Teaching resource package Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Teaching resource package - Essay Example   It is the learner who interacts with objects and events and thereby gains an understanding of the features held by such objects or events.   The learner, therefore, constructs his/her own conceptualisations and solutions to problems.   Learner autonomy and initiative is accepted and encouraged.† (Van Ryneveld, n.d., n.p.). The Teacher Resource packages presented are only a few examples of constructivist learning at work. The students direct their own learning and call on their creative and critical thinking skills to come up with dynamic ideas that invite more learning. Students are no longer seen as passive recipients of learning with teachers as dispensers of knowledge. Under Outcome 5.11 which says; â€Å"A student analyses the impact of human resource use on the biosphere to evaluate methods of conserving, protecting and maintaining Earth’s resources†, the teaching package proposed is on disseminating essential information on saving endangered environments. Specifically, it will attempt to meet 5.11.2 (C), which states that students will be discussing â€Å"strategies used to balance human activities and needs in ecosystems with conserving, protecting and maintaining the quality and sustainability of the environment.† For this resource package, students will be doing research on the degradation of the environment in some settings that are mainly caused by human factors. It endangers the lives of plants and animals which have taken up residence there. It will investigate what humans have been doing to contribute to environmental destruction as well as what can be done to protect wildlife and prevent their deaths and possible extinction. This package aims to impart to students care and concern for the environment and hopefully develop an advocacy in protecting it from negative elements such as illegal logging or illegal planting of crops. Students will be exposed to

The Human Mating Game :: essays research papers

Human Mating Game   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It's a dance as old as the human race. At cocktail lounges and church socials, during office coffee breaks and dinner parties-- most blatantly, perhaps, in the personal ads in newspapers and magazines-- men and women participate in a ritual that has been embedded in our existence since the dawn of man. Beginning at young ages, humans start learning to master the art of attracting someone of the opposite sex, one day hoping to find the perfect mate. Whether it was the physical aspect, personality aspect, or the chemical aspect of attraction, there is something that attracts mankind to members of the other sex. The question is, 'How do you interpret these signals and how do you respond to them?';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Researchers and educators are beginning to observe that the age that children start to take notice of the opposite sex. As early as the pre-teen years children start 'going out.'; Many parents fear that their kids are being pushed into adulthood too quickly. Yet, they recognize that pre-teen relationships often resemble child's play more than teenage romance. Pre-teens pair up to impress their friends. Within a group of pre-teens, they might constantly trade boyfriends and girlfriends because it doesn't really matter as long as each other has someone. These couples traditionally would not go out for more than a month and they may do little more than talk a few times on the phone. Fortunately, pre-teens take break-ups in stride which later prepares one for the possibility of hurting and being hurt by someone in one's future teenage and adult years (Hoose 56-63).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The early teenage years are when young adolescents begin to learn the basics of the 'Flirting Game,' especially the girls. There are 52 different nonverbal courtship behaviors used by women. 31 of these 52 flirtations were exhibited by 13-16 year old girls in a study that included going to shopping malls, ice skating rinks, and other places that adolescents congregate. The only signals missing were those at the more overt end of the spectrum, such as actual caressing. Not only were some of the signs missing, but the teens' gestures looked less natural than ones that would be made by more mature females; They laughed much louder, stared more obviously, and their moves were overall much sloppier. If there was a leader among the group, the followers usually modeled their behavior on the leader of the pack.

A Synopsis of the Movie Farewell My Concubine

Shuo Zhang Writing 1 05/6/2011 A new look on homosexuality-analysis of Farewell My Concubine Although homosexuality exists in social reality, the lack of its own â€Å"truthful† representation in terms of books or films creates numerous misunderstandings that prevent the development of a positive homosexual sensibility in Chinese culture. Therefore, the most impressive and controversial part of the movie Farewell My Concubine (Kaige Chen, 1993) is its effort to break the language-less silence in search of an appropriate voice to express homosexual experience and anxiety.By showing Dieyi Cheng's painful life against the historical backdrop of extreme turbulence in China (from 1924 to 1977), the movie critiques the homophobic phenomenon in traditional Chinese culture, and summons the establishment and development of a more liberal society. Dieyi’s tragic life begins with his designation to play Dan’sroles because of his delicate appearance. At first, this idea stro ngly bothers him. When the famous theatrical agent, Nakun, visited the troupe, Dieyi was brought to recite his bravura role; but instead of saying the correct line â€Å"I am naturally a girl, not a boy†, he insisted in saying ‘I am by nature a boy.. (17:57). With the future of the troupe at risk, such a mistake was not tolerable in the highly-standard traditional Peking Opera, Xiaolou twisted a tobacco pipe in Dieyi’s mouth until Dieyi whimpered the correct lines with his mouth full of blood. Dieyi tried to escape from the opera house with another apprentice Laizi, but came back after seeing a performance by an opera master that impressed and made both of them long for the life of opera stars. After their return, Xiaolou was brutally beaten for allowing their escape, and seeing this scene, Laizi hanged himself so as to be free from the pain of punishment.This heartbreaking experience forced Dieyi to accept his female role, and made him submissive to the headmast er. To become a professional Dan, Dieyi must have gone through highly intensive training process. Although the movie leaves out this part, we can imagine that he was taught to speak and act like women even in his daily life. According to Min Tian’s essay â€Å"Male Dan: the Paradox of Sex, Acting, and Perception of Female Impersonation in Traditional Chinese Theatre†, â€Å"identification, given the strict stylization and codification in raditional Beijing Opera, is one of the cornerstones of performance and it is stressed even more in the art of female impersonation precisely because of the ‘prescribed necessity of dissolving the disparity between the actor and his female role’†. (Tian, 84) Hence, it is necessary for Dieyi to constantly imagine himself as a woman so as to reach the standard of performance and be accepted by the censorious audience. Dieyi succeeded in playing the role Concubine Yu in his debut performance. He was so effeminate and a ttractive on stage that Eunuch Zhang became crazy for him and secretly raped him afterwards.In return for Dieyi’s sacrifice, Eunuch Zhang made the opera house the most popular one in Beijing, and Dieyi, the most promising â€Å"actress† among his peers. However, Dieyi was crushed after this grueling experience, as shown in the movie: he remained silent for days, tucked away from his fellow apprentices, and even indulged himself more into his fantasy, into his role of Concubine Yu: In the middle of a performance, the Japanese troop broke into the theatre and started to rob the audience. The stir became a huge riot when a woman was shot to death so that the actors and workers stopped performing and fought back against the soldiers.Only Dieyi remained on stage, continued singing and dancing, as if the shot, the fight, the impending anti-Japanese war were none of his business. This shows Dieyi's complete dedication and focus on stage and within his constructed fantasy as C oncubine Yu. Also, it is from this incident that Dieyi’s sexual orientation became deviated from the â€Å"norm†, that he relied more and more on Xiaolou, his robust friend, who played the King as Dieyi’s counterpart, because Xiaolou always protected Dieyi when he encountered unfair treatment.To analyze Dieyi’s psychological development of homosexuality, we may refer to Metzger, Sean’s essay â€Å"Farewell My Fantasy†, which offers an insightful interpretation in terms of Freud’s psychological analysis. Sean suggests that Dieyi’s childhood experience is close to â€Å"Freud’s trajectory of the female beating fantasy†(Sean, 233) and several scenes in the movie are particularly attached to this theory is that Xiaolou was cruelly beaten after helping Dieyi cheat with a torturous training process.Xiaolou was nearly beaten to death, but remained smiling to Dieyi till the end in order to relief Dieyi’s panic and guilt, which made Dieyi feel, subconsciously, like a female protected by a male, Xiaolou. They were learning, performing and hanging out with each other every day. Xiaolou joked that if one day he becomes the King of the world, he would make Dieyi the queen, just like the story of Farewell, My Concubine. Dieyi, however, took that seriously as he faithfully believed that he could not live without Xiaolou.The highly standard rules for Dan’s performance and the horrible childhood experiences all contribute to Dieyi’s development of homosexuality. He became so in love with Xiaolou, that upon hearing the news of Xiaolou’s marriage with Juxian, a beautiful prostitute, he screamed to Xiaolou in a trembling voice: ‘I want to stay together with you forever, not an hour, a minute or a second less. ’(50:11) Of course, Dieyi’ s wish could never be fulfilled because Xiaolou is not a gay; moreover, Xiaolou strays away from Dieyi probably due to his fear of Dieyi’s abnormal behavior which could imperil his relationship with Juxian.Being Dieyi’s only friend, Xiaolou’s alienation left Dieyi with nothing but pain. Although he enjoyed tremendous fame and fortune as the best Dan in Beijing, he relieved his loneliness and grief by smoking opium. To Dieyi, opium had the magic effect of trapping him in his fantasies, where he is the real Concubine Yu, and the King never left him. For most part of the movie, Dieyi remained in female costume and concubine makeup, because the transvestite stage of Peking opera offers a place, an imaginative capaciousness, where he could represent and masquerade his genuine sensibility.However the more he did so, the more he drifted apart from reality, and the more he suffered. He had a grueling time giving up opium, because it consumed too much of his energy and mentality that he passed out during a performance. Locked in a room, he could not help but to smash all the stuff, crying for assis tance and cursing the world. Next follows one of the most heartbreaking scene in the movie: among a mess of broken glass and ripped clothes, Dieyi leans on Juxian’s lap, pale and frail, murmuring that he misses his mother.Juxian, with her eyes full of tears, answered: â€Å"Mom is here, don’t be afraid†(90:37). Even Juxian, Dieyi’s rival in love, can understand his pain and helplessness at this moment. She pretended to be his mother, giving him temporary love and support in order to help him overcome the great difficulty. And due to his loneliness, Dieyi also developed a relationship with Patron Yuan, a bureaucrat, a wealthy admirer, and a crazy theatergoer, not because of love, but because of the absence of Xiaolou. Yuan encouraged, and even indulged himself in the antasy of Farewell My Concubine with Dieyi: he bought exquisite decorations and costumes for Dieyi, saying that they would make his Concubine Yu more glamorous; he dressed like the King, sang and danced with Dieyi in his lavish courtyard, turning a deaf ear to the chaotic world outside. Dieyi was so isolated from the world that he even performed for Japanese invaders during the anti-Japanese war, innocently thinking that they would appreciate and even spread Peking Opera in their country; instead, he was tortured and imprisoned for his treason by the Chinese government at the end of the war.His failed relationship with Yuan even affected him during the Cultural Revolution, because having any relation with a senior bureaucrat from the Qing Dynasty, the enemy of communism, was considered to be formidable crime at that time; and, being a gay, which was considered to be a scandal in traditional Chinese culture, further aggravated his accusation. Hence, Dieyi was punished and humiliated in front of the public in his most beautiful costume of Concubine Yu.Dieyi’s tragic experiences must have something to do with his homosexual identity, as Benzi Zhang observes in  "Figures of Violence and Tropes of Homophobia, Reading Farewell My Concubine between East and West†: â€Å"although the dominating powers were constantly shifting in China from 1924 to 1977, the discourse of peremptory heterosexuality and patriarchy has never been changed or challenged. Similar to the victims of rape, homosexual men meet the worst injustice and violence during that terrifying period of history†(104).Refusing to be settled in either the category of heterosexuality or patriarchy, Dieyi is a â€Å"nomad† with inappropriate identity; he threats and challenges the heterosexual cultural value, and thus becomes the enemy of the whole feudal society. Therefore, Dieyi’s loneliness can be interpreted as being marginalized by the mainstream society, and his susceptibility to violence can be seen as a general characteristic among the homosexual minority. To further interpret this movie, we need to analyze the Beijing Opera Farewell, My Concubine, whic h dominated the professional life of Dieyi.It is a love story circulated in Chinese society for thousands of years. In this tragic tale, Concubine Yu is so loyal and true that rather than abandoning her king as he faces military defeat, she chooses to dance for him one last time and then to cut her throat with his sword. From the perspective of modern people, this story obviously reflects â€Å"a cultural discourse invested with male dominated values†(Zhang, 103), because the death of the young and beautiful Concubine Yu shows her loyalty to her husband, which is valued as a virtue, or even a standard of conduct for women for thousands of years. The binary model of the King (dominant masculinity)-Concubine Yu (subservient femininity), which serves well the patriarchal, heterosexual orthodoxy, has been the dominating ideology in Chinese culture, which has an oppressive and suffocating consequences for homosexual discourse†(Zhang, 103). To echo with this story and to prov ide a heart-rending frame for the movie, Dieyi killed himself in the same pattern as Concubine Yu. At the end of this movie, Dieyi and Xiaolou were reunited on the stage, practicing Farewell, My Concubine again.Xiaolou began with the line â€Å"I am naturally a girl, not a boy†, which gave Dieyi trouble forty years ago. Accidentally, Dieyi made the same error of finishing the line with he is not a girl. Then all of a sudden, Dieyi swiftly pulled out the sword and killed himself in front of his â€Å"king†. Why did Dieyi commit suicide? Was it because he could no longer withstand the agony of living? I don’t think so, because 1977 was the dawn of Chinese modernization, a signal of a brand-new and peaceful era. With the hope of a bright future, Dieyi would not expect to repeat his heartbreaking experiences.Was it because he lose faith in mending his relationship with Xiaolou? Definitely not, as seen in the movie, Xiaolou and Dieyi talked and smiled like old friend s at their reunion. The most reasonable answer is that he killed himself to assert his homosexual identity and to demonstrate his unyieldingness to the ugly world he lived through. According to Zhang, â€Å"Deviance such as homosexuality has long been regarded in Chinese culture as a sign of â€Å"transgression† that demands a different order of social normality†. (Zhang, 101) Therefore, to maintain this order, anything that subverts the orthodox morality should be exterminated.In this sense, Dieyi’s death is an inevitable consequence, is a powerful highlight of this movie, which strikes the hearts of the audience. Overall, the movie can be seen as a modern version of the old tragic Farewell My Concubine: they both happen in troubled times, and both the heroines died in the end. However, instead of eulogizing the heroine’s loyalty and purity, the modern version summons a hope, a pressing demand for a liberal society. If Dieyi were born in a liberal societ y, where homosexuality is not a shame, where gay men have equal rights to pursue love nd live a normal life, he wouldn’t be abused in the opera house; he wouldn’t be alienated by his best friend; he wouldn’t indulge himself in his fantasy by smoking opium; he wouldn’t be humiliated during the Cultural Revolution, and he wouldn’t kill himself in the end. In a word, it is the huge pressure from the conservative society that leads to Dieyi’s death. Therefore, the tragic ending is not designed to break our hearts, but to make them stronger, so that we are determined enough to fight for liberty and equity.With the fascinating story being told, what are the general messages that the movie conveys? First, Farewell My Concubine is a great attempt to break the language-less silence on the issue of homosexuality, and due to its controversial topic, it was once banned in Chinese mainland theatre. However, it still succeeds in arousing people’s a ttention on this issue. Second, it criticizes the unfair treatment and the general despise of gays or lesbians in traditional Chinese culture. Third, it suggests a suppressed consciousness of â€Å"modernity† through the issue of homosexuality.With all the blood and tears from the painful history, the movie calls for a liberal and comprehensive society, in which people’s freedom and desire can be satisfied to the utmost. Finally, it instills hope and courage to us-that we should stop complaining about lives and cherish what we own now, because we are lucky enough to live in a peaceful and prosperous society. Meta-analysis I had a hard time picking out thesis, because Farewell My Concubine is so rich in context that it addresses several significant binaries about the world: love and betray, public and private, freewill and predestination, homosexual and heterosexual.I chose the binaries: public and private, freewill and predestination for my close reading essay, trying very hard to make correlations between them. It didn’t work well, however, for it lacks a focus, a lens, through which I can analyze this film in depth; moreover, I could not find useful secondary sources illustrating any relation between public life and fatalism. Therefore, I turned my attention to a more specific and well-expressed topic of this movie: homosexuality. In my lens essay, I let my analysis evolve with the progression of the story.I firstly identify the causes to Dieyi’s homosexuality by illustrating several important details in his childhood with the explanations from Metzger Sean and Min Tian’s studies. It shows that the strict training process of Dan, and some childhood violent accidents such as raping and beating all contribute to his homosexual development. Secondly, I explore the relationship between his torment life and his homosexual identity. After watching this movie several times, I found out that most of his misfortune comes from his â €Å"abnormal† sexual preference.For example, although he is well recognized as a distinguished artist on stage, nobody really cares about his feeling in real life; instead, even Xiaolou alienates him. He is discarded from the mainstream society, and therefore, he seeks consolidation from smoking opium and completely dedicating in his role Concubine Yu on stage. Over time, he is isolated by the community, and suffers from his innocence during social movement. Then, with the help of Benzi Zhang’s study on homophobia in traditional Chinese culture, I investigate the causes of this relationship.As Zhang pointed out, â€Å"Deviance such as homosexuality has long been regarded in Chinese culture as a sign of â€Å"transgression† that demands a different order of social normality†(103). Therefore, I conclude that Dieyi’s tragedy is an inevitable consequence given the general homophobic culture he lives in, and his death in the end can be interpreted as th e successful extermination of â€Å"nomad†, or a sort of threat, of the orthodox feudal society. Finally, I tried to reveal the implicit message this film conveys to the public.I discovered that this movie can be seen as a modern version of the well-known tale Farewell My Concubine , but with a new meaning, a new expectation to our modern world. By bring up homosexuality, a sensitive issue that has been suppressed for thousands of years, the movie suggests an urgent need for China’s modernization, a call for a liberal society, in which minorities such as homosexuals can seek for happiness like anyone else. Reference Min Tian, â€Å"Male Dan: the Paradox of Sex,Acting, and Perception of Female Impersonation in Traditional Chinese Theatre†, Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1(Spring, 2000), pp. 78-97, University of Hawai’i Press. Metzger, Sean . â€Å"Farewell My Fantasy†. Journal of Homosexuality 2000, Vol. 39 Issue 3/4, p213. EBSCO. Olin Library. Washington University in St. Louis. 31/03/2011 16:10. Benzi Zhang. â€Å"Figures of Violence and Tropes of Homophobia, Reading Farewell My Concubine between East and West†. Journal of Popular Culture Fall99, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p101-109. EBSCO. Olin Library. Washington University in St. Louis. 31/03/2011 16:10.

Freedom Of Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Education

Shayla Tran WRI 102 3.3.17 Prof. Armbruster Freedom of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Education Until this past 2016 election, free college was a mere idea. That is, till’ a white headed democratic socialist informed us how that idea could very well be a possibility. Vermont Senator and 2016 Presidential election candidate, Bernie Sanders, was one of the biggest supporters of tuition-free colleges. He introduced an idea that not only was completely doable but highlighted main reasons why we should have tuition-free colleges. Through the use of multiple sources on education we will explore Sen. Sanders’ notion of tuition-free colleges. It is because of this that I argue that free college tuition would not only benefit students†¦show more content†¦Sanders is not alone on this topic, he sparked this conversation that democrats everywhere needed to have. Supporters of this included Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren who favor debt-free college a little more than tuition-free college. One of the biggest benefits of tuition-free college is that it would rel ieve so much financial stress. According to â€Å"The Student Debt Dilemma†, â€Å"fifty six percent more of today’s students have federal subsidized loans than students ten years ago. Graduates with loans borrow and average of $19,300- 60 percent more than they did in the early 1990s† (Burden, 2005). All these loans take a toll on a student. Worrying about student debt can actually discourage people from continuing their education. In, â€Å"The Academic Impact of Financial Stress on College Students† it states, â€Å"The link between financial stress and poor academic performance is noteworthy. Financially stressed students who participated in this study were significantly more likely to drop out of school than others, holding all other relevant factors constant† (Joo et al, 2009). The more money that students are going to owe, the more they are discouraged from continuing their secondary education. It doesn’t make sense for students to be in this much debt just because they wanted to learn. While studies found that debt discouraged students to continue education, other studies found that when students were givenShow MoreRelatedNegative and Positive Liberty Essay1473 Words   |  6 PagesNegative and positive liberty are best understood as distinct values within Berlin’s own scheme of value pluralism. While an increase in either is desirable, ceteris paribus, attempting to maximize any single idea of liberty without regard to any other values necessarily entails absurd and clearly undesirable conclusions; any sensible idea of jointly maximizing freedom in general, therefore, must acknowledge the tradeoffs inherent in increasing one aspect of freedom or another. 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