Teaching- A Great Experience???

Some think that teaching might not seem to be a problem for me as I am currently undertaking a teaching course and I am a teacher in making. This might seem ironic but sometimes teaching does make you live in hell. Well, at least that’s how I felt before presenting my set induction for Dr. Edwin’s tutorials. Unusually, my anxiety level shoots not up but down and I was able to present extraordinarily well. Thanks to my tutor Miss Siti who was very supportive and she surely made my day. After Miss Siti announced to the class that she wants us to do the set induction for a theme in the play, “Oedipus Rex”, I was on the quest of finding an interesting set induction which could not only trigger the schemata of my “students” but also sustain their attention throughout the lesson. I was on a wild goose hunt as I was unable to crack my head and thus, I searched for a few pictures to be used in the set induction stage. Later, on the eve of the presentation day, while having my dinner, suddenly an idea struck my head-why don’t I use a game that I used when I was a facilitator in a leadership camp? In order to introduce the theme, ‘blindness’ to students, it would indeed be a good activity. Thus, on the day when my name was called out, I went to the front and told the class that we would be playing a game and I needed two volunteers and wanted them to act as the “Grammy” and “Golden Globe” award-winners. The rest of the class acted as if they were journalists and they were supposed to interview these actresses by interrogating them about their hobbies. These two volunteers-Linda and Joyce were brought out of the class and they told me that their hobbies were listening to music and shopping. The main thrill in this activity is that these so-called journalists were made to believe that Linda’s hobby is peeping and Joyce’s digging nose. Thus, the whole class was very eager to throw questions to these actresses and these actresses confidently answered all the questions without knowing that their hobbies were told differently to the class. Thus, when later the truth is revealed, both of the actresses blushed and the class broke into laughter. Later, I thanked both the volunteers and start to ask feedbacks from them. Later, I tried to relate the position that Linda and Joyce were in with the main character of the play; Oedipus. I was able to tap the required information from them as they were able to relate this activity with the theme; “blindness”. I was not just praised by my friends but Miss Siti also complimented on my activity and said that although it was a little bit long but it managed to indulge all the students. Then, I realised that it was on the shoulders of the teacher whether to make the activity enjoyable or not. Wow...a great day indeed...can’t wait for my simulated teaching...

All about Teiresias...check it out!!!

"I have crossed between the poles, for me there's no mystery.
Once a man, like the sea, I raged.
Once a woman, like the earth, I gave.
But there is in fact more earth than sea."
-Teiresias

Teiresias....wow what can I say about him...when Dr. Edwin asked us to do our own research about him, I thought that he would be a boring guy to look up for and what do you expect from a blind prophet in Greek myth. But after my research I did find a lot of interesting things...really interesting (believe me).Tiresias was a prophet of Zeus. Different stories were told of the cause of his blindness, the most direct being that he was simply blinded by the gods for revealing their secrets. An alternate story told by the poet Pherecydes was followed in Callimachus' poem "The Bathing of Pallas"; in it, Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother,Chariclo, a nymph of Athena, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena could not; instead, she cleaned his ears, giving him the ability to understand birdsong, thus the gift of augury.
Well, that is not all that I found, I actually got to know that he was a woman for seven years and shock me to the maximum. This happened when Tiresias came upon a pair of copulating snakes, he hit the pair a smart blow with his stick. Hera was not pleased, and she punished Tiresias by transforming him into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera, married and had children, including Manto, who also possessed the gift of prophecy. According to some versions of the tale, Lady Tiresias was a prostitute of great renown. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes; depending on the myth, either she made sure to leave the snakes alone this time, or, according to Hyginus, trampled on them. As a result, Tiresias was released from his sentence and permitted to regain his masculinity.

In a separate episode, Tiresias was drawn into an argument between Hera and her husband Zeus, on the theme of who has more pleasure in sex: the man, as Hera claimed; or, as Zeus claimed, the woman, as Tiresias had experienced both. Tiresias revealed woman's greatest secret: that she receives the greater pleasure: "Often parts a man enjoys one only." Hera instantly struck him blind for his impiety. Zeus could do nothing to stop her, but he did give Tiresias the gift of foresight and a lifespan of seven lives. Tiresias's background, fully male and then fully female, was important, both for his prophecy and his experiences. Also, prophecy was a gift given only to the priests and priestesses. Therefore, Tiresias offered Zeus and Hera evidence and gained the gift of male and female priestly prophecy. How he obtained his information varied: sometimes, like the oracles, he would receive visions; other times he would listen for the songs of birds, or ask for a description of visions and pictures appearing within the smoke of burnt offerings, and so interpret them. Thus, I was able to comprehend how powerful Teiresias was in the Greek mythology, and could relate it better to his existence in the play, “Oedipus Rex”.