Nuffnang Ads

Thursday, February 26, 2009

ORAL PRESENTATION

Last Wednesday, we had to submit our position paper and do an oral presentation of the position paper. I prepared my power pint presentation the week before, in case Mr Omid wanted to do the oral presentation sooner than expected. It was a simple power point slides, I think, even though I took the effort to make it more interesting by inserting pictures relevant to my position paper which is on The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant. Mr Omid asked us to voluntarily presented our oral presentation, so the first that presented was Jessie. After that, Wadhiha, Jowie, Amanda, Jasmit and finally it was my turn. I knew the class was not listening as everybody was busy minding their own business but I continued with my presentation anyway. Sadly, after I have presented, I received not so encouraging comments from Mr Omid. He said that I have to work on my voice projection and also my interaction with the audience. I was totally bummed throughout the day. Nevertheless, I did my best and hopefully in the future, I will improve my oral presentation.

MARGINALISED LITERATURE

During our previous class with Dr Edwin last Monday, we discussed about some of the marginalized writing. The first section is one feminist writing, among those written by Erica Jong, Hilary Tham, and Shirley Geok-Lin Lim. Dr Edwin explained that feminist writing is considered as marginalized writing as women’s problem are presented in this kind of writing. Furthermore, women writers were not taken seriously during that time causing them to use male pen name, such as George Eliot who wrote The Mill on the Floss. It is interesting to learn that these female writers wrote poems concerning issues that are related to women’s life such as menstruation (Becoming a Woman), marriage (For My Husband) and also love (The Rose).

Secondly, we learned about Ethnic Minority Groups: Native American Story. We learned something new outside the scope of literature that people who are natives are now called “The First People” as they were the first to open up a settlement in a certain place. We studied the poem Harlem, about “a dream deferred”, where the poet compares “dream” to “a raisin in the sun”, “a sore”, “rotten meat”, “syrupy sweet” and "a heavy load”. The poet uses the literary device of simile to provide a description to the readers about the “dream”.

Both of the writings are interesting to discuss as it opens up a new horizon for me, learning something outside the typical literary texts that I have been studying.

Monday, February 16, 2009

THE ROAD HOME

It was a heart-wrenching story that Dr Edwin asked us to watch today. It is a movie entitled The Road Home, starring Zhang Zi Yi and Honglei Sun. Dr Edwin hinted that the story is about a teacher and his teaching experience. However, after watching the movie, it turned out not to be a story about teaching but a story of the female protagonist’s determination, Zhao Di to wait for her love, the teacher, Mr Luo Changyu.

The story started in the present time, when the son of Mr Luo and Di, Yusheng is called back to his village of Sanhetun due to his father untimely death. The mother, Di persisted to follow the old tradition of carrying his husband’s coffin along the way home so that the spirit of Mr Luo would not forget his ‘road home’. The movie then progressed with Di’s flashback on how the two lovebirds met and fell in love.

I don’t know where the teaching aspect in the movie is because the movie focuses mostly on the love story between Di and Mr Luo. What I admired most about the character of Di is her determination to get what she wants. How she stood in blistering snow all day to wait for Luo to come back to the village and how she fought her way to get the funeral that she wants for her husband. In other words, she is my kind of a lady (although she seems kind of naïve and stupid to fall sick waiting for her love to come back to her).

I guess what I can say about a teacher from the story is probably Mr Luo’s passion towards teaching the village’s kids even though he is a “city gentleman” who comes from East Gate. He is willing to do anything for the school; in fact he dies from being sick as he braces himself to go through a blizzard to look for fund to rebuild the old school. He leaves his city lifestyle and teaches the kids in the village (even though I think his stay is motivated by his love towards Di).

So, to me even though one day I might get posted in a rural area, maybe it won’t turn out to be that bad if I had some motivation to stay there a.k.a. cute, tall, handsome man to love and fool around with…hehehe…

Friday, February 13, 2009

MY SELF-IMAGE AS A TEACHER

When I was asked by Dr Edwin to come up with a metaphor to describe myself, I was thinking of songs. That was the answer that I gave when Pn Johana, my lecturer back in Institut Perguruan Temenggong Ibrahim asked us to draw an image that represents ourselves as teacher. Songs because there are songs that we hate while some other songs just would not find their way out of our head. It stays with us and we remember them; in other words those songs are timeless and evergreen. The same goes to teachers, a teacher will always be a teacher and some of them stay with us throughout our lives; not in person maybe but definitely in our memory.

However, I chose not to give the answer of songs because I already did back then, so I decided to use GPS or global positioning system as a metaphor for a teacher. When Dr Edwin mentioned that a teacher is supposed to assist students in their journey, and not to determine the students’ destination, I think GPS best sum up the description in one term. GPS is a technology boon that can help you to find you way when you are lost. It will lead you the right path and give you the directions to go to your destination. A teacher in today’s context is not the provider of knowledge but rather a facilitator that help students to unleash their potentials and lead them to the right path in life. So, GPS and a teacher bear the same characteristics; as an aid to support and help students to grow to their optimal performance.

I guess who you think you are depends on how you define a teacher. As for me, I know there is less than a year for me to prepare myself to be a teacher, but the very reality is surreal even though I know I have to accept the responsibility to be a teacher. I just hope that I would follow the footsteps of those teachers that I enjoyed studying with instead of being the teacher that students can live without.