The end of my blog

Why did I blog in the first place. Being a virgin to blog, I hate the fact that I had to write about what I learnt in class and tutorial of EDU 3217.. But because of my lovely lecturer had asked us to do so, I guess there’s no other way I can dodge the bullet of this one..

But it turns out that blogging was quite fun as I managed to voice out what I think about the play I’ve learnt at class without any direct judgmental comments. Therefore I am able to think about the lesson more critically..My reflective skill about the play I’ve learnt also improved a lot.. Therefore I am able to criticize about the lesson in class and tutorials.

Other than that, I can ruminate on the simulated teaching that I’ve done. What I did on my teaching and what I think need to be improved..

And with my friends comments, I now understand that my friends have some important things that they want to express but did not do so in class.

And learning in this course of EDU 3217 has made me realize that play is an interesting subject to learn. And my earlier perspective about play and theatre has been altered as to me play is not that hard. I have learnt to love and appreciate a piece of play and for it to be performed made a play to be more beautiful.

Meeting a playwright and trying to be one is also a fascinating things that I managed to do while I learnt in the course.. Watch a play was very exciting as it has open myself to a play that is modern and minimal.. Hope me and my course mates will be able to watch another play in a different time together again..

And to my lecturer that will be retiring soon, HAPPY RETIREMENT will await you..Miss Kasthoori, thanks for your open and sporting attitude in guiding us not only in the world of play but also in our journey of becoming a teacher. You had given so many valuable tips to us and we appreciate it a lot. Maybe blogging will be an interesting hobby to do in near future..heheheBYE EDU 3217..HOPING FOR GOOD GRADE!!!!

What did I get from EDU 3217....

Well, if I answer that I gain nothing, that is a big fat LIE......I have learn plenty of things I need to know about drama and play in this class. The most precious thing is that I manage to read 4 different play that are well-chosen by our lovely lecturer (name concealed for several reasons..hehe). Though I find it hard at first to read and finish 'King Lear' as the classic language are quite confusing but I made it...I finish it and L.O.V.E it...But the most favorable is 'A Streetcar Named Desire' as the issues are very interesting. Women are portrayed as weak but as a critical reader to me, the play is criticizing about a woman should not become weak anymore.

One thing for sure that I can adopt in school later is how to teach drama. How a student can be attracted to a play. This is because seeing my friend doing simulated teaching I manage to pick some important tips in teaching.

But the biggest questions that I have is how I can understand a play on my own. What should I do to understand a difficult play like 'Oedipus' and 'King Lear'? It turns out I first should discuss with my friends about it then act out the play. Reading the summary is not necessary as discussions can provide varieties of thoughts about the play instead of a fixed summary about the play that we got from reading a summary.

Well again, it has been hell of a good time learning EDU 3217 as it talks about tragedy, humor, cynical, and women needs.

Desire...You are what people Hate to Love...

A streetcar Named Desire. Almost less than a week to sit for final exam, we rush to finish the play. In just one sitting we discuss the play and the key essence in it. The play is quite interesting but I am so annoyed that the women in the play are dependent to men a lot. At first I thought that women shouldn’t be that stupid and can be independent. But to think further, that is the reality in life. Most women no matter whether they are low educated or PhD graduates, if the men in their life is dominant they will tend to soften out when the men offers something of their delights. Hate it or not I can’t deny that fact.

And regarding to the sexual satisfaction that Stella got from Stanley is quite common although it is not so appealing to us as women. Women need love and sex and if the men are able to provide the best for them, they just can’t resist that. Well whatever it is that the play is trying to convey, I like it a lot. And answering the final exam on this play is a MUST wait as I really like the play compared to the long and classic ‘Oedipus’ and ‘King Lear’.

Meet him...The one and only...

When my lecturer said that Mr Kee Thuan Chye is coming to UPM I immediately google his name to find out more about him. When I saw his pictures I said to myself, he is sooo familiar. He is one of Phua Chu Kang series’ actors. I am actually meeting a star.

When he actually came, he lives up to my expectation of him as his talk is as sharp as his work, The Swordfish Then The Concubine. I am impressed!!! Earlier of his speech, he talks about his journey of his life, as aboy from Penang that loves to read a lot. Then he develops his writing skill and manages to write a few stories of his own interests. He furthers his studies in USM in journalism but he hates it so much as he is smitten with the world of play in his study life. He stages many play and spend lots of time acting(that cause him not to have girlfriends, hehe). But now while writing many works of literature at the same time of working as actor, journalist and editor.

Meeting him, I know what to expect based on his writing of The Swordfish Then The Concubine and his other saucy works. Well he talks so sharply and we all listen oh so attentively. He talks about politics and history from his own view. We can say that he is able to persuade some of the people in the class, but to me, he has his own view and we don’t have to agree on him. As he said, history is not necessarily be true as we do not know the proof for it. And the current politic situation in Malaysia to him is rubbish. And he only believes what he wants to believe. He also encourages us students to become more free to talk about what we feel. So, the most importance essence of his talk that stand out to me is not about politics but about being gutsy and audacious in telling what we feel.

Mockery....

This play is hilarious. I can’t stop thinking that the play so closely resembles the previous years of happenings in Malaysia. As a Malay, I have read the “History of Malay” book entitle ‘Sulalatus Salatin’ and when I read the title of the play, I thought it is an adaptation from that book.(so naïve of me…) It turns out it is NOT…

In reading the play, I sometimes laugh my *** out that it is funny how Kee describes Iskandar the boorish king. He speaks like he does not care for anything and treat everything lightly. Awang is the character that is close to my heart as it resembles somebody I admire, then it means that I am LAME huh??So what man!!!!hahaha

The directions of the play is actually very clear as it only want to criticize what is happening in Malaysia. To me it is a healthy critics but I am afraid that some people might be offended as it is a bit harsh. But luckily we TESLIAN learn it instead other close minded students. (since when that I became this loutish person?)

King Lear

Being a king is not necessarily will guarantee a blissful life till the end of your life. Why did I say this ? Because I take King Lear as an example, just because one mistake that he did he suffered at the end of his life. He dares to divide his kingdom to his children and as ahuman being, of course the daughters became greedy. Ignoring him and letting him go senile, the daughters had done their best to push their father away.
However, I do believe in the play, the daughters, Goneril, and Regan had their fair share when they died in the end. This shows that only bad things will happen to us if we did bad things to others.
AND IN THE END I FINISHED ANOTHER PLAY WITH MY BELOVED LECTURER!!YAHOO.....

What would I Change???

I will not change anything about me.....(wow, so cocky)...To tell you the truth when I think about my simulated teaching, of course deep inside me I want to change few things so that my teaching would be much better.

The most regret is that I did not prepare earlier (the notice wasss short,NOT SUPPOSE TO BE THE REASON THOUGH).. Eventhough I was quite satisfied with the exercises that I prepared, my set induction was not interesting enough..I did not manage my set induction as I took it lightly..The activity was common but if only I add some more pictures and give more explanation, the set induction would be better..
Another thing is that my voice was not firm enough, maybe I am nervous..I noticed that I kept smiling and at that moment of teaching subconsciously I told myself to stop smiling..That was another minor things that I wanted to change..

But honestly, I don't think I want to do simulated teaching over again..Because the mistakes that I made that day would help me in the future..Like Miss Kasthoori said, don’t get offended with the comments that she gave as we are still learning..Mistakes will help me get through my quest in learning how to teach.

Thank you Miss Kasthoori with all the comments you gave me as it makes sense to me and I can apply it later on my next simulated teaching…( TEACHING THE LANGUAGE OF POETRY)..

I am not perfect....

First thing first...I am so relieve that I finish the simulated teaching on February 27th...I am the first person and I am so scared that I put the bar too low...well, it is FATED...Hahahaha

Am I good?Well, if you know me, you would know the answer.But to me, my exercises is quite good as I think from set induction to exercise 3, I manage to relate them together.It has progression in term of students move from just identifying characteristic of a king, identifiying Oedipus's characterisctics and deciding whether Oedipus own good or bad king characteristics.Furthermore, I think my language use is improving from time to time although there are still minor grammar mistakes.

But to tell you the truth I have to admit that my teaching has some flaw..

First my voice: maybe too soft and Miss Kasthoori said my students would be bullying me if I don't improve.(but I'm too big to be bullied). then my reading rating. i thought that my rate was slow enough for the students to write what I said, but turns out..WRONG..

Miss also said I am lack of mobility, because i did not move around the class.Well, it's true. Moreover, I also did not read aloud the instruction so that the students can understand the exercises. But what I did was just rephrase the instructions so that the students understand what I expect them to do. And lastly, i FORGOT to check for students' understanding at the end of the lesson.

Wow if you notice my flaws exceed my strength in teaching...Well like I said, I'm not perfect...

Great Teacher Rahimah...

Don't get fooled by the title of this post ya...It's untrue I think...
Okay first I want to share my experience in teaching 'Oedipus The King'. I decided after 3 days notice that I want to teach the characteristic of a king and Oedipus to my class mates. I think that is the easiest and most interesting thing to be taught to students. I prepared 2 simple exercises and 1 homework for my classmates that I will call my students. (like they will do the homework).

My set induction is about how well my students can describe the characteristics of king. How they can identify a good or a bad king. in exercise 1, I let the students to fill in the blank while I read the text. This way, students should be able to understand the exttracts that I gave. Their ability and understanding of the extract then will help them to identify characteristic of Oedipus in exercise 2. So, they will find it easier to do the exercises.

On exercise 3, I gave them a task of deciding whether Oedipus is a bad king or not based on their knowledge of Oedipus characteristics and the characteristic of a good and bad king. I also asked them to do the short essay about their opinion on how Oedipus can be described as a good king or not.

But to tell you the truth I have never experienced the kind of lesson in school because my teacher had never done this 3 stages of teaching. they usually just taught the lesson by just giving the notes or asked us to copy the notes given. hardly they explain further about the lesson and set induction is rarely done. But I will try my best to change this way of teaching and apply the methods i learnt in my class.

Hush....It's a Secret...

When my ‘Kokurikulum Berkredit’ instructor told us that we will be going to watch a play on 7th March, I was absolutely happy as I will be able to fulfill two tasks, for my ‘KOKO’ and for ‘DRAMA’ class. A few days later, my lovely most sweetest course mates inform that they will be going to watch a play also on either 7th or 8th March. It turns out we will be watching the same play at KLPAC.

Arriving at KLPAC, the 1st thing I notice is a question “Are You A KLPAC Virgin”. I’m happy to tell the world I’m now no longer a ‘virgin’ to KLPAC.hehehe

Okay back to the theatre itself. Hurm….where do I start?? The play involve only two character, Hamlet and Ophelia. O wait..I forgot to mention the play “2SOMES: The Secret Love Life of Ophelia”. Again, the two characters act in a setting so simple and minimal that we have to use our imagination to interpret what they are doing. The dialogues are so beautiful, enchanting and soothing for us to listen. Sometimes I got lost in between the dialogues as the was so captivating, the words are so beautifully organized.

Secret lovers, Ophelia and Hamlet did all their best to keep it a secret as major problems occur once their feelings become known to others. Oh how grueling it is for them to maintain their relationship only over phones, letters and mails. They confess only with words and have to imagine how they can profess their love. Imagine love making over the phone…(if you know what I mean)…
Well the play was worth to watch as the actors have played their role beautifully…

Oh Hamlet thy voice are so manly I fall in love with you…
Oh my sweetest the most dearest Ophelia, you are as beautiful as the sun shining…

Another Movie...

Movie "Hamlet"...
Synopsis:
It is about Hamlet, King of Denmark who seeks for his father's muderer. He actually found out that the murder was done by his uncle. He then tries to seek revenge and reveal that the murderer is Clausdius but everyone thinks he is crazy. Claudius also tries to kill Hamlet after knowing that hamlet has found out the truth but at first he fails. in the end Hamlet died because Claudius stabs him with a sword, however Hamlet stabs Claudius with the same sword that cause him death. so, everyone died in the end of the play....(Wait..wait..Should I be giving this info?i don't think so right.)
well, the movie is actually about how a man seeks revenge for his father's murder. If it rings any bell, Oedipus also wants to seek revenge for Laios death although he was unaware that the fact is Laios is his father. so, for me sometimes it is easier if you just let things go instead of insisting of finding the truth. Because at times truth can hurt you more.

Blind is not an option..Maybe It Is???

Have you ever imagine yourself being blind? Is it really bad like what we as sight people perceive it to be? Of course we will not wish for blindness if we are born with vision. But does being blind is the worst case to happen to us.

Let me tell you about a person called Teiresias, a blind man with knowledge. He is one of the Greek prophet that was blinded by Athena because he saw her bathing. However, she cleans his ears, giving him the gift of augury. Later, he was also turn into a woman for hitting a pair of copulating snakes. For seven years, ‘he’ lived a woman live. But after some occasion ‘he’ regain his masculinity.

In the play “Oedipus The King” he appears as a blind prophet yet able to see the future. In contrast a man with vision, Oedipus is unable to know about himself.So, here, I think being a physically blind person is not the worse things to happen as being blind to reality. Sometimes a normal sight person can be ‘blinder’ as we cannot see the reality because we only look everything on the surface level only

You are so wretched Oedipus....

What can you say about fate.. sometimes if we face bad experience in our life, we say that it is fated. Can’t we just dodge the bad omens that happen to us? Is fate fixed? Then, what’s the point of making an effort if it is already fated that you will turn to be some way?

Case in point: Oedipus… A prophet said he is fated to kill his own father and bed his mama. He tried to escape from it but unfortunately whatever he did brings him back the fate he is meant for. Here, to me is so tragic that it brings me down a little. It makes me questioned myself, that if I work so hard but in the end what if I fail to achieve what I want because of the fate that does not allow me to be so.

Furthermore, what if one day my students tell me, “Teacher, I don’t want to study, the result I am going to get is already fated early on.” On that time, what should I say? This puzzle me a lot as I can't understand the real meaning of fate and unable to explain it. Maybe I should ask more to my lecture and other intelects so that the answer is known to me. This is because as a youngster, it is hard for me to think deeply on my own.

Elizabeth The Golden Age

Waking up early in the morning on Tuesday this semester is something I thought I would never do. But then for Drama class, EVERYTHING I would do...:-) (suck up)

Watching the Elizabeth film makes me wonder what is the relationship of this story with what I'm learning..ANd till now, I cannot find the relativism of the story with the drama that I'm learning currently..

Well, maybe the power and courage that these both people have.

But after few discussion about the movie, i think there are some connection to play Oedipus.

Even though the play is mostly about the life of Elizabeth as a Queen of England, it also shows the difficulties she faced while she had the throne. First her cousin wants to take her throne, then there comes Spain wanting to take England from her and the most personal problems is regarding to a man that she kind of fall in love with. Most of the challenges she manages to overcome but when it comes to love, she cannot control it.

The storyline came to me very similar with Oedipus storyline, such as Elizabeth is ignorant of the fact that Spain is planning to overtake England and also the fact that her own cousin is planning for her own assassination. Just like Oedipus is ignorant on his own life. In addition, the movies instill the element of prophecies which I believe is necessary in epic Kingship..

Scriptwriter

Have you ever heard of Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare or Lloyd Fernando?
They are just some of famous playwrights exist in drama world.
What about Rahimah, Siti Asiah and Siti Aminah? Have you ever heard of these three playwrights? Maybe not YET.hahahaha. Maybe NEVER.
These people are just trying to make a script for one act play for their drama class.
Let me tell you their journey in making their first draft of the script. Well, first they had made up their mind that they wanted to make a horror story. But as they tried, they failed. Why? Easy, they are not well prepared to instill the horror in the script. Trying to figure out the storyline at first lead them to writers’ block where they are stuck in finding the right conflict for the characters. Especially in finding the appropriate conflict for form 4 students to understand. Then come the length of the dialogue. For just 15 minutes play, how long can a character talk at a time. The fair divide of time among the characters had to be think through so all the characters had to be equally important. And in order to increase the suspense and decrease the lameness of the characters again, these three ‘playwright’ to be face enormous problems. But as they finished making the script they felt that the script is acceptable to be sent as the first draft.

FYI: the three ‘playwright’ to be are - me and my friends completing the first assignment…

Class and Tutorial…

Am I ready to learn??
Apparently not… Why? No idea…
The first class learning the history of drama is ok… A little bit sleepy.. We are learning history, that’s why…Not because the lecturer is boring…
And then come tutorial, the very first time with Miss Kastoori. Don’t know what to expect. And it turns out the class is FUN…. Acting was the first task she gave us to do. It was just a short play and with so many heads in our class, from just 1 play the act was interpreted in several different ways. Some acted as if the characters are lovers, friends and for my group as strangers. All that to prove that a script need to be act out to understand the meaning.
Second tutorial, and we did acting again. Now 3 different plays. Being read the plays beforehand we had set our mind of which play we like and which we hate. But when the plays were acted out by my fellow friends, the change of mind overcome us. Again the fact that a play need to be act out is highlighted as a play differs before and after acting it out.
Thus what I can say is that maybe once I become a teacher one day I would using the method of acting to teach my students. This is to ensure that the students can understand a play that needs to be performed. Not only the students will understand the lesson further but also add some fun in learning.

Theatre or Cinema?

Both to fulfill your entertainment lust… Present play or film that have actors playing roles. Pretty much the same in its content. Which one is my choice?

Definitely cinema…I’m a normal typical Malaysian teenager that adores cinema. A get together with new and old friends are always at cinema. Why, you ask? Simple… A cinema with all the pre-recorded and pre-edited materials shown enables me to watch the film easily. And with the condition in cinema itself where the little etiquette needed like no noise and no recording are easy to be followed. Besides that the cost of going to cinema is low especially to students. All range of people from veterans, youngsters or even the rich or poor can enjoy the film in cinema.

In contrast, a theatre to me sound a little extravagant as to me a theatre is very exclusive. Its exclusiveness I am talking about is in term of the protocol needed in order to watch and enjoys the play and the setting of theatre itself where it is big and beautiful. Almost all the audience are very powerful people, some really enjoying it and some just for social acceptance in the upper-class society. So that’s why theatre is just not my type YET. But I have to admit that now there are some theatre that are welcoming to all type of people here in Malaysia. Maybe someday I will be enjoying theatre..

Drama

Drama is not my Forte...Hey, being judgemental will not help me in drama class ok.
Well, the world of drama is so not close with my heart unless you consider 'drama' in television IS the drama I'll be learning. But, we are talking drama as in 'play' or 'theatre'. But having the first lesson about drama in class, I learnt a tiny bit about drama. The origin , history and development of drama became known to me. I found out about the evolution of drama's theme from tragedy, comic, religion to humanity. And truly, it had attracted me a LOT(sarcastically).
Whatever it is, the main thing that I am looking forward to watch theatre LIVE. hehe