Saturday, May 3, 2008

Programming Marathon!

Well,
Most of you should have seen the different political rallies of the 1st of May. Once again we have seen the bias of some media in the coverage. Certain political parties got 20 minutes of news coverage whilst others had a total of 5 minutes. Futhermore, in the news...the slips of the tongues of some speakers were elegantly erased during the 'montage'. Fortunately i listened to the speeches live on the radio and once again had a laugh at the lack of competence of some.

Unfortunately it seems that when one is not in the good books of the MBC, all the slips of the tongues are broadcast...just like that leader of the opposition party who is not in the parliament (wonder who leads them there...) his slip of the tongue pic pic pac pac was in the news.... he nearly said TIC TAC (just like the sweet), or Tic Tac Tic Tac...(like a ticking timer for a bomb....).

IMHO, some people capitalise on the position of their parents...as this is often the case in local politics. An one particular rally, the political preference of our dear President was often cited...just as if they wanted a snowball effect for his son.....

'Incompetence, quand arreteras-tu de ronger notre arène politique?'

Our attorney general rightly enumerated the different reforms to legal system...outstanding.... I got a quick little question though..can't we have a 'health centre' or dispensary in our courts of justice, i have seen may people suspected of financial fraud go through the legal system unpunished simply because they were 'ill' some even went to court on stretchers...may be in the court was in a clinic or vice-versa we could have given 'un semblant de justice'...worse still...this has set precedence to other suspects in the same case where suddenly they were ill (Wonder if this condition is called 'une maladie de convenance')....... may be instead of having magistrate in the courts...we should have doctors shouting 'ORDER!!! ORDER!!!', and as punishment people could be given injections or could be hanged using a stethoscope.

Yesterday was a challenge, 4 hours of revision for Programming in ELT2...'Qui dit mieux?'...lol
Hopefully this will help the students for their exams. We went through most of the chapters and unfortunately for me, the data projector kept overheating and shutting down..this was slightly getting on my nerves. At some point in time i went to get a white board marker and a 'duster'.

I nearly lost it when a bunch of students started chatting among themselves and i calmly addressed them..luckily they understood et 'Le silence qui regna par la suite était digne de celle d'une cathedrale'.

When i got back home, i had a quick little tour on MSN, i was amazed by the display message of one of my friends who turned 26 yesterday..it was 'Today's my birthday, I bought a PSP to feel younger', well Gio... no comments.

I then started having a look at the assignment of some students...it seemed obvious that some had copied from their friends, or they could have someone who did the program for them... Many programs did not have a structure, some hardly used functions, and repeated the same block of codes again and again...but the most shocking thing was that someone used GOTO in the programs...we are in 2008...have you not realised that? I bet the use of better programming constructs would improve the readability of the codes. Anyways.....

Anyways, I am eagerly awaiting feedback from my students to know what are my weaknesses, so that i can improve my lectures next year.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

[...]I nearly lost it

Hmm? This certainly is rare! What happened? Was there any murder afterwards, for there to be a cathedral-like silence? :P

Anyways, hoping that the exams will come out (easy) fine... :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, Concerning the 1st may i prefered not to watch the tv coz i know its a complete waste of time to watch the "Yearly's liar competition" Mo prefere mo ban boukins compare a ca lol

Friday's class? i can tell something, my back was square after these 4h lol though i really did learn a lot. There were many things i didnt know such as the strlen function and a few other things

I can understand the frustration due to the projector shutting down each times, it was getting on the student's nerve too i guess

I nearly lost it when a bunch of students started chatting among themselves and i calmly addressed them..luckily they understood et 'Le silence qui regna par la suite était digne de celle d'une cathedrale'.

Lol comme quoi faut savoir kan bizin reste trankil dans class hahaha

A little advice concerning the feedback: DOnt expect too much from that.
You may ask why?
Its coz:
1. There are students who fill in just to be able to select modules or take their exams so they put ratings just to be over with the feedback asap
2. There was one problem is the prog methodology(at least i had it) i did only get it for first semester 2007 and not for second semester so i thk it may be possible that the students filled in for the other lecturer
3. I thk that only 10% really took the time to say what they really feel about programming

So if you want a real feedback then i would advise you to put a feedback section in the blog, then each week the students can comment on the week's lecture.

darklide

Chaya said...

Hi,
Well no comments about the political rallies of the 1st May, just like we say in creole "l'annee aller, l'annee vini, bane politiciens raconte mem zistwar" whether they are in government or the opposition.

Pa enkoler souvent, pa bon pu la sante sa,lol

Well, as concerns feedback, i did it for the previous lecturer I guess. But I would like to tell you something, you may take it as an advice, or otherwise, but do not be offended. No wonder, you are a very good lecturer with lots of patience, who gives in as much effort required to explain concepts to students for them to understand. But there is a little aspect lacking, it's not really missing, but i don't know how to say it....I guess you should motivate your students to achieve excellence, i don't mean that you do not motivate students, you do motivate them(us), but not to the extent of achieving excellence. Till date, i've seen only one lecturer who motivated his students for very very good results.

Well, i'm telling this from my past experiences,especially for my HSC, i had three teachers, who motivated students to work hard for an A firstly, then distinction 1 in all the several papers if possible. There are some extreme cases whereby the teacher identified that a particular student has the potential and capability of being ranked nationally or become a laureate, and he would do his best to encourage that student to persevere and reach that top level, and in some cases it was a success and students were ranked and some laureates as well.

Maybe it's not really an advice, instead a way to improve yourself,lol.

As concerns assignments, there are some students who really devoted much energy and hard work in doing it by themselves and making the program work near to perfection.

About the GOTO thing, i didn't quite get the message you were trying to convey, if you could highlight about it.

Pa encoler par cki mone ecrire,lol.

Cheers
Chaya

G@V!N said...

Thank you for the comments...next year for sure i will do my best motivate them for excellence. But its not really obvious...I have evolved in an environment whereby self-motivation was present. May be this was because we were doing the things we like and we liked the things we are doing. This comes back to the idea in one of my previous posts...How many of you really like your programmes of study! So if someone does not like his course, motivating him for a single module can be too daunting a task

Anyways I will for sure motivate towards excellence. Being a perfectionist, i fear to be too pushy!

But please learn to self-motivate yourself...when you work do not expect too much motivation from your boss...the only thing which should motivate you will be what you deliver. Most companies like people who work independently and who are self-motivated.

But thank you for your comment, and advice. I will try to integrate that in my practice!

Chaya said...

I totally agree with the self-motivation aspect and i believe:

self-motivation + lecturer's/boss's motivation = = more effectiveness and efficiency.

maybe dan mo croyance ena un ptit peu de defiance,lol.

Cheers,

Chaya

Chaya said...

For when is the next Marathon scheduled??

I would love to attend it and refresh my programming knowledge (concepts)

A Friday afternoon would be most welcome ;)