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Linux.conf.au 2012 kicks off next week in Ballarat at the UB Mt. Helen campus (commuting win – 10 minute drive!) so I’ve just spent a few hours working out my conference schedule… You might think this is perhaps too long to be pondering over schedules, but as the conference runs for 5 days and is organised around multiple sessions in streams, you can pick and choose which sessions you attend each day. For example, options for Tuesday the 17th (with my planned sessional route in blue) look like this:

Even reading about each talk takes a while, nevermind deciding which ones to attend - but it's a nice problem to have

So, yeah, it’s taken a bit of reading and thinking to figure out which sessions I’d like to attend (of-interest or fun stuff), which sessions I should attend (useful learning opportunities but not necessarily fun) and which sessions I’m not particularly fussed about, of which I’m not finding many – quite the opposite in fact, I keep finding multiple sessions I’d like to attend which are on at the same time! Looking forward to a great week of Linuxy shenanigans and learning stuff. Should be fun =D

The campus where I teach at the University of Ballarat had its 140th anniversary the other day, so they lined us all up appropriately… You’d really have to Where’s Wally it to find me though, so as a clue I’ve put in an image map to change the cursor (and put a pop-up box on click!) if you move your mouse over me in the below picture*.

SMB Campus - 140th Anniversary - Click here for bigger version!

* = The pop-up box will only appear on the picture above, not on the big version linked in the caption!

Relatedly, if you wanted to know how to create a HTML image map to have a “hotspot” on your image like I’ve used above, I wrote a quick guide on doing just that a little while ago…

Yeah, but what they don’t tell you is that it’s out of ten…

</joke>

Just finished my very first week teaching – and quite an experience it’s been!

Firstly – I’ve never been a great fan of public speaking. When giving presentations to military big-wigs and company suits in the past I’ve got nervous. Not cripplingly so, but the kicker is this: Just before I’m up to speak I’d get this MONSTER surge of adrenalin, which would take 10 minutes to wear off. And for those 10 minutes my heart would be doing double-time and my hands visibly trembled. I literally shook until the adrenalin wore off and I could carry on clearly.

Probably not suited to standing infront of class after class you might think – but it all turned out okay. I was pretty sure it would wear off with time and that if I could just avoid the pre-kick-off panic I could make it through okay, and with time the fear would dissipate and all that would remain would be me, the class, and the material to teach.

And I was right.

I was nervous for round 1 – and meeting a class of 20+ new people twice in a day on Tuesday was a bit of a deep-end experience, but I got through it pretty well, I think. The students range from 17 to 47, and they want to learn! So get on with it, man! Teach them!

I’m doing the “Gamers” (Multimedia) course in C++ Programming and Multimedia itself, and it’s okay. Some of the kids want to be developers, some want to be games designers, some want to be animators. Some have an idea about a game they’d like to make, and want to gain the skills to make it – and fair play to them – they have a vision and they’re pursuing it. They might not realise how difficult programming is quite yet, and I really hope I don’t put them off – but the facts are that some people should not code.

There are two streams of C++ classes, 20-ish people a class – and you can easily tell the people who will do well, and the people who don’t have an aptitude for it. But – no matter aptitude or not I’m determined that if they’re willing to put in the effort to try, I’ll put in absolutely everything I can – and help them in any way I can. If that means answering their questions outside of class, putting on extra voluntary classes one a week – then whatever it takes.

The only bugbear with the teaching lark I’ve got at the moment is the amount of time it takes to make slides. I’ve been given teaching notes; some as text files, some as word docs – but you can’t really teach from them – so I’ve been making up powerpoints for each lesson. And it takes 2-3 hours to make an hours worth of slides. And I teach 11 hours a week. It’s a lot of time, and a lot of slides.

Apart from that, everything has been really good – The uni is very nice, the other teachers are helpful and kind, the students are decent (even if a couple have learning difficulties and require extra attention), and the hours (slides excepted) are great. I’m really happy with it =D

Oh, and the money is pretty good, too, way more than I was previously earning per hour.. hehe =D [Less hours per week though, so overall I'm down, but with any luck I can pick up some other classes, do some cover work etc - and when I get this slide stuff streamlined will end up with a stack of free time].

Overall I like it, and is seems to like me.

Good stuff =D

Note: If you have a stack of slides and take them to class on a usb pen drive, make sure you also email them to your work address so you don’t get there, find the drive is b0rked, and end up calling up your GF to email in your slides and class exercises for the day!! (Thanks, Andrea!!)

Live and learn!

Hurray! I went for an interview today about getting a job as a lecturer at the University of Ballarat - and I’ve got it!

Starting on Tuesday I’ll be teaching C++ part-time, and with any luck will also get to teach a class in Multimedia… I’m absolutely delighted! Jobs are less plentiful with all the recession malarky going on, and with the 6-month per company limit imposed by my working-visa handcuffs, it’s not been the easiest thing in the world to get interviews, but I’ve persevered, and with the help of my partner’s friend managed to get some face-time with people and convince them that I’m up to the challenge. (Thanks, Jack!!)

As the work’s only part-time, it gives me stacks of time to get on with other projects, reading etc while putting enough money in the bank to pay back some debts and invest in the occasional tank top aardvark 360 game..

Good, good stuff.