The Philosophy of Teaching

Ok for those who might be thinking otherwise, this is not a serious blog. It's a time-tested thing, I can't write serious blogs. However in this post I do try to muse over the philosophy of teaching. Also those whose minds waver to the fact that this is my second post in 3 days, I am not trying to improve the statistics of my blog, albeit just narrating a simple event. Also those afflicted with the 'Mexican jumping jelly-bean syndrome' should look around for a cure and kill their curiosity.

So lets take an insight into the lectures today, Many of you will be familiar with Lectures 1 & 2, as that is what typically happens in a class, however the incidents narrated in Lecture 3 are currently one of my personal best as what might happen otherwise.

Lecture 1
The class had barely started when I was told to go to front seat. Well I wasn't planning on studying in this particular lecture, but the first seat comes with its own charm. I wished farewell to the proxy i was supposed to make.

Lecture 2
Ok the professor here is nice and old and funny. And I think the only prof who might know my first name. But then again I am not sure.

Lecture 3
This is the astounding one, 20 minutes into the class here's the conversation taking place,

Me: Stupid question, We just need to find 3.14/16.
Friend: (Turning to last page of his notebook, writes down 3.14/4)
Me: The answer is 3.14/16
Friend: I will divide it again by 4. Makes it simpler this way.
Me (Smiling softly to myself): Ah!

Now I am not sure what short-cuts Vedic mathematics has invented, but i had my doubts on this one. Anyways I decided to stick to 3.14/16 and had just started calculating it on the last page of my note-book as well.

Professor (Small Guy, never knew when he came right by us): What are you doing?
Me (This time sure I wasn't in trouble): Sir, the question.
Professor: Why have you not written down anything?
Me (Turning the pages around to show him my not-so-neat answer) : Sir here it is.
Professor: No, what were you doing earlier?
Me: Sir i am doing rough calculations on the last page, I have written down the answer (for a change)
Professor: No, you were not doing anything. You were not interested....... (continues for 2 minutes).... Get out of the class.

Ok, I am not a model student, I generally don't make registers, let alone notes, never carry a pen and never listen in class. However at the time of doomsday(read Papers), I just run along to some hardworking friends of mine who have been studying the whole semester, and mug-up all the stuff (I call it stuff, not knowledge).

However by now i have learnt not to argue with the profs., and to be honest I had no intention of attending his class, except for the forsaken attendance rule. All I wanted was half an attendance for the half an hour i had spent there by now. However I decided not to mention this very logical fact, and prepared to get out as requested.

Professor: What are you doing?

Ok, now this was weird, i was pretty sure that we just had this conversation, and I was getting out, so what exactly was the problem?

Friend (Already knowing full well where this conversation was going to end): Sir, the question.
Professor: Why have you not written down anything?
Friend (Turning the pages around to show him a very-neat answer) : Sir here it is.
Professor: No, what were you doing earlier?
Friend: Sir i am doing rough calculations on the last page, I have written down the answer.
Professor: No, you were also not doing anything. You were not interested....... (continues for 2 minutes).... Get out of the class as well.

Ok there was no argument left. We were just being thrown out of the class for calculating 3.14/16 by two different methods. However, there are certain moments of time where prudence should prevail, however this was not one of them. Fully understanding the brilliance of the situation, we were trying to make our way to the exit, trying our best not to laugh. However, the door was close.... only half an hour had been wasted.... the situation wasn't that bad.

Professor (to me): You are always very disinterested.
Me (Turning Around): (Silent)
Professor: You should drop the course if you don't want to study.
Me (Biting Lip, Trying not to laugh): (Still Silent)

Ok heres where things could have gone worse, my friend had started sniggering. However, to rectify the situation I replied with a pertinent 'Sorry Sir', and exited immediately, stage right. My friend used his good sense and immediately followed. However once outside the profs audible range (10 meters), we released our self restraint, and laughed our heads off. It was a pleasant journey back to Jawahar, where we recommenced the days schedule by going to the mess.

Now one might ask, where does the philosophy of teaching come in to the whole account. Well, I kind of forgot the title till now, but mostly what I wanted to say was that although learning is free, I haven't gotten much of it yet. Now I have been blaming the system for about 7 years and 3 months now. But as another kind and old prof said that day, the system is not the best but it is also not as bad as we might think it to be.

There are plenty of professors out there (especially wandering inside the E&C Deptt.) who have no idea how to teach their students, and some have no idea about their own subject, and some have no idea at all. But I guess the same could be said about the students as well. I guess the prof. was irked by something i did earlier, rather than the 3.14/16. However perhaps this is a good time for me to reconsider, my stance on the system, and to maybe try and not to use it as a shield so often.

I guess thats about it, but I still haven't said much about the philosophy of teaching, have I? Well probably another time then.

Writing Again...

Ok theres no point in discussing this furthur. All resolutions written the last time did not even survive for more than a few hours. This and the fact that i have a half written post somewhere on my comp that i entirely forgot, cause i decided to go to the canteen while in the midst of writing about it. So i fail to see i will ever improve my habits, so i no longer see the point to rant about them.

Then it came to my attention that what exactly do people write blogs about. So i opened up the much acclaimed 'The Boomerang Theory' (The boomerang did go far, I am a true believer now). Anyways, my conclusion wasn't that great. It appears that Lefty has a brilliant knack for turning mundane stuff in Roorkee to the utter amazing. I am pretty sure that many a stray reader would have been much impressed by the going arounds at IITR. I guess thats one way to improve the PR of the institute. But apart from digressing much, i realized that i have no such ability.

However I did realize that a lot does happen during the day (and night) here, which most of the time i never realize due to extensive laughter. However apart from being poked a lot about my mannerism of speaking, many startling revelations came to light. Like how to poke fun at people, and they might be just just playing carrom in the next room. Also how good girls stay up at night talking to good boys, albeit not for 5 hours like what i had initially guessed. And how not to poke a hippo while it slept cause it was not dancing as it had promised.

Anyways I hope that no sentiments were hurt..... but hopefully the people concerned get what i am talking about, and do take some actions on it. Cause although i ave given up on myself writing twice a month, however this does remind me that there are plenty of simple things to talk about, and it does not take much time to write about them.

Round 2

After an entirely monotonous time spent for the past 2 weeks, I thought perhaps that’s in its entirety, this blog that I had finally managed to start would come to a close with just one tiny insignificant note in it, but then after further thought, that perhaps another entry might help me in sustaining it, as something of significance importance may occur that I might want to blab about later.

So firstly, here is where some credit is due, as rightly mentioned in the comments to my last post. I do need to thank Shrey for the name that he has christened me with. Although a bit long for day-to-day usage, it does have a nice ring to it, at least to sign my posts. Apart from that, it was also requested from me to mention the word ghiss in my first post, which I had neglected to do so, however I compensate for it by doing it in my second post. Any of you reading this post, may feel free to draw his or her own conclusion from its usage.

On a better note, somehow yesterday I did come to at least one important conclusion (which is saying quite a lot). I should probably spend my weekends doing some constructive work instead of sleeping. Now this might seem strange to people who are well aware of my habits, but then hey, what the heck, I would like to give it a shot. It was while having a conversation at the mall with Leftykins that I realized the gravity of the fact that I had probably wasted the last summer sleeping and eating. It also came out as a possible reason when I was wondering about what exactly to put in this second entry. Hence I resolved that I would not do the same this summer around. This I believe is the indication of change.

Now a third of the time of my training has been spent, and I am to return to work tomorrow. After spending 2 weeks at work, I have realized that the work can be tediously boring if you choose to spend it that way. Well being a coder isn’t that bad, but then one should know in the end when to leave the office chair. Plus then it becomes of some importance to ‘have a life’.

Apart from that, the funny thing is, while I was chatting with them, I have been told by old friends on three different occasions in the past week to take care of my health, one saying not to starve and eat whatever you could get, the second saying to make sure I don’t develop a belly and the third to eat more fruit. I can agree with at least some of those opinions, but then again once you spend more time in roorkee, you do realize that everyone eats as much as they can get, which isn’t a lot either. Anyway this is a different situation in the hols, and I do remember the bet that one fine young gentleman in Jawahar has made with me, that I would gain well over 10 kilos. This is probably another area where my reputation perhaps does need more change.

Well then I guess that’s enough crap to put in one post, though I do wish some acts of greater adrenaline rush do come soon, because I don’t want to slip into my own self, just yet.

The Beginning of the End

Despite various attempts to thwart any chances of myself to open up a blog, it was finally on this late Monday night that somehow I feel compelled enough to write this first entry. Well since most people are already aware of the extent of my laziness, it did perhaps even surprise me at first that I had endeavored to do so. Although having just being pointed out, that my brain is rather slow at the moment, it does leave me in a slight situation as to what exactly should be written in this entry.

But anyways Morons, Inc. does seem to have become in vogue these days. After spending an hour with the dear fellows, not to mention a full day in the car of leftykins (which was a totally different experience by itself), I can’t help notice that it does help in uplifting the mood a bit. Perhaps it was the lack of coordination between the accelerator and gear-shaft, or perhaps the unending discussion about a certain wall on a certain Bhawan Day; I somehow came out thinking that probably all these things in life are the ones that probably one day I might recall rather vividly.

Apart from this maybe something significant did happen today, the importance of which I fail to realize as of yet. When we were all back in school, I remember thinking that it would be easy as soon as you enter college, nothing much to do, party all the time and the works. Unfortunately the same vision sits as yet unfulfilled, now which I take will hopefully occur in the near future.
Anyways not drifting from the subject, I started saying that I started work today. Well not work really, a volunteer internship (Which really means is that I don’t get paid for it). End conclusion after 10 hrs of work over there, I could probably get used to it. If this was a preview of what's in store for you after you are finally able to crawl through all four years at the Institute, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

So possibly after having said enough and nonsensically babbling about my day today, I rest my case. A tad bit lazier, and a tad bit more confused, I do come to a very awkward conclusion, that I am still not sure what all did I write in this entry. I may remain not sure, though perhaps it’s a start for better ones to follow. But then again I was never very coherent anyway.