Finding Forrester

I’m still finding what finding Forrester is all about… I have never watched such a boring movie in my life before!!! I am still trying to figure out why Sean Connery corrected Jamal’s paper in the first place.

This slow-paced movie (a boring one in that) did carry a heavy message. A recluse author passing down his experiences and manuscript must b a result of a special bond. The encouragement Sean Connery gave Jamal was out of ordinary and sounds more like discouragement rather than encouragement. Jamal, who seems to have a special bond with the author, worked hard on the guides given to him and came out with a very good term paper at his new elite school.

The communication between Jamal and his idol looks very rough and unstable but it survived the challenges. This is what we can call as special bond from birth. Their relationship is more like a relationship between a mother and her son, where outsiders cannot predict or understand the relationship.

Documentary…haiz!!!!!

Chalk is a documentary about teachers struggling in the education system. I hated this documentary just like my classmates who was sleeping throughout the movie session. I can’t really focus on the documentary as I was sleep deprived; result of staying awake the previous night.

From the bits that I watched and understood, I came to a conclusion that this documentary was all about teachers of various levels and subjects struggling to keep up with their personal and professional life. When I think about this, I realized how much a teacher puts at stake in order to educate students. All these efforts are simply for nothing at times.

Imagining how much my teachers would have lost in order to educate me makes me awestruck. The admiration that I had on them doubled instantly. Will I be able to give the same kind of commitment to my student and profession? That is a doubt but I can promise that I will try my best to give the best.

Research paper: what have I done so far…?

So far I have submitted the introduction section to Miss Dzeelfa and am waiting to get her feedback on it. While waiting, I started of with Authors’ Background and Cultural Background section. Since I am working on classic texts, it is a bit hard for me to get books and resources on 19th and 20th century. It is especially tough to get resources on adultery of the era and also on the causes. With the help of OPAC, I found few books that might help me more to understand the culture of 19th and 20th century.

I feel that the time limit that has been given to us (1 semester) restricts my interest to deliver an elaborate research paper. I would like to work on this topic deeper. I am sure that I won’t be satisfied with my outcome as I feel the “holes” and missed out parts will be a big turn off for my readers. Despite that, I will try my best to put together a good research paper with the time I have. I am really very happy that I got the chance to do this research paper.

how " adultery in 19th and 20th century" came about...

When Dr Jaya announced that I was appointed under Miss Dzeelfa to do my research paper, I was thrilled. This is because Miss Dzeelfa and I had a good understanding and passion on literature last semester. I felt as if I was blessed with a shower of luck to work with her again this semester. The most exciting thing is that we are going to work on literature. I made a promise to myself to come out with an excellent paper on Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.
The dream of working on Kate Chopin’s The Awakening alone was thrashed when I got to know that I have to use at least three literary texts in order to complete my research paper whereas Kate Chopin wrote only two novels throughout her life. Then I thought about working on Nora Roberts, but my heart kept on insisting me to work on The Awakening no matter what. This is when our meeting with Miss Dzeelfa was arranged.
We (Wendy, Adeline, Aruna and me) had a brief meeting with Miss Dzeelfa regarding our research paper; we discussed about what should be in our research paper and also on what do we have in mind to work on. When I was explaining to Miss Dzeelfa about my idea on doing the awakening, Miss Dzeelfa gave me a superb idea of discussing on adultery and why it happens in the novel. I improvised the idea to work on three novels from three authors and discuss about adultery in them. This is how I got the title of my research paper; ‘adultery in 19th and 20th century’.

Teacher needs adventure???

The Ron Clark Story is about Mr. Ron Clark who left his small town teaching job in order to get more thrilling adventurous teaching experience. He felt empty and unsatisfied teaching normal kids who scores well in his old school. Mr Clark quits his job and set a journey to New York to explore the world and serve new students.

This is when he got a job in a less reputable school in New York. Mr Clark was assigned to teach the worst class in the school and he accepted it. This specific class was struggling even to pass the basic skills test. Mr Clark took this situation as a challenge for himself and tries really very hard to make the students to study and pass the test. Did he succeeded in doing that?

Yes, he did succeed after going through lots of problems. He even recorded videotapes for his students when he was supposed to be home taking rest during his medical leave. Mr Clark made sure he did his best to educate and prepare the students for the test.

A teacher's search for adventure is potrayed nicely in this movie. Ron Clark's sense of achievement is something he deserves and motivational for teachers all around the world. I really would like to be a teacher like him in the future.

Is Precious really precious?

What mother will let her boyfriend to rape her own child? what kind of man will have the heart to rape his own daughter? why does a mother have to let her daughter to be raped in order to be with her boyfriend?...these are the questions that came up to my mind when i watched the movie "Precious".

Precious is a girl who has been allegedly raped since three years old by her mother's boyfriend who was also her father. her father fathered two of her children. how do we name this relationship? does the young ones have to call Precious's father dad or grandpa? isn't this ironic?

In my opinion, the Precious's mother should have left her boyfriend the first time he tried to rape her child. Precious's mother claims that her daughter is precious to her but why did she have to let her precious daughter to be raped in front of her eyes? i am sure the mother would have found a better man to be her soul mate if she left her boyfriend in the first place.

Spelling Bee that stings...

Akeelah and the bee is a very inspiring movie for students who have lost their hopes in learning and showing off their talents. Akeelah was very reluctant to participate in a spelling bee competition in her school level just because she thought she will be an outcast if she won the competition but this situation was easily handled by her school principle by forcing her into spelling bee competition or she would have to go for detention. Akeelah who skipped school often prior to her mother's knowledge, had to agree to this deal wit her principle. after winning the school competition, she moved forward to the district level competition and followed by national spelling bee competition. Akeelah was guided by a professor who failed to make a success out of his daughter.

From this movie, we can see that even a girl from problematic background can achieve success and be the best among all the privileged kids. this is the kind of hard work that Malaysian students should have in order to do well in their school. they should not only stick to doing their best in academics but also in competitions and extra-curricular activities.