How others evaluate me

For this micro-teaching, I had been partner with Kausar and had gone through many improvisations after observing on others presentation. Thus, I am really satisfied with my own conduct as I had done the best that I could give in this presentation. However, several comments that I had received from my friends really open my eyes that I also had missed something that should not be overlooked by a teacher-to-be. After I had collected all the peer evaluation sheets from my friends, I could conclude that I must put much effort to polish my presentation of the second language. Though I used simple and easy words but my is quite bad. As I speak in a soft-voiced , audience sometimes cannot catch up my message and as a consequence, students may miss some important points that is really useful to them. This is a very good advice for me and I hope by practicing speaking or reading aloud would improve on my voice projection. Thank you for Syuhada, Liza, Lukman and Ayuni for your advice. The other aspect is that I used less interactive language. Though I can get students response in my class but the class atmosphere is quite dull. I really appreciate on my friends view that recommended me to inject some sense of humour and not let the seriousness conquered my class. Thanks my friends and also Miss Siti Nur Baiti for your undivided support. Hopefully this micro teaching will make me realize on my weakness and try to improve it to make learning more fun and enjoyable to my learners.

How I evaluate Others

Now the time for micro-teaching started again. This is the final activity that will determine on 15% of this course requirement. We had to do the very best that we can so that nothing will be regretted later. Furthermore, the assessment from the demonstrator, Miss Siti Nur Baiti plus the evaluation from our colleagues really bring a good indicator for us on how far we had achieved in presentation skills for teaching practice. As everyone of us were given opportunity to evaluate the others, we had to follow several guidelines so that there are no bias or personal judgement been thrown out throughout the lesson. Our evaluation is consist of five major aspects. The first part is regarding the activities carried out. This is the overall comment on the presenter presentation which includes on the appropriateness of the worksheet, organization of the activities and the differences between stages. On the second aspect, presenters are judged based on how they conduct the stimulant of the lesson. Many of my friends managed to introduce various kinds of interesting activities such as a kind of reality show “The Next King of Thebes”, using of song that relates to their topic and few games that really catch the attention of the learners. On the third aspect, is the pre-reading stage. This is a step to the lesson where presenter had to identify on how they would turn students' attention to the task given which is based on the extract of either the three plays ( Antony and Cleopatra, Oedipus the King and A Streetcar Named Desire). Besides, while-reading stage is another step which shows continuity of the tasks but with more activities that will measure on the students understanding of the text. Here, similar with the set induction and pre-reading stage, we could contribute several tips that would suggest on how the presenter could improve on their presentation. In fact, I had given few tips such as on presenter’s body gestures, voice projections and few things about the worksheet organization, so that they would not neglect it on the next time. Hopefully, they would do something on it just for the sake of the learners and yet for their own goods too. Last but not least, English teacher had to be careful of their speech. This is the stage where their linguistics skills are being judged. Clearity of the speech, accuracy on the use of grammar and interactive language between students and teachers are among the criteria that teacher should be alert during their presentation. To sum up, I really appreciate on this peers evaluation as we sometimes never realize on the small matters or this trivial things that somehow or rather would affect on the effectiveness of our teaching in the future.

My First Theatre

Last Sunday had given a new experience for me as my friends and I went to watch a theatre at KL PAC, Sentul. This is a bit different from the common play as it comprise of three different stories (Untitle , Uncut and Paperhouse) in one play. First of all, I really amazed with the play as it utilized none of other properties except for a mere white painted boxes. This is most probably due to the adjustable, applicable and relevant with the three plays at a period. However, I could feel that the movement of the boxes is sometimes create interruptions as it disturbed the audience’s flow of understanding the play. Sometimes, the narrator lifted and put aside boxes without any reason. This had made audiences at times cracking their heads on what are the boxes symbolized to the audiences. As examples, radio and furniture ( sofa, chair, bed, table and kitchen’s cabinet are all portrayed by the white plain cubics ). Can you imagined it??? Nevertheless, I could conclude that all the actors and actresses manage to carry out their roles effectively. I learn how they made used on various intonation, effective sound projection and others criteria that made their acts more impressive and yet far from dullness when sense of humour been injected in the play.

A Streetcar Named Desire..

In my opinion, this is an interesting and the most happening drama if compared to ‘Shakespeare Wallah’ and ‘Macbeth’ that I had viewed before. Though, the storyline is really quite slow but believe it or not I just feel the jerk to focus on the screen when the antagonist who is Stanley appeared. Here, I really amazed about the relationship between him and Stella. Though Stanley is very harsh, bad-tempered and unreasonable but deep inside he is never been rejected by his own wife. How can the wife succumb to his husband’s request and not to leave him though he had beaten her and being harsh to her? Here we see that the relationship is very extraordinary and strange. They even live in a happy life up to Blanche present, where the conflicts started. For me, this is the good movie to learn on how love is very blind like the blind Oedipus in “Oedipus The King.”

Shakespeare WALLAH...

This is another movie that relates with Shakespeare BUT do not mislead by the title as it is not one of Shakespeare works. It is a film that compile Shakespearean drama. The films is about a struggling English company of Shakespearan actors touring India, on an actual theater company called Shakespeariana. It takes place when English influence is dying and the world of Indian filmmaking is beginning to achieve popularity. Also the film portrays the separation of the ways of British and Indian cultures, but suggests that the cultural collaboration in term of races, cultures and religion. The film is not really appeal to me as it goes so slow and sometimes hard to follow. Perhaps, this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

A Bloody Movie..

On 4th March 2008, we were asked to watch Macbeth as our outside-class activity. For me, it was a very violent drama that I had ever watched from Shakespearean works. Throughout the movie the characters shows horrible descriptions of the murder, from the opening scene where the captain describes Macbeth and Banquo wading in blood on the battlefield, to the bloodstained hands of Macbeth and his wife. There are also series of murders towards Duncan, Duncan’s chamberlains, Banquo, Lady Macduff, and Macduff’s son . By the end of the action, blood seems to be everywhere. Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth get on their cruel journey, they never live in peaceful as their life seems to be haunted by the guilt of their wrongdoing. Here, Blood is symbolize as their fault. As a consequence, they would never enjoy their live to the fullest though they had obtained the highest position in the kingdom. In brief, this is the movie that had cause me dizziness, nauseous and just like to throw out in the end as I cannot bear to see the blood even just for several minutes..I still can imagine it even during my meal. Oh what an irksome movie is this..

When induction set teaching begins..

After completing doing tasks on Oedipus the Rex, we were assigned to prepare for an induction set. Miss Baiti showed us a very good example on the theme Blindness versus Sightness. Then, I start cracking my head on what is the suitable activities that I am going to present.. When the time arrive, I had seen many of my friends done their job in a very fun and interesting way. Among them is Shahrazi who chose on the theme fate versus hope. He was not using any of teaching aids but was able to grab his students' attention. Besides, Sharizah who made use on multimedia presentation makes sense to students when she showed a videoclip about a blindman and a pretended blindman who are on their way to cross the road. This is appropriate to the theme "Metaphorical Blind."In fact, Khalis had made the students puzzling when he asked them to find the theme of the play by searching on the jumbled up words and numbers on the whiteboard. From all these activities, I can conclude that teacher must be creative to create activities that might attract students' interest and enhance their understanding about the lesson.