they are from the teacher’s perspective.

From my perspective as a teacher, parachuting myself into this situation.

problematic as I haven’t met the students, school, it’s all imagined!

Here we go….

First impressions:

Gossip, noise

An Optical challenge, darting eyes

Attention isn’t centred on me!

Is this chaos?

When can I start the class?

How can I start this thing?

Who am I? What are we doing today?

Who are you all and what are you doing here?

Are your brains gonna fire on this subject?

Class make-up:

Attention seeker

Inferiority Complex

Revenge Seeker

I’ll recognise you over the next few weeks!

Will I recognise my approach to learning alongside you?

Do I have an approach that includes your learning?

Let’s hope I take the time to answer these questions pronto!

Lesson Plan:

Prejudice is the buzz word

Put it on the whiteboard and go to auto mode….?

Or connect with students?

That means I’ll have to take a risk… oh no!

tick

tick

tick

fast forward

Chewing the concept:

Tell us:

Who’s a dag? Who’s a snag?  Who’s a winner? Who’s a loser?

With your list tell us: where did they grow up, what do they eat for breakfast, what do they believe, what do they do for fun?

Reflect can we know all this or are we inventing it?

Do the same exercise for TV characters or tv personalities?

So what are the groups/products/ interests/ categories that set you off on a prejudice track?

Alternatively – what/who have you and friends been discussing lately?

How do you automatically shape this person/ thing?

Quick responses! Shout em out!

Wrap up

What does prejudice say about me? Nothing? Something?

How have my prejudices changed?

Can I become aware of prejudice?

How?

What are five situations where prejudice can affect an outcome?

How do we counter this?

Reflection

In practice the self-examination may occur before entering the classroom at ‘First Impressions’. I have not shown in this passage the possible responses or lack of response from students and in particular how labelled ‘misbehavers’ will act and how I will respond to them.

These are lesson ideas addressed to myself, and now need to be  reviewed in light of learning styles, key misbehaviour and other headings as yet unknown….

unsettling behaviour

Challenge

CHALLENGING?

My initial recollections of classrooms don’t throw up a lot of examples of unsettling behaviour.

The rich catalogue of spirited family conversations more than compensates for this rather staid school world.

So let me consider times I’ve observed family members behave in unsettling ways.

I have brought assumptions to the table when observing these moments.

L I K E….

• the mental health of the household is more important than any needs of this snarling person I’m observing;
• This person doesn’t deserve money and attention; they should earn it, ‘behave well’;
• We deserve to be free of fear in this household, free of stomach churning when we see hear the scary person.
• We should protect younger siblings;
• Younger siblings should look up to older siblings;

Where did the assumptions come from?

Certainly how I grew up and the repeated messages and norms being passed on to me by key family members. They stressed rights, respect, non-violence, non-degrading speech and a willingness to support other family members.

The clichés about sibling relationships I drew from popular discourse, with a bit of reinforcement from peer discourse.

How could I respond when someone appeared to contravene these norms regularly!

Looking back now the senior members of the household took an approach similar to the  interactionist model of classroom management.  That’s to say they tried direct communication, deal in the present and showing the normal and logical consequences of the actions.

It rarely worked.

Normal and logical consequences of the actions were swept aside by the subject. They used intimidation and violence to dismiss any attempts at moulding behaviour through deployment of logical consequences. They exercised power and were, as the tabloids might say, beholden unto themselves (their authority) alone.

The lesson here is that logical consequences take time and effort to implement.

AND that approaching the problem through lens other than interactionist would be worthwhile.

My assumptions were certainly challenged.

Those about ideal sibling interaction were exposed for what they were, cliché.

What’s more, those stemming from the norms of my family household were also challenged. How to confront this behaviour when there’s little buy-in to the rights and responsibilities; when there’s a refusal of logical consequences etc?

I’ll be interested to find out what Glasser would recommend here but this is a family story, not a classroom story so the case doesn’t have the same appearance as the classroom challenges destined for our pigeon holes.

nOtE to self – these models of behaviour are a great way of analysing old memories.

Next stop on Reading bus … Non-interventionism and giving students the reins for setting their own goals and building skills that interest them.

When a teacher went on long term leave and they could not find a suitable replacement I took over most of his classes and there was one year 8 boys class that I particularly enjoyed teaching, however there was a student in there called Jordan who really tested me.

In this particular year 8 class nobody was fantastic at PE although they all tried really hard, turned up in full kit each week and gave 110%, and in my views you cannot ask for any more. However Jordan would turn up with half a kit, a really bad attitude and he would constantly disrupt the class in every single lesson. Each week he would talk when I was talking, kick balls away, throw things at other students until I snapped and I either made him sit out, move classes, attend detention or call home, and yet still nothing changed.

I talked to other teachers about Jordan and they advised me that “all of his older brothers were the same” and “not to waste my time” but the main thing I took from his head of year was that Jordan played Rugby for county, which is the same as playing state in Australia.

Armed with this information the next Rugby class that I took I called Jordan to the front and I got him to demonstrate how to tackle, thanked him and got the class to give him a round of applause, the next lesson I got Jordan to do another demonstration and I continued to do this. Once Jordan became involved he stopped disrupting and because of his exceptional talent he actually became an asset to the class and to the other pupils.

Whenever I have reflected on my achievement of ‘mastering’ Jordan in class and getting him not disrupt and participate in lessons I have always believed that it was because I made him feel part of the lesson and got him ’on my side.’ However after reading Steve’s lecture I now realise that it is not something that I did right to ‘manage’ Jordan’s behavior, but it was my initial mistake of ‘engaging in a power struggle with him’ that caused the issue in the first place.

I can now see that because I was young and I had no formal teacher qualification I used to be an interventionist and I would set rules and expect that everybody followed my orders and when somebody (Jordan) questioned me or shouted out, rather than respond in an appropriate manner I would see it as a challenge on my authority and I would engage in a power struggle.

Although I have studied some models of classroom management I am still unclear as to what type of category I would like to fall into, however on reflection I can see that I will be staying clear of an authoritative interventionist.

A text exists, it is related and transformed in the relating.

It is heard and transformed by the  hearer and the context impacts on the text also.

Our context included sitting in a big lecture room, surrounded by some strangers and some acquaintances, all with one thing in common.

What do I think about the characters?

Horse of power – that ideal embodiment of a guide: the one who holds power and uses it to good ends.

Firebird – Is the firebird just a vehicle for the archer’s journey of self-discovery?

Perhaps the firebird is a metaphor for any noise that we find on our doorstep in life? Noise in our personal lives or in our work. We have to identify and filter noise, but there’s no rush. For teachers who are confronted with noise, like a colleague telling you not to neglect a command or  a catchcry, the challenge is to do the filtering ourselves. The firebird in the story reinforces the maxim that we benefit from making our own judgements

Czar -  reminds me of the song “Everybody Must Get Stoned”. Part of growing up is spending less energy trying to please people.

Princess: -  message of the week is make your own money so you can decide whether to accept roles in fairy tales that dumb down the complexity of your character. Or you could decide to avoid being a folk tale icon all together and focus on your academic or other career.

They’re the thoughts, now as the bus driver says “Sit back, relax and enjoy the trip”.

catch you later.

In year 9 a new teacher came into the school and he changed the way in which all of the classes were taught. He would include everybody in all of the lessons and initially the pupils that were not interested in sport would not participate, however as the term progressed he began to assign ‘jobs’ to each and every pupil that utilised their skills and made them feel involved.

He created roles as coaches, managers, officials, equipment managers, facility managers, event organisers  and everybody had their role to play in each of the lessons and each pupil felt included and part of the team. In addition to this the teacher would appease the school views of ‘winning’ by taking a very different approach to how he taught extracurricular sports teams, as he would really focus his energy on creating a successful team.

I am still in contact with my old teacher and he really inspired me and also enabled me to become successful and fill my potential,  if I could emulate his achievements as a teacher then I would be very pleased.

 As a pre service PDHPE teacher I think that all too often Physical Education teachers obtain a reputation that they only cater for those who are athletically elite and interested in sport. However I believe that as a teacher it is my responsibility to make the lessons interesting and to engage all of the children.

 We see science teachers who create laboratory experiments to engage children who maybe don’t understand or remember formulas by writing them down but by physically creating the formulas. If this is the case then why can’t this principal of utilising different teaching strategies be employed in PDHPE to promote Physical Education to all children?

Which leads me onto the next question “will I be allowed to be the teacher that I want to be?” I think that the answer to the questions is…I honestly don’t know! I believe that if I secure a job in a sports academy or a school that has a strong ethos on winning then I would not be allowed to become the teacher that I want to be. Furthermore I feel that I might have to concentrate my efforts of enriching the already talented children, in order to reinforce and maintain a ‘winning culture’ within the school.

On the other hand if I were employed by a school that was proud of a ‘sports for all’ and an inclusive attitude then I would be allowed to flourish and become the teacher that I want to be. Ultimately I feel that these are questions that I will have to ask myself when I am looking for a position as a PDHPE teacher.

It’s enough to make you want to go bowling and this urge disarms me very rarely.

So Provocation number seven states “Should we teach Subjects or students?”

My initial response to this provoc is why is the question addressed to ‘we’?

The other provocs are addressed to ‘me’.

Ie what would/ will I do in my teaching practice?

Coming back to subjects versus students, attributes of in-depth learning include actions that pitch on both sides of the court (Hattie 2003).

On the subject side, teachers’ deep representation of the subject allows classroom exploration to move within a framework and rewards students’ independent inquiry.

On the student side, teachers provide feedback, challenging tasks to students, they respect students and encourage them to extend their ideas. This is nurturing talent or influencing achievement.

So we should teach subjects -  knowing not just the subject or a specific aspect of the subject in detail, but being able to read a subject from various perspectives and open it up to allow students to project understanding and questions onto a field of enquiry.

Keeping this field open, moving around it flexibly and allowing students to make ever more complex links between the actors and concepts, this requires teachers to put trust in the learner’s ability

. So subjects matter but it’s not a case of presenting categorical truths a la Websters 177? Dictionary, it’s a question of letting students run free inside the museum that contains as wide a range of perspectives on the subject as possible… and guiding them around.

And we should teach students. An essential step to powering up their learning is finding out their background, ability and motivation.

If you were a financial advisor meeting a client for the first time, wouldn’t you be looking for the same stuff as a departure point?

Refs:

Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? In, Australian Council for Education Research Conference, Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved from Educational Leaders website.

As an undergraduate student at a small liberal arts college, I took a class in cultural anthropology called “Race and Ethnicity in a Global Perspective” and as the name would suggest, the subject matter was sensitive. Most students had some sort of past experience (or at least some sort of preconceived notion) relating to racial or ethnic differences. But this class ended up being the single most life-changing class I took over the course of my degree.

The professor of this class was uniquely engaging. He seemed to just have a special quality that made people want to listen. Perhaps more importantly, he was an extremely good listener and when the class meeting took the form of a discussion he encouraged our participation. When we shared our thoughts and opinions he always responded in a way that let us know he fully understood us. His knowledge in his field was evident, but I felt that the class was just as much a learning experience for him as a teacher it was for us as students.

The challenge set forth by this professor was no small task. He aimed to systematically deconstruct many things that we took for granted, and in doing so, help us to develop a more critical mind. Through this class I learned that with challenge comes great potential. What allowed this particular teacher to create such a positive experience for me was that he felt that the roles of student and teacher were not opposite, it was not a hierarchical relationship and there was no value judgement that ensued from either of these assumptions. Both deserve respect and want to be listened to and to be understood. And most of all, teacher and student were both learning, teaching and evolving together.

Untuk postingan pertama yang bertemakan C++, saya mulai dengan program pengkonversi suhu dari Celcius ke Fahrenheit,Kelvin dan Reamur. Pada program ini, jenis suhu yang dijadikan masukan hanya Celcius saja.

Langsung saja, ini kode programnya :

#include <iostream.h>
#include <conio.h>

void main(){
float celc, fahr, rea, kelv;
cout<<"==============================================\n";
cout<<"    PROGRAM KONVERSI SUHU DARI CELCIUS KE :   \n";
cout<<"        FAHRENHEIT | REAMUR | KELVIN          \n";
cout<<"==============================================\n";
cout<<"Masukkan suhu dalam celcius = ";
cin>>celc;
/////
fahr = (celc*1.8) + 32;
rea  =  celc * 0.8;
kelv = celc + 273.15;
/////
cout<<"=============================================\n";
cout<<"              HASIL KONVERSI SUHU            \n";
cout<<"=============================================\n";
cout<<"FAHRENHEIT  =  "<<fahr<<endl;
cout<<"REAMUR      =  "<<rea<<endl;
cout<<"KELVIN      =  "<<kelv<<endl;
cout<<"=============================================\n";
getche();

}

Screenshoot :

Gambar1

Gambar 2

In this project a JAVA generator generates millions of lines of C++ code which of course have to be compiled, and if you are a C++ guy you certainly already have your hair standing on your head because of the time it will require to compile such huge amount of code. Well you are right, we faced extremely long compilation time (12+ hours in Unix, in windows…), which are major problem in a product that should have a quick time to market.

Worst, the product is used both under Windows and Unix platforms, which means that a solution need to be created for both worlds.

Under Windows – even with the usage of Incredibuild from Xoreax (a great grid compiler platform which allowed to reduce considerably the compilation time), the user still needed to wait 2 hours for compilation, which was not acceptable.

Under Unix – no grid compiler (unless you work only on few platform), we tried to use distcc but the results were still not satisfying and you need additional hardware. We where stuck…

Therefore we begun a research for an alternative that could speed up the builds, and for that we needed to understand the factor that affected compilation time, our main suspicious factor was the number of lines of code to compile, since the code was generated, it was very easy to inflate the output nevertheless we soon understood that we were wrong…

Below are factors impacting the compilation time (according to their impact)

1. In the first place the number of files to compile – this is one of the major factor affecting compilation time, the compiler is not really smart at reusing information it processed between invocation and is not able either to work on a set of files, and it is especially slow (I/O bound) for building dependencies. If you want to really reduce the compilation time reduce the number of file to compile, and it does not mean to write all in a single file, you can use what is called Unity Build.
   A Unity Build group several cpp files in a single one using just the include directive. For example let say you want to compile file1.cpp to file 10.cpp then create a new file group.cpp as follow:

   #include "file1.cpp"
   #include "file2.cpp"
   #include "file3.cpp"
   ..
   ..
   #include "file10.cpp"
   

   Now compile group.cpp and don’t forget to add the file1.cpp…file10.cpp location as include path.
   This method produces miracle (of course you have to balance the number of files you put in a single group/unity). Our compilation reduced from 15 hours to just 2.

2. Include paths – large number of include path directly affect the build time, since the compiler (or pre-compiler) need to scan all the path until it find the requested include. So try to minimize them or at least organize the path list according to the most searched one.
3. NAS (Network Attached Storage) also has a bad impact on the compilation (write is usually fast, but read is slow so library creation is slow).
4. Generate cppdep and compile on the same time – unix compilers support option to create cppdep file and compile at the same time you can save approx 20% of your compilation time.
5. Forward declaration, also know as the “Pimpl idiom” to reduce dependency, greatly help, the problem is that you cannot always refactor the code, to avoid some include that will erase your effort.
6. Usage of template – using C++ template excessively increase compilation time and libraries volume (especially if the template is declared in header).
7. Number of strings constants in a single file. It might should strange, but some compilers (HP and Sun at least) have a performance degradation when the compilation unit contains an large number of string (few thousand).
   Note: Visual Studio compiler is not sensitive to this factor.
   
8. Generic vs inflated code – using call to function or writing the content of function where you need them (like a forced “inline”). Inlining function in this way may produce better performance, but does not affect compilation time, as much as you think it affect. Effectively we reduced millions of lines of code by 75% using call to function instead of inlining their content, but we got no improvement in build time, but at least you gain more maintainable/debugable code.
9. Usage of pre-compiled header might help, but from our test they did not, the compilation time was in fact increased.
10. Usage of header cache folder – similarly to pre-compiled headers, should help (according to vendors) but from our test they most of the time do not.

So if you really want to reduce your compilation time try Unity Build concept, you will gain in:

1. Faster build time
2. Smaller objects size
3. Smaller libraries size
4. Better optimized code

Note: The compilation time is related to the number of cpp files in a single Unity Build (and their dependencies), and this number should be tuned according to the included file content (inline, template usage, headers used…). If you have too much file in a single unity/group file compilation time increase back (still better than when no using group file), nevertheless the library size declines (even if the compilation time increased back).

Mikael.Sitruk