THE CLOSURE

There were lots of thing that I have learned through out this course and I found that Teaching The Language of Drama had given me an opportunity to understand better in studying drama as well as local plays. I had discovered that everyone have their own true potential in writing the play creatively as seen our first assignment – writing a stageplay. It was a stepping stone for my course mates and I to actively involve in this kind of writing. This opportunity gave us a chance to vary our writing skills to be more sophisticated and stylish. Luckily, my script entitled “ Pigeon” had been applaused by most of our classmates and our tutor in terms of it’s intellectuality and authenticity. If other groups tend to write about love, broken marriage and unfinished love, our group had came up with zapin as our main subject of writing.


Besides that, I also had been introduced with micro-teaching. It was a long process where it requires us to well-planned our activities in terms of material selection and presentation style. I found that we should have the confidence and good acquisition in language in order to impress your students about your credibility. I totally agree that micro-teaching is not just based on your lesson plan but you must have the initial preparation and able to promote interaction in the classroom between teacher and students.

Throughout this course, I also got an opportunity to meet one of Malaysian well-acclaimed writer, Kee Thuan Chye. It was a memorable experience since I had studied his play, The Swordfish then The Concubine. From that meeting, we had to know his perspective about his writing and political scenario in this country. I also took a picture with him as a remembrance.

The most interesting part throughout this course was blogging. For the first time in life I owned my own blog. Prior to this, I never bothered about this thing, however, it became the requirement of this course for you to have your own blog side. At first, I thought this idea was just wasting my time, but, as the semester was going to the end, I finally see the benefit of it. Writing my own blog, reading my friend’s blog and commenting their posts were very interesting. I was free to share my opinion or express my feelings while doing that. It also became a space for my course mates and I to share views and knowledge about the course we took. It was a memorable experience and it answered my question why some people were addicted to blogging everyday. I found that this method was very interactive and appealed to the needs of teenagers out there which wanted a new presentation of teaching of learning process.

In brief, this course had taught me a lot. All the experiences and knowledge that I had collected throughout this course were useful to me. I will apply all of them in my classroom when I start teaching very soon. I also want to wish good luck to all my friends who will sit on the final examination tomorrow.

The End of Micro-teaching Part 2

Yahoo!!! Our nightmare had finally ended. Friday was the last day of micro-teaching session. I felt a big relief since I had struggled on it for the last three weeks. My microteaching flew very well and I was grateful since I’ve got such responsive students. They also enjoyed my presentation very much. Mr. Harold’s comments during previous session helped me a lot to fix some of my weaknesses. My first trial of this micro-teaching had left me with a sweet memory. It thought me how to be a good teacher and how difficult it was to prepare for teaching materials. That was the reason why people said that teaching profession was the noble job. I wouldn’t deny that fact since I had experienced it’s hardship in order to give high quality of micro-teaching. It was also very hard to tackle students’ attention. It challenged me very much. Therefore, I come out with my solution to overcome this problem that I should to them one by one to get to know them better. Indirectly, it would create a positive impression about me on their eyes.

The End of Micro-teaching

I had finished my first microteaching this evening. I was so grateful because everything went fine. Most of my students loved the clip very much. That clip was about a girl with her imaginary friends. At first, I was hesitated to use this clip due to its disturbing and terrifying images. But, my friends had convinced me that it would work well, and it was proven. After the session finished, our supervisor came out in front of the class and gave his constructive comments about my microteaching. Since he was a particular person, his comments were focusing on the teacher presence to the material chosen. I took all of his comments and I promise that I will improve during my second round of microteaching. However, I manage to come out with few things that I think were my weaknesses.
i- My language was quite bad. I found that I identified few grammatical mistakes on my speech. It shouldn’t happen because it will corrode my credibility as a teacher. For the next second round, I should do more practice.
ii- Look for interaction between the teacher and students to make my lesson more interesting.
iii- Confidence, I found that I still lack of confidence. Eventhough I had practiced a night before, during the presentation time, my language seemed not right. I kept rambling my words. So, I should build my confidence for now because it will affect the flow of microteaching if I didn’t get rid from it.

Micro-teaching

Micro teaching is different than usual presentation in terms of preparation, materials and presentation. Before I start my first micro teaching, I would like to state here three elements of micro teaching that become guidelines for me.

Preparation:
Unlike the ordinary presentation, micro teaching needs details preparation. Before I start my first microteaching, I need to undergo few processes. Firstly, I must select the topic that I want to present. Like me, I have chosen “The Ring by Vincent Jeremiah Edwin to become of my subject of teaching. Then, for pre-reading and while reading, I have selected the topic of character and personality traits that I found very interesting and easier for my students to understand. I have imagined how my teaching would be, so that, I will make use that framework when I’m teaching soon.

Materials:
Materials are one aspect that every teacher should consider. Visual is important to grasp student’s attention to join the teaching process. Materials are also included the worksheets and visual information. For set induction, I have downloaded a clip from You Tube that fit with the play “The Ring”. Besides that, I have prepared few worksheets to be used during pre-reading and while reading activities. I have organized my worksheets very well in terms of difficulty of students. For pre-reading, it is much easier than for while reading is more to content-based that requires students to think to get the correct answers.

Presentation:
During this stage, personality and your language are important. Language is very important to convey your teaching to your language. I will use short and simple instruction since I have imagines that I’m teaching lower intermediate students. Hence, I would not use meta language to avoid students from confuse. Personality is something natural. It can be developed by experience and learning. Meanwhile, personality is vital to gain student’s attention and then bring positive climate to the classroom.

Meeting up Kee Thuan Chye, LIVE!

We were very lucky because we had the opportunity to have a session with Kee Thuan Chye. He is well known for his splendid masterpiece that brought him to one of most important figure in Malaysian literature. Besides that, he is one of the most prominent writers in Malaysia and his writing is very spectacular because he always touches on the issue that related to this country especially the history and the foolishness of political institutions with the outlaw power. He is a knowledgeable man because he knows everything that happened in this country whether in the past or the present. He is very outstanding person not only from his work but in the way he contrives his work creatively and he was very down to earth still, very humorous. He has outstanding personality, when he commented the politic issues and we have been discussed it too. Kee Thuan Chye taught me to be an expressive teacher. He was able to convey his speech in well deliberated manner. I was amazed with his credibility to speak in front of public without hesitation and all of his words were convincingly uttered. i was very surprise when he told us that some of his plays were not given a permit to be staged due to the provocative content that might create chaos and racial sentiment. On the other side of coin, I think his writing was victimized by our happy censorship which claimed themselves as a patriotic and democratic people. They were scared that Kee Thuan Chye and other writer’s work might be political agent to go against the ruler. At the end of the session, he read one of the articles from his book entitled March 8, The Day Malaysia Woke Up which inspired me very much.

Elizabeth/Macbeth

Last week, we had a few movie sessions and the first movie was Elizabeth at the Golden Age which I found very interesting movie to be watched. This story was focusing on Elizabeth’s strength of mind to uphold the peace on her kingdom. She was a very highly spiritual person when she motivated her soldier before they turned up at the battlefield. The storyline was quite good since the movie showed the internal conflict of hers when Elizabeth had been caught between her love with her own admiral and her responsibility as a Queen of England to protect her country from Spain. Eventhough this movie have made use some of CGI which I found it appeared unconvincingly, that would be fine anyway.

Then, other movie that we watched is Macbeth. This movie was quite exciting and I noticed that it helps you to understand better after you read the novel. Besides, Roman Polanski still kept the original storyline but there are some new improvisations that he included to make it more interesting and very real. In my opinion, it was a good movie as it was talking about few issues that regard to our political situation this day.

While we have studied this play, we could understand more about the scenes and the story plot in the text. On the other hand, this movie can be used for teaching aids in order to attract students’ attention also provide them with suitable material. Hence, the lessons will be more magnetize.

The Fall of Oedipus

As we had learned the important parts in Oedipus Rex which is about the changes of Oedipus’ characteristics from a foreboding king to ignorant and ruthless Thebes King.
Indeed, Oedipus’s character is getting darker and darker. We can see from the extracts such as;
“He has brought this decrepit fortune teller, this collector of dirty pennies, this prophet fraud – Why, he is no more clairvoyant than I am!...”
It shows his pride and arrogance towards Tiresias and patronizes Tiresias because of his blindness.
“ What good were they? Or the gods, for the matter of that?...”: shows that he challenges God.
“That is why I call you a bad friend...”: shows he suspects that Creon is going to take over the throne from him.

From this story, we have to learn several dramatic irony(s) quotations that I found very fascinating and effectively used. The used of dramatic irony is very significant consecutively to allow the audience distinguish the contradiction of each character’s life. Again, the main character remains using dramatic irony dialogue but in the end it does not truly appear. Actually, this character itself suffers since the contradictions which occur in his life. For example, Oedipus says “There is no fairer duty. Than that of helping others in distress”. However, this is very ironic because due to his intention to help others, he will hurt himself in the future as his secret will notify the truth.

The Legendary Tiresias

The story of Oedipus Rex is famous Roman tragedies. It is about a king of Thebes upon whom a hereditary cursed is placed and who therefore has to suffer the tragic consequences of his own fate. While I was reading, there is one character Tiresias that I found interesting and mysterious: Tiresias. He was the first character in the play to question Oedipus’s assumption that he knows his parentage and to tell him that he has committed atrocities which he does not yet know are his own. Was he a real human?

Tiresias in greek mythology is known as blind prophet of Thebes. He could transform into a beautiful woman for seven years. Also, he was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo means a mythological spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden. It is difficult to find relationship between Tiresias and other characters and Tiresias’s background from male then fully female as important as for his experiences and prophecy. In the early part of the story, Oedipus questions Tiresias, the soothsayer, who at first refuses to speak. Angered at this silence, Oedipus accuses him of being the murderer himself. Tiresias speaks at last, stating that the murderer of the king is a king. Terrified, Oedipus then accuses Tiresias of being in league with Creon, who he believes covets the throne.

One step at a time

In Malaysia, we have various kinds of cultures, including one of the most important backgrounds that is the form of dancing. This is because in every culture they would have more than one signature dance that represents their community and ways of life. This is what I like about Malaysia, the norms, values, customs and traditions shown vividly in each of the dance. Such grace and authentic art is beautifully carved inside the body movement. There are several kinds of dance in Malaysia according to the culture. For example, in Chinese culture, they have The Peacock dance and The Lion dance. Meanwhile, in Indian culture, they have The Classical dance and Ponggal dance. Through dancing they can actually express their own emotion and at the same time uphold their roots. Besides that, the dance can be learned by others. There are classes being set up for these purposes so that the citizens get to know better about other culture. Somehow, youngsters nowadays are more into modern dance like street dance, break dance, shuffle and etc. In my point of view, dancing is something that is widely recognized and every dance has its own identity that is so wonderful as well as entertaining. For me it is a good way to express your mind and soul through your body movement. It’s so cool, don’t you think?

theatre signifies entertainment

New semester is killing me. This semester is packed with classes and some start at 8 a.m. and ends at 8 p.m. It is really worn out my mind. This semester, once again Dr. Edwin Malachi is teaching the class on Teaching the Language of Drama. I don’t really know what is going to be taught but hopefully no dramatization.

Theatre is a tool of nationalism. History shows that theatre is one musical tradition that combines acting, custom, dance and singing. In fact, it was staged at special venue called opera. Until now, theatre is staged for musical appreciation instead of information and entertainment only. In Europe, theatre is highly appreciated rather than in Malaysia. Theatre is less appreciated in Malaysia due to less approach and also less exposure. Besides that, only certain people who have sharp creativity to understand every scenes and motion on stage are willing to pay to watch it. For instance, in Italy theatre is used to instill patriotism, however, in Asia television and cinema are still widely seen as main entertainment.

In my opinion, theatre can be a platform to share our nationalism voice with others. If one stage play is staged creatively, it will give big impact in voicing nationalism spirit. Even though it was introduced long time ago, this art performance is still green in my showbiz industry. I hope our teenagers will be exposed to theatre art as well as retain it’s survival in this country. What a dream huh?! Well I really do hope that it would be a reality and really hope that I would be one of the people that produce this stage play and expose it to public capturing the eyes of every age.