I Have A Dream

Hi everyone,

Having listened to Martin Luther King's speech "I Have A Dream" in youtube, Awesome! this is the only word i can tell.  He inspires those who stutter.  I agree if this speech is to be used in literature/English classroom because of Martin's brilliant use of figurative language.  There are many activities that can be carried out by students based on this speech.  For example: (i) students can be asked to study up on all the similes and metaphors used in the speech (ii) Students may explore information to think about his "big" words, then they write about their own "big" words and dreams (iii) students can analyze grammar use in authentic writing of the speech.

(iv) For new vocabulary student may identify 100 acts of kindness stated in the speech (v) Students may explore the ways that powerful and passionate words communicate the concepts of freedom, justice, discrimination, and the American Dream in the speech, and many more. It is all depend to teacher's creativity of how to design activities that can attract students to participate the lesson. When i was in secondary school, in form three, i still remember, my teacher read this speech enthusiastically in front of the classroom. Unfortunately half of the class did not understand the speech even a word.  After finish reading, she asked one of our friend to tell the class what can he understand by the speech and you know,  it was so funny when the student stood up and said " I don't know teacher". How could we, students from rural area know about the speech? unless she gives us the script and guides us to carry out the activity as i have mentioned above then, it would be effective. 

This incident will be a lesson for me when i become a teacher soon. 

Reader's Digest.

Hi all,

The exam is just around the corner. Things will never come to the end until it did. Got two more assignments to be done.  OMG, i am so tense right now. Anyway laugh it is still the best medicine.  Wanna share with you this funny story picked from readers digest:

"In Deep"
A ship is sailing the seas when the call comes from the crow's nest, "Enemy Ship on the horizon!" The captain hollers to  his men, 'Prepare for battle!" He says to his deckhand, " Bring me my red shirt!" The deckhand asks why. " So that if i get injured my men won't see my blood and will keep on fighting," replies the hardy captain.  The men stand their ground and finally win out. The tend the wounded and carry on sailing.  Sometime later, another cry comes from the crow's nest: "TEN enemy ships on the horizon!""  Prepare for battle!" the captain hollers to his men, then says to his deckhand, "Bring me my brown pants" - Reader's Digest: Dale Donoghue (May 2012)

Why Reader's digest? Because it is a teacher and a friend to me.  I highly recommended the magazine to be one of  reading materials for both teacher and student because  it has many good true life stories that can give you great guidance in your life. It will definitely help you improve your language as it has many language improving section which called 'Increase your word power section'. The jokes in there are also cool. I found Laughter the Best Medicine section, and my vocabulary came on by leaps and bounds through the multiple-choice feature. I have a story to share about Reader's Digest.  Last ten years, my English teacher borrowed me her Reader's Digest magazine.  According to her the magazine is good for students like me.  So i brought it home and showed it to my parents. I told them about the magazine as how my teacher told me and i wanted to buy the megazie.  You know what my parents said ? "ini majalah orang putih mana ada jual kat kampung ni". Oh My Goodness! i can laugh at myself when i remembered the moment. It is so memorable.  But it is a real story of mine. I can not find this magazine those days at my place because it is a rural area. I think parent nowadays should provide their children with English reading material at home to stimulate children's  interest in English language  as it is indeed learning often begin at home.  Several research has been carried out to investigate why Malay students did not achieve much success in English language and surprisingly they found that parent who their children were not doing so well in English did not provide English reading material at home and students were only exposed to the language only in the classroom. Well,  how could we expect our students to be competent  English learners if this is actually the scenario .  Think how we can share this with parents out there.

Inspiring story behind the poem "The Road Not Taken"

 Hi everybody,

Now, let's talk about  Research Paper. After 2nd  face to face, i got the whole idea of how to carry out the research paper.Thank to our beloved Cik Dzeelfa for her brief explanation on that. While doing the research i studied one poem by Robert Frost " The Road Not Taken".   It's inspiring poem no doubt it has been prescribed for form 4 students. This is what i can conclude , no matter what journey we found ourselves on, we determine how the journey ends.  As teacher who teaches the poem we need to stress this point out to our students.  As for me, I have read this poem before but i have not really felt this way.  There is something i found behind the poem which is, i actually have the same thought as Frost's wife when she decided to resign form her work. She expressed her feeling as below:

" After much thought and several discussions with my husband I chose not to work and stay at home with my children.   Considering my chaotic childhood and the absence of my parents growing up made me want to be everything for my children.   I wanted to be home when they came home from school, help them with their homework, know who they are hanging out with, make sure they’re doing the right things and most importantly be there when they needed me.   Since I’ve been a stay at home mom I’ve had many conversations with my children about morals and values, given them advice on how to handle situations with friends and bullies, laughed and cried, made crafts and cookies, played games, read books, snuggled on the couch on rainy days; there is not a salary in this world that is worth those memories.
We all choose a path that determines our future.   Sometimes the path we choose does not always have the outcome that we hope for but that is a gamble we take in life.   Robert Frost’s poem is about life changing decisions that are made in a blink of an eye and have a tremendous impact on our future.   I really enjoyed the poem because it is something that everyone can relate to.   No matter who we are, no matter where we go, our future is determined the moment we walk down that path" -  Elinor Mirrian (Robert Frost's wife)


All the above mentioned by Frost's wife was what i have thought when i decided to resign from my work few months ago (as i told in my introduction post). The difference is just "the absence of my father growing up made me want to be everything for my children".  I agree with Elinor because choosing one thing we have automatically chosen to sacrifice its opposite.  That is life, everything is not ours.

"Our experience of the world is being impoverished to the extent that it is being rendered artificial and prepackaged." - David W. Orr

True Love

'The Awakening', Kate Chopin

I like reading Kate Chopin's feminist story like "The Storm", "Story of An Hour"  and  one that i recently read is  'The Awakening'. The has given a great impact for me in understanding a real love especially once you have got married. As i always remind myself to always be thankful for what ever that God has given you.
There are many important paths that we must follow on our journey through life.  We follow the path without questioning its intent.  The path informs us when we should learn to talk, to walk, to marry and to have children.  We are told that we should never stray from it, because if we do, society will make it certain that we are bound for damnation.  Obviously, woman has all rights to marry the man of her heart.  But it is not appropriate for a woman to be 'happy' and passion by having an affair after she is married as her husband is still loyal to her.  If she feels neglected, she could have discuss the problems with her husband which she did not. On the subject of death, i would say Edna Pontellier struggles vigorously to escape the shackles of society . With the final realization that she will never be entirely free, Edna takes her life.  Edna found her true love with Robert and a sexual intensity that she could never find again. The dept of true love MUST be a part of our sexual experience to truly satisfy.  Trying to recapture that experience through sexual gratification alone was impossible for her.  It had driven her so strongly that she gave up her children to search for it .  This goes against all social expectations even today.  When JUST the sexual experience did not bring the depth of her relationship she had experienced with Robert, it deeply grieved her to the point where she could not go back and could not go forward.  All she could think of during her life time was Robert.  It's called 'dieing from a broken heart and that made her find the darkness through death.
Moral of the story is fight for your TRUE love with a man that you are going to marry.  It is a great feeling which everyone has to feel it.  Some people say love before marriage is the best and it's the one that last forever but some say the other way.  The most important is it will be the best where every partner knows each other while they are married.  Be happy, life is short to be unhappy.

It is again ... an authentic learning.

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I read "The Andy Warhol Diaries" from the EDU3234 Module.  A worth of reading as it provides much insight about the writer for reader like me who had never known who is Andy Warhol. It is again about authentic reading but I think is not that interesting and seriously, it is not suitable to bring into the classroom.  Lot's of talk about drugs, about sex and it would give bad influence to students .  It would be interesting if teacher asks students to write their own diary and express their own feeling.  Everybody has diary even my 9 years old daughter uses diary to tell what she did, how she feels, hopes and interest on that particular day.
        Talking about diary, last weeks when i was terribly busy with my assignments, i saw my daughter far from my room that she was writing something in her diary with her "sour face".  When she went down, i flipped the page and read it... Oh my Goodness, i feel so touched when i read it. This is how she expressed her feeling in 'rojak': ' Today Sunday, oh diary why mama very bz, bila mama nak bawa Myra jalan-jalan like before. Myra so sad.....'. I wiped the tears from eyes, i went to her and hug her.  I feel like  abandoning her .....is it an abandonment??? No, it's not.  She is just a kid and it is good she knows how to express her feeling.  She will understand it as she grow up. The most important thing is i have always helped  her with her homework, i cooked for her and prepared everything for her.  Thank God for the strength you gave me.

     

" Money Can Buy Love"

Hi everyone,

You must be surprised with the topic of this post, didn't you?  How money can buy a love? Are you mad?  Everyone must  be so angry with this statement. Relax dear, this is actually my argument point for Position Paper based on "The Fruitcake Special", a short story described for form 4. Indeed, it is not an easy job for me to convince people about something that you yourself do not agree about, but since i decided that, no matter how hard it is, i have to  try to the 'max'  to make reader agree with me. Let me roughly tell you what the story is all about.

It is a tale about Anna, the main character who seeks for a TRUE love.  She admires her boss, a playboy Mr. who is the owner of Amos Cosmetics.   Anna works as a chemist designing new perfumes there. When she makes a new perfume with a little piece of fruitcake as part of the ingredients, she attracts her rich and handsome boss, David Amos, who has little regard for ordinary woman. want to know the rest of the story??  catch it on left tool bar.

It is a very interesting and intriguing story. Can be successfully taught in English literature classroom especially female students who will definitely show more interest than male because it is authentic. This story also have its own moral values, which are important to be  emphasized by the teachers.Hope to experience it soon!

Develop children's literature skill.

Hello my fellow friends and my dearest lecturer Cik Dzeelfa,

A huge apology for posting this late. Very late. As i promised you that i will come back after having something from the module. The first thing i read from the module was a section from  'the module writer', Dr. Vethamani
a President of MELTA, she has done extensive research in the area of teaching literature in English to promoting English language learning among our students.  This is of course needs teachers to prepare themselves with effective teaching methodology so that students benefit from the lesson .  Despite teacher's effort, i think parent also play important roles in their children's learning.
Last month, i have read an article by Marie Dunleavy, an author from U.K. and i like to share what i read here. It's a very important tips in developing our children's literature skills at home so that later on, when they go to school they would have a deeper interest in literature lessons and this is a credit for all teachers and say "thank you parents for making our job easier"  well... just kidding!  Below are the tips:
 
 1.  Have a precious time to read aloud to your kids as it helps to create their speech skills especially for preschool kids.
  2. Have a chance for them to pick the reading material of their choice as it makes reading more fascinating and your child will enjoy it.
 3.Set a schedule for the reading activity. This will help the kid create his full literacy potential.
 4.Parents show a reading habit to their kids to motivate them. Nothing beats teaching by example.
 5. On the way back to "kampung" or during travel ask your kids to read on labels and signs.
 6. ask questions after reading a narrative to enhances the child's memory and simultaneously, encourages him to speak out his ideas.
  7.  don't read the ending of the story. Let the kid predict it. This develops creative thinking and simultaneously, enhances verbal expression.
  8 permit the kid to ask questions. Don't cease him when he interferes with the reading activity to ask something.
 9. use fascinating, attractive and educational literacy materials. Special needs kid won't read or listen unless what is being read arouses their interest. Words must be simple

I hope these tips will benefit others as it benefits me. See you soon!