EDU3217

Finally this course has come to an end, but as for me I have lots more to learn. Learning is a life process, right? I had gained lots of knowledge and experienced lots of new things throughout this course. Before taking this ‘teaching the language of drama’ course I never appreciate play or drama. It has never been in my list to read or watch a play. This course has successfully changed my point of view about drama. Now, I enjoy reading and watching play and it did leave a great impact in me because there are lots of issues that the writer of a play wanted to raise. Besides, I start to blog because of this course and to my great surprise I really enjoy blogging. Blogging is such a great way to express my thoughts and ideas. It also helps me to think critically before write down something. It was such a valuable experience for me learning EDU3217 with a great lecturer and tutor. I had gained lots of knowledge from both of them through out the classes and tutorials. Thank you to my lecturer and Ms Kasthoori for your guidance!!

Me, writing a script?

Yes, I’m writing a script. Even me, myself cannot believe that I am actually writing a script. It’s not because I want to, but it’s because we have to. Hehe. It’s not just only me writing that script because I’m working with murni and fiza and both of them were really good in giving brilliant ideas for our script. I remember the first time we sit together to think about what we are going to write. It’s really hard to start writing but once we got the idea, it’s not really hard actually to develop the plot. We write about a softy boy named Fahmi. He befriends with an Indian girl named Anjali and they are very close together. This is not a love story between an Indian girl and a Malay boy. It’s all about how Fahmi change from a softy boy to a real man. Fiza came out with a very catchy title for our script, ‘The Emancipation of Mimi’ and I really like the title. =)

It’s really worth staying up all night together to complete that script because finally it comes to an end. We had hand in our final script last Friday to Ms Kasthoori. Thank God finally we manage to complete the script.

Kee Thuan Chye

Have you ever read a play entitled ‘the swordfish, then the concubine’? No?? Yes?? If yes, you may know the name that I have mentioned above, Mr. Kee Thuan Chye. My lecturer has kindly set a date for us to meet this famous writer at DK,FPP. It is a great opportunity for me to meet such a great man like him. I have read and learn the play before and I really, really like it. Maybe it is due to the issue that Kee Thuan Chye raised in the play which is very close to us. Furthermore, he use simple language and it’s easy for me to understand. He talks about current issues that happen in Malaysia and also critiques political situation here in that play. My lecturer brought him here to upm because we studied his play so it’s an opportunity for us to meet him and ask whatever we want regarding the play that we learn. It was good having him with us talking about his experiences from his childhood until he becomes what he is right now. What can I say is that, it’s not easy to achieve what we want in life and same goes to Kee Thuan Chye. He has faced many difficulties in his life but he successfully go through all the obstacles. I hope I can be as strong as him in my life and achieve all my dreams. Mr. Kee Thuan Chye, it’s good to have you giving your talk and talking about your play. Your play is superb and I really like your style of writing.

NOW and before

Talking about my simulated teaching that I had gone through, I wonder, why is it so different from how I was taught in school before? I still remember those days, when I am still in secondary school; none of my teachers teach us the way we should do during our simulated teaching. Normally, my teachers will just come to the class, give notes, going through exercises, and give homework and that’s all. There are no such things like our set induction, pre reading stage, while reading stage, post reading stage and all. Urm… maybe as a student at that time I did not realize that I actually gone through all the stages but as far as I remember, when my teacher enters the class, he/she expects us had read all the short stories or novels that he/she is going to teach and we will discuss about the story straight away. Sometimes, to make it simpler, and due to the time constraint my teacher just gives us notes to read on. I think my teachers have to do it that way because they have to follow the syllabus and they have to focus on what will come out in the examinations as our system of education is exam oriented. As a future teacher, I think I should teach my students like what I did during my simulated teaching. It is because, the lesson will be more fun and it helps my students experience something new and not what like what I hade experience before. Maybe by doing it this way it helps my students get better understanding and enjoy the class.

A streetcar named DESIRE

Looking at the title, I don’t know what this story is going to be about. What desire that the writer refers to? It’s just a short play by Tennessee Williams. As I finish my reading, I found out that it was an interesting play and after finish discussing this play in class I get to know the desire is refer to sexual desire. I like this play because it’s quite different from other three plays that we learned before. It’s something that not relate to king and its kingship or whatever that refers to king like the other three plays I have read. This play depicts the conflict between a fading Southern Belle from an old colonial family and the brash lower class family her sister has marry into.

I hate the character of Stanley in this play. I don’t like the way he treated his wife and other women as well. He doesn’t know how to respect woman and always use harsh words when talking. He simply shows how cruel a man can be and believe me man can be worst than animal. It’s scary to think of a man like Stanley who does not know how to treat woman the right way. After all, this is one of my favorite plays that I had learned throughout this semester =).

Whew~

Whew! What a relief….
I have done my simulated teaching on 27th March. Thank GOD because everything was going on just fine. I am the last person doing simulated teaching on that day. I am quite nervous at first but when I started, all the nervousness just flew away.
I decided to teach theme in Oedipus the king. I started the lesson by showing my students pictures of a wealthy man holding lots of cash and the other picture is a man who becomes a beggar. Then I asked them few questions regarding those two pictures. They were all really cooperative and had gave me good responses. After that, I proceed the lesson by going trough all the exercises and discussed the answer with my students.
I am satisfied with the way I deliver my lesson but I think there are still weaknesses here and there that I should prevail over. First, I think I should come out with more interesting exercises. My tutor also commented on my while-reading task because it is a little confusing. I also need to practice on reading aloud and slow down my speed of reading. After all, I think, I had done a great job. I think I can control the class well and my voice is also loud and clear. If I were to deliver the similar lesson again I think I should change a bit on my exercises to make it more interesting and I have to make sure that those exercises are helpful for my students.

Are you a klpac virgin?

I am proudly announced that I am no longer a klpac virgin. Hehe. On 7^th March me n my classmate went to klpac at Sentul to watch a play. I was so excited because it was my first experience watching theatre. I don’t know what to expect from it. As we enter ‘Pentas 2’ I am puzzled because there are only two actors in there, the hero and heroin. Only then I realize, the title of the show that day was ‘2somes: the secret love life of Ophelia’ and that’s why there are only two actors. It was my bad because I didn’t do any research days before. It was a great play for me but it’s quite hard to understand the play as they use classic English. I’m falling in love with the hero because of his voice. He has such a great and manly voice and I can’t help myself admiring it. Throughout the play I have to give my full attention because the setting is so simple with minimal props so we have to imagine and interpret what are the actors doing on the stage. The thing that I like about this play is that, I’m watching a modern Hamlet and Ophelia keeping in touch using all the modern technologies such as e mails and phones. Can you imagine Hamlet using laptop? Hehe.. It’s good for me seeing both of them expressing their love in such ways. Well, the play is worth watching and I also hope that I can go watch another play some other time.