The End of Sem 7......

Hello, this would my last journal entry in this blog spot. And tomorrow would be the last day for this semester.. My feelings are indescribable but finally, we have completed everything for this subject. Position paper, presentation, e-journal and the most importantly, the RESEARCH PAPER! In this subject, I have gained a lot of new knowledge especially when I was working on my assignments and research paper. So, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Malachi Edwin, Mr. Omid and my supervisor, Dr. Jaya for their kindness and guidelines. Thank you!!

Time flies ...........

This week is already Week 13! Oh my god! How time flies by...... Anyway, this week is the submission week for my research paper. I've already finished editing the last draft of the paper and I'm so happy! This is a major assignment and I've really put in alot of effort to finish it. I have chose King Lear as my topic because it examines the tragic hero's relationships with the people around him, good or bad. Lear’s basic flaw at the beginning of the play is that he values appearances above reality. He wants to be treated as a king and to enjoy the title, but he doesn’t want to fulfill a king’s obligations of governing for the good of his subjects. In my opinion, we can learn alot from Lear's character and his downfall..... All in all, I'm happy I chose this as the topic of my research paper!


"Come not between the dragon and his wrath." - Lear

Meeting up with Dr. Jaya

Today is my meeting with my research paper with Dr. Jaya, my supervisor. He gave us alot of guidelines to edit our research paper together. We talked about many new ideas to edit our draft. The discussion lasted about an hour or so. I like Dr. Jaya because he is very helpful and down-to-earth. My friends and I were really comfortable with him as our supervisor as he is a very knowledgeable lecturer.

Fast and Furious Day!!

Today is Thursday again and as usual we have Dr. Edwin's class. Previously, we were assigned by Dr. Edwin to read an essay. Then, he started the class by asking what is the definition of empire. Each of us gave our opinions. Suddenly, a few of my friends came in late for class and interrupted the whole class teaching session. Dr. Edwin got irritated and pissed because of the late comers. So, he asked them the reason they came in late. Nazhmir said they went to do for the research for a Master's student and therefore they are late for class. However, Dr. Edwin was very angry and he said he would not continue to teach in the class unless "we get things straightened out here". So, he walked off and left the classroom. I feel that Dr. Edwin did the right thing and he deserved a better respect from us.....

Happy!

Today is a happy day because we do not have any tutorial class! This is due to the public holiday. So, I just sat at home today and did some research for my research paper and so on. It was quite a boring day though......

A teacher?

Wow.... It's been a week since I saw Dr. Edwin! As usual he started the class with some jokes. His jokes never fail to bring a smile on our tired faces. Hmmm... before the class started, we were actually watching the DVD which we did not finish viewing last week. After finishing the movie, Dr. Edwin asked us several different questions based on the movie. Everyone gave their different and interesting opinions. Then, he asked us a very important question. "As you are a teacher, what kind of metaphor/images that you want to go for?". Starting from the row behind until the front row, each and everyone of us came out with a lot of funny and unique ideas like a mountain, spectacles, and so on. The funniest metaphor was mentioned by Nalini. She said "If I am a teacher, I want to be an ATM Machine which stands on the knowledge provider rather than money provider." Everyone kept laughing including Dr. Edwin. Haha. It was indeed an enjoyable class as everyone had a good laugh. Lastly, Dr. Edwin did a bit of letters with us and the class ended in this chapter... I was happy that during our next class, we would be studying a new chapter! I hope it would be an interesting one!

My day of presentation

Today, it was the last week of presentation for our position paper. Everyone in the class is in a good mood because Hari Raya is just around the corner and we all can't wait to go home! So, the class started with the continuation of our position paper's presentation. Mr. Omid was sitting behind the class to observe each of the presentations done by us. He was happy because everyone did a great job on presenting their points and ideas. Finally, my name was called up and I was to present my position paper. At first, I was quite nervous however after awhile on the stage, I gained my confidence and felt more comfortable around my friends. As stated on my earlier post, I had chosen "Godfather's Death" by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm for my position paper. The story had caught my attention when I first read it because it had alot of moral values that one could learn from. It taught me about the ugly side of greed and how it can destroy a person's life. Anyway, today was a great day for Mr. Omid's class! :D

Presentation again.....

Today, we continued with our presentation on our position papers in Mr. Omid's class. It was interesting while I was looking at my coursemates' presentation. They were very creative in designing their powerpoint slides. Their presentation was no doubt a good one as they stated their thesis statement and supporting ideas interestingly. I have learned alot from my coursemates in presenting their position papers. It is a good thing that it is not yet my turn for the presentation as I could still edit some last minute work and come up with a better presentation on my topic. Can't wait for the next class!! Hehehe...

Something different!

Today's class was very special as I heard my classmates saying that there would be a special guest coming into our class, a poet. Everyone was restless and curious about the poet. Alas, when we entered the classroom, I saw alot of unfamiliar faces scattered around and talking to each other interestingly. Then, I found out from my coursemates that they were the Cohort Twinning students. Dr. Edwin then entered the class with two attractive-looking ladies and everyone kept quiet to listen to them. Both the ladies introduced themselves and said they were from the British Council. At this point, they had caught my attention because there was something about the way they talked. They spoke "perfect" English and looked very knowledgeable. The poet then introduced herself and that she hailed from Birmingham, United Kingdom. However, when she was young, her parents and the whole family had moved to Jamaica. Then, she talked about her childhood life and experience. Our first task was to form a group of ten. Then, we sat together and she passed the paper around. It is a poem entitled "Lulu". The poet wanted us to read aloud with the whole class, and then read by ourselves and then for the last time, read it aloud with the rest of our group members. We had alot of fun reciting the poem and made alot of new friends. Then, she asked three questions about this poem. First, she asked what do we know? Secondly, What do we think we know? And lastly, What do we want to know? So, every group elected a leader/volunteer to reveal their answers in front of the class. Everyone came up with interesting and somewhat funny answers about the poem. We all had a good laugh about it and time passed by quickly. Next, she wanted us to write our own poem based on the role of narrator, Lulu and her mother. Then, we would recite our poem in front of the class again. There were love poems, comedy poems and many many more. We had so much fun and jokes. By the end of the class, it is already five in the evening and we were dismissed shortly after. Before that, everyone was handed a British Council notebook for remembrance. From this activity, I have learned how to teach poem in an interesting way for the students.

Position paper presentation~

As stated above, today's class was about the presentation on the position paper we have drafted previously. Power point was used to present our presentation, and for this session Mr. Omid called up all the volunteers to present. However there were only eleven people who presented. Their presentation was done very well as they stated their thesis statement and supporting ideas clearly. However our next class we have to continue with our presentation and come up with a due date for our position paper.

A review on Andy Warhol's documentary....

Today we are asked to view a video clip on a documentary of Andy Warhol. The documentary lasted about an hour. Basically, the video is about Andrew Warhola, or most commonly known as Andy Warhol, an American artist and a central figure in the movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and public figure known for his membership in wildly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy aristocrats. After watching the documentary, i found that his paintings are " eccentrically inspirational ". There were many colorful paintings of various objects. For example, there were pictures of skulls, Campbell Soup label, and Marilyn Monroe to name a few.

In my opinion, the video was quite interesting to watch. The class was dismissed soon after and we were told that we will be discussing Andy Warhol's Diaries with Dr. Edwin during our next class.

Tutorial class.....!!

This morning's class, Mr. Omid was discussing our thesis research paper with the whole class. He began the class with a brief explanation about the paper. He then ask us to get into groups with the people who are doing the same topic. We discuss to each other by giving our own opinions and ideas. Then, we made our first draft for position paper to be reviewed by our group members. From this activity, i have learned to edit my position paper based on several new perspective from my friends. We also get to exchange our ideas and opinions. It is an interesting class as we had the opportunity to discuss together on our topic. During the last half an hour, we edited our first draft of position paper. Our tutor then gave us comments on our drafts. From the draft editing session, we managed to come up with a better version of our position paper.

Godfather Death by the Grimm brothers...

I chose this story by Jakob and Wilhem Grimm for my position paper because it teaches us about the outcome of greed when it is abused. In the story “Godfather Death,” the Grimm brothers were trying to give the readers an example of what could happen when all you care about is fame and/or power, and all you think about is “yourself” taking for granted the love someone is caring to share with you. I personally think that this is an interesting story to study as it has some moral values which one can discover and gain knowledge from. We can all benefit from reading this text as it educates us about the negative side of being greedy and selfishness. The godson's desire for more than just mere recognition started when his lust for more wealth and power brings to his downfall in the end of the story. We should all be grateful for the things we have in life as it is God's will and we should to appreciate the people around us.

Mr. Omid & tutorial ....

So…. today is the second day for Readings and Project Work! Mr. Omid is our tutor for our tutorials classes for this course. He started the class by passing out handouts on thesis statements and asked us to read Ovid’s Metaphorphosis “Pyramus and Thisbe”. Then, he explained thoroughly the definition of thesis statement to the whole class. It is an interesting task because we were asked to form a group of four and discuss on the short story and come up with our very own thesis statement. Mr. Omid provided opinions and advices with each group so that we understand the tasks better. Through the discussion, we learned how to write a thesis statement properly and Mr. Omid said that a thesis statement should act like an “umbrella” for all the supporting ideas. I think learning how to write a thesis statement is very important as it brings us a higher level of cognition for educational purposes. As for the Ovid’s story, I find it quite similar to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” which we all know the lovers end up dying tragically. Personally, I dislike this kind of story because it made us all think that love is actually foolish and make us bold and blind for our loved ones. There are obviously more ‘ meaningful’ things in life such as our family and frens. We should not just follow our feelings all the time and go against our parents as it will bring troubles to our life ….. just like what happened to Pyramus and Thisbe.

A fresh start of the new sem!

Wow… today is the very first day we’ll be attending lectures on EDU 3234 : Readings & Project Work! My coursemates and I were all excited and anxious in the class because it is the first time we will be seeing Dr. Edwin after what seems like such a lonnnnggg break and prolly because we had no idea how the course would turn out to be! Haha. But after Edwin explained to us the course outlines and various tasks, all of us felt ‘worse’ because most of the assignments are individual tasks such as the position paper, e-journals, and finally the RESEARCH PAPER, which I didn’t understand how to do it obviously. Although the assignments seems very tough, I’ll try my very best to overcome it! Dr. Edwin then introduced our new tutor for this course, who is none other than Mr. Omid (who was sitting quietly at the back of the class). Everyone turned to look at him and we were all happy to see a new tutor assigned for our tutorials. Till my next post… that’s all now for my weekly journal on this wonderful course!