I got the power!

I have a loud and clear voice. I am able to interact with the students. I can make jokes. Why am I writing all this? Well these are my strengths in my simulated teaching. I have a good voice projection. I know that since I was schooling. I am naturally a loud person no matter where I am, maybe not in library. Good voice projection is very important for a teacher because students will be more interested to listen to you rather then you mumbling to yourself. This is one of the things I do not have to worry about.
Moving on to my second strength, I can actually engage students in listening to my teachings by involving each and everyone and not just focusing on one person. Students’ love it when they are given attention equally with other students even though their capability to answer may differ. Throughout other courses that I have taken, I realise that problems that students' create is because teachers do not listen to them. So I have decided to listen to what students’ has to say in certain situation and not limit them by just choosing few students'. In this way, they will feel appreciated and tend to come to class with enthusiasm.
Not many can be funny or make jokes in classroom that students’ can follow. Well I can. It is a gift to make a joke and students’ actually laugh at it. The joke that I am talking about is not the common jokes or stupid jokes that we make with friends but something that is related to the lesson that we are teaching. The kind of humour I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes. That is what I want my students' to do. I am also sure that students’ tend to remember better the facts that you have thought them with an insertion of a joke. So with these strengths I hope to continue my quest in being a dedicated teacher towards my profession.
Good luck to me and my friends!

Where is the effort and creativity ?

Not interesting. Not interesting. Not interesting. This is how much I have to say about my exercises being not interesting enough. First my set induction, same old picture was shown. Why? I had no time to find for an interesting video. I can give excuse that I do not have enough time to find for all that but me, as a student should not give such excuses. Furthermore, I am a teacher to be. This is one of my main weaknesses in teaching. A little more effort is needed to improve my teaching. Interesting videos is another thing but being creative is another factor. Why did I follow the same ways as my course mates and not think of different approach to stimulate students’ interest during set induction? Again, effort plays an important role.
Then comes the pre and while reading. Same old exercises again. I wonder what happened to the word creative. If only I was creative enough to make my lesson more interesting, I would not be writing my weaknesses. The main reason is I am lazy to think because of the workload. Again, the same old excuses. I should be able to get an idea from creative students like Huey Fen, Jackson and Khairul to make the activity more interesting.
Anyway, since I am in the learning process I am sure I can overcome it! I hope to do much better in my future simulated teachings to come. I wish myself the very best in the future!

Let's blog!

I enjoy blogging then online forum which I did for the Teaching the Language of Short Stories last semester. First, it is because I own the webpage and I can write anything that I want. Blogging contributes a lot to my learning in lecturers and tutorials. It is because blogging is some kind of revision for me whereby I write back whatever that I have learned in tutorials and lectures. I also do research on something’s that I do not know about and blog on it. For an example, I made a lot of discovery on Teiresias, which I would not have found about if Dr. Edwin had not asked us to write about him. It also relaxes my mind and it is not a burden for me to do it.
I can surely say that writing blogs helped me a lot in this course because it makes me think on what, why, who, where, and how certain things happen in a play. If there is no blog to write, I am sure once most of us get out from the lecture hall we tend to do other stuffs and forget everything that we learned. Reading my course mate’s blogs too gives me idea on what to write on certain things. Even though this is my first time blogging, I am not bored of it.
If I had another chance to write blogs for any course, I would surely do it open heartedly! Come! Let us blog together my friends!

Still need changes..

I did once the simulated teaching last semester and that was also Dr. Edwin’s class and another time three days ago. What can I say? I have improved from the first but still I would like to give a better presentation. The first thing I would like to change is by getting interesting videos or pictures to present during the set induction stage. Why I say so, it is because during that particular stage students will give respond to me whether they are interested to follow my lessons or not. I realise the way to attract them is by showing them what they want to see and not showing them boring pictures like a King or a castle. They want to see something like a demon (The Ring), garden with fences (Selfish Mr. Pederson) and cool video clips that has suspense in it. I can give excuse that I do not have enough time to find for all that but me, as a student should not give such excuses.
The second thing I would like to change is have good class control. The students are not paying attention! They are busy with their own work! Even though they are my course mates but it is quite difficult to control them. So the next time I have my simulated teaching, I will ask them to fill in the seats at the front because at the back they open their laptops and in their own world. Even after I pass the worksheets, some push it at a side and continue doing their ‘stuff’. When I raise my voice and ask them to pay attention, they start showing faces. This makes me think on how it will be when I am teaching my ‘real’ future students. This situation makes me to be prepared on whatever that may come.
Miss Kasthoori told her experience to class where a student refused to learn and slept when Dr. Edwin just at the back of the class evaluating her teaching. That sounds scary but different students have different characters and I as a teacher need to go through it. In a way, I should be thankful to my course mates for not paying attention and that keeps me aware of my future student’s attitude.
Good luck teachers!

My teachers'..

During my school days, I never ever had a teacher who started with set induction and goes to pre reading, while reading but post reading yes. Being just a student I did not know that they are required to do all these things or it would be better if they do it so that the students will be alert on what the teacher is going to teach for the day. My teacher used to teach by stating what we are going to learn today without showing us any picture, video, story telling and everything else my course mates been doing for the past last semester. Therefore, I was a bit surprised when we were required to do all these three stages. It was not a bad experience but then I wonder why the teachers never followed this method. Even though it is true that teachers need to finish up syllabus but it would be better if they can attract the students by being more creative.
I feel that the way we are teaching for fifteen minutes now is much more interesting then what my teachers’ did during my school days. The experience that I had in school neither bad or good because I did not know that they had a way or rule to present their teaching so now I feel my teachers should have done a better job but then I am who I am because of them so I am not blaming them for anything. Thank you my dear teachers! Me as future teacher, I have gained many ideas on how to teach my future students with interesting activities so that they will anticipate for the class and I as the teacher will be more interested to teach the students. Writing all this makes me more prepared to become a teacher but I still got lots more to learn because I have just finished half of what I am supposed to finish.
One thing that I have learnt from this course is that, it teaches me new ideas and to be creative to face the challenge to come in future as a teacher. I am wondering what else I will be learning in the semesters to come. Even though it may burden me at times but I know it is all for good.

Teacher for 15 minutes..

Three days ago, I did my simulated teaching on The Importance of Being Earnest. Initially I prepared to do Oedipus the King but when I saw most of my friends did on that and the activities are quite similar, I decided to do King Lear. King Lear gave me headache because the language was quite difficult and I was afraid I would not be able to teach the students. So finally, I decided to do on The Importance of Being Earnest and stick to it! Then, I had another trouble. That is, I had difficulty to get an appropriate extract. I changed about three to five extracts when I finally got one to teach on how different social class people interact with each other. It took me about six hours to prepare the activities because I did not want to do the same activity as my friends. I had Huey Fen by my side to check my activities. My post reading was different, she said.
After finishing the activities from pre reading till post reading, I emailed it to Miss Kasthoori to check whether my activities are appropriate or not. She replied me after two days saying ‘it’s fine’. I was glad and was confident to proceed my simulated teaching the next day. Thursday came, I was dressed up to present. I was the fourth and last to present. After the presentation, as usual Miss Kasthoori commented on our teaching. Being just a human being, I was not so interested in listening to the first three presenters’ comments but mine. She said I did not give much information on the social class. If only I have given enough information, my teaching would have been all right. She also states that my post-reading question was interesting and different from others. At least I am happy to know that.
I wish the time given to teach extended so that we, the teachers will not have to rush the lesson wondering whether the time is up. I also realise that I am more confident to stay in front of the class and teach compare to last semester. Simulated teaching or micro teaching is a good way to gain confidence. All the teachers to be ought to go through it for their own good!