how we evaluate others

Evaluating my peers’ teaching was a real fun thing to do. I have learned a lot from this experience as I think that it would be very useful in my future teaching career. Evaluating helps people improve themselves, as they are able to identify their mistakes and avoid from future reoccurrence. In my opinion I think my peers, like myself prefer peer evaluation as it is less critical and even if is very critical, we are able to look past it as it criticism from own our friends.

When I evaluate my peers, I have to say that I look mainly at their set induction and their grammar, as I feel that it is important for future Tesl teachers to use proper grammar as students are going to learn from us. I also follow closely the peer evaluation guide provided which allows me to concentrate on the pre-reading and while-reading activities. I also look into the connection between the different stages as many of us tend to create exercises that do not relate to the topic of the lesson or the previous exercise. Besides that, I also look into the behavior of my peers as they teach. Today one teacher taught the class while she sat on top of the table. This type of behavior is unacceptable as students watch your move. So far, the use of language is average as only a handful are fluent. Their teaching style however, is very good and impressive, as they now have confidence. Overall, I think that evaluating has not only help them but also myself as I am able to recognize mistakes made and make sure that I do not do them.

how others evaluate us

Today I did my simulated teaching for EDU 3217 Teaching the Language of Drama. I taught on the characteristics of Anthony from the play Anthony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare. My teaching partner of the day was Jayshri Subramaniam. At first I was nervous as I knew that my peers were evaluating our teaching. I felt like a prey being fed to a pack of vultures. Cutting the drama, it was really comforting to know that my evaluation was being done by my peers who have been with me for four semesters now. It somehow lessen the load of pressure that I felt about the 15% that I was going to be graded on by my tutor. The teaching went pretty smoothly, as we were quite prepared now after the many weeks of anticipation.
After we had finished, our peers returned the evaluation forms. It was disappointing at first as many of them returned empty sheets, not given their comments of improvement. we were judged on our presentation of our set induction as well as our pre- reading and while- reading activities. Based on the feedback, our teaching was well done with excellent fluency and relation of tasks. The setbacks were the projection of voice, especially mine which was quite soft. Besides that the set induction was quiet appropriate as the story we told related to Anthony’s character. Another minor setback was we not asking for student’s feedback. there was also some complains about the text as it a difficult to comprehend.
On the whole, I think that we were evaluated fairly by our peers and I think that it should be done more often as students like me feel more comfortable hearing what our peers critically than our lecturers. Evaluation by itself helps us realize our faults and gives a chance to correct our mistakes in the future

as you like it

first of all let me say that i love Shakespeare for his beautiful creation of literature, unfortunately his language is incomprehensible and i find extremely difficult to even make out the gist of the story. except for the Japanese setting i hardly understood anything but Calvin Klein's melancholy character did fascinate me as he seemed to play quite an important role by hardly saying anything except for occasional crucial remarks. i am proud to say that i did recognize the script that we read in Now Read On about the stages of men. other than that i have nothing much to say unless if i maybe watch another time.

a streetcar named desire- movie reflection

today we watched the play A Streetcar Named Desire. the movie was really good. by watching the movie,i was able to increase my understanding of the play. the portrayal of the characters was done really well. the actions done by characters gave me a better understanding on the on the stage directions and the feelings and emotions the characters are actually feeling.
Blanche's seductiveness and Stanley's brutalness was clearer for me in the play as the stage directions when read as quite vague. plays are actually meant to be watched and not read anyway.
one slight difference between the movie and the written script that could actually have an impact is the ending. in the movie version of the play, Stella actually believes her sister's accusiation of Stanley raping the latter, and Stella decides to leave him, an unlikely decision which is not a norm for her or the people living in Elysian Fields. in the written version however, the ending shows Stanley caressing Stella and comforting.
i like the movie version though as it has a more feministic reproach where women do not have to depend on men to survive.