Mr Generous

Who is this Mr. Generous that I am talking about and why is he so generous?

Okay readers, I call this man generous because he was willingly share his knowledge with me and my classmates. During an hour session, he had deliver the lesson on effective argumentation. He explain precisely o argumentative writing, the elements of good arguments and how to argue effectively. After he finished explaining the lesson, he asked us to do some exercises. Through the exercises, i am able to identify the claim, data, warrant, backing, rebuttal and qualifier. Other than that, this generous man also provides an argumentative checklist so that we can grade a passage accordingly. Lastly, he treats us with KFC snack box!

Thank you Mr. Vahid Nimehchisalem (T_T)

Merry Maid

My classmates and I have discussed the issue in one of the short story in order to give us the gist on the position paper.

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The title of the story is

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Merry Maid by Dr. Jayakaran Mukundan

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During the discussion, Dr.Jaya distributes the handout on quotes. These quotes is related to the themes that can be found in the story. The following quotes are the most suitable quotes that I think directly related to the story.

1. Jealousy

"Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own" -Harold Coffin

2. Possession

"A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor" -Alexander Smith

3. Time

"Man talk of killing time, while time quietly kills him" -Dion Boucicault

4. Superiority

"Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seem to be altogether peculiar to ma, and speech is the great instrument of ambition" -Adam Smith

5. Vanity

"Vanity is so secure in the heart of a man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this or you who read this. -Blaise Pascal.

Precious

Claireece Precious Jones

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By reading this beautiful name, the reader might get the idea of a beautiful girl with a beautiful life. However, the reality for Precious is really opposite to that. She leads a poor life where she is abused sexually by her own father, being beaten by her own mother, and illiterate.

This movie is about Precious and her hope.

"dont lie to me, love aint ever done anything for me, it beats me down."

The sentences that had been uttered by Precious brings me close to tears.

From a teacher perspective, the first thing that a teacher needs to do is to make them feel loved by you. The teacher herself need to show the affection towards the students so that they will believe in you and open up to. As in the story, Ms.Rain had done a good job because she kept telling Precious how "precious" she is and make her believes that she is able to be loved.

Documentary

Freaky documentary on teachers

with the theme of

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..

"50% of teachers quit within their first three years"

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The first sentences shown on the screen really scares me. In that instance, I think I will contribute to that possible 50%.

This documentary is about four teachers with different challenges that they need to overcome. One of them having problem in teaching itself. He is inexperienced teacher who kind of awkward in teaching because he never teach before. So, he end up being bully by his students and go through the hard experience in getting his students attention.

Other than problems with teaching, these teachers also experience the problems with their peers (another teacher). This increase the tension among these teacher, and later affects their relationship with their love one.

From this documentary, I found that you need to have brave heart in order to be a teacher. It wasn't as easy as it may seem, because there are lots of challenges that you need to face. A teacher also need to have faith in their students so that they will achieve what you wanted them to achieve. One more thing that hinder some teacher from quitting is;

The Passion;

to be a teacher.

That is the one thing that i never have (T_T)

Finding Forrester

In this movie, the racial prejudice is once again been highlighted.

Jamal Wallace, able to attract the attention of a prestiges New York prep school because of his scores in standardized tests.

However, that is not the only thing that gives Jamal advantages. He is a good basketball player, which is the main reason for his acceptance to the school.

Later, Jamal befriend with a famous writer who lives in seclusion. Jamal's life in school is hard because plenty of students didn't like him because of his color. The situation get worse as his teacher also show the racial prejudice.

The moral value that I can get from this story is to never underestimate your students' ability. Other than that, both teacher and student are able to make some changes in each other's life. Jamal had gain skills in writing and at the same time he changes Forrester's life.

Position Paper

In writing position paper, there are two texts that can be used which "The Merry Maid" or "The Great Injustice". I choose to work on "The Great Injustice" because this short story had never been discussed in the class.

The first step in writing position paper is deciding the arguable opinion about an issue or opinion. In "The Great Injustice", the issue of oppression within the society. Ah Nya, the main character had put the blame the on society for her action (abortion). This statement is arguable because the society serve it purpose as setting the boundary according to culture. It is the real issue with genuine controversy and uncertainty.

By addressing this issue, the two distinct position can be create which is the side that agree the society as an oppression or the society as the culture preservation.

However, I am not sure whether this issue is narrow enough so that I manage to write about it concisely.

Project Paper

"Writing Style in two novels by Cecelia Ahern"

(Google Images)

Greetings. I am half way through my project paper. I choose to work on the novels by Cecelia Ahern because I like her works. Her works is really inspiring and suitable for the teenagers to read on.

Cecelia Ahern is an Irish writer who has successfully gains special place in the reader’s heart through her series of interesting novels. Her first novels “P/s I Love You” was published when she was 21 years old, is a great success to her career. The novel was being sold to over forty countries and had become the bestseller novel throughout Europe, USA and Germany. Her second novel “Where Rainbows End” was also successful when it has been listed as one of the international bestseller novel.

In every pieces of creative writing, the writing styles of an author play a major role. The appropriateness and different set of writing styles that the author posses is the reason for successful in her writing. Through it, the author will be able to express the theme of her works to the reader clearly in the interesting way.

Lets get married~

Which one do you prefer?

A marriage from a lovey-dovey relationship?

or

a marriage that have been arranged for you?

The issue of arranged marriage has been the topic of discussion in my class. My lecturer had asked us to find the information related to this topic. During the discussion session, i had gain lots of info regarding this topic. Some of my classmates relate this issue to women's oppression because arranged marriage did put women at the disadvantages.

What say you?

(Google Image)

As for me, the arranged marriage is a real nightmare if it ever happens to me. I really pray that my parents will not do this kind of arrangement for me. But if they do, they do it out of love. Sometimes, the parents can't get over the feeling of over protective towards their daughter. And as for the daughter, it is the matter of believing in your parents because you know who loves you the best.

Crazy Joe

The movie "Lean On Me" is totally different from the movie that my classmates and I watched during the movie session.

Why is that so?

First of all, the previous movie shows the teachers with great manner and approach their students with appropriate way. Elementary school principal, Joe Clark a.k.a Crazy Joe is quit radical in handling his students. When he enters the school, he dismisses hundreds of students with drug problems. His action creates havoc in Parents Teacher Meeting as they view his action is too drastic.

Secondly, the previous movie shows teacher with good relationship with the person around them. Crazy Joe shows the different value in handling the people around him. He works according his wish without giving another person get in the way. As a result, his relationship with the person around him get worse. The school atmosphere is so tense that some of the teacher get suspended and quit their jobs.

In my opinion, Crazy Joe is too strict in handling this situation. He should have been more lenient with his staff because they are the important aspect in creating a school. However, we need different method in handling different situation. He had done the best that he can do in order to save the school. Finally, the school is saved and the students able to achieve the standardize results.

Ron Clark Story

I have another story of an honorable teacher!!

This story is about a teacher that turns down his stable life in order to challenge his ability as a teacher. He leaves the school in his suburban North California hometown, where he is appreciated by both his fellow teachers and students. He moves to a tough inner city school, where the students are segregated by their abilities. The principal suggests a class with good achievement but he wanted to teach the most disadvantage class. As expected, the teaching get tougher as the students refuse to learn. So, this teacher started to get to know his students by mingle around with them, get to know their background and share the problem that they faces.

Would you do the same if you were a teacher?

As for me, it is a really hard question. First of all, i am not that confident in myself as a teacher. So, instead of challenging myself to the limit,Ii would find the easy way out. I would stay at the school which provides me security I needed, and with the fellow friends that respect me. It is nice to hear this kind of story, where the teacher is willingly to sacrifices, but it took a lot of courage to become one.

little Bee queen

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same"

(Marianne Williamson)

"That I am not supposed to be afraid? Afraid of me...." (Aqeelah)

In this movie, once again the importance of the teacher has been highlighted. Dr. Larabee, an English professor plays a major role in motivating Aqeelah to achieve what she had achieved. At first, the traetment of Dr.Larabee seems too rough for this little girl. But, when I think back, that's the best way in handling this situation. The environment that surrounds this little girl really makes her afraid to outshine others. But, with lillte push from Dr.Larabee, she becomes stronger.

Mc J-9

For the 4th week tutorial, my friends (Cik Dida, MunCun, Cutie) and I were instructed to create our own fables. The fables must be connected to our society and modernized in order to fit current situation. We were so exited to complete this task so we started brainstorming at once.

First of all, we have listed the famous fables or folks tare in Malay society. Through the brainstorming, i have found out that I have a really dense knowledge regarding the folks tare. So, I am happy because this activity enriched my knowledge on this matter.

Then, we have decided to use one of the famous folk tare, which is;

To modernized this story, we have changed the name of the main character to Mc J-9. Other than that, we have changed the setting and also some of the story line. However, the story still revolves around the main theme in Mat Jenin which is ;the importance of being focus, the consequences of day-dreaming and over-confident.

What is the relevance of this activity?

Well, the stories that we have produced during the tutorial is really interesting. It can be use as the material in teaching English in certain topic. Furthermore, the folks tare usually contain the theme related to real life situation, which later educates the students on moral values. In short, the materials can be used as a vehicle to teach language in more interesting manner.

Unconventional

Caution: By the time you read this entry, you will envy me because I have an interesting lecturer who asked us to listen to the song, watch the movie and play the Games!

Now, what game do I play? If you are really interested to know, try this link

http://drowgames.com/

For this session, my classmates and I spent our time in Resources Center. We were instructed to log in and start to play the games. In my opinion, the game helps to enrich students' vocabulary in the exciting way. The approach of this game is more to drills and practice, so that the player knows the word by repeatedly playing the game. This is so very different from the approach of teaching vocabulary when I was in school.

What makes this games so interesting?

First of all, the game is good for the students with competitive streaks. During the session, we challenge our friends to the game and play well in order to gain the highest score. We know that our opponent is someone out there instead of merely programmed machine.

Second, the prizes for the top scorer is really worth it. Yes! He really knows how to motivate his dear students.

Something worth drooling over ;p

Google Image

Extraordinary Women

"seeks truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond the image."

The phrase above was quoted from the movie that I watch last thursday, Mona Lisa's smile. The movie is about an art teacher, Katherine Anne Watson, who inspires her students to break free from the traditional women's role (housewives). She receives various reaction towards her method of teaching because the Wellesley College is a conservative women's private liberal arts college. She uses the modern art to open up her students' eyes towards the idea of feminism.

Google Image

One of the scene that really catches my attention is the first day she entered the class. At first, all the students seems so nice and attentive. Later, when the teaching begin, the students starts to show off their knowledge. The students already memorize everything in the text book resulting the lost of interest among them. Katherine was speechless dismissed the class earlier than expected. I really hope that this WILL NOT happen to me later on. I am freaking out already.

To overcome this problem, Katherine uses the materials (modern art), to teach her students. Her students starts to learn something new from the new approach and getting closer to her. However, the college didn't accept her way of teaching by stating that she unable to follow the syllabus. Then, the college starts to monitor her class by asking her to submit the lesson plan before the class for approval. She quits her job.

From the movie, I realize that you have to sacrifice many things in order to become a great teacher. You may gain your students affection but there will always be the obstacle that limits you from doing the good deed.

A Lady

When the word "Lady" entered my mind, I always imagine a very compose woman of superior social status, with a beautiful gown and her chin high up.

(Lady Catherine in Vampire Diaries)

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However, these images never fit my expectation towards a lady;

(Lady Antelope)

(Face-less Lady)

(The Frog Lady)

(Blown Up Lady)

Google Images

Well, this lady has her own way to dress up. A weird way. It took a lot of confidence and courage to be different and to stands out. Lady Gaga is the one with the packages.

In the 1st class for "Readings and Project Work for Teaching Literature in ESL", My lecturer, Dr. Jayakaran Mukundan had introduced himself as Alejandro. Then, he made us listen to the song Alejandro by Lady Gaga. During that period, I am really exited to know the reason behind Dr.Jaya's interest towards this lady.

Later on, my brilliant lecturer views Lady Gaga as a genius, according to the creative choreography on each of her videos. it never occurs to me that she is a genius till the very day. Usually, I saw her as an attention seeker, who fights her way in a very challenging words.

Then, Dr. Jaya made us think about the reason behind this Lady's action. Everything has its reaso. From the way this Lady portrayed her songs, we came out with the reason of abuse history. It made me think about some authors like Emily Dickinson, who her background very much influence her work.

The lesson for that day has been interesting yet educative.