LaSt WoRdS

‘Me? Blogging?’ That was the question I asked myself when first saw the assessment list for this course. It is something which I have never done before and never intended to. But, it became a must for this course this semester.
But later on, I found it interesting as it is a platform for us to share our thoughts, ideas and opinions. We were required to reflect on every lecture and also the significant details we gained from every one of it.
Blogging is similar to the online forum discussion but it is just different in terms of expressing the ideas. It creates a less serious mood as we feel free to discuss about things we have learnt. Online forum discussions have been more formal in terms of the language we use and etc. Otherwise they are the same in being a medium for us to reflect after gaining knowledge from lectures / tutorials. We also read our peers’ blogs and get to know their opinions and thoughts and also free to comment on their ideas. I found it appealing as we reflected in two ways; one through our own blogs and second by reading or commenting on our peers’ blogs.
After this I will continue blogging; both academic and personal to express my thoughts and ideas. This blogging activity for this course throughout this semester has been very much helpful to us as it enabled us to be reflective and pour out our thoughts.

~rAnJinI~

Simulated teaching

As mentioned earlier, I worked on the play Dance like a Man and focused on teaching the element of characters and the personality traits of the two major characters of the play. One of the strengths I felt about myself is that I was able to control my students and get them to concentrate on the lesson. Besides that, I was able to guide and direct my students to place the focus on the characters and the traits. This was evident as my students were able to come up with the feedback I expected with the guidance.

My negative side is also to be mentioned here. The first and foremost thing is that I tend to get nervous during the presentation and that affects my presentation normally. That is the part which I need to correct more in order to give out a good presentation. Mr Harold also gave us useful feedback to make sure that we correct ourselves to the better. His comments helped us to look back at our presentation and see our own mistakes.

We did not do it for the first time but there are a lot differences to state compared to our simulated teaching in the previous semester. We learnt how to vary our activities and also how to make it interesting to get the students’ attention. Another essential part is we utilised the technology to deliver lesson to the students. This is very much unlike the teaching method in those days. Besides that, we learnt to involve the students to participate actively in order to make sure that our lesson is student centred. This is very important because we do not want to hold on to the ‘old, traditional, classic’ way of teaching.

This simulated teaching experience has been very helpful and useful for us to practice our teaching skills and brush it up more to become better in future.

Pre & While Reading

I decided to focus on the element of characters and personality traits of as for the pre and while reading tasks in simulated teaching. My main objective was to get my students to identify the personality traits of the characters given in the extract. The extract I chose was a conversation between the two main characters of the play Dance like a Man, Jairaj and Ratna, in order to show the state of relationship between them and also to identify the personality traits of both the characters based on the extract.

As I expected, my students were able to answer the questions given in the pre reading task. I stressed the use of exclamation marks which indicate the argument between the characters. The students were able to respond well when asked of the state of their relationship according to the extract.

For my while reading activity, I divided the students in four groups and assigned on various tasks which mainly related to the personality traits of the two major characters of the play. The students took part effectively and then presented their work. They were able to identify the personality traits of the two characters based on the extract and also relate it to the state of relationship of Jairaj and Ratna.

Although was nervous, I managed to complete these two activities as I planned. This play was new for my students as they never read it before. It was an advantage to avoid the students from getting bored as they have never read the play before. There is a negative aspect I felt when doing this pre and while reading tasks. We felt the time constraint and therefore had to rush through our presentation just because we did not have enough time. If we had more time, the situation during the mock teaching would have been much more interesting and fun. Anyway, I did learn my mistakes from this simulated teaching and determined to do better next time.

~raNjiNi~

BhArAtHanAtYaM_InDucTioN

That is what I decided to do for my set induction stage in simulated teaching. This is because the play revolves mainly in the issue of the Indian classical dance, Bharathanatyam. For this stage, I first showed the pictures of various forms of traditional dances in Malaysia and elicit responses from my students. After that, I went on with the pictures of Indian traditional dance, Bharathanatyam. This was to introduce them to the dance and its significance for the Indian society. Then, I showed them a video clip of a Bharathanatyam dance performance as I was certain many wouldn’t be familiar with the dance. As I expected, I got a good response from the students as they were interested in watching the clip. Finally, I concluded the set induction by relating it to the play, Dance like a man.
This was not the first time experience for us to do simulated teaching. But, this time it was little different with a different evaluator with different standards. Mr Harold gave us precise feedback on how to improve ourselves to the better. In my case, he commented that I seemed like rushing through my slides as if I wanted to finish them all a.s.a.p. Only then I realised that I should have actually discussed further with my students regarding the responses they gave for my questions. That was the weakness I took note to improve next time. Besides that, I should have also been firm with my students in order to control them and get them focused on the lesson. They got slightly excited when watched the video clip on Bharathanatyam dance performance as it was new for many of them.
On the other hand, I felt that I managed to grab my students’ attention with the pictures on various forms of traditional dances and also the dance clip. In my opinion, they were effective in conveying the message on the dance as the main issue that revolves in the play. Yet, if I were to teach it again, I would improvise the same activity to be more interesting. I would also ensure that my students are paying attention to what is being taught.
After the presentation, I have still been wondering on how to vary my teaching methods in order to make it more interesting and get my students to focus on the lesson. We, the future teachers, are actually expected to make the difference rather than retaining the traditional ‘chalk-and – talk’ method. Certainly, that’s what we are expected to do and therefore we need to explore more to know more and vary our ways of teaching to make a difference.

ALL THE BEST, BUDDIES!!!

~rAnJiNi~

ThE WorDs oF tHE CrEaTor!!!

Dr Edwin has actually kept his word and we met Kee Thuan Chye. As he walked into the hall I just wondered if he is the person who is well known for his writings, plays, journals and etc. He looked very simple and felt like meeting someone who lives next door.

He has a good sense of humour but at the same time he managed to convey the intended message to us. There is one specific part I admired in his talk to us. As a response to one of the questions asked, he said that he writes the truth in his works. It meant that the truth which he feels true. I took note on the point when he mentioned that any writings will always reflect the personality of the author and that’s what happens in his case as well. That’s definitely true as we tend to express our thoughts and reflect certain aspects of our personality through the writing. There is also another thing to be mentioned here about his talk. Our core beliefs about the Malaysian history were threatened after heard him asking ‘Is history reliable?”. It hit us hard…Isn’t he right? How far do we know the truth about history? We have been studying history till now and is it reliable? Well, I let the questions linger in my mind.

The meeting with Kee Thuan Chye was only limited to literature but in fact he discussed further about other elements about the politics and etc. His dissatisfaction towards the government policies and the current political scenario was evident through his words. I personally was interested when it came about discussing the political issues. Me opinions were similar like his and I wished talked more of it.

We got more interested when the concentration turned to The Swordfish, Then the Concubine. Hearing about in depth from the creator himself made us fascinated and helped us to get more important facts from him. One of us asked about the role of the characters Ris Kaw and Logod and also the contribution of the prologue to the whole plot. He gave us a detailed explanation about it and that helped a lot in terms of understanding the play better. I have always thought of how that would be to hear any author’s explanation about his / her writing. It first came real with Kee Thuan Chye as he explained in further about the certain aspects of the play.

I adore him as he is a good orator and has a good sense of humour. It was not mere amusement but he has actually lead us think further of certain issues in deep. We are thankful to Dr Edwin for giving us this opportunity to meet Kee Thuan Chye. This meeting has altered our perceptions to the better and we gained insight about things around us!!!

~rAnJiNi~

DaNCe LikE A mAn...DaTtANi

After much thought, I chose to do the play ‘DANCE LIKE A MAN’ by Mahesh Dattani for my simulated teaching. The extract in ‘Now Read On’ was the only source I had but yet I did not want to give up. I browsed more about the play and issues involved in it. Besides that, I sought Dr Edwin’s help to get the play and make copy for myself. To my surprise, he gave me a copy which he had. I was like almost jumping as it was an honour to get a book from him.

Then, I read the play and identified the issues being discussed. I wanted to teach the play which my classmates were not really familiar with as they would be eager to ‘learn’ when I ‘teach’ during the microteaching. I also believed that they will not be bored as it was not something which they have already read before. It was my hope to be different than my other classmates for this simulated teaching because many of them chose similar texts and we tend to get bored to hear the same thing being repeated over and over. Let’s see how it goes then....

~rAnJini~

Swordfish??? Concubine???

I must admit that I did have little knowledge about the history which this play mainly revolves around. I read it before Dr Edwin started teaching it but there were parts which I did not analyse or really look at. I was also slightly confused with the number of characters in the play as there were too many In the play. During the lecture, we managed to list all the characters and also identified the relationships as told by Dr Edwin. It was only then I managed to see the actual number of characters and also their relationships. Unlike the previous plays, reading this play was much at ease because it was hilarious yet contained the intended message. The issues discussed were much related to the country’s present situation, the political scenarios around, and the writer actually hits it right in conveying the message to us. The characters Ris Kaw and Logod in the play the role as mediators between the audience and the casts. Both the characters represented the aspect of humour and also conveyed the message to the readers. At certain instances, it was obvious that the writer mocks at the government policies and the current political scenario. Yet, it was done at an easy manner as it was not entirely ridiculous or mocking. I also learnt that the prologue which is about the covenant is what actually makes up the whole plot of the play. It has been significant enough for us to know that the incidents that take place in the later events are related to the prologue. I take this play as a form absurd written in a modern English language which is easier for many of us to read. Even after finish reading the play, I had some confusion on how the events are interrelated and how are they significant to the prologue. Later on, Dr Edwin explained further on the significance of the prologue. I also had discussion with some of my friends to make clear of doubts to have a better understanding. Anyway, I should say that this play was much easier and interesting to read as this context is what we could relate better to ourselves, compared to the previous two plays.