Review on what I have learned in EDU 3217

The lectures and tutorials have been a wonderful and great experience to me. I enjoyed every single lesson and I am sure that I am going to miss the lectures given by Dr. Edwin and the tutorials by Ms. Kasthoori. Credit to the both of them! I had learned and gained so much from both the lectures and tutorials.

In the lectures, we had managed to complete four plays together. Many times when I have certain difficulties and challenges in understanding the play, Dr. Edwin and Ms. Kasthoori will always be there to resolve them. With the explanations given by both Dr. Edwin and Ms. Kasthoori, I was able to have a deeper understanding of the plays. I can say that without the help of Dr. Edwin and Ms. Kasthoori, I probably will have difficulties understanding the intrinsic meaning of the plays.

Apart from that, we also had numerous movies watching session. I truly enjoyed watching all the movies. We have watched Elizabeth-the Golden Age, Hamlet, Oedipus, King Lear and Streetcar Named Desire. Watching all these movies had helped me to have a clearer understanding of the play. Besides, by watching these movies, I have learned to understand the language (classic English) spoken by the characters in the play. Actually, I really enjoyed listening to the language spoken in these movies especially for Elizabeth-the Golden Age and Hamlet. I find that the language spoken is absolutely rich and compact. Every single word counts and none of the words are spoken by the characters are redundant.

Last but not least, we also had simulated teaching for weeks during tutorials. I had learned not little from my course mates' simulated teaching. Apart from that, I have gained help and guidance from remarks and comments made by Ms. Kasthoori regarding our simulated teaching.

It truly has been a pleasurable learning experience in EDU 3217.

Blogging experience

It has been months of pleasurable experience in blogging to me. Blogging is the best place for one to express his or her opinions and views. This is especially for those who are not so outspoken and shy. By blogging, it enables one to speak out what he or she desires to speak out in public but does not have the courage to do so.

As for me, blogging has made me sit down and think a lot. It has also made me reflect on what I have done and on what has happened in lectures and tutorials. By blogging, it has made me think of what I have learned so far in these 14 weeks. Through blogging, I have come to realize that I have learned and gained so much from both the lectures and tutorials.

Apart from that, blogging has also improved my writing. The more I blog, the more fluent my writing became. It has trained my mind in arranging and organizing the thoughts that were jumbled up and eventually to put my thoughts into paper.

The more I blog, the more I realize that I enjoyed blogging. It made me so eager to share my thoughts, views, opinions and also what I have learned. I would love to continue blogging in future.

Question marks??

As I was preparing for my simulated teaching, I do have several questions playing in my head. Questions like, "What kind of activities should I prepare for my students?" and "Are my activities appropriate for my students?" occurs in my mind.

Well, I started off by asking myself and thinking how to solve these questions. When I ran out of ideas, I turned to other teaching resources to get some ideas of what activities to prepare. For example, I checked out the websites on teaching and learning online. There are a number of websites which have interesting activities which may help teachers in their preparation for their lesson.

Apart from the websites, I have also referred to several Form 4 and 5 literature workbooks to obtain some ideas on the kind of activities I should prepare for my simulated teaching. Besides that, by referring to these workbooks, it also enables me to check and see whether the activities that I have prepared are appropriate for my students or not.

To solve the questions that I have regarding simulated teaching, I did make the effort to ask other English teachers for some guidance on preparing activities. By doing so, I was able to know whether I was on the right track or not.

I admit that I have questions about simulated teaching and I am glad that eventually, I am able to solve these questions.

Deliver the similar lesson in different ways

If I would to deliver the similar lesson again, I will prepare a more interesting and thought-provoking set induction. This is because the set induction is not interesting and thought-provoking enough. As for me, an interesting will be able to capture the students' attention from the beginning of the lesson. A thought-provoking set induction will be able to lead the students to think in depth of what has been presented for set induction.

Besides, I will do more research for the preparation the activities. I will spend more time doing more research in order to get new ideas for my activities. By doing this, I will be able to design and create a more interesting and creative activities for my simulated teaching. Preparing interesting and creative activities are important as this will attract the students to attempt the activities with full interest and enthusiasm.

Therefore, if I would to deliver the similar lesson again, I will prepare a more interesting and thought-provoking set induction and also do more research in order to be able to come out with new, creative and interesting activities.

I am not perfect, I am in the process of learning

I am only human, I am not perfect. I realized that there are many things that are needed to be improved in my simulated teaching.

First of all, I think that my set induction activity is not interesting enough. A set induction that is not interesting will not be able to capture the attention of the students. I realized this when I find that my students are not as responsive as I have expected. In future, I will find more resources to produce a more interesting set induction. I will probably try out some other alternatives such as using video clips, songs and etc. for set induction.

Next, I have to improve on my voice projection. As a future teacher, having a good voice projection is very crucial. In order to achieve a good voice projection, I have to practise speaking with the correct vocal technique (which I think it will help).

Besides, I was not fully prepared for the simulated teaching as well. I did not manage to practise teaching before i did my simulated teaching in class. In future, I have to train myself to be fully prepared so that the whole process of teaching will go smoothly as planned.

After my simulated teaching, I realized that I have so much that needs to be improved. Anyway, I am thankful that I have the opportunity to do my simulated teaching which actually trains me before I go out and do my practical training.

My strengths in simulated teaching

There are a few points that are worth being applied in my future simulated teaching. First of all, I was able to connect with my students. To connect and interact with my students, I have used interactive language to communicate with them. Another point that is important when interacting with students is eye contact. In order to communicate with the students, eye contact is crucial as it has enabled me to capture the students' attention. If there is no eye contact, none of the students will even bother to look at me or listen to me. Therefore, having appropriate eye contact has enabled me to connect with the students well.

Besides, I gave clear instructions to the students every time before I set them to do a task. I know many students do not have the habit in reading instructions. Therefore, I have read the instructions aloud to them and also rephrased the instructions again to make sure that they really understood the task that they are required to do.

Everyone is born with their own unique strengths and I believe that I have more to learn from others and others are always welcome to learn from me as well.

Interpretation of the plays

For the four plays that we have done this semester, I have no problem with the interpretation of the plays. Whatever that were discussed in lectures and tutorials did not clash with my own interpretations of the plays.

Well, this is because all these while, I have not been exposed to plays as I am not that kind of person who read plays. Therefore, my mind is still new towards plays and I have not built up my own interpretation of what I read. I am still looking at things from one perspective. I have not tried exploring and looking at things from another point of view.

Besides, I am still learning how to read plays like King Lear which uses classic English. As I can hardly understand what was being said by the characters in the plays, it is definitely impossible for me to interpret the content of the play. I am still learning to read these plays and hopefully with the help of the footnotes, I will be able to learn, understand and enjoy reading plays with classic English.