Recommended Sites for Literature teachers

My teaching friends has asked me to put together a list of resource sites to aid them for teaching. Since then, I thought, why not share them in my blog as well. Please keep in mind, these are base on the frameworks of UK primary education.

Free Printables for English Teachers
Flashcards, Worksheets, MES games, MES English Forms, Project & lessons plans, etc.  

Learning Page
Provides month to month resources

Literacy Matters
Provides framework lessons plans and resources.

Reading A – Z
My friend swore by this site! It provides reading materials with activities attached for classroom needs.

Scholastic Teaching Resource
Everybody loves Scholastic. Admit it.

School Sites
Great Teacher resources, cool Web Launch and useful tools & utilities.

Sparklebox
1000s of products ALL FREE to download!

Teach It
Sharing resources of tips and tricks for teachers.

Teacher.Net (English)
Promoting writing, Shakespeare, Poetry, ICT in English teaching, etc

TeacherXpress
Provides list of links for here and there.

Teaching English (British Council)
Provides Resource kits for Primary learners, Secondary Level, Younger teens

If you have any more good ones, just email me the link =^_^=

Read More

In The MailBox Monday 24 - 25 October 2010

Mailbox Monday (currently hosted by BermudaOnion) & In My Mail is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday & In My mail can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists.

These are the ones I got for last week =D Yup THAT many! Got them from friends, publisher, etc =D I'm just worried on how fast I be able to review them.

  

A J Menden - [Shomi 11] - Phenomenal Girl 5

Allan Massie - Antony

Bernard Beckett - Genesis

Carla Neggers - [Black Falls 03] - Cold Dawn

Dana Marie Bell - [True Destiny 02] - Eye of the Beholder

Ellen Datlow  - [Anthology] - Poe

Dee Tenorio - Shaken

Edward Bunker - Mr. Blue; Memoirs of a Renegade

Edward Saunders - Wild Bees, Wasps and Ants

Christopher Pike - [Thirst 03] - The Eternal Dawn

Helen Scott Taylor - [Magic Knot Fairies 02] - The Phoenix Charm

Jessica Verday - [The Hollow 02] - The Haunted

Read More

Vampires; <i>Sucking Blood Factor!</i>

Vampires has been quite a fascination for me when it comes to the Horror Genre, and it's quite obvious to me, being someone who grew up in the South East Asia, to notice the vast difference among the different types of Vampires available around the world. Definition of a Vampire, is a creature of the night, who either feeds on Blood, or some sort of essence.

Since I’m Asian, let’s play with the vampire originating from this parts of the world. In this parts of the world, among the Malays (Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore) vampires are known as the Kuntilanak, Languir, Pontianak, Matianak and Boentianak. There is also a big taboo in calling out their names over here, since, they can supposedly hear you and come when you call their names, we occasionally call them, “Ponti-baby”. Anak is translated as baby in English. I guess it's less scary that way.

So anyway… let’s deal with the origins of our vampires. It is a sad story actually, because they origin from women who died in childbirth, where they become the undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages. A Pontianak kills her victims by digging their sharp fingernails though their victims stomach, devouring their organs. They perform their revenge on male individuals by ripping out their sex organs with their bare hands. They tend to locate preys by sniffing out the clothes which are being left outside to dry. Langsuir is the most deadly of them all. Unlike Pontianaks, they appears as a very beautiful woman to devour their victims. She would possess and suck their blood from the inside, slowly killing their victims. She is said to be form when a woman who suffered from laboring sickness (meroyan) or what we would now called as post-natal depression, died and she turned into a Langsuir 40 days after her death. 

Then, there is the Chinese Vampires, which are commonly known as Jiang Shi, or the hopping Chinese ghost. They just hop around, killing living creatures to absorb their life essence from their victims. These vampires are form when their souls failed to leave their dead bodies, due to improper death, suicide or just a want to be a trickster, or the victims of pre-mature burial. Honestly, this is kind of the most funniest vampires I have ever known (not personally of course). They have eyes but they locate victims by smelling them. You could just be in front of them and by holding your breath, they can’t see you. Their eyes would be opening all wide but they can't see you. It just doesn’t compute, but that’s how it is. *lol*

As far as I know, there are hardly any books regarding Asian vampires. Unless if you are Russell  Lee, and Tamar Jalis. But even with them, they barely cover the subject as a main stream. I, as an author, tried but I ended up scared out of my wits before finishing it. *hehe* I guess that’s why in written form, it’s quite rare to find them over here. Visual stream however has covered this part of the genre over and over again.

Vampires originated from the west is kind of simple and ultimately strong characteristically,  living quite a lifestyle when it comes to portraying them. They are far more feature as gothic and the nature of romanticism appear dominant and that to me.. kind of lose its horror edge. They are far more alive and social rather than how the vampires from the East ‘lives’. The most famous of them all would be Dracula, originated from Transylvania (yes I look the darn spelling up! I can’t spell that place by myself, even if my life depends on it >.<). He is the product of Bram Stoker and the character himself is  also being connected to Vlad the Impaler, famously nicknamed as Vlad Vampire. The running history of how a vampire in the western civilization works is by another vampire infecting them with their vampire blood. There’s nothing really that scary about them. No creepy crawly factor at all for me. For me that is.

 Some Vampire Books:

P/S: No! I am not featuring glittering vampires in this post. Period! It’s just not fair to us horror enthusiastics. I drew the line there in Vampirism!

Read More

Review: Bunnicula Series; James Howe - It's a Bunny-hop Horror!

If you like vampires and you also love oh that sweet sweet hopping cuddly rabbits. For this horror season, I suggest in reading the Bunnicula series.

Book Description
Bunnicular Series
Author: James Howe & Deborah Howe
Genre: Children Horror

It featured a bunny which has strange eating habits and vampire-like qualities, yet, nobody is in absolute danger at all. He came to the Monroe household in the middle of a stormy night (yes cliché, but what can I say, it’s cute), who was found by Toby at the theater which in coincidence, was showing Dracula. Let it be known, Bunnicular has fangs instead of buck teeth, which enable him to suck the juice out of them vegetables. Then, There’s Chester, who suspected their new found resident was kinda odd and as soon as he realized Bunnicula isn’t a normal bunny, he is convinced, they are all in mortal danger and doing whatever he could to destroy Bunnicular!

Honestly, I do wish I have read this when I was still at school, but it is still an awesome read when I’ve discovered this series last year or so. I guess it’s enjoyable no matter what your age is. It’s  a fast read which is also a page turner, which means it would grab the attention of the reluctant readers.

Read More

Dear “When She Reads” Blog…

Uggh.. work has took dominancy over my blogging life! Eekk! So I like to apologize for the lack or reviews and participation of the October events and meme weekly memes. Even reading has took a toll for the worse >.< At least I have been reading one page per day. Yup, that’s pathetic. But hey! I’m reading still.. right? Worse. I didn’t leave any pre-publish post neither.

I like to mention I have been playing with Origami in the middle of my busy schedule by folding cranes. Hey! Found out it is quite a relaxer during stress. I aimed to fold 1000 Cranes as a personal project. And here’s a few pictures =D

 

Read More