"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.