Limericks

Learning limericks give me new experience. Limerick is a five-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet and meant to be funny. Each group is asked to make a limerick and write it on the board. Ras, Balkis and me in one group and it is not an easy task to be done. To make a good limerick, we have to alter it a few times just because to make it rhyming. I think before this I’m rarely uses the rhyming words so to make the limerick is quite hard for us. Luckily there is the template given and we just have to fill in with the rhyming words. During writing our limerick on the board, then Dr. Edwin corrected our limerick and this is our final work:

There once was a young lady from Russian Federation,
All the while she hoped for a fairer complexion,
So she wore a latest product,
And the skin become dark,
That dummy young lady from Russian Federation.

Finale: Research Paper

I decided to change my issue from the depression on the children into examine about the children imagination in the both stories. Even though I’m quite confident and sure with my topic now but I still feel worry because I’m afraid that it will be rejected again and I have to start everything all over again. Finally I already finish working on my research paper and we send the first draft to Dr.Edwin. The process of waiting the draft to be returned back to us makes me feel worried again because I’m afraid it will be rejected again but I try not to think about it.
After getting back my draft, I feel really relief because my issue is accepted and there is only minor alteration that I have to do before send in my final piece of my research paper.

Vivaldi's Four Seasons

When Dr. Edwin mention about four seasons by Vivaldi, I really have nothing ni mind and feel really clueless. But after hearing a little bit of the music then suddenly I realize that I already heard it somewhere especially in the drama and film as background music. I started to feel familiar with this four season’s song. Dr.Edwin gives ideas that we can bring the instrumental music into the classroom especially for set induction and post reading. I agree that the instrumental music can be put into the appreciation stage because instrumental music is a part of art and we should appreciate art. Furthermore, listening to instrumental music is soothing and also a form of therapy and suitable for the students especially for the examination class. Same with set induction, I think the session of listening to instrumental music should not take a longer time because it will be draggy and the students will feel boring. In conclusion, I agree about the idea on bringing instrumental music into the classroom.

Visiting Malacca

The trip to Malacca was great. That was first time I went to the art gallery and I was really amazed looking at those painting. The feel was different. Suddenly I realize that I like paintings. It really changes my perspective towards the people who appreciate drawing very much and will spend thousands ringgit just for a picture. I think it really worth it and if I have extra money, I will buy it too. Besides paintings, I really interested in one of his work which is a picture of a ‘wayang kulit’ character that really require full attention in order to finish it. Other than that, the inner decoration of Mr Tham’s house was really nice especially because there are three part of his house has open space which makes it different than other house. The idea of bring art into literature classroom is really interesting and I think that I will bring my students to somewhere that they can make them open their eyes and appreciate art greater than before.

The Road Home

This is a Chinese movie starring by Zhang Ziyi as the main character for this movie. Zhang Ziyi is one of the popular actresses from Asia in Hollywood. I watched several movies that she acts like The Banquet and the film that put her name up, Memoirs of Geisha. I like the way she bring out her character in the both films. Now, I have opportunity to watch another movie act by her. In this movie, she acts as a girl that falling in love to the teacher that comes to the village. This story is basically about how a teacher comes to a village and builds a school together with the villagers. He teaches at that school until he died. This story makes me realize how important the role of the teacher in the neighborhood and how they appreciate a teacher. As a teacher, we not only connected with our students but also their family as well. The relationship between the teacher and parents should be close in order to observe the students achievement in their study. However, we don’t really experience it anymore because of some of the parents that not really care about what their children done in school just because they are too busy working and care less about their children.

Autobiography

Reading “The Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela” really gives me the new experience on how autobiography is written and makes me know about Nelson Mandela and what happen to him. Honestly, I heard about his name before but I don’t really know about him and what is his specialty. This text is really inspiring and makes me want to know more about him. I also know what is the different between autobiography and biography. Before this, I always think that the book is written by that particular person but there is another way when the person asks another person to write for them. That difference makes me prefer autobiography rather than biography because the sense of originality is lacking in biography.

Change

The issue that I want to examine in the text Sredni Vashtar and The Rocking-Horse Winner is depression in children in both characters, Paul and Conradin. The reason why I choose this issue is because both characters share the same experience and the way their family members treat them is almost the same. In Sredni Vashtar, Conradin does not like his guardian, MrsDe Ropp which threats him cruelly and he puts his attention to the ferret, that he calls Sredni Vashtar as escapism from Mrs De Ropp. As for Paul in The Rocking-Horse Winner, The lack of money, caused his mother pays little attention to Paul and keep mention that she wants money .Towards the end of his life, Paul still fight to get money for his family unfortunately, his mother not really appreciate it because of money.
Unfortunately, my outline for the research paper had been rejected because there is no sense of depression experienced by the characters. So, I have to brainstorm again to find the suitable issue for my research paper. In my opinion, during the process of choosing the issue, I don’t look detail at the story and make me get the wrong issue. I hope that the new issue will be accepted later.

Metaphor

As a teacher, I view myself as a bus driver. The reason how I think like that
is because as a teacher we hold a great responsibility towards our students.
Bus driver also hold the same responsibility which their passenger's life is in their hand. The way they drive the bus will determine whether the passenger will arrive to their destination safely.
In class, there about 30 to 40 students and the teacher is only one who will
control the whole class. How the teacher controls the class and the students
will determine what the students will become later. If the teacher fails in
controlling their students, the students will not be successful in their
education and life. Same with the bus driver, if the way the driver drives the
bus badly, it will be an accident that will make the passengers injured or even
die. So, as a conclusion, I think I view myself as a bus driver that holds the great
responsibility towards my passengers.

First Meeting

My friends who under Dr.Jaya’s supervision already had their first meeting and our time is coming. Dr.Edwin wants us to prepare something about our research paper, the text and also the issues that we want to examine for our research paper. Knowing Dr. Edwin, I feel a little bit worry and afraid to meet him in person because in class he seems like a serious person. Furthermore, this subject is taught by him and I’m sure that he will has a high expectation on us since he know well about this subject. That is the main reason why I feel so worry.
The day had come. I am waiting for Dr.Edwin outside his room nervously. However, the way he speaks to us is totally different and I feel at ease that time. Dr.Edwin asks about the text that we chose to examine and luckily my text were accepted straight away because my friends had to change their text. Dr.Edwin asked to prepare the outline for my research paper.

My focus: Saki and D.H. Lawrence

Dr. Edwin already assigned us to our supervisor for the research paper. There are seven lecturers become our supervisors. They are Dr. Arshad, Dr. Edwin, Dr. Jaya, Dr. Ghaz, Dr. Nooreen, Dr. Syarifah and Madam Juridah. I feel so grateful because my supervisor is Dr. Edwin together with five other friends, Diah, Saipol, Raslah, Syuhada and Adha.

In the research paper, I have to identify two texts with the same issues whether from the same writer or different writer. This time, I repeat the same actions when I want to chose the text for the position paper. I bring out all the literary text that I have, from the assigned text during my foundation course to In-sight. At that time, I’m thinking of combining two genre, poem and short story but finally I decide to do two short stories.

. I choose Sredni Vashtar by Saki and The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence for my research paper. The main reason why I choose these short stories is because in both stories the main character is a boy. The main character for Sredni Vashtar is Conradin and the main character for The Rocking-Horse Winner is Paul. I think that both characters share the same experience on how their family treatment affects their life. The issue that I want to highlight for my research paper is depression in children in both stories.

Position Paper

Now is the time to work out on my position paper. Mr. Omit already approve my thesis statement and he also help me and gives idea to improve my thesis statement. The time that I take to finish my position paper is shorter than the process of finding the good thesis statement. In my opinion, the main reason I take fewer time for my position paper is because I am familiar with the text and I just have to express my ideas in this position paper. Mr. Omit asks us to change our draft with our friends and do the peer evaluation. At that time, I got Saipol’s draft and I think that his position paper had a good content but the way he explain it was a little bit confusing. On that day, Jessie Yong and Amanda was the person that got my draft. Based on their evaluation, I got a lot of mistakes especially because I told a lot about the story and not my stand. I feel really thankful because I can see my mistakes during that session and I try corrected it and improve my position paper.

Thesis Statement!

Thesis statement! I still confuse with my thesis statement whether it fulfill all the requirements for a good thesis statement. It took me a few hours thinking about the thesis statement and still can’t manage to come out even one thesis statement for this play. How come this task is so hard? Later I decided to go to Adila’s room and ask opinion from her. Even though at that time the clock shows 1 o’ clock in the morning and she still not sleep. How lucky. We started brainstorms together the idea for our thesis statements and finally I got my thesis statement. I can feel that the burden on my shoulder became a little bit lighter after getting my thesis statement. My thesis statement for my position paper is “The Portrayal of Kinship in “Thirty Days of September by Mahesh Dattani” Suggest That Blood Ties Put Mala into Trouble Emotionally”

Pheewwww!

Now, I have to start figure out the text that I want to choose for the position paper. I really think that it will be easy since there are a lot of short stories and novel that I already learned and I just have to choose one of them. Unfortunately, the task become difficult because I can’t decide which text I want to use for my position paper. At first, I decide to use short stories rather than novel because short story is simple to examine. After going through some short stories that I learned from my foundation year to degree program, I still confuse to choose one of them for my position paper. I’m thinking of doing the short story “The Landlady by Roald Dahl” and also “The Matchmaker by Saki” but after going through both stories, I feel that there is no concrete issue to bring out from the stories. After a few hours looking at all the short stories and novels that may be possible for my position paper, I finally decide to choose a play from Mahesh Dattani entitle “Thirty Days of September”.

After choosing the ideal text for my position paper, this is the time to generate the thesis statement. I ask a few of my friends to help me in generate the thesis statement besides discussing with them my idea. Luckily they are there to help me because I’m actually not really sure how to make the thesis statement even though there are a few examples for reference. Finally, I manage to come out with one thesis statement and hopefully Mr. Omit will look at it and being approved by him later because Mr.Omit reject it, I have to redo it again and again.

Second Week

120109- After reading both stories that being assign by Dr. Edwin, I felt that both stories were interesting maybe just because it was a tales and it supposed to be entertaining and at the same time gave some guidance and moral values to the reader. The reason why I say like that because that are the assumptions being generate in my mind after readings all the fairy tales and cerita rakyat since I was small. Between both stories, I feel that “The Son of Turtle Spirit” is easier to comprehend compare to “Mahabharata” because there are some terms in that story that I can’t understand.

Back to the pictures and the poem that Dr. Edwin ask us to find, I got the correct poem but for the pictures, it is totally rejected even though most of my friends use the same picture like me. Only a few of us got the correct pictures and one of them is Nurul Adha. I feel a bit disappointed because I got that picture also when I search it but that was not the one that I choose to bring to class. On that day, Dr.Edwin teach us about intertextuality and for Icarus’s issue, there are three works that related to each other. The works are the prose by Ovid entitle “Dedalus and Icarus”, The painting by Brueghel entitle “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” and also The poem by William Carlos William using same title with the painting by Brueghel.

First and foremost....

050109- Today is the first time I attend the class with Dr.Edwin, EDU 3234 Readings and Project Work for Teaching Literature in ESL Context. Just read at the name of this subject make me wonder a lot about what am I going to learn in this subject but one thing for sure that it will related to literature. As for the ‘Project Work’ part, I’m thinking that this subject will somehow similar with thesis that usually the other students’ will have to do during their final year in UPM. Are we supposed to conduct a research? Make a questionnaire and analyze it? Or it is just a normal proposal that we have to do to conduct some activities? There are a lot of questions mingle in my mind.

However, everything becomes clear when Dr. Edwin explains to us what we have to do for this subject. As expected, Dr. Edwin includes the journal that we have to post it online. For this time, I want to make sure that I’m able to post the journal on time because before this, I always have difficulties to post my entry on time just because the wireless connection in my laptop was corrupt.

For next week task, Dr.Edwin asks us to read the story in the modul entitle “The Son of Turtle Spirit” and “Mahabharata” and also google on the net and search for some information about Ovid, Pygmalion and Icarus. I feel that this task is quite easy at first because we usually manage to find the information, but it turns out to be so difficult because he ask to search a painting entitle “The Fall of Icarus” and poem related to the painting. I manage to find the poem but I don’t know how to choose from about 20 different pictures of “The Fall of Icarus”. Lastly, I decided to choose one and hopefully that it will be the correct one. Hopefully.

Start New Sem

New semester brings out new hope!