Saying goodbye to the course EDU 3234...

To wrap up the course of EDU 3234 for this semester, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Malachi Edwin Vethamani for his undying passion in teaching us and his patience in dealing with all sort of problems which we have created for him. Without his guidance, we will never be able to complete this course.

Throughout these years studying under his supervision, I have seen the development within myself and also changes in Dr. Edwin’s attitude towards us. I still remembered during our first year when his nonchalant glance simply turned our legs into jellies and how his stern face haunted our days. However, the Dr. Edwin we see today has changed into a totally different person; though still possess his air of sternness. Happy to say that he has become a funny man who cracks jokes full of mockery and sarcasm! Still, no matter how much change I see in him, his undivided attention towards his students has enlighten us with mountains of knowledge, preparing us to become the catalyst for the education of our next generation.

I am indeed happy to say that I have learnt a lot through this course. It has taught me things that I will badly need when pursuing my master degree in the future. Therefore, once again, thank you, Dr. Ed and all the best for you!

Exodus for my research paper...

This will be the last journal I write regarding to my research paper as I have already completed the touch up needed for my paper. Phew! You will never know how I feel at this moment. Words can never describe the ecstatic feeling grow inside me at this very moment. This is my very first piece of research paper and I have completed it with my sweat and hardship. I am confident to say that for the next research paper or thesis which I will be completing in my master degree, I will definitely produce a better piece with less difficulty as the foundation is now in my hands.

“5 people You Meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom is indeed a novel worth reading as I explore deeper into this novel due to my paper, I slowly discovered the concealed essence within the book. After completing this research paper, my perception of value of life have changed greatly and I am glad that I have found this book as it enlightened me in a way I never though I will be.

I used to think that human beings are vicious and selfish creatures who think of no one else except themselves. Therefore, one must strive with all his might to survive in this world. Nothing else will be more important than proving yourself to the world. Well, I am so wrong! After reading through this book thoroughly, I was finally made to understand that life is all about living together; the inter-relatedness among human being. We need to live life so that we know what we are doing, reflect on our deeds, repent for mistakes done, forgive and ask for forgiveness and on top of all, accept reality. We are what we are and this is the fact that will never change. If only we can practice all these in our daily lives, the world will be a much better place to live in.

“Love each other or perish”

A great solution to my problem!

Kak Norli has suggested me a solution to my problem, which is to cut down the biography of the author since it is too lengthy and does not help much in the scoring criterion. Her words have just knocked some senses into my jammed brain! Since the paper is focusing more on my findings and justifications on the novel and its implementation in classroom, I will just have to put all my efforts in these two sections and finely tune the author’s biography to meet the ends. What a perfect solution!

Crisis...what should i do?

I am facing a crisis now! My research paper is exceeding 3000 words and I do know that I need to cut down the lengthy phrases but the problem is I don’t have any idea on where I should begin.

To me, all the stuffs that I have written in my paper are important and that is the very reason why they appear in my paper. It’s frustrating when you are trying to do your best and give the best shot that you can afford yet are bounded to some rules which you can’t go against.

Therefore, no matter how long the time I take to grieve, lament, sulk or whine, things will just have to be done according to what have been told, that is DO NOT EXCEED 3000 words. So, instead of continuing to feel sorry for myself, I better start cracking and polish my paper before the final editing.

Ready to answer unanswered questions....

I remember that I have once posted some questions in this blog which were left unanswered. In this short passage, I was about to answer my own questions. The first and second questions I posted were how should I associate the novel “5 People You Meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom to the life lead by secondary school students in Malaysian classrooms and is there any similarities found in Eddie’s life and our students’ life? I had seriously thought about these two questions and I believe I do have my personal set of answer at this moment.

In real life, I assume that every one of us possess a part of Eddie’s life whether in the aspect of experience, background, past, family or way of living our life. Each of us has a story to tell, a secret to hide, an issue to run from and a mystery to solve. In short, we are all alike in a way. For secondary school students, their lives will be inevitably confused as various things are happening to them physically and emotionally. Therefore, they will need some sort of guidance to make them know that they are not alone in facing life as there is someone else in this world who shares the same feeling or same story just like them. By introducing them to this novel, students will be able to travel together with Eddie in another dimension. They will get to understand that life is unavoidably full of hardships and obstacles but as long as we are ready to learn from our mistakes, ready to accept things and learn to forgive, we will be just fine.

As for the third question, why should we use this novel in the literature classroom or as an extensive reading material? Well, this novel can be considered as a mountain rich of knowledge if properly utilized for teaching purposes. First of all, it teaches readers ample of important values throughout life such as reflection, revelation and redemption which occur in every stages of life. It shows us the importance of the relationship between human beings and the unique inter-relatedness between us. Besides, the novel enlightens our young readers on the concept of heaven which is considered as an awkward issue to be discussed in our society. It opens rooms of imagination for readers as they are given the opportunity to visualize, imagine and mentally form a heaven of their own. This will intrigue their critical and creative thinking skills.

What actually make Eddie's life miserable, I wonder?

To be honest, I was wondering what is the reason that makes Eddie’s life so painfully miserable, is it his cruel fate playing tricks on him or his inability to accept life? Has the world been too harsh on him or his denial of the world ruin his happiness?

Eddie’s life is unquestionably harsh and full of obstacles and to a certain extent, I was wondering why he did not commit suicide just like the character Charlie in the novel “For One More Day”. However, although he has the courage to continue living and bearing with this fateful life of his, he leads an unhappy life for the remaining of his days after the departure of his wife.

If Mitch Albom does not create the issue of heaven in this novel, will Eddie get a chance to reflect his life, discover the truthfulness of certain matters in his life thus repent for his deeds? In real life, how many of us will get the chance to reflect on our actions and behavior? Too much to count! And yet how many of us appreciate the opportunity to do so? Too little to be proud of, I assume. If only we decide to reflect, reveal and repent our deeds while we still can, Mitch will not have to write this novel at all to remind us about our shortsightedness of life.

Review on the movie entitled "Freedom Writers"

This movie indeed worth a million applause thanks to the dedicated actors and of course the person who is the real "actor" behind the story...Without her dedication, determination and passion as a teacher to the class 203, this story will never appear in front of audience.

A teacher trainee ought not to miss this movie as one will eventually find inspiration from the said movie. Thanks to Dr. Edwin, we are given a chance to view this spectacular piece of art and this experience is priceless as it makes us, future teacher-to-be proud to be in this profession and inspired to be a teacher like the one in it.

One day, I hoped that I will be able to achieve at least half of her achievement and possess her enthusiastic spirit in teaching. Just like what Morrie said, "A teacher to the last".

Questions to ponder...

Mitch Albom accentuates the idea of reflection, revelation and redemption in his novel entitled “5 People You Meet in Heaven” through the pivotal character named Eddie. After the war during his youth, Eddie’s life was scarred with a ruined left leg and his father’s negligence. Although he has a loving wife and a very supportive family excluding the father, his good days fade away with the departure of each of his loved ones.

Soon after Eddie died of a tragic accident in the theme park where he has been spending his whole life, he was sent to the trans-like stage of heaven where he was made to meet 5 different people who had a particular connection with him in his previous life. Through them, Eddie will be able to reflect his life on earth, discover things or secrets which he never know and finally repent and redeem over his previous life.

The question is, how am I going to associate this novel to the life lead by secondary school students in Malaysian classrooms? Is there any similarity found in Eddie’s life and our students’ daily living? Why should we use this novel in the literature classroom or as an extensive reading material?

I’ll come back to these questions once I have found the right answers to justify each and every question I have posted here.

Generating New Ideas For The Final Draft...

I am stucked at the point of suggesting ways to implement the novel which I have selected for my research paper into the curriculum of secondary classroom. For me, I adored this novel due to the reason that the author managed to present the idea of heaven in a spectacular way and the way he promoted the idea of inter-relatedness among human being. But, how am I going to explain all these feelings and how can I relate these to the needs of teenagers in secondary schools?

The novel itself is a very powerful tools to promote love among human being and this element is very needed in this ever-materialistic society. However, what kind of approach should I utilize or recommend in this paper so that student's interest will be taken into consideration yet the essence of the novel will not be diluted?

Dr. Nooreen has made some suggestions for my paper and I think I'll have to contemplate before making any adjustment.

Receiving my first draft from supervisor...

Finally, I have gotten back my first draft from my supervisor. To be honest, I am quite worry about my research paper as I believe I am far behind the actual schedule. Luckily for me, Dr. Nooreen has little comments on my assignment and all I have to do is to polish my research paper and make some modification here and there before submit it as the final product.

People always say that time flies and i couldn't agree more when it comes to the end of each semester. For every semester, things always start and move in slow pace, taking their time to stroll but towards the end of each semester, dozens of tasks will be stacking up on the study table, not to mention the oncoming final examination. You might be amused to see that how things have turned out to be totally different from the way you have planned. That's life, you need to plan constantly and yet able to accept the fact that things might turn wrong no matter how well you have planned them. Still, life goes on no matter how you regret or how little time you have left.

Therefore, stop whining and get working!

A Surge of Relief...

A surge of relief filled my heart when I finally submitted my first draft today. Although my first draft is only a rough draft consisted of 1000 words, I felt elated for I have figured out the main outline for my research paper. It's always hard to take the first step and I experienced this hardship for more than a week. Different kinds of emotion have been taking turn to torture me during the past few weeks. For the time being, I am so sure that continuing master right after graduating from my degree will instantly cost my life!

Although I still have lots of ideas to write in my research paper, I think I'll save it for the next draft. The most important thing I need to do now is to jot them down somewhere before my deteriorating brain lost them somewhere in the space. Ideas may just squirm their ways into brain when you don't have time for them but when you finally can make some room for them, they will just suddenly disappear into thin air, permanently unretrieveable. That's life, you'll learn to treasure something or someone only after they are gone. We know the lesson but never learn from it.

pic...

Love is all around...

Love is all around, insisted to linger around despite people pretended to foresee its existence, for it’s something abstract, indescribable and the most importantly…it couldn’t make money. Society nowadays have one common perception towards this issue, thus a matter-of-fact question like this was formed; “Will love alone satisfy your hunger?” A good rhetorical question I should say which with no absolute answer. My version of reply will always be “Love will feed your soul for you to satisfy your corporeal needs”

Without love, we are just a bunch of living corpses feasting on popular mores, practicing insignificant routines in life as if we are born to be enslaved to it. Love is what makes us human, more humane and distinguishes us from animals, albeit reluctantly saying, some of us has gradually become more beastly than animal itself.

Of course, do not get me wrong. I am definitely not a love saint. The word love in my thesaurus comprises the passion between man and woman, the affection between parents and child, the bond between siblings and relatives, the closeness of friendship and the warmness for bare strangers, even to the extent where you can spare some alms of kindness to your enemy. The word “love” I know is a rare gem saturated with kindness, sympathy, passion, empathy, affection, forgiveness, compassion and quality.

If only we allow ourselves a little room to give and accept this miracle little thing, if only we are not too blinded by wordly possessions thus forsake our compassion, if only we are willing to strip off our masks and look around us...one will eventually realize that love is all around, as it always does.

At this very moment, I wish to post another rhetorical question for you to ponder, “Does money buy you all these?”

Cruising around my research paper...

For the pass few weeks, i have gathered some information about Mitch Albom's books entitled "5 People You Meet in Heaven" and "For One More Day" and I finally set up my mind to work on these two books based on the thematical issues.

Maybe because of "Tuesdays with Morrie", an extraordinary soul and mind touching book written by Mitch, I realized that this talented author has his unique way to attract my interest, especially when he successfully make my heart wrenched, sore and buoyed alongside the storyline.

Despite the facts that some reviewers commented on his repeated thematic issues in the two books mentioned above, I am still unaffected by the comments as personally I felt that each of the books albeit discuss on the main themes still powerfully stir my emotions without fail. For me, the three books have their own aura in different perspective and the same themes were scrutinized under different techniques, methods and dimensions. I guess that is the main reason I choose to work on Mitch's works.

For better or worse, I'll have to check out my latest points with Dr. Noreen next week and hopefully she approve as soon as possible.

Searching For Story With Mahabrata's Theme

As usual, i will search for anything regarding to assignments through Google as I think it is a better search engine compared to Yahoo. Therefore, i started to skim through pages and pages of websites which provide stories with similar theme like the one in Mahabarata. Usually, not all of the websites provide the material that you are looking for, especially when some of it tend to lead you away from the main track. Hence, many hours of precious moment for sleeping are wasted in such websites. But, I am extremely lucky today as i know exactly where I should look for the story.

Usually, for themes such as filial piety and loyalty towards family and country, one can always browse through tales from China as Chinese in olden days are well-establish for their loyalty to both family and country. Therefore, you can easily find dozens and dozens of such tales without wasting your time browsing through irrelevant websites.

Finally, I found one story entitled "The Magic Brocade" by Aaron Shepard which talked about a filial young man who endured much difficulties for the sake of retrieving his mother's lost brocade.

The First Step Ain't Easy

The first step made by a toddler is always a challenge, and now i felt the same feeling rushing and filling up inside me. The anxiety level and millions of things that jammed up my brain are making it worse.

Before this, i talked about my desire to use the novel "Tuesdays With Morrie" by Mitch Albom as the main source for my thesis. Therefore, i have generated some issues to work on which have to do with two words; meaningful life and materialism. Morrie's last few months of living was spent on contributing to others his most precious time, hoping to bring an awakening in oneself about the actual meaningfulness found in life. His perspective in living life meaningfully will be considered as idleness or almost insanity for the world we lived in today but still when we take some moment and sit down to think it over, what he strongly hold onto is nothing but the truth.

People will always pursue for material things and reach out for their unfulfilled dreams. During the process, they tend to forget about the relationship between human being and the nature, and on top of all, they get oblivious of the existence of love.

To a certain extent, we couldn't help but to pursue for physical comfortness such as food, home, education and self-fulfillment but we as human being are obtuse to the word "enough". We simply couldn't stop ourselves from wanting more, and this is what Morrie tends to remind us about; frugality will be able to let you pursue richer experience in life itself

First Impression on Project Paper in EDU 3234

In today's lecture, the lecturer, Dr. Malachi Edwin Vethamani came into class and gave us a long briefing regarding to our oncoming tasks in this course. Basically, i am not very sure of what to do but i am definitely feeling the chills running through my spine, as if telling me that i have only 2 options to choose from; either surviving with a satisfactory result or die with shame by the end of this course.

Of course, i am always the first option person, and therefore i am still, like usual, giving my best throughout this course, hoping to gain borderless experience and achieving the grade which i deserve.

Although i am oblivious of what , how or where to get the inspiration for starting my position paper, still, i am now trying my best to surf the net, hoping to get some ideas and guidelines.

Nevertheless, i did generated an idea for the starting point in my research paper or position paper which has to do with the prescribed novel written by Mitch Albom; "Tuesdays with Morrie" which deals with the value of live. Maybe i'll make a research based on the writer's use of certain theme for the books he has written hitherto.