Exam is Done

The good news is my exam is done! Most students were done in 2 hours so no one was rushed. The bad news is I now have to mark it. I should be done in 2 days. I also have exam invigilation on Wednesday and Thursday. My marks are due on Dec. 4th which is Friday.

Most of my students thought there exam went well.

Shelley and I went to Asia Cafe for lunch. Shelley spotted a rat so that is 3 rats in 5 months that we have spotted. I fgure rats are just squirrels with skinny tails :-)

TTYL,

Jim

Class Photos

I have a few class photos but most of them did not turn out as students took them with my Blackberry and there was camera shake induced. I should have brought a camera. There are also some photos up on my FaceBook page.

I Hate Marking and an observation.

I have now marked for 2 days. However, I am now up to date and have Sunday off before I get my exams at lunch hour on Monday. Then I will have another 2 days of marking and then I am basically done for this semester.

I went for a walk after I finished marking at 4 pm. I strolled over to a local mall and was totally amazed at the Christmas decorations and the Christmas Carols that were playing. Everyone is in the festive mood. What is wrong with this picture?

Malaysia is a Muslim country with 3 main religions - Islam (55%), Buddhism (20%), Hinduism (15%) and assorted others at about 10%, including Christianity. My numbers are an educated guess so don't jump on me. Malaysia celebrates 3 major religious holidays plus Christmas.

I guess what I find funny is back home in the public school system we chose to ban all religions in schools and government buildings so we don't offend anyone of some other persuasion while in a Muslim country like Malaysia they celebrate all religions. I think the Malaysians have it right and the folks back home just don't get it!

If you think it is just commercialism it is not. They truly are a welcoming, embracing, inclusive people.

I have some pictures of my classes to put up and will do so tomorrow. For now, I am going to kick back, put my feet up and read a book!

TTYL,

Jim

Presentations put to Rest

It's Tuesday and the final presentations were finally done. The last are usually the worst but not this time. Some of the final projects were very well done. However, after a week and 36 presentations I am glad they are over.

Today is day 2 of review. I reminded the students, that unlike the Malaysian exam system, our exam is only worth 30 % so they would have to really bomb the exam or do very well to affect their report card mark dramatically. They are still stressed out.

Shelley and I are both looking forward to our first major break (more than a week) since the summer of 2008. We get almost a month off! Yippee Kai Yay!

TTYL,

Jim

Final Week!

I can't believe it is the final week of classes. Exams start on Thursday and Friday is a holiday. I have a few presentations still to happen, but the next 3 days are mainly review. The students are asking about a year end party so I had best research what that means.

Steve, if you are reading this and would like some samples of great computer games that can be done with Flex, drop me an email and I will send you some archived projects.

My exam is on Monday of next week and I hope to have it marked by the Wednesday. After that I have a few exams to invigilate and some open house days to welcome parents and students who are thinking about attending Taylors. It all very low key as far as I can tell.

I have accepted a coordinator's position for next semester. A coordinator here is about the same role role as a vice-principal back home. I was of two minds about the position but the principal really needs my IT skills and experience with OnSIS to complete the OnSIS reporting that is now required of private schools overseas.

It's my guess I may be a Larry Brown by the end of the semester :-)

TTYL,

Jim

Sunday Night

The weekend certainly did zoom by. Jaime went out with the girls on Friday night and arrived home at 3 am so she must have had fun. Mom and Dad hit the sack early. Saturday was a programming work day for me from 7 am to 4 pm. Shelley and I then headed out to Sunway Pyramid for supper and then back to the Boulevard for a card game at the Leonard's. As usual, we played wizards and I lost. There is something about that card game that causes me to lose.

We were up late Sunday and decided to catch a taxi to our favourite book store. I had told Jaime I would take her if she did some marking for me and of course, being the book lover that she is, she jumped at the chance. She did hit me up for $150 ringgits worth of books but that's all good.

After the Petronas towers we caught a cab back to Sunway and purchased a combo microwave - convection - grill appliance for cooking at home. It will be interesting to see if we actually do some cooking in it. Shelley is keen to do some Christmas cooking and now we have the means to do it.

Jaime is adamant about getting a real Christmas tree and Christmas lights. It's probably off to Ikea we go in a weekend or two.

TTYL,

Jim

TGIF

It's been a long week of presentations and today will be a long day. Shelley and I have a presentation to give for the IB (International Baccalaureate) program teachers. Taylors has a satellite school in KL and the school is just getting started and it attracts mainly expat students who are typical North American/European students. The teachers are all Malaysian and need some strategies to deal with this type of student (Why do I have to learn this?)

The workshop is the usual 3 hour workshop compressed into 60 minutes. There are no quick fixes in education. I don't know why we try to compress a half day into 60 minutes. I kind of feel like Don Quixote.

Today is my last full day of student game presentations. I am actively recruiting judges for the programming contest to be held in January, the second week back. I have been emailing software development companies in KL. There are quite a few of them. I think I had mentioned there is $1000 ringgits in prizes.

This is a relatively free weekend in that there is nothing planned, except for the regular lesson planning and marking. Jaime has expressed the need to visit our favourite bookstore in KL and we shall do that.

I have some more pictures to put up as well.

TTYL,

Jim

Thursday - 27 Game Presentations Later

The games are awesome, for the most part. Some of the struggling students are scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) and could be categorized as 'too little, too late', for all of the usual reasons.

The school donated $1,000 ringgits to be awarded to the top 3 games. I plan on having a contest, the first week back in January where the top 12 games will be presented in a 2 hour marathon. I hope to get some university Computer Science professors to come and judge the programs. Perhaps a judge or 2 from industry would be good as well.

I have learned a lot about game programming this semester and I am now a better programmer for it. They say game programmers are the best and I tend to believe them.

I am waiting around for Shelley who seems to have disappeared. As usual, when I call her cell, it rings right beside me in her bag.

TTYL,

Jim

Presentations Begin :-)

The students are all excited today as they begin their final preparations to demonstrate their games and field questions on how they programmed their game. For the first time, I am actually looking forward to the presentations. I usually find presentations tedious but these presentations should hold the students interest as well as mine :-)

Today is a shortened day as the graduating students have an information session over period 4. My period 3 students have asked if they can stay and watch the period 4 game presentations as well. There seems to be lots of interest.

Last night we closed up the lab at 9 pm and headed home. The students would have stayed later but the computers shut themselves down at 9 pm.

I will let you know how the presentations went.

TTYL,

Jim

Where Did the Weekend Go?

It's 5 pm on Monday and here I am in the lab with 25 students working on their CPT (game project). Friday night was movie night at home. Saturday day, was a programming day and Saturday night was the Taylor's Carnival Night with about 1200 employees in attendance. The event was terrific with lots of prizes. Taylors put on a bus for us and drove us there and back. There was a huge equestrian indoor stadium.

Shelley won a $500 camcorder. Amy won 2nd prize for her carnival costume which was $800 ringgits. The libations and food were all you could eat and drink. This was the second all expenses paid celebration by Taylors for its staff this year. The first time they put us up in a great hotel in Langkawi for the week. Just like back home :-)

Sunday was a programming research day for me in the morning and I accompanied Shelley for a mall visit in the afternoon. It was then dinner out at TGIFridays and then a cab home to bed after an hour recreational reading.

I also did some planning for my classes and input some marks into the MarkBook program.

Today is the last day for the students' game programming and the presentations start tomorrow.

TTYL,

Jim

Where Did the Week Go?

It has been a very busy week and hence, the shortage of posts. This was the last full week of in class preparation for the student's CPT which is due on Monday. The students start presenting on Tuesday. This is the infamous game project. The games are terrific. Malaysian students are quite creative.

I kept the lab open until 6 pm on both Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, Jaime presented the OUA (Ontario University Application) web site to my 'mentee' (I know it is not a word, but they use it here) students on Wednesday. The three late nights have been rather tiring.

During the classes, I solve problem code in 37 different game projects, some of which are very complex. It's kind of like writing 34 exams at once!

I headed off to Starbucks at 7:30 and arrived at my classroom door at 8 pm to find 5 students waiting to get in :-) It should be an interesting day as they begin to panic as the deadline zooms. The cardinal rule is the game must work! This is no time to be adding features.

TTYL,

Jim

Zoo pictures I promised.

Here are the KL Zoo pictures I promised (in reverse order) :-)

Heading home on the bus - tired Taylor students after a volunteer day!

Knick knacks and souvenirs for sale.

A group of volunteers feeling pretty good about their day.

Falcon trainer at the bird show.

Cute Asian kid.

Another cute Asian kid.

Cute Alaskan Brown Bear - I named him Larry

A croc basking in the sun.

Just another lizard.

Two Taylor students at lunch hour.

A bat exhibitionist.

Lions, what else?

A tiger on the prowl.

Jaime liked the butterflies.

Some kind of buffalo. I did not ask him his name.

A young orangutan.

Papa orangutan.

A brown and white zebra.

A one hump dromedary.

A big horn buffalo.

A pair of buffalo.

Very pretty pink birds - someone's birthday?

Some kind of bird.

A joey - baby kangaroo in the pouch.

Taylor's students raking up.

Elephant, just in case you could not tell.

A group or Taylorites, cleaning up the elephant's poo!

Rusty? - look way up!

Bird flasher, learner it from bat flasher.

Getting ready for volunteer work. Does every Malaysian wear glasses?

The Weekend Activities

Friday night was uneventful. We ate out as usual, but this time at TGIfridays at Subang Parade. The menu is the same as in the states so there was lots of choice. Saturday was a day of rest for Jaime and I while Shelley went into school to mark. We walked over to meet her and and had a sub at Subway. Saturday night was movie night.

Sunday was the big day. Shelley, Jamie, and I were volunteers for the 80 students who were working on their 10 hours community service at the KL zoo. Were up at 5:30 am (on a Sunday :-( ), caught a cab to Taylors and headed off to the zoo.

The KL zoo is great for the spectator (not so great for the animals). I have lots of pictures and I will try to get them up in the next few days. All in all it was great experience and there were 80 very tired students (and supervisors) after a whole day in the hot sun.

TTYL,

Jim

It's the Weekend

Hi Folks,

It's Friday night and Shelley, Jaime and I are walking over to Subang Parade for dinner and a book. Apparently they have a big book sale and books can be had for as little as 5 ringgits which is great. I imagine that some of the books are old but it is fun to look for something that may be of interest despite the publication date. Many North American magazines that are a year old are on sale here. Apparently the ones that don't get sold over there are shipped here and sold for much less. Some mags such as National Geographic are just as good even if they are a year old.

I have decided that FireFox is a much better browser than IE 8. I have used Google Chrome lately as well but I really like the community that has sprung up supporting FireFox and the plugins they have created. I hear the new version of Opera is pretty good as well. FireFox is also much faster than IE 8.

On Sunday we are supervising students at the zoo in KL. They get 10 hours community service for their efforts. We get to wake up at 6 am on Sunday, walk 30 minutes to school, sit on a bus for 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back, but then we get to see the zoo, read a book, or mark stuff while they are working. The good news is Saturday is free for me but I have some programming to do.

TTYL

Jim

Wednesday, November 4th 2009

I was up early this morning on the Internet and managed to discover the problem that was causing TPA to malfunction back at my old school board. I missed my van ride to Taylors and walked for the first time. By the time I hit Starbucks I had a good sweat going so I stopped to cool off, read the newspaper and have a latte. Properly prepared for the day I headed off to class.

There is nothing like solving an IT problem to put you in the mood for teaching. I am having a great day as I type this. The students are working very hard to complete their games. tell grasshopper I will forward some of the games to him to show him what students can accomplish with Flex.

The students at Taylors are still surprising me with their work ethic, manners, respect , and now demonstration of creative abilities and smarts. It's all good, king of like being at Pius in the early 80's.

TTYL,

Jim

Tuesday and Pics for You

Here are some pictures from our tour of Putra Jaya, KL, and surroundings. We managed to get invited to a wedding and hence the wedding photos.

Purple outfits for the blue mosque visit.

The blue mosque.
Movie star and starlet.
Wedding dancers.
Wedding flower girl.
Wedding Bride.
Pagoda on the lake at wedding locale.
Pink robes for the pink mosque.
Fountains in town square Putra Jaya.
Pink Mosque in Putra Jaya.
Government Building in Putra Jaya.
Artistic photo courtesy of Jim.
Jamie's indignation pose.
Tourists at work.
Artistic photo courtesy of Jim.
Artistic photo courtesy of Jim.
Tourists at it again.
New hotel in Putra Jaya.
Convention Centre in Putra Jaya.
Yams at large.
One of the many bridges in Putra Jaya.
Down town Putra Jaya.
Another bridge in Putra Jaya (goes nowhere)
Another bridge.