A Streetcar Named Desire

The title of this play is very interesting. During my first reading, I was confused what a streetcar is actually. I thought it was the name of the street where the scene takes place, only later when I watched the movie then I realised that it is actually a means of transportation, which looked like to me a bus. Even though I expected the storyline to be captivating, I found out my expectation was not correct. This is due to some difficulty to understand the character trait of the main characters. I could not differentiate who are the protagonist(s) and antagonist(s), who should be blamed, who tells the truth and who tells the lies and things like that.
Fortunately, I had a chance to clarify my misunderstanding as I attended Sir Edwin’s lecture. As usual, he highlighted the important points for us to consider. Actually, after I learnt it more deeply with Sir Edwin, I tended to change my initial perception that this play is not interesting. It is indeed a very meaningful play.

3o Days in September

This is the last play that we have to learn. Uniquely, this story is from Indian society while the previous plays are from West. From the title, I predicted that the time span is within the 30 days in September. However, it is wrong. Compared to other plays, I managed to complete the whole acts at the first reading. How amazing! It implies that the language and the storyline are fascinating enough for a lazy bun like me. Besides, this play deals an issue that is easy to understand and rampantly occurs in our surrounding-sexual abuse on child.
As Sir Edwin discussed the play with the whole class, I gained confident as most of my understanding of the play was right. There is not much clashes between Sir Edwin’s explanation and my prior understanding. After all, the play is easy as Sir Edwin himself has stated. I am glad that we learn this play. There are certain new techniques in staging a play such as two acting stages are simultaneously staged side by side. The actors and actresses take their turns in speaking their lines.
I rate four stars for this play.

Evaluation by others

On last Friday on March 29th , it was my turn to present simulated teaching. I was doing it with a partner, Nor Izyan Ahmad. The literary element that we have chosen was Cleopatra's character trait in Antony and Cleopatra. As usual, I was quite nervous and fearful that I may get negative feedback from my peers.
As I started the set induction which was only using pictures in Power Point slide show, I was glad that some of my peers gave response and feedback to my questions. They expressed their agreement when I asked for that towards one statement. They also raised their hands and actively voiced their opinion as I went along with my Power Point presentation. When I resumed my task which was on last questions in while reading stage, they still gave cooperation.
From the evaluation forms that they have returned to me, I did not find any negative comments or errors in my activities. Overall, it was a positive support from my peers. Miss Baiti did not give any comments and she went on with next presenters. Hopeful I have done the right thing and did not miss any important points to consider in simulated teaching.

evaluating peers

For the second simulated teaching, we are required to evaluate our peers who are presenting their teaching. There are several aspects that we need to give attention. Their preparation, teaching aids, language, flow of activities and other things. This task has some benefits that it gives us a chance to monitor others and to revise our preparation of presentation.
In my opinion, my peers were doing just fine and very well prepared. They moved on from one stage to another with a smooth flow. Besides that, the use of teaching aids in set induction were all interesting. They knew how to grab students' attention by selecting appropriate and enjoyable video clips or other aids, but many of us used video clips. Communication skills between teacher and students was one aspect that I looked upon during their presentation. Many of them were able to interact with the students by asking for feedback and responses. 'Students' enjoyed themselves by participating in this teaching activity and gave cooperation or support for each others.
Even though there were some mistakes but it is common since we were still in our learning process and could not be perfect. Miss Baiti gave some comments and made some correction. Indirectly, we could learn and know what did she expect from us. Overall, it was a great effort by they all. I hoped after I have observed their teaching activities, I would be able to learn something to enhance my presentation later. I realise that interaction is one important skill in teaching and I need to put in some effort to enhance my skills.