Blogs contribution to me..

Blogs do contribute a lot to my learning especially in terms of sharing views and concerns. How does it contribute to both my lectures and tutorial? I would say that it contributed in understanding this course in depth and maturity in conveying the messages. I feel better to put in my own thoughts and feelings whereas i have my own blog and i don't have to worry on what people might say. I feel that, blogging also help me in learning drama better and also learn more and in detail about the plays that i don't understand. Even in commenting on others blogs, it help me to view others ideas and open up my schemata and i have wider views ad understanding on the drama. I don't only have my blog as the answer, i have my other classmates blog to be viewed and commented. By this, i will have an open mind towards others view. It also gives me abundance of input. Rather than me wasting my time going on-line for unnecessary stuffs, its better for me to blog, at least we are gaining knowledge. Blog really help me in understanding this course deeply. Thank to my lecturer, Dr. Edwin.

Weaknesses..

Hmmmm…..what would be my weaknesses in simulated teaching? When I was busy cracking my head to find out what was my weaknesses, my friends told me; Aruna, you are unable to control the class. Then it struck in my mind, yeah I guess I am being too nice with the students and they are climbing on my head. I will have to work hard on controlling the situation in my class. I guess I will have to raise my voice more often in order for me to control the class. If my weaknesses continue, I believe that students wouldn’t be able to capture and get the knowledge that I thought. It is important for students to listen attentively in class. Besides that, when I’m in front of the class, I think my adrenalin rushes and I would get stressed up. I should learn to overcome my stage fright. The best way to overcome this problem would be, practicing public speaking. This would be the best way to overcome my nervousness and so that it would later on decrease.

Strengths...

What would be my strengths in simulated teaching? Hmmmm…..well I will have to say my voice projection and my language would be my outmost strength in me. They are my strengths because with a good and loud voice, students won’t be having difficulty to listen to you. Not only that, clarity too plays a vital role in voice projection. I believe that my language is clear enough for everyone to understand and our lessons won’t be interfered with the childrens unable to understand me. Why I say language as my strength is because, after doing my simulated teaching, the first compliment that I got from my friends and lecturer is that, wow, there is no first language influence in your speech. I also manage to minimize my grammatical errors due to the experience that I gained throughout the simulated teaching. I would maintain my strengths by practicing more in front of my friends and they will have to reflect on me. As the saying goes “Practice makes perfect”.

How different is my simulated teaching?

In my opinion, this simulated teaching is totally different from what was taught back in my school. When I was in my school, as long as I remembered, none of my teachers followed the stages in teaching which is the set induction, pre-reading then the while reading and lastly post-reading. In my school, my teachers would just start off with their lesson without giving any hint or previous knowledge of what they are going to teach. To me, I find that set induction as the most interesting part of the lesson. With a great and interesting set induction, students will be glued in the class and they wouldn’t want to leave the class. By this, you can attract the student to listen to your lesson. Not only that, even during the while reading, students will be more exposed and they would be able to answer the questions on their own without the teachers guidance. I feel that, this is a good experience on doing the simulated teaching whereby I am more exposed to the teaching arena and it helps me to prepare myself to become a qualified teacher. Moreover, students will be enjoying my lesson more without getting bored and this could result to good performances by students in the school. It could also upgrade the students standard.

What i taught?

In my simulated teaching, I taught on the characteristics of both Oedipus and Teiresias. In the set induction stage, I showed the students a slide on two persons which both of them are having physical disabilities. One were blind and the other was without limp. It was about the moral blindness and physical blindness. Whereby Oedipus is morally blind and on the other hand Teiresias is physically blind. On the pre-reading stage, I took an extract from the Sophocles’s, Oedipus Rex from the page 1394 from line 150-172. The students will have to highlight the words that describe the characters. Moving on into the while-reading stage, they will have to complete the diagram with the words that are given that describes Oedipus and Teiresias. Whereby Oedipus is known for his ignorant and foolish and Teiresias as knowledgeable and wise. Lastly, on the post-reading stage, the students will have to choose the character that they admire the most and they will have to give reasons on their standing.

Elizabeth 'The Golden Age'

We were given the chance to watch the movie Elizabeth 'The Golden Age'. which was cast by Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen. The play was about Queen Elizabeth and also known as the virgin queen finds herself as the ruler of the late 16th century Europe was openly challenged by the Spanish King Phillip II with his powerful army and sea- dominating armada in the determination to restore Englang and Catholicism. Queen Elizabeth prepares herself to go to war to defend her empire, however she struggles to balance her ancient royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability in her love for Sir Walter Raleigh. However, when Elizabeth encourages her favourite lady- in waiting, Bess, to befriend with Raleigh to keep him near, the love between Raleigh and Bess grows. Then, there was also a plot on toppling the throne and setting England up for destruction. Then the people from Spain came to declare war however they loose. There were few pros and cons that can be found in this movie/play. It's really a worth mention that the costumes and the location are spectacular and breath-taking. Paired with a few moment of story telling. However, I felt that we as the audience were not given the chance to feel or take in what's really happenning. Whatever it is, it was a great story which can attract the history lovers. And this play is great for entertainment sake.

Who is Teiresias?

Teiresias, the most famous soothsayer of Greece, was born at Thebes. He was the son of Eueres and Chariclo, descendant of Udaeus of Sparti. He was blind and there are many stories for the cause of his blindness. The most wide accepted tradition was that at age seven the Gods blinded him, because he revealed certain things, men ought not to know.According to another tradition, he was blinded after he saw goddess Athena taking bath. Athena threw water in his eyes and thus blinded him. Since his mother, Chariclo was a friend, a nymph of Athena, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena could not; instead of giving him a staff, she cleaned his ears, giving him the ability to understand birdsong, gift of prophecy and a life seven generations long. In another version, he saw snakes coupling and killed one of them with a stick, whereupon he changed into a woman, later the same thing happened again and he changed back into a man. Since he was now uniquely qualified to answer, Zeus and Hera consulted him as to whether a man or a woman derived more pleasure from the act of love. When Teiresias replied that women received nine times as much pleasure as men, Hera struck him blind, but Zeus gave him the gift of unerring prophecy.
In Sophocles's Oedipus The King, the king of Thebes, calls upon Teiresias to aid in the investigation of the killing of the previous king Laius At first, Teiresias refuses to give a direct answer and instead hints that the killer is someone Oedipus really does not wish to find. However, after being provoked to anger by Oedipus' accusation first that he has no foresight and then that Teiresias had a hand in the murder, he reveals that in fact it was Oedipus himself who had (unwittingly) committed the crime. Outraged, Oedipus throws him out of the palace, but then afterwards realizes the truth.