Finally Finished.....

After writing my research paper for weeks, I have at last completed it. And I have handed in my final paper. I would say in doing my rserarch paper, I had learn more indetail about different societies and their way of thinking which is very much the same. While doing the research paper, I hardly had much references because the text I chose was Malaysian literature texts and as we know there are not much about MLIE texts online so I had to refer to MLIE books. Overall, I would say that my supervisor was real helpful in guiding me through the research paper writing. Now all I hav to do is cross my finger and hope to get good marks. Hopefully I will not be disappointed as I was in my position paper.

“THE END DEPENDS UPON THE BEGINNING”

“THE EMPEROR’S CLUB” is an interesting story of a group of students in the history class of St. Benedict’s Academy. I found out that his movie is based on a short story by Ethan Canin, “The Palace Thief”. Eventhough in the end, Mr. Hundert felt he has fail as a teacher, he says his other students taught him back. While watching the movie, I really think Mr Bell is such a spoilt brat and a nuisance. I admire how Mr Hundert managed to keep quiet and tolerate such a behavior although lucky Mr Hundert made it a point not to let Mr Bell win by cheating in the “Mr. Julius Caesar”. It is such a pity that even after 25 years; Mr Bell still had the guts to cheat in the rematch of “Mr. Julius Caesar”. However, eventhough the final three participants was not suppose to be Mr. Bell but instead Mr. Blythe, I would say that Mr. Bell did not do wrong by providing a chance to Mr Bell to show that he has talent. Mr. Bell only did not see that opportunity coming and did not make full use of it. One thing that I have learnt from this movie is that as a teacher if we cannot change one person for the better, there are many others that we have changed and over the time, there are many more people that we can change.

HISTORY BOYS...

Last class we watched an interesting British movie” History Boys”. It’s a story on how a teacher teachers a group of boys to express themselves in history subject. He directs his students to express an outstanding and original point of view even if they don't believe a word of what they say or they do not agree on it. I really enjoy the style of teaching the history teacher has. Bringing his students to historical places is a fantastic idea besides just looking down at book the whole time. I would say visual is one good and effective way to learn and remember. I wished I learnt history that way during my school days. With all the efforts of a teacher, all his students were granted into Oxford. I would say this story is a simple story with a smooth story line.

Research Paper Outline…

Once I have discussed my thesis statement with my supervisor, I proceeded with the outline of my paper. After handing in my outline, today I received comments on my outline and it has been approved…hurray to me! For many days I was in fear that my outline was not going to be approved probably because of irrelevant points. However I was wrong, my supervisor said I had sufficient points and can proceed to my draft. I can now start with my 1st draft. I have chosen to discuss two Malaysian literature texts in my research paper. Both the literature texts are “Mala’ by K.S Maniam and “Josh and Gold” by Shirley Lim. I could say it is not that easy to do a research on both this texts but not too tough. I hope I can complete the research paper without much difficulty as I would say that both this texts are Malaysian texts and the language and settings are familiar to me. In addition, I enjoy reading both this short stories. The sad part is there are no online references for any of the texts or even the author’s background. I spent so long trying to find at least the background of the authors and it was unsuccessful. The only resort left is to refer to books. Lucky I do have a few MLIE books that we used during the previous semesters. It will take time for me to write the whole biography of the authors and the summary of the two stories as there is no references. Time to start drafting my 1st draft.

Worth watching “FREEDOM WRITERS”

Last class we were given a movie “Freedom Writers’ to watch. For me this is a real great inspiring movie. If I am to count, I can confidently say that I have watched this movie almost 10 times since they played it on Astro few years ago and still recently. In this movie, we can see how a teacher tries all sorts of methods to make her class full of multiracial students to mix with each other and work together without differentiating themselves. It is definitely not that easy of a task and I would say to be that teacher is real inspirational.
Asking students to write journals on what they want is a real good idea and I would say it is one effective way to learn more about your students. Using this method enables students to freely express their feelings that have been trapped in them. That’s why it is called Freedom Writers! I remember in lower secondary school, my English teacher asked us to write a journal once a week. Exactly like in the movie, it was kept private. Only my teacher will read the journal and leave some comments and encouragement.
All those out there who are going to be teachers and who are already teachers go and watch this movie “Freedom Writers”. There is a lot to learn in one movie.

"The Long Walk To Freedom"

The last class with Dr. Edwin this week, we went through an autobiography of Nelson Mandela, “The Long Walk to Freedom”. The description Mandela gave in his cell and the things happened in the prison provides a clear picture of how people were treated in the prison. He was moved from one prison to another many times as a way not to make him and other prisoners comfortable in one place. This is one way to give psychological torture so it will disorientate a person and emotionally break your will. Nelson Mandela spent most of his youth in prison. Reading his autobiography passes a message that he was sending out, he is not fighting a personal battle but a battle for everyone. Mandela refused to wear the long trousers he requested because all the others were not given long trousers to wear. Mandela is willing to sacrifice wearing the long trousers because of the inequality of his friends and the other black people there.

Using autobiography in class is effective and interesting. Students might get bored over the time just reading literature and their text books. Therefore by using autobiography, it will capture students attention because it is something different that what they everyday learn. In addition since this kind of text is referential, students would not face much trouble in understanding the meaning/message/idea in the text. Just by reading an autobiography in class, students will be able to understand and have an idea about a person, their beliefs, their point of view; their experiences as well as it can inspire students.

Marginalised Literature

Dr. Edwin read to us several poems in class which were all feminist writings. Dr. Edwin discussed about the marginalized literature which refers to writings by minorities. In marginalised literature, female writers emerged much later because of the patriarchal society that only resulted in more male writers. Because of this, many female writers were not taken seriously. Even, Mary Anne Evans used a male pen name, George Eliot when she stated writing. One of her famous writings was “The Mill on the Floss”. Some of the feminist writings that we read in class were “For My Husband” and “The Rose” by Erica Jong and “Becoming a Woman” by Hilary Tham. These poems are real interesting and I admire the way the poems were written. All the message or ideas were written indirectly and some writings are on feminist issues.

Sacrifice or Love?

After long, only now I become conscious the differences in sacrifice and love. SACRIFICE is where you give something at a cost and all that cost is not worth the outcome. LOVE is where you give something and you get an outcome or you give something and it is not a waste or your time. In the story “The Mahabharata”, what Devavrata did for his father can be said a sacrifice. This is because in order to make his father, Shantanu, King of the Bharatas happy, he decided to sacrifice and deprive himself from being the king so that the king’s new wife son will be King. Eventhough his father gave him a boon (a reward or blessing) that he can chose when he wants to die and he will be invincible in war I would say it was all pointless. Devavrata would not be able to marry or have children and this will lead him to live a lonely life. What is the use of the special privilege of freedom when he will never be happy or able to share it with someone? Devavrata’s sacrifice of giving up his parenthood just for his father’s happiness can be said that his father is unfair and selfish. After loosing his son for many years and being lonely, he does not appreciate his son’s return but ended up making his son live the life he used to live in.

Movie “The Road Home”

Last class, Dr. Edwin assigned us to watch a movie entitle “The Road Home”. It’s a Mandarin movie (if I am not mistaken) we just read the subtitles the entire movie. Before we watched the movie, we were told to pay attention to the character of the teacher and his teaching experience. I can’t recall the names of the characters in the story but practically the whole story was a flashback. The narrator of the story is the teacher’s son. From the beginning of the story till the end, I wasn’t able to understand or identify anything interesting aspects of the teacher’s teaching experience. For me it seems that the movie is a love story. We all thought that the movie Dr. Edwin gave us was the wrong cd…How dumb can we be. I say we just do not understand the literature aspect of the story and did not interpret it they way we should have. I will have to just wit for Dr. Edwin’s next class to find out more bout the teaching experience of this character. However, there is one thing that I can say about the character of the teacher, he is willing to teach the village children eventhough he is from the urban place. He has the courage to leave the good life in the city and show his passion in teaching village children.

First meeting with my supervisor

My first meeting with my supervisor was not too long since none of us had tought of what to write on. I had no idea on what to write yet for my research paper. Since Dr.Edwin precisely mention that we are not suppose to use the same literature text that we used in our position paper for the research paper. Now I have to think on what text I should do since I cannot use the same text again. Dr.Nooreen, my supervisor was real helpful; she gave us a clear idea on what she expects from us. I heard from the other groups that some of their supervisor’s did not provide them with an outline on what content the research paper should have. Thank god my supervisor did give us the subtopics. In addition, she gave us an example of a thesis statement to give us an idea on what we should take into account in writing our thesis statement. She wants us to have three aspects that we are to discuss in the research paper which must be stated in the thesis statement. Furthermore, she is even willing to give us a good sample of a research paper as a guideline. Lucky there was no pressure in the handing in the outline/draft of our research paper. We were given two weeks to think of it. With the bundle of assignments to hand in soon lucky Dr Nooreen gave us some time. Now I have to recall all the literature text that I have read/study before since in foundation year and decide on which texts I should choose. ALL THE BEST TO ME!

Metaphor of me....

In a year time, I will be in my teaching career. I never thought that one day I will be a teacher. Since I will be one soon, I would want to see myself as a good teacher that is able to educate my students. Therefore, using a metaphor to describe myself would be a “RUBBER BAND”. For me, being able to teach students, I should be flexible. This is because, eventhough there is plenty of teaching styles that I have learnt so far in this teaching course, I do not think it can all be used when I start teaching due to many factors in school. I know that things do not always go the way we plan. I therefore think that I am a flexible person that is able to cater to the different learning style of the students. In addition, I would like to see myself as a teacher who can hold my class together and being able to accommodate their ideas and thoughts. I see myself as someone who is flexible, adoptable, and versatile. Describing myself as a “rubber band” where whenever the students need help or guidance, they are able to find me as I am someone who is easy to find in quick search. Furthermore, I would be a teacher that is trustworthy, reliable and always willing to help my students. I see myself being a teacher that is able to support my students in making decision and in learning to improve themselves and gaining new knowledge. Last but not least, I use “rubber band” as a metaphor to describe myself as a teacher because I am someone who guides and facilitates my students learning. I want my students to have the authority in learning. Hopefully this is who I will end up being when I start teaching.

The first paragraph of the position paper

Last class, Mr Omit approved of my supporting details of my thesis statement. Well thank God for that or else I would have to redo it. It took me days to think critically on my thesis statement so I would not end up taking about something that is not my stand. After writing about 2 pages of just my points and the quotations, I still cannot seem to start writing the position paper. I am still stuck at the 1^st paragraph. It’s just the introduction. The entire time, I thought that once I have my points ready it will be easy for me to write the position paper. I am definitely wrong. I have no idea how long it is going to take me to complete the entire position paper when the due date is around the corner. I have already gotten 5 supporting details for my paper. Hopefully by the time I complete writing the 1^st paragraph, I will start to enjoy writing this paper since the story I have chosen is what I enjoy reading.

Approved!!!

Everyone was to show their thesis statement in class during turorial. While waiting for my turn, I was re-reading my thesis statement over and over again to make sure it’s well stated and most important Mr. Omit said it has to be our own opinion. Many of my classmates’ thesis statement were rejected and some needed to rephrase their thesis statement. This made me even more nervous and worried what if my thesis statement is rejected. I think only half the class managed to read their thesis statement and class was over. Now we will be having our one week Chinese New Year and I cannot start on my position paper until my thesis statement is approved. Just before Mr. Omit can leave the class, many of us went and showed our thesis statement to him. Big smile for me J .My thesis statement on "Wuthering Heights" was approved. However, he told me to make the sentence simpler with no bombastic language. So I rephrase the thesis statement and showed him which he said it is much clear and a good thesis statement.

Well now during the holidays, I have to think of 5 points to support my thesis statement as well as the evidence.

Thesis Statement???

We had to come up with 5 thesis statements which is to be persented during the next turorial.
'Thesis statement on anything we want"....That is tough because I have no idea on what to write on. ..It took me 3 long days to think on the thesis staments I want to write. And its not just 1 thesis statement but 5 thesis statement. In the end, all my thesis statements were about myself and I was prepared to read it all out:)

However, during our tutorial, Mr Omit did not ask me to read my thesis statements. Majority of boys were chosen to read theirs. Then we were given a list of literature text that we can chose to work on for our position paper. I had already in mind on what text that I would like to work on since the first day of Dr Edwin's class as he mentioned that we can chose any literaty text we want (except The Awakening). But duirng our first tutorial with Mr omit, he said that we can only chose the text that he will give later on. Because of this, I had to wait and could not start on my position paper as I planned earlier. So like I mentioned just now, we were copying a list of literary texts in class when Mr Omit said we can use any of the literary text listed by him or any text that want to....All I can say is lucky me, I can work on the literature text that I had in mind much earlier that is "Wuthering Heights". Well all the best on my thesis statement on this text as Mr Omit wants to see our thesis statement next class.

First Tutorial......

Mr Omid our tutor will be the one keeping an eye on our position and research paper.
As the beginning he gave us many examples of a thesis statement so we will have an idea of what we are suppose to do. Then he asked us to write our own thesis stamen about UPM. Many came up with funny thesis statements. At first I did not want to read my thesis statement as I thought it will be wrong but then again if I do not try making a thesis statement now how the hell am I going to do my position paper. So I read my thesis statement and by luck it was ok as he said it is a good thesis statement however not in the context of just UPM but all Universities.
Well it’s time to start with the position paper but just waiting for the list of literature text that we can choose from. Hopefully that it’s the text that I enjoy like “Wuthering Heights”, “Great Expectations” or “30 Days of September”.

What is it about “The Fall of Icarus”?

ICARUS, he is not just a boy who started to fly with artificial wings resembling a bird attached to him with wax. And the story is not just about Icarus falling from the sky and drowning after having his wax melted by flying near the sun. Icarus represents FREEDOM, FREE SPIRIT and ROMANTIC SPIRIT.

Look at the painting and you might just see what I saw at first; a boy drowning with one of his leg still on the surface of the water. But that is not actually what the whole painting is about. Think big and look at the whole picture. You will realise that nobody is bothered or realises what’s going on around then. Someone just fell from the sky and nobody even cares. Well all I can say is take the risk and pay the price if something goes wrong or just hang about to your boring and dull lifestyle which is risk free.


Reading Mahabharata which I thought that I have to read between the tines turned out to be just straightforward story of a son sacrificing for his father. Was it sacrifice or for love? I am still thinkingJ

Literature being Representational

Today I read Daedalus and Icarus. It seems like a fairy tale story with no happily ever after. A man flying with feathers waxed together? By the way who fly’s to the sun? Well I will have to wait for Dr. Edwin’s class next week to find out that is so interesting about falling down from the sky, and having a painted picture and poem about it? On the other hand, I have to say it is still an interesting piece of Literature.

Reading “Mahabharata” was interesting but again with an ending that is not so great. It like a nice touching story of a son who sacrifices for his father’s happiness or maybe I have to read between the lines, isn’t that suppose to be literature? Well there are others who with different idea about the actual ending of the story where the fisherman's daughter is Shantanu's wife, reincarnated, and Dev's mother.

The Very First Day

The first day of Readings and Project work for teaching literature in ESL contexts was real scary….what is a POSITION PAPER??? And its too fast to start doing a Research Paper. And all the short stories to read luckily it’s not too long. Plus we were told that we will have a supervisor to do the research paper. Well everything is in GOD’S hands. I need an angle supervisor.

At first Dr. Edwin explained on what we are expected to do this semester. Well, I got quite shock after reading the ASSIGNMENT potion of the course outline. Too short time to accomplish all. But well, I will have to do it all sooner or later so I started by reading the short stories we were told to read.

“The Son Of The Turtle-Spirit” is rather an interesting story from the beginning that I didn’t even stop when reading. However, I do not like the ending of the story. I was hoping for something interesting like the boy(son of the turtle man) would turn into a dragon headed turtle after putting his father’s bones into the dragon’s mouth. Then it would make the story even more interesting :) Or could it be I am missing the actual hidden meaning of the story.