A Streetcar Named Desire & The 'moth'

Today, we start to read a new play which is also the final play that we will read for this course. The title of the play is “A Streetcar Named Desire” written by Tennessee Williams. Before we start reading the play, Dr. Edwin gave a brief explanation about the history of the play like when it was written and what era was it written. He also gave a brief synopsis of the play. This time around I don’t feel anxious or restless like I used to every time we’re starting to read a new play. Probably it’s because this play was written in modern English so understanding it would not be a problem. But I don’t dare to put much expectation on this play. I prefer taking it one step at a time. Today, we stop reading until page 4, to be exact we stop at the narration that describes Banche. “Her delicate beauty must avoid strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggest a moth”. These are the two last line of the narration that describes about Blanche. Dr. Edwin asks the class something about the relation or similarity between the moth and Blanche. In my opinion, the moth relates to Blanche because just like a moth which avoids being near bright lights, Blanche is the same. The earlier description on Blanche’s appearance indicates that Blanche is someone who cares about her appearance and her beauty. She is probably obsessive with her youth. The word ‘delicate’ is probably refers to Blanche aging beauty. That’s why she avoids being near bright light because bright lights reveals her true age. Usually when someone is near bright light we can see clearly the person’s face. His/her scars, wrinkles, pimples etc. So, for Blanche, being near bright light made her feel insecure because she scared that any imperfection on her face will give away her true age.

Simulated Teaching- Presentation Stage

Today, we started our simulated teaching for the presentation stage. There are 9 groups who presented today. The first group is Harveen and Amardev. As I had expected, Dr. Edwin made a lot of comments on the first group. This is not something new, it happens to every first group that presenting their lesson. Harveen and Amri took well the comments. I can see that they’re trying very hard to make spontaneous change to the instruction they gave to students when Dr. Edwin asked them to do so. Looking at them, I become more nervous and scared. I really hope my partner, Ly Wen and I can do well when it’s our turn to present. For today’s session, I like the presentation that was presented by Diana and Alicia’s group and Hui Ling and Alex’s group. I notice that Dr.Edwin hardly comment when they were presenting. But he did made some comments on both group’s worksheets. For Diana and Alicia’s group, I remember he comments on the table and for Hui Ling and Alex’s group, Dr.Edwin said that their exercise is too simple for advanced level student. However their pre-reading text is good and that they should use transparency to help them in their presentation. Most of the groups who presented today are doing on Antigone and King Lear. Only one group chose Pygmalion that is Wanirah and Wan Haninah’s group. Dr.Edwin said that if we chose to do on Pygmalion, we have to be careful with they way we pronounce the words and speaking the dialogues. There are many comments made by Dr.Edwin today that I can use for guidelines for our presentation in the next class. Among them are, teacher should speak and not read the language, teacher must explain more to students on the current exercises before moving on to the next exercise. He also advices us to make full use of technology in our presentation. I hope with all the new information, we can do well in our later.

Simulated Teaching-Set Induction

Today, it was our group’s turn to do the simulated teaching doing the set induction for Antigone. My pair, Amadifilzah and I have prepared since last week to do this microteaching. We were nervous and happy at the same time, happy because we’re finally can get this over with and nervous because we’re scared if we messed up. Amadi started off first where she greets students and give instruction before we play the song and I’m taking over the second part that is asking questions about the song and discussing the answers. We had a small problem when playing the song in the laptop but that’s not because we’re not well-prepared but it’s because we’re not familiar how to use the laptop but luckily we didn’t took much time to sort the problem. Personally, I’m extremely disappointed with my performance. I was too nervous I guess. I didn’t handle well the part where I discuss the answers with students. When Dr. Edwin said ‘wiser’ is not a trait I didn’t know what else to say so I began to babble. Saying whatever crossed my mind at that moment. It was embarrassing when I thought back about it. I guess I need to learn how to deal with unexpected question and handle my nerve better. I learned a lot form simulated teaching sessions. I learned that a teacher needs to use materials that are up-to date and taking advantage of the use of technology so that lesson would be more interesting and can attract the students’ attention. Before the lesson starts, teacher must make sure that all teaching aids are ready to use and working. Teacher also needs to give clear instruction to students before they listen to the song and after the song teacher discusses the answer with students. When students answer the questions, teacher may ask the reason the student gave that particular answer to teacher. After the discussion, then only teacher introduces the lesson to students. Hopefully, I can do better for my next simulated teaching that is the presentation stage now that I learned a lot from the first session of simulated teaching.