LESSON 2
In lesson 2 we had to post some comments on the facebook group discussion board. Apart from that we also had to compose our own poem on our primary school days. So here is the poem I composed:
The teacher walks in,
and looks at the bin.
What is all this trash?
Somebody better clear this mess!
Her marker is like an arrow,
which flies just like a sparrow.
Oh! She has a lot,
So don't ever drift off into a deep slumber
or you definitely would be shot.
Do not speak a word of English during Chinese lessons,,
the consequence is divine.
Well I replid my teacher, "Alright!",
and I definitely paid the fine.
I had no money for recess,
but surely my friends had some excess.
"Don't mind me I'm just staying for a chat,"
slowly I stuck my hand in their pockets,
trust me they never smelt a rat.
Okay so now I shall explain my poem.
The teacher walks in,
and looks at the bin.
What is all this trash?
Somebody better clear this mess!
So what this stanza means is that when the class starts and the teacher looks at the rubbish bin, she would be very angry because everybody would just throw their rubbish in their but nobody bothered to clear it, making it overflow. This happened EVERYDAY in my primary school.
Her marker is like an arrow,
which flies just like a sparrow.
Oh! She has a lot,
So don't ever drift off into a deep slumber
or you definitely would be shot.
This talks about a few of my friends last time, when they would fall asleep in class and the teacher would throw the marker at them to wake them up. Well, it didn't really hurt from what I heard.
Do not speak a word of English during Chinese lessons,,
the consequence is divine.
Well I replied my teacher, "Alright!",
and I definitely paid the fine.
This is perhaps one of the most memorable things in my primary school. We had this system that during Chinese lessons, we are not allowed to speak a single word of english or anything other languages, unless the teacher specified to allow it for explaning purposes. If we did, we would have to pay 50cents and all the money when to this class fund, which at the end of the year would be used to buy something for the entire class. For my class we managed to afford two pizzas! Just imagine how many times we were caught. The teacher would sometimes also trick us to see if we are alert, for example the stanza in my poem where I answered the teacher with "Alright!" and got caught! The real killer actually lies when students are explaining. This is because they tend to use the word "then". I think that took up 80percent of the fines. Nevertheless, that has allowed me to totally switch to Chinese and English when I want too, which is something I feel I learnt and very valuable to my future.
I had no money for recess,
but surely my friends had some excess.
"Don't mind me I'm just staying for a chat,"
slowly I stuck my hand in their pockets,
trust me they never smelt a rat.
This doesn't really speak about me, but I was more of referring to the other people who were like that. They had very little pocket money and so they would just steal. Yes, a very horrible thing in my school is stealing. Although this is not a right thing to do, pickpockets would find some way to make it back up to us, for example when they win a prize and have some money they would treat us to a meal. So basically they would steal from us, tell us about it, and return it to us. Weird isn't it?
Monday, May 24, 2010
E-Learning, May 25, 2010
It's that time of the term that we have E-Learning again! So basically for Language Arts we had two lessons. For the first we had to watch a video on figurative language and then go to this website with tons and tons of famous poems and select the poem we like best. After doing all that, here is the poem I selected:
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
All Similes are coloured in RED.
All Metaphors are coloured in YELLOW.
All Hyperboles are coloured in PURPLE.
I am most likely wrong, but I do not think I found any Symbolism or Personification. I do actually see a pattern, that at the starting of the poem, there are a lot of similes and some hyperboles but then it gradually became more of metaphors. Well I think at the starting, so many similes are used to show the different extents of the authors emotions. Things like, "like dust", "like moons and like suns" and "like teardrops", are actually exaggerations, but allow the reader to connect with the author about how deep or serious is an emotion. Similes are much like Hyperboles, except that similes are more often used with words like "as" or "like" etc.
Apart from the similes and hyperboles, there are also a lot of metaphors. I think the reason Maya Angelou did this was because she wanted to show how much an extent something is to another thing. Just like "You may shoot me with your words","You may cut me with your eyes" and "You may kill me with your hatefulness" . In actual fact words cannot shoot, eyes cannot cut and hatefulness does not kill. But when someone insults you and hurts your feelings, in a way you are being shot by his words.
Now there are many reasons why I chose this problem. Firstly, I like the fact that there are a lot of similes and metaphors used. These are actually two of the examples of figurative language that I use most often when I write my scripts or compositions. My favourite part is really the part about shooting with words. I think that would have much impact on many readers, as we all have experienced it. I also like the flow of the poem. It seems as though one paragraph, there is an ending on her title, Still I Rise. Then she moves on to describe her emotions. After which she will always link back to her title. This allows the author to be constantly reminded about what emotions she is trying to relate to the readers. Lastly, at the end of the poem, she repeated the phrase "I rise" thrice. This is actually a very good way to sumarise your entire poem and also increase the impact of the entire poem. If I were to read this poem out loud, I would read the part on "I rise" three times, becoming softer each time. So it goes like I rise, I rise, I rise. This is the end of lesson 1 then and I shall be proceeding to lesson 2 now!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
The Preparation, The Exam, The Results.
Before I start writing this blog post, I would like to quote one of the authors during the panel discussion that said, "Inspiration...is everywhere!". As I was on my way home from the MRT station today, I drifted off into deep thought and suddenly had and idea on what to do for my final blog post for term 2. So what I will be doing on today will really be on our tests and the different aspects of getting an A1for Language Arts, or in some examples, every other subject.
So to excel in any exam, there is no doubt that one has to prepare for it. This is one of those factors that allow one to use hard work as an advantage over other people that might be smarter than him. To me, this is one of the most important stages in every examination. Being not very smart all the way from young, I still remember what spurred me to constantly improve myself. When I was in primary 3 and I saw that my grades were really falling and I was failing a lot of my subjects, I decided to do something about it. I would actually say that was a turning point in my life. I started looking up books, internet and advice from older people on study and preparation tips and it has really helped me even till today!
Firstly, I realised that the reason why some people remember things easier while other students struggle just with a simple mathematical formula, is really due to the way they think. When many people cannot understand certain parts about their studies, they start to memorise. This is really, really bad. You see, our brain does not work like how computers do, with a string of binary numbers computing data as easy as just following it. Our brain is made up of neurons, and neurons work by connecting different ideas together! I guess this is also a reason why mind maps help us a lot. Even if we have to memorise sometimes though, we can connect them to other things which really makes the job efficient. It also helps to know what type of learner you are! If you are an auditory learner, maybe you could record yourself reading a passage instead of just reading it straight from the paper to help yourself understand it better. Or if you are a person whose highest intelligence is visual, you could try drawing pictures of scenes in a composition to help you better relate to where and how the scene might look like.
Next, comes the stage where whatever you pen down on the paper determines your marks. In my opinion, this is the stage where its importance is only superficial. First, we have to ask ourselves this question, why are there examinations? Well the main purpose is to gauge how much you know a certain subject, and not how well you have studied the textbook. There is a difference between these two, but clearly most examinations just require you to memorise the text from certain sources and then you just have to paste everything there during the examination. What I feel that is more important than really just doing the examination for the sake of marks, is whether you have truly understood the subject, if you have truly learnt. The marks are just digits there, but what valuable information that you store in your head for future use, will be the one to help you in your future.
Finally, comes the stage of irony. The stage where people who did not prepare start to get nervous, the stage where those that studied very hard for it get excited and the stage where hopes are crushed and given at the same time. There ill be people who think that they did not do well, but still do in the end. On the other hand, there will be the opposite and vice versa. I find that if you have done well, congratulations and keep up the good work. The important thing is if you have not, what would you do now? I say we pick ourselves up again to do well in the next examination because we cannot turn back time. There is no point in trying to bargain with the teacher for more marks and stating that some questions are marked too strictly. What we should want ourselves to do, is to REALLY improve. This ability to fall down and pick yourself up is so great, that people don't look for candidates with a straight perfect score, but people who have improved after a failure. Frankly speaking, it all boils down to the human mind. The way we look at things, the way we interpret them and the way we deal with them. People say failures are inevitable, but I say that they actually are! If you take single time you fall as a opportunity to improve yourself, then there will never be such a thing called failures, only stepping stones to success!
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