Doubts after simulated teaching on applying them in real life situation.

There is an unanswered question that I asked myself after my recent simulated teaching. Can the simulated teaching that I’ve went through recently be used in real life situation? This question aroused due to my realization of my course mate’s proficiency level. There is no question in my mind that my future students will not share the same language proficiency as them. Therefore, will they be able to absorb the type of activity that I have prepared. Teaching the “Smart classes” would not pose much of a problem. However students in the weaker classes are my main concern. Would they be able to understand the level of language of the text itself, let alone the questions that they need to answer from my activities. Literature components are never easy. From my own experience, I too have suffered difficulties during my school days. I guess that this simulated teaching of mine has somehow made me understand the difficulties of becoming a teacher and the commitments that comes with it. However, it has not dented my interest and determination to become a teacher. I need input from other though to solve this problem of mine. During this upcoming semester break, I shall pay my teachers (I will never call them ex teachers) a visit and ask for their input. I am confident their vast experience in teaching can help me.

My strengths in simulated teaching.

It is important to know one’s own strength in order to fully utilize it to become better teachers. One of my strengths is self confidence. I don’t have jitters or doubts when I do my simulated teaching. This is because I know what I am about to teach and how to make it flow fluently. Besides that, I can really project my voice. My voice is loud and clear enough for my students. In my opinion, it is important for the students to hear and understand the teacher in order to learn whatever that is going to be taught by the teacher. I have no worries on how to maintain the volume of my voice, however I am more worried on how to retain my confidence in teaching. In order to do that, I have to do more reading and of course, learn to be more creative. Second, simulated teaching is done in front of my course mates. Therefore it is easy in terms of not going into panic as we are already familiar with each other. It will be a different story when I face forty students who are new to me in my not so distant future. So, I guess the only way is to retain the self confidence is to really know my stuff by reading more. And that’s exactly what I’ll do.

My version of simulated teaching VS How I was taught at school.

First and foremost, this post is not to downgrade or criticize my learning experience when I was in school. I appreciate every single knowledge and effort my teachers gave me. I’m where I am today because of them. Just want to make some comparison here. The difference of what I’ve learnt in University, in terms of how a teacher should teach and what I’ve experienced from class during my school days is entirely different. My simulated teaching consist of 4 steps. Set induction, which is to stimulate the students brains and let them know about what we are to study for the day. Second is the pre-reading stage which initiated the day’s study process by reading the text and asks students to highlight significant words and lines. Third is the while reading stage which explains the need of the previous activity. Most of time, it is for students to know why are the phrases highlighted and for what reason. By this stage, students should already understand whatever that is taught for that session. The final stage is the post reading stage. This stage requires students to write out an essay or complete activities to ensure they understand what is taught. During my school days, the teaching of literature components is different. The teacher will spoon feed the students with all the information. The target is for students to be able to answer examination question by merely memorizing and not understanding it. The reason is because there is really insufficient time to teach and ensure the comprehension of students for literary components as literary components aren’t the only syllabus that the teacher needs to complete. Second, the level of English proficiency of the class isn’t high enough. There are only a handful of students that could cope with literature. Therefore, it is difficult to apply the version of set induction I’ve learnt ( and what my teachers have learnt) in classes. Therefore, it leads to the question if the simulated teaching that we all learn as future teachers in University could be applied 100% when we are teachers one day. Time will tell.

Simulated Teaching

Simulated Teaching.

I’ve done my simulated teaching a couple of days ago. For my simulated teaching, I did teaching of theme for Oedipus Rex. The theme I’ve attempted to teach is “The Reversal of Fortune”. I started my lesson with showing the class two images. One is a picture of a rich man and the other of a beggar. I used the current economic regression to relate it to the class on how reversal of fortune plays its role on the rich man reversal of fortune.(From a rich man into a beggar)
I proceed by using two extract from the play. One extract is from scene 1 when Oedipus is a king and the other one exodus when Oedipus is nobody. Before I started reading the text, I gave instruction to my students, which is to highlight the phrases that explains Oedipus’s character. Next I ask them to determine whether those phrases are positively or negatively connotated. After that, I relate the connotation to how Oedipus have fall from grace. That is more or less what I’ve done for my simulated teaching. It’s a very constructive experience as it gave me a glimpse on what my future teaching life would be like. None the less, it is also good practice in terms of improving my presentation skills.

Pros and Cons of watching plays.

An approach is used by my lecturer to teach drama. We were asked to watch plays that we are currently studying. It was fun to watch it. As I am part of a generation that will always prefer watching movies than to read the book itself. This posting is to share my opinion on the pros and cons of this approach.
Pros:
Students can absorb certain information at a faster rate by watching a play. They have a clearer picture on the setting, tone, plot and characteristics of the characters. This is because those aspects listed are quite difficult to be captured by students who are new to reading scripts of play, especially the tone of the dialogues.Watching plays is also a great way for students who possesses slow reading skills. By using the play watching method, students could more or less understand the play. This will make their life so much easier when reading the script of that particular play.

Cons:
The disadvantage of the play is that it offer little opportunity for students to analyze the play by just watching it alone. The problem will arise when students need to analyze the play in terms of choices of words used. This is due to plays being ephemeral. Once the part of a play is over, students can't just rewind and check out what is missed. Furthermore, the accent of the actors would make it hard for students of not so high proficiency to make sense of what the actor have said.

One way to counter the disadvantages of this movie watching session is to bring along the script and reading it while watching the movie. This will allow student to overcome the accent barrier and also being able to highlight the important parts in their respective book for future analysis and revisions.
For me, the advantages of this approach outweigh its disadvantages. In the end, it is up to the students to fully utilize both the movie and the book to gain the most from the movie watching session.

Tiresias.A little information bout him.

Tiresias, the blind prophet is my favourite character in the play Oedipus Rex. This is due to his ability to accurately prophesize and his importance in the play (Referring to his dialogue with Oedipus). He is the one who foreshadowed Oedipus’s downfall. Therefore, in my opinion, he is the catalyst of the turning point in the plot of Oedipus Rex.
I have found out a few interesting stuff from the net bout Tiresias.
Tiresias is the son of a shepherd name Everes and the nymph Chariclo. Tiresias does not only appear in the play Oedipus Rex. He also made appearance in a number of other Greek plays, namely Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides and Homer’s The Odyssey. There are a few theories on his blinding and his power of foresight. The first is the blinding by Athena. It was an incident where he stumbled into her bathing naked. Since she could not undo her actions despite pleas by Tiresias’s mom, Athena granted Tiresias the gift of Augury. The second one is he was dragged into an argument between Zeus and Hera. The argument is about which sex would enjoy more pleasure in sex. He was asked to answer this as he had both the sexual experiences of man and woman during his seven year stint as a woman ( a curse by Hera). He answers revealed woman’s greatest secret which is "Of ten parts a man enjoys one only." Hera immediately struck Tiresias blind. (Hmmm.. women are overwhelmed by emotions since the time of Hera :-P) Zeus, unable to do anything to prevent it, granted Tiresias the power of foresight and a lifespan of seven lives. Besides this, it is interesting to state that Tiresias's background, fully male and then fully female, was important, both for his prophecy and his experiences. (Quote from Wikipedia) Also, prophecy was a gift given only to the priests and priestesses. It is also said that his prophecy was always enigmatic but never wrong. This is proven in his prophecy in Oedipus Rex regarding Oedipus’s fate and Homer’s Odyssey when his prophecy on the cattle of Helios came true and doomed all of Odysseus men.
Tiresias prophecy has been important in all the play he is involved in. This is due to his lines foreshadowing the storyline thus providing the audience/readers a sense of anticipation and wonder.
That’s all I have to write about Tiresias. I hope my readers enjoyed it. Personally I enjoyed writing it. In the near future I would spent my free time reading plays involving him and see how different is Tiresias in Oedipus and the other plays. Then I will write another blog regarding this matter. That’s some foreshadowing for you…

Drama made easier by the right approach.

Like always, my drama class is filled with fun. Not only have I obtain new knowledge from it every time, it also gave me numerous insights on how to study and revise drama texts. One aspect of my lecture that I would love to blog on is my lecturer’s way of interpreting the play. This is without a doubt the most important aspect of my drama lectures that can enable me to understand more about drama itself. Since reading play is a new experience for me, my lecturer has made it easier by using a simple and comprehensive approach to make us understand the play. For example, my coursemates and I were told that the prophecy of Tiresias in the Greek Tragedy “Oedipus Rex” is imperative to the theme and progress of the entire play. It does not only foreshadow Oedipus’s fate but also provide us insight on one of the plays major theme which is the passage from ignorance to knowledge. Besides looking at foreshadows, we also studied on viewing how to plot progresses. By knowing the plot structure of the play, it is easier to study it since we know the climax and the turning point of the entire play. This made my life easier in terms of knowing the theme and being familiar with the chronological events of the entire play. Furthermore, we were told on which excerpt to pay more attention to in order to achieve deeper understanding of the play. For example the proclamation by Oedipus regarding the punishment awaiting Laois’s killer is imperative to the resolution of the play.In the mean time, I have lots to learn. Hopefully, when it is time for me to teach arrives, I could implement these ways in order to make my future students understand literature. Yes, it will be a challenge.

The beginning of newfound knowledge in Theater class.

I am a TESL student of UPM and lately, I have been taught on what is Drama. So far in this course I have learnt a few interesting stuff about drama/theatre. First and foremost is how different drama is from the conventional cinema. Theatre is something ephemeral. Unlike cinema movies that one can watch anytime of the year. Once a play is over, its over. This is because of the fact that the audience can’t experience that unique feel ever again. I have also learnt about the history of theatre. For example, the beginning of Theatre with Greek Tragedy such as Oedipus Rex. From there, I also gain knowledge on the various experiences one will have while watching a play. The most interesting of experience is Catharsis where the audience will feel the play emotionally. I have experience Catharsis myself while reading Oedipus Rex and I have to say that this feeling is indeed unique. Of course, I have also learn how to analyze and “TRULY” understand plays as well. During my tutorial lessons we were ask to act short plays and given role playing activities as well. Through these, I more or less understand the effort of playwrights and actors (not being sexist here as male and female involve in a play are now known as actors, no more actors and actresses) they put in to produce their play. The lectures and tutorials so far have not only provide me with new knowledge, they also made me appreciate theatre a little bit more than before.