Week 1 Down

The picture is the view from balcony!

Week 1 is over and I received another 8 students today. Getting new students into a class creates a big problem for me so I have decided to start all over on Monday as the new students will be hopelessly lost. This is not a big deal as the IT head promised me I will have my software loaded by then. So we will start over working with Flex Builder and away we go.

Taylors has more paper work than any institution I have ever seen (maybe not U of O). The v arious departments obviously do not share info and each department collects the same info. The good news is I now know my passport number, new address, and new cell number off by heart as I have written them out countless times.

The students are still impressing me with their charm but the pack is starting to separate in terms of abilities. Language issues compound the problem as they try to express themselves. However they all want to achieve big time. Some of them have quite a sense of humour and seem to appreciate my humour quite a bit.

Today a guidance person came in and tried to tell the students on scholarships that they had to decide on which area in engineering they were going to focus on. They did not want to do this and were going to have to decide there and then until I suggested to the guidance person that they would make a better decision in 3 weeks time once they had 3 weeks of courses under their belt. The guidance person stated she could wait 3 weeks and then left. The students were quite relieved and thanked me and then I proceeded to chew them out for not challenging her and suggesting that they needed some time. They agreed they should have spoken up but are just always used to doing what they are told. Could have the makings of a revolution here :-)

Did I mention none of them has ever programmed? In Ontario they have to take the grade 11 Computer Science course before getting into the grade 12 course. No proble, super Jim will cover 2 years in 1 year if he manages to stay out of jail.

All in all Taylor's is a great school and a great place to teach. Malaysia is also a great place to visit and those of you who make the journey will not be disappointed.

TTYL,

Jim