What a teacher is?

This is definitely an interesting class of all. ~grins~ It was fun, entertaining and thoughtful. How each of us perceived what teacher is (the metaphor of a teacher) is creatively thought and differently seen by each of us. Well, I have listed few of the metaphors; most of them are common like candles and light in the darkness. Once it’s my turn, I then said the teacher is like “blood”. Everybody goes like “blood?” and they were laughing themselves out. Hello? I have reason and sturdy justification guys! Blood would be the indicator of sustenance that actually provides nutrition and nourishments to the souls of a student. Where it becomes the source to enable students to “breathe” and without the blood that circulating inside our body that bring oxygen, we would be dead. Without being educated, we are futile. Apart from that, after the class I think of another metaphor which I think it is better than blood, heh. A teacher is like an airplane. Airplane does bring us to further destination in quick time rather than any other transport. Here, teacher could be seen as a means that could figuratively leads students from the state of not knowing to the state of knowledge. Airplane flies in the sky, so definitely the views would be completely different. A long the journey towards, gaining knowledge, teacher actually show the way and giving us ample space of going to the same destination yet with different ways of looking at things. I believe this would be the greatest impact that the teacher would have on the students since the chance given to constantly looking at things in different ways, will establish who you are. How we think made who we are, and thoughts and ideas we utter show who we really are – through the endless guidance of the teacher.

Presentation on Position paper

Presentation of my position paper; I was relaxed at first yet I’m getting nervous being in front. I’m not sure why, but I just can’t control it. As I started to present, then things are getting better. Here are some of the points that have been highlighted in my position paper;

1. resistance towards bias perspective on gender
2. the clichéd labels on how girl should be
3. the womanly changes in her
4. her action against her dad

In her route of her journey into womanhood, those points above have actually prompted her into womanhood. How bliss I was after presenting my arguments!

The Road Home – inspiring!

This is a really interesting movie; well I guess it is so inspiring. It puts greater importance on the nobility of the teacher, how people surround thinks and rose highly of the role of a teacher. Teacher is very often not realized the long term effect that they might had in their students’ life. We may not know how we may affect people. Being an educator or a teacher, we have the most vital job of all by educating the students producing future generator of the nation.

“As I sit at my desk, I have learned a great truth; the answer for nation problem. The answer of all the problem in the world comes to single word. And the word is education”. Lyndon B. Johnson

To be a teacher, our role is not only to teach but to educate the students of the exact truth of life so they will be able to see things lucidly and act wisely.

Fun, fun and fun!

I was wondering why we need to change the room for the class. Then I was informed that we are going to have a speaker from England. So I guess it would be boring. Because sometimes speech doesn’t work well with me. I will attend to hear but it would 10 minutes of attentive listening. Then, I’ll be lost nowhere. Anyhow, to my surprised, wow~ I guess I’m totally wrong! It was the moment of pleasure! Meeting Kim Trusty and enjoying one and half hour of my life in the class is definitely defining. The activity was simple yet it was really meaningful and fun. It would definitely invoke my creativity of creating activities hopefully for my teaching of literature in future to be even more lively and exciting. I like the part where we need to read aloud and attempting on the task based on the poem of LULU – a nice piece of work. The most significant part of it is when we need to create a poem from three different points of view. It was really very fun and enlightening I would say. We come out with a poem entitled “I see”. I have already forgotten the poem but the last lines were “through the window I see” indicating a broad horizon of what Lulu saw from the wide open window. I did learn whole lots of new things from her from simple things of how to hold the microphone properly to how to really seriously engage to the students to the text. I’ve found out that Kim Trusty has a myspace account and I have drop a message to her. Yet, still waiting for her reply. Honestly, she rocks! Ha-ha.

Get ready to put ideas in written =)

I went to meet Dr. Noreen and hand her my draft. I was so happy that my draft was accepted. There are alterations should be made, the rest are all fine. =) . So here is my thesis statement:

“The issue of moral dilemma is ingeniously “crafted” through the symbolism and value conflicts represented by different style of writing in the short story A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett and Hills like White Elephant by Ernest Hemingway.”

Now, I am so really excited to write on the paper. Since these two texts are favorite texts (Jewett’s A White Heron and Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephant), ideas keep on flowing on and on. So, here I am taking a break for being suffocated with bunch of ideas, heh. I just can’t wait to finish this and read the final product.

Andy Warhol

“We are going to watch a movie today”, devoid of knowing what to watch, I joyously said “Yeay!” well, I guess most of us were so excited to watch movies because according to our experience, watching movies in literature class is always fun and enjoyable. =) As the story starts, we were having some sort of sound problem that make us really frustrated since we could hardly hear the sounds. As the movies goes on, we started to yawn. I looked around and saw many heads were “nodding” and then, come the next yawn and it continuously happen on and on and out of sudden it stop when the movie was over. To be very honest, I was so not really keen on watching it. The only things I remember were the paintings of Campbell tins, Marilyn Monroe and description that could slightly be heard in the room. But, the most significant or the most vivid fact that I heard is that his masterpieces was fundamentally related to his religious belief. Andy Warhol was an American artist and a central figure in the movement known as pop art. He was definitely a genius in doing such amazing pop arts paintings. I was awe by his talent! The way of he looks at things could actually be seen through his masterpieces. The paintings of different angles of torn Campbell’s tin were incredibly great!

alteration after another

As I was working on the position paper, collecting info and thinking about it, I do make some alterations and amendments in the outline. When I revised back and satisfied with the points that I have written, I started to write the paper. In my paper, I talk about the issue that evolves around the unnamed girl which is her initiation towards maturity. I try to demonstrate the factors that actually brought her away from the state of innocence (lacking of knowledge) to the state of experience (gaining knowledge). The factors transpired are the girl’s inner and physical changes and her resistance towards stereotypical views on female behaviors. When I revised my work I sense that the essay was not perfectly suits the thesis statements since some alteration had been done before writing the paper. Again, I think of changing my thesis statement. Based on my arguments, I have finally found the correct words. So, my final thesis statement is “The girl’s resistance towards stereotypical views about female behavior and her feminine changes prompt herself into womanhood”. Hmm.. I guess I get the words! And gratefully, Mr. Omid had agreed with me.

A Flying boy?

We are assigned to read Daedalus and Icarus, and yes I really love reading the story. Icarus was a Greek mythological figure, also known as the son of Daedalus (famous for the Labyrinth of Crete). Now Icarus and his dad were stuck in Crete, because the King of Crete wouldn't let them leave. Daedalus made some wings for the both of them and gave his son instruction on how to fly (not too close to the sea, the water will soak the wings, and not too close to the sky, the sun will melt them). Icarus, however, appeared to be obstinate and did fly to close to the sun. This caused the wax that held his wings to his body to melt. Icarus crashed into the sea and died. Icarus pays a heavy price since he fails to listen to her father. Then we are asked to google on the painting of “The Fall of Icarus” or something related to Ovid Metamorphosis. What is more interesting is that how Auden’s Musee des Beaux Art relates to the painting. It was so nice to be able to read the poem and see it in the paintings.

About suffering they were never wrong,

The Old Masters; how well, they understood

Its human position; how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting

For the miraculous birth, there always must be

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating

On a pond at the edge of the wood:

They never forgot

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,

But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

To be able to “read” a picture is something impossible for me before. But now, it is really an eye-opener for me to be able to see a lot of things narrated by a single painting.