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.

If i were a teacher

If I were a teacher, I would be able to adopt and adapt the skills that I have learned for my future lessons. I would adapt them with paying full attention in my lecture and tutorial classes. For me, the most vital skill would be the listening skill. As a future teacher, we should listen attentively in class. You don’t only listen, but you as well should be able to interpret the meaning by your own. You should be able to decode the sound into meaning.
Not only that, we can also acquire many beneficial thing when you are listening in a lecture or tutorial. It is because it is considered as ‘live presentation’ whereby whatever that was being taught won’t be repeated unless you record it. As a future teacher, we should be flexible to acquire any knowledge anywhere and anytime.

Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex was the first play that was being introduced to us. While reading this play, I had a very hard time in understanding the dialogues as it was written in very high English. Would I interpret the content differently? That was the question that struck most of our minds. I was eager on how would the difference be between my interpretation and my lecturers interpretation.
Oedipus Rex is a story of a king who was born with a curse. In this play, the themes contrast to each other, sight and blindness, wisdom and ignorance.
As I read the play, I had hard time with the language being used. However, after discussing the play in the class, I have a clearer picture of what is the play is all about. At first, I was wondering why was Oedipus so clueless about the killer and why he wanting to kill his own father. There was also a question of why did Oedipus get the idea that Creon is the one who killed King Laios, while Teiresias on the other hand openly blamed Oedipus for the murder.
I would definitely would have interpreted the content differently if it was not being discussed. After the lecture, the knowledge is definitely in my finger tips.

Writing a Script

My very first assignment for this EDU 3217 course was writing a script for one act play within 15minutes of time frame. I felt this was a thrilling experience for me as this is the first time me writing a script for one act play. My partner and i had a great time cracking our mind and looking for writing a great dialogue. We created the story of "The Unreached Love" of a boy and how he went through it. The feeling of writing our own script was marvellous whereby we can create our own characters, settings and especially the story line. The best part was having our own resolution for the story. Our first draft have been submitted and i'm looking forward for the feedback and the improvements that can be made. Thank you in advance Dr. Edwin.

First class of Drama

I was actually looking forward for this drama class. After going through short story class with Dr. Edwin, i was expecting for more challenges in this class. From the name drama itself plays a thousand role. After getting the course outline, i wasn't shock at all to see the assignments that all of us need to do. With the 5 plays that we will be reading for this course, King Lear is the one that captures my attention. I'm having a hard time to get the book whereby all the stores are running out of stock of that book. A demandable item due to the intolerable circumstances. The first thing that i went through in the class was the overview of the history of theatre. There are also types of dramas that we went through. After all the explanation, my mind is very clear on what will be taught to us in this class.

Tutorial class

In my opinion, i feel that the tutorial class is very interesting and it is kind of "action packed". It is because we have to act out in front of the class whereby it is a new experience for me. The tasks that we have to carry out actually prepares myself for the next semester whereby we have to do theatre in TESL. I can also see many acting talents in my class. This would be a stepping stone for us for our next semester. I am being more interested in drama after going through this course. We are much more exposed to the acting lance rather than just going through the theory. I am looking forward to have more fun in this class. Thank you.

theatre vs cinema

1) In my point of view, theatre and cinema are two different place. There are many obvious reasons for this. First of all, theatre is a place where plays are held. There are live acting done by the actor and actresses. There are also live audience that will be watching the play. Furthermore, in a theatre there are stages and props being used by the actors. Theatre also is a place where brings people together as a community. Contrary, cinema is a place where people get entertained by watching the big screen movies. They also might enjoy the sound system in cinemas. In addition, cinemas mostly plays the latest movies out.


2) In my opinion, I feel that theatre is kind of out of date. This is because, people assume theatre as a dull and boring place. Because of these assumptions, people tend not to go to the theatre and enjoy the environment. Theatre is also out of date is because the plays and the performances that they make are mostly based on classical numbers where nowadays people are looking forward for the latest movies.