My experience blogging

Blogging is a beneficial assignment which should be continued. EDU 3217 introduced me to blogging, an activity which most people are doing now. If it was not for EDU 3217, I would still be lagging behind as I never thought that blogging would be of such fun. Now I understand why people like to blog! Dr Edwin does not want us to be dinosaurs in schools when students are all technology savvy.


Blogging for EDU3217 has taught me how to be reflective in writing. My first few posts were merely retelling what I have learnt in class and talking about Teiresias. After seven posting, I found out that 3 of my blogs are not reflective. The class was advised to visit some of our classmates’ blog to see how they blog. Indeed, their blog entries are great! They wrote about what they really think, not just retelling. Later, I had some idea about being reflective.


I have enjoyed beautifying my blog, making it look pink and uploading some relevant pictures to make my posting more attractive. If not, it will be too wordy. Of course, it is not all about making it look good. The content has to be there too. Blogging requires me to rethink about what I have heard in class and what I have read. Previously, I would read or listen and that’s it. No more thinking after that. But blogging has changed the way i think for the better. Now, whenever I blog, I would think critically about what I have learnt.

Thanks to Dr Edwin, who put this as a course assignemnt! =)

Simulated Teaching

Before the start of simulated teaching presentation, Mr Harold, our tutor has been encouraging us to come up with something creative. Creative. It was a good advice afterall. If not, most of us would be doing the same thing for pre reading and while reading activities. Creativity is good for us, as it squeezes our thought to produce different ideas. It also prevents our classmates from falling asleep due to repetitive pre and while reading exercises. Students will definitely gain from interesting activities as they have more interest towards the lesson and are more receptive towards the tasks.

It is unfortunate that time constraint cut short many people's presentation. Some might feel disappointed for not being able to fully show their capabilities. Some might see if as a relief. We had to rush as there were many students who have no presented. Maybe in future, simulated teaching has to be started earlier because it definetely takes a lot of time for so many students to present.

Some activities that were carried out by my friends were really interesting and involves students' active participation. Group works, matching answers, drawing, putting on masks of the characters when reading the dialogues were among some of the activities that would attract students attention. Literature class will not be boring anymore! My classmate, Rohaizad has shown obvious enthusiasm to teach the class. Such spirit would amazes me. It makes that teacher different from a monotonous teacher.

Simulated teaching allows me to practice standing in front of the class to teach. There are not many chances except for simulated teaching/ microteaching. Practice makes perfect. I appreciate the peer evaluation forms form that I have received from my friends because their sincere and honest comments help me see the weaknesses that I may not have realised. Among them are voice projection and I should be more firm in class. Thank you for all your comments, my friends! I will work on them =)

Presenting Pre reading and While reading activities

This semester's simulated teaching is a little different from last semester's. This semester, some of my classmates including some input on what they will teach. For example, they would explain what characters are before they start with pre reading. This time round, the time also seem to be very limited for us to present our simulated teaching.

I choose to do on 'Characters and character traits' for the play The Ring Doesn't Fit by Tan Kee Aun. Needless to say, character is an element that was choosen by many of my classmates to teach. I hope my activity has been a little different compared to the rest but the pre reading is still the same - identification of characters.

I started with identification of characters and underlining the adjectives that describes the characters. I confirmed the answers given by students from the activity.

My while reading is a continuation from my pre reading task. After that,the identification of characters and words that describes them, I pointed out the events in the extract that can also show the characters' traits. For example, Adelyn's demanding nature can be seen when she wants the durian badly and was furious with Paul for not collecting them. I guided the students using the events in the extract to point out the characters' traits. Among the responses are responsible, loyal and loving. After the discussion, students are require to fill in the mind map the characters' personality traits. Students wil be able to answer based on the words that were discussed during the pre reading stage.

I will be receiving the evaluation forms from my peers in 2 hours time. I am excited to see how did I perform. Suggestions for improvement is most welcomed. I am aware that my voice projection may not be firm and clear enough.

The experience of performing simulated teaching is undeniably beneficial for me as a future teacher. It exposes me to the scenario in a teaching classroom and the preparation needed for a class. My students now are my friends, it would definately be different in the real classroom. More practices to teach before I graduated is needed to prepare myself. Simulated teaching helps me increase my confidence to stand in front of a class to teach. The nervousness is still there but it is better now. I should work on eye contact, as I focus more to the evaluator, not the students, to see if I have done anything wrong. My students would want to feel appreciated that their teacher pays attention to each and everyone of them.

May this experience be a lesson for me.