Dead Poet Society!

A movie that i can relate to,Dead Poet Society.

As being a future English and Literature teacher ,I find this movie to be very much connected to be as being inspiring at the same time.

Literature subject can be very challenging as many are not exposed to Literature and therefore bring the least interest in students,especially among the Malaysian students.

As we are all aware,Malaysia should to have literature study in school,as what i could recall being said by my parents who studied English Literature way back during their schooling years when the British colonized.

As the Malaysia heading towards the millennium, the Literature component was introduce in 2000.I am proud to say that i was in the first batch to be introduce to the Literature component in the English subject.

As to relate to this movie,Dead Poet Society... I wished i had inspiring teachers who could have made me love the subject and not being asked to memorize answers from the workbooks.

Literature should be taught with the heart and soul which will bring out the essence of life with the magic of literature.

In this movie,Dead Poet Society,the teaching methods of their new English teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams), are unusual by Welton standards, whistling the 1812 Overture and taking them out of the classroom to focus on the idea of carpe diem. He tells the students that they may call him "O Captain! My Captain!," in reference to a Walt Whitman poem, if they feel daring.

That was how Keating started his class with a bomb to the students that surely brought a lot of changes to their mind about Literature.

The revolutionary of the teaching of Literature has brought the students into the minds of enjoying as they did not before that. I believe that a teacher makes a lot of difference when it comes to teaching Literature to his/her students.

My personal review from the movie viewing:

1.What do you think of the movie in the term of entertainment value?

I think the portrayal of the teacher and students in a difficult classroom brought a lot of visual evidence in term if entertainment.I enjoyed watching the movie as there were sense of humour and rationale in it as well.

2.How does it affect you as you are taking B.Ed TESL course now?
As a future English Literature teacher,it does affect me,not little but a lot! From this movie,I am able to predict the situation that I might face being a teacher in future with students who have the least interest in Literature study.It shows that i have to be very motivated to inspire my students to enjoy the subject as well.

3.How does it affect you if you relate the story in the movie to the teachers whom you know in the past?
Comparing to the teachers that i had in the past,it does affect in a way for me to think that i was not given the right opportunity to understand what literature was about as exposure was at its least.Teachers themselves were not sure of what they were teaching me at that point of time as the Literature component was very new and teachers were not trained for the change of its syllabus.

4.What kind of practical/theoretical lesson that you learned after viewing this movie?
After viewing this movie,i have learned few strategies that would help me to make my Literature class to be fun.Firstly,I have to make my students comfortable with me. Then,find out about their interest about Literature.Then,make the class as interesting as possible with lots of interactive activities.Literature classes to be something stress-free for students ,so that they will enjoy it.