ambrose Bierce. According to him, life is seen as spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay. Hmmm how interesting… Besides Parody, Dr.Edwin introduce to the class Limerick. It is actually a form of a poem. It is a 5-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet. Its rhyme pattern is abba. This poem is meant to be funny. It contains hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, idioms, pun and other figurative devices. It is interesting and fun to learn limerick. Dr.Edwin also asked us to create a limerick in groups using the templates in the handbook. Some of my course mate comes out with creative and funny limericks. This poem could be use once a while in classroom as it gives less stress to students. They could write in a relax and funny way. Besides that, student’s creativity could be build and it promotes group work. Overall, I feel I learn something new and fun that I could use in my classroom later.

Finally the ending… 11September 2008

Today’s class started early, as we have to finish watching the movie The Road Home. The ending was nice as the son follows his father’s footsteps in educating the village children. This shows the impact that the teacher had created to the villager and to his son especially. He appreciates his father as a teacher and follows his father by using his father’s notebook to teach the children. He wants to help the village children as his father has done. It was interesting the way it ended. Overall, it was a very nice movie that shows the dedication of a teacher to educate his younger generation.

Later Dr. Edwin discusses the movie with us. He asked our opinion on the teacher. he told us that the movie actually shows the appreciation that the teacher received. The teacher did not even realize that he was appreciated that he was just doing his job. Then Dr. Edwin did an interesting activity with us. He asked us to think of a metaphor that describes us as a teacher. What metaphor reflects us as a teacher? I was blur at that time. I couldn’t think of a metaphor that reflect me as a teacher. I then decided to use the metaphor of a sun as the sun guides and give light to us. The same way, I as a teacher will guide and give wisdom and knowledge to my students. It was an interesting activity to give connotation to ourselves as a teacher.

In this class, we read on letters. There were three letter discussed I was John Keats letter others was Vincent Van Gogh’s letter. Dr. Edwin explained to us on the letters and talked on the life of Vincent Van Gogh.

The Road Home….4thSeptember 2008

Today, my class view a movie entitle The Road Home. It was actually a Chinese movie but with English subtitles. It was about a love story between a teacher and a village girl.. The story was told in the point of view of their son. Besides the love story, the story actually depicts the dedication of the teacher who came to the poor village to educate the village children. Although the village has no good infrastructure as his town, he did not mind it. He was dedicated to give knowledge that he has to these children. He even walks with his students back home. Along the way, he would play with them while teaching them. This shows his commitment towards his students. As a result, I can see that during his death ceremony, all his students came down from far and pay respect for him. They helped to carry his coffin along the way without any payment as they have high respect for him. This story actually could be applied to me as I’m going to be a future teacher. I see the teacher as my role model. He is very responsible and dedicated to his work. it shows that doesn’t mater where we are posted, we should have the responsibility of educating younger generation for the development of our country.
Overall I did not enjoy the movie although it was a very nice movie as the DVD stuck many times and at the end Carine have to stop the movie. I could understand the story line and I don’t find the pleasure view it as I don’t know the ending. Carine has promised that we would watch the movie next time again. I could not wait to watch the ending!

Different look at poems… 21 August 2008

Today I have an enjoyable time in class… it was wonderful. Dr. Edwin invites a poet from the British Council. She was an enthusiastic person. She taught me on appreciating poems. She taught me on how we can read and understand the poems. The activity conducted was not only fun and interesting but knowledgeable. The activities are done in group as my class combined with the twinning program class. Everyone had an enjoyable time with her. One of her activity was that we are assigned to different character’s point of view. My group got the mother’s point of view. My group discussed and came out with a very nice poem. Thanks goes to Kak Wan, she is good in creating poems. Her ideas are very good. We actually combined her ideas and other group member’s ideas and voila our poem was created! Hmm… never thought that we could actually create a poem.

When she asked to present the poems that we have created, everyone came out with interesting and unique way of presenting the poem. It was funny to see some of them reciting the poem and they were very creative at it. Before ending the class, the poet recites her poem that she had written during her university days. It was very nice to see the way she recites the poem. I felt time flies very fast on that day. Although the class was two hours, I didn’t felt like it. Overall, in this class I come to appreciate poem as poem is not actually boring if we appreciate it and make it as unique and creative as possible. I really hope that Dr. Edwin could invite again this poet as I learn a lot from her.

Eye opener…14 August 2008

Today’s class was an interesting class as Dr. Edwin relates to us the situation in our Malaysian classroom as all of us are going to go out to do our practical. He explains on how to deal with such situation in school. In today’s lesson, he taught us on autobiography of Mandela. It was interesting as he explained to us the significant of the clothes. How they are ranked according to clothes. He also taught us how we could use autobiography as a lesson in class. We could actually use our past leader’s autobiography to teach our students on nationhood. This will actually help students to have love and appreciation for the country. Besides that he also told us that speech also could be used as material in classroom. Using speech such as Tunku Abdul Rahman’s speech during declaration of independence is a good material to teach students. it could help them realize the vision that Tunku had for the country and this will help them to appreciate the nation.

Overall today’s class was a really an eye opener for me as I got a lot of information for my teaching practical as to handling class and students with various attitudes. Besides that, I gain a lot of good ideas on how to use good material which not only could teach them a good lesson of English but also build they virtues.

Viewing autobiography of Andy Warhol… 31 July 2008

Today as I entered the class, the laptop and LCD was fixed. I was wandering what was the purpose?. Is there any presentation that I did not know? I was thinking to myself. Then Carine told that we would be viewing a movie. I was excited. It was actually an autobiography and not really a movie = (. At first, I was wandering who is this Andy Warhol and why it is so important to view his biography. Then I got to know that this person is closely related to art. He painted lots of picture including Campbell soup cover. Personally, I did not enjoy it, as it was very boring. Moreover, most of the part I could not really understand. One of the reasons might be that I’m not into art. I could not relate to art and painting and I’m really bad in reading paintings.May be because of that i felt really bored viewing the movie... Honestly speaking, the first time I read painting was during Dr. Edwin’s class, when he taught us on Fall of Icarus. The autobiography movie was 1 hour. After the movie ended, the class was dismissed.

Meeting with Supervisor… 30 July 2008

Today my group meets up with our supervisor, Dr. Jayakaran to discuss about our topic for our research paper. It was our first meeting. Prior to the meeting, Dr. Jaya has asked all of us to prepare a page proposal on our topic. The meeting was scheduled at 3.30pm, at the FPP resource centre. All of us was there on the dot and was waiting for Dr. Jaya. The clerk at the resource centre informed us that Dr. jaya would be late as he was in a meeting. Around 3.50pm, Dr. Jaya came and we started discussing on our topics. He asked us to present on our topic. I was planning to research on ‘Relationship between parents and child in Paul case, Barn burning and Territory’. Dr. Jaya commented that I should try to focus on one story. I was confused at first as my initial plan was to compare the relationship between parents and child in the three stories. I clarified with Dr. Jaya and he said that, he wanted me to talk about the three stories first and narrow down to one story. After everyone has presented their topic, Dr. Jaya wants us to prepare our first draft and sent in on week seven. The meeting ended around 4.20pm.