Apr 6, 2011

-Leaders+Skills-


     Adolf Hitler was once a prominent figure of German Nazi and the same goes to Winston Churchill; the former minister of England. Both of them did share common qualities when delivering their  speech. Firstly, both leaders managed to employ persuasive skills in their speech. They asserted their notion with full of confidence thus able to gain people's trust on what they were saying. Some words were repeated many times to address the importance of the message.
   Besides that, both leaders also gave a bad portrayal of their foes, in order to uplift the spirit of their people to fight for their rights. For instance, Hitler kept on lashing out the actual condition of England which he said socially the most backward country in the world. Likewise for Churchill, he urged his people to reconstitute and build up the British Expeditionary Force once again to fought German back. This bleak portrayal had blown the hatred towards their enemy thus they would struggle even more for the next war.

    In addition, both leaders also used the pronoun 'We' when addressing their people to show that they are a part of them in spite of the authority they held. For example, Churchill said '..we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home..' which sparked the sense of unity between he and his people as a whole. 


     However to an extent, both leaders seemed to be good at manipulating the facts to convince their countrymen that they were on the right track and not to be blamed for what had happened. For example Hitler in his speech stressed 'we are involved in a war which we did not want'. In reality, Hitler longed for the battle to chase away those who in his view would only bring harm to German.
     All in all, I would say that both speech were delivered with full of confidence. The skills they used are all important to get people to support them. Therefore, the features that have been discussed could be applied when we want to deliver a speech. Besides getting the message across, our speech will sound more convincing and well-prepared.

Let's Make a Lively Class>>>>>>> SiNG oUT LoUD:)

        This is another interesting activity we did during our tutorial. Before this we had gone through series of movies which were much related to our forthcoming career as a teacher. This time around,  Dr. Jaya enlightens us by introducing several songs which can be incorporated in our lesson. I feel excited to listen to various songs and go through their lyrics. Themes such as nature, love, hope, and humanity  are apparently relevant to be the material for our lesson in class.


Apr 4, 2011

Animal Farm

     This is another story i never heard before till i enter Dr. Jaya's class;Animal Farm. Credit to Dr. Jaya and his angels:) it takes me 3 days to finish up reading the text. at a first glance, i thought this story is similar with our childhood story which mostly light entertainment. however, in the end i found this story is full of underlying meaning besides the 'heavy' message  etched. heavy in the sense that it wasn't all about entertainment but more to that; it dwelled on the theme like socialism, how one tend to take advantage on other weaknesses, how the weaker one is easily manipulated by those who hold authority and so forth.
     Briefly, Animal Farm is about a group of animals which have been sheltered in Mr. Jones' farm. their leader; Old Major is going to die very soon thus all the aniumals throng together to listen to his last speech. Old Major asserts that all animals could have been living a much better life without the control of men. he blows the hatred in them towards men till they fought for their rights. After chasing Mr. Jones, a big pig named Napoleon appoints himself to be the leader in the new Animal Farm. He creates seven principles of Animalism which all animals are obliged to abide by  to show their deteste and rejection towards any man.  Another pig called Snowball helps Napoleon to manage their live. However at last, Napoleon accused him for having  bad intention thus he is chased away.
     towards the end of the story, something unexpected happens. it is Napoleon himself who is actually the tyranny. after the animals working hard to build a windmill as instructed by him, he secretly negotiates with the farmers and decides to sell the timber to Mr. Pikington. the pigs also continue the pattern of awarding themselves more and more privileges. at one time, when other animals peer through the window watching the humans and pigs play poker, they cannot distinguish between them.
     there's many lesson we can gain from this story. the obvious one is how one's noble attention could turn into devil when he or she hold a high position. as the followers, it's crucial for us not to follow the rules bluntly without thinking rationally. if this happened, surely we are easy to be fooled and deceived by our leaders.

Apr 3, 2011

-Monalisa Smile-

For this entry, let's share some bits and pieces of another  movie we watched in class; Monalisa Smile.
            The story basically tells about the journey of a teacher; Katherine Ann Watson (played by Julia Roberts) who grappled with challenges in teaching ‘History of Art’ at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, United States. She was graduated from UCLA School and later on left her boyfriend behind in Los Angeles to start her career. Upon entering the first day class, Watson was flabbergasted, finding her students had already known all syllabuses just at their finger tips. It was even surprised that  dates, facts and events were all seem digested in their brain. They quickly responded to the slides shown even without being asked to do so. It was as if they had flipped through each page of  textbooks and  not even a word they had missed out. This situation brought misery to Watson. Her confidence shattered a bit as she was taken aback by her fast-picked-up students. However to her relief, everything was back on track. She gradually learned the appropriate way to tackle her brilliant students.   
            From that moment onwards, Watson encountered various experiences in dealing with her students. she started to delve in their whims and fancies. Some were already got married, some were truly interested in law, and some more got a contradictory view on several things with Watson. Betty; one of her students could not understand why her teacher still did not get married and speculated an issue about her in school's bulletin. Watson hold firm with her belief that marriage was not everything in life.

          Despite rumours about her, Watson course was gradually became popular and there was large demand for places the next year so the college invites her to return. However, the President and Betty's mother impose conditions on Katherine that she must follow the syllabus, submit lesson plans for approval and not talk to the girls about anything other than classes. Katherine decides to leave and heads off explore Europe which all her students overcome with sadness of loosing her.
          Definitely dealing with students is not as easy as ABC and this movie has somehow made up my mind on the real world out there I ought to face when becoming a teacher.Many strategies and approaches should be tested on in order to suit our students' level of proficiency.

Feb 7, 2011

movie time!:) LEAN ON ME

        The second movie we watched in class today- Lean on Me:) To be frank, i bet 60% of the story is waxed with the loud voice of its major character; Joe Clark. Either he is arguing with people who work under him, his colleagues or the most obvious; his boisterous students. For the rest, read them below:



1. Entertainment value?
this movie didn't etch so much entertainment value compared to the first movie we watched; Akeelah and the Bee. i would rather say  this story was more serious since most of the casts looked stern.   i hardly saw they smile  for the first half of it. i am sure that the audience would struck in ear-bugging especially when listening to face-to-face bickering among them. Seriously i thought more than i laughed at first but thanks to the hilarious Eastside High School residents for the craziness that cheer me up!

2. Effect on you as B.Ed TESL student?
i learn that a teacher must be creative in her teaching approach. i love the part where the teacher (i forgot her name) modifies the school song in order to make students more interested in it. A good teacher must learn to tolerate, considers others' view instead of acting like an omniscient. As an English teacher to be, i'm aware that there'll be lot of challenges awaiting me ranging from working environment to students' whims and fancies.

3. Relate this story to teachers whom you know in the past?
i never had such a hot-tempered teacher during my schooling time as portrayed by Mr. Joe Clark. For me, he advocates great authority that no one could say 'no' to his decision. He did have noble intention though, which was subtly expressed. i never come across a teacher like him maybe because we were all well-behaved as opposed to students in the story:P

4. Practical/theoretical lesson you learned
i learned that there's many ways in dealing with our students. the one we use to student A may not be workable to student B because people are different. I guess if Mr. Joe Clark was posted in a school whose students are decent, he might not react so. It was the pressure; black people stigma, lagging education, the parents, drug dealing and so forth that fanned the flame.
i also realize that as teachers, we are dealing with humans who have feeling. therefore, being tolerant is vital in facing the hitch that gets in the way. :))

Feb 4, 2011

thoughtful of B.Ed TESL Cohort 5:)

hi there..penning my thought again:) this time, i would like to write about two previous sessions we have had before. well, it's all about THOUGHT!! we had to crack our brain, came up with a stand based on stories we were assigned to read. the most interesting part was definitely to justify our own stand. why did you say/think so?JENG3x....:))
1. the first question was 'Is the dowry system fairly treated in stories; A Question of Dowry and Everything's Arranged. we agreed to say 'NO' for this question as in both stories, dowry which was supposedly meant to be a gift from a bride to her bride groom turned out to be a burden for the brides' family. we came up with several reasons which we discussed earlier. we presented our points confidently even we were bombarded with some 'unwanted' questions..hehe:)
2. the second session is still the same but this time around we ought to create our own stand based on the two stories provided; A Great Injustice and The Merry Maid. we choose 'Society's Treatment Does Influence One's Decision'. i would say that we were more organized in presenting our points; substantiated with strong evidences.
      Anyway, listening to other groups' presentation really made up my mind as i found that a particular stand could be viewed or justified in many ways to strengthen it. plus, there's certain stands they presented we have thought of earlier on; but we didn't know how to put it in a proper sentence. Anyhow, i realize that confidence is really essential in order to lash out your stand and justification assertively.  In all, these two sessions have been really helpful for us to prepare for our first assignment; position paper. Thanks to all and good luck!

Jan 19, 2011

Akeela and the Bee

Akeelah and the Bee?frankly speaking, .i never heard of this movie before..the title itself seems interesting..Akeela and The Bee..BEE??what does that BEE connote to?the real insect-bee?or..hubby?or what?..hehe:)..here it goes..we finally watched it and it's pretty cool. so, let's spent some time to read my reflection below:

Jan 14, 2011

Tutorial 1- My Favourite Childhood Story

                In today’s lesson, I was assigned to select a story that I love most during my childhood time. I choose The Fox and The Grapes by Aesop.
1.       The reason/s you choose the story
I decide on choosing this story because it reminds me of my father. He is the one who introduces this story to me. Once, I did not get the thing I really wanted and felt so stressed. Then he said to me ‘Never mind Midah, that’s just sour grape. Look for another thing..’ It triggers me to ask him what that ‘Sour Grape’ means. Then he told me about this story.
I found it is relevant to our daily lives. Day by day, live becomes more competitive. We cannot guarantee that everything we long for will eventually be ours. Therefore, despite feeling angry and depressed, we ought to handle our feeling over the failure.
2.       What element(s) in the story that make you think that the story is interesting
I think sense of suspense is the obvious element that makes the story pretty interesting. The fox jumped thrice and in each trial, he jumped even higher than the previous. Yet still, he could not reach the bunch of grapes. When I was first told the story, I guessed that probably the third jump would succeed but it turned otherwise. This aroused my curiosity to see what happened next; either the fox kept on jumping, think of another way and so on.
3.       The portrayal of characters in the story
The only main character in the story is definitely the fox. He is seen as a determined character at first, as he really works hard for the bunch of grapes. However in the end, the fox gives up and in order to cover up his grief, he claims that they are just sour grape; not as ripening and tempting as what he thought at first. Moreover, I also see his strength from the way he console his feeling over her failure. Despite his famished tummy, he is strength enough to be optimist that the grapes are not meant for him by claiming as such. I can imagine his facial expression when he said ‘they are just sour grapes’; like he couldn’t care less about the grape while deep inside his heart, he does not want anything but the grape!
4.       The plot of the story
The plot of the story is simple and easy to understand. The climax is when the fox jumped thrice as higher as he could to reach the grapes. The resolution is not a happy ending like most of children stories and this makes it unique.
5.       The suitability of the story as children story
I personally think that this story is suitable for children. At such young age, they always act capriciously when they do not get what they really want. Thus, this story teaches them to handle their emotion and accept the fate. However, it is crucial to try their best first.If you still can't get it, maybe it's not meant to be yours and just leave it to God.:)

Story Review-The Gruffalo


               This is another children story book that captured my interest. The main character centred on a mouse who acted wittily to save himself from being his enemies’ feast. He played a trick on a fox, an owl and a snake by telling that he was planning to dine with gruffalo whose favourite food happened to be those animals. He even described how the gruffalo looked like as they never heard about it. They dashed without any further ; feared of the scary creature; the Gruffalo.  Astonishingly, the gruffalo really existed! It popped out from a tree and the mouse was freaking shocked! He stayed cool though, and thought of another trick to save his life. There he went..telling his tall tale that despite his timid look, all animals in the wood were afraid of him. The gruffalo didn’t believe him at first so the mouse asked him to follow. To his surprise, he found out that all animals they bumped into get off hastily once they saw the mouse! The gruffalo did not know that he was the one whom they scared of and not the mouse. Everything ends well; the little mouse able to save his life because of his wittiness.
                I will definitely recommend this story to children as besides the interesting idea, it also instills moral values into themselves. Though the mouse is a tiny animal which can be associated with children as timid and innocent, the power of thinking has endured all hitch and difficulties that get in his way. Therefore, children need to act smartly when facing problems. Besides that, the story is written in rhyming verse thus make it more fun to be read aloud. It also triggers children’s sense of imagination as the gruffalo is simply what the little mouse had in his mind, yet it turns out to be real! Surely children will love this story and it is a wise choice for parents to read it as bed time story.

Story Review-Edwina the Emu

            Edwina the Emu is an interesting masterpiece by Sheena Knowles which is suitable for children. You’ll let your hair down with its simple structures yet, the use of rhyming verse makes it more appealing. Plus, it is easy for kids to follow the story as some phrases are repeated and the illustrations are quite funny.
Two main characters, a couple; Edward and Edwina were blessed with ten eggs and to Edward surprise, he was asked to take care of the eggs while Edwina set out to find a job. They changed their roles with one another though it seemed weird. Several trials were made; she eventually worked as a waitress at a restaurant. While taking an order, she was shocked when the customer ordered emu eggs for his meal. Within seconds, she whimsically flew back to her nest to ensure her eggs were all right. Edwina learnt a lesson that no one could replace or beat a mother’s prowess towards her kids.From that moment onwards, she took care of the eggs and they lived happily ever after.
                The story is relevant for children as they will merely exposed to the common role of parents; a mother is prevalent to raise children while a father used to be the breadwinner of a family. Though this situation slowly deters in today’s life, but the concept is still the same. It is just a matter of how you balance your work and your responsibility as parents. I strongly recommended this story to kids as well as parents to make it a bed time story for their children. Simple yet substantiated with moral values, I bet the story will surely find a place in the hearts of kids everywhere!