Month: June 2017

This week was my last week and I can honestly say I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here at Sheridan. I went in to this term wanting to improve my communication skills and my overall knowledge of OOP and Java and I can definitely say that I have achieved both goals, as well as the added bonus of learning a lot about web development. I really enjoyed being a teacher and loved watching someone learn and improve under my guidance, however I will admit to missing programming regularly. This week all of the other co-ops had a really nice potluck lunch which was awesome and our supervisors all gave us these really nice cards. Overall my week was an average one, I had some appointments for last minute review and assignments, as well as a lot of students coming in to say thank you which was nice. I had a lot of fun here and I believe I learned a lot of valuable skills.

We had our third and final exam cram this Thursday! This one was just as successful as previous crams and we had another huge turnout which was awesome. We got plenty of great feedback from the students. They really enjoyed this last exam cram and we received a lot of feedback about how much we had helped them over the semester which was awesome. It was nice being to see a lot of the students for last time and here about how much they appreciated our help. Everyone has exams next week but most students said they feel pretty confident thanks to these exam study sessions and the help they received over the semester. Besides the exam cram this week was just like all my other weeks recently. My last week is next week and once again I’m fully booked.

This week we again filled with a lot of GUI and final project help, way more than usual actually; I barely had any appointments for web or C or anything else. Some students have also been tasked with solving a version of the knight’s tour problem which is really cool. I’ve been getting a couple questions about that which is nice, as well as some java collections questions, both of which give me a welcome break from GUI for a brief moment. I’m still fully booked usually and I think I’m close to being fully booked now for the rest of the term which is crazy, but also really good.

Another busy week. Again a lot of GUI stuff but a good mix of other topics as well which keeps it interesting. Students are starting to work on these end of term projects they need to do so I’m helping a lot of them plan out their projects and letting them know what they need and how challenging a topic may be. Overall it was another average week, fully booked again and also fully booked for the foreseeable future which is actually pretty cool. I kind of like being the guy everyone wants to see for help.

This week was another busy one. Almost all of my appointments now are for GUI programming. The students are using JavaFX, which is something I have no experience with, but it’s very cool and I like learning new things. I’ve also had appointments for web programming, C programming, data structures and algorithms, C# programming, as well as other no GUI related Java questions. My drop-ins have been basically completely full and most of my class time is spent answering questions so there really isn’t much free time to work on other projects, but I actually love the constant stream of questions I get, and I like knowing that I’m helping so many students.

Things really started picking up again this week and I was back to being fully booked. We also had our second exam cram this Thursday. This one was just as successful as the last one and thankfully this time around we were prepared for the large amount of students we going to have. We had plenty more Java 1 students than Java 2 students this time around since only Java 1 classes have midterms coming up. Just like last time we received a lot of positive feedback from the students and our bosses which is always great. The Java 2 students have been working a lot with GUI programming lately and helping them with that occupies most of my time.

This week was the first week back from reading week so it was pretty dead but definitely better than last week. Drop ins and study groups started up again but the attendance for both was understandably low. Appointments were back to usual with most of them being about java assignment help, OO review, or some more web programming. I have to say over the course of this term my web development skills have really improved, which has been a very welcome bonus about working here. I also feel that my communication skills have improved so much which is exactly what I was looking for on this term. Student feedback has continued to be great as well which is really nice.

This week was reading week so most of the students were off. Because of this classes, drop-ins and all study sessions were cancelled. The week was pretty boring since obviously we weren’t going to have many appointments, however it was fun to have a chill week and hang out with the other tutors. I spent most of my free time working on take home FAQ study sheets for the students.

This week was midterms for a lot of the students so we were very busy. I was completely booked for appointments and my drop-in times were also always packed. It was really cool and I like being able to help so many students, and I received plenty of good feedback about how much I helped some of the students which was nice. The in class time was pretty boring to be honest as I was either helping do review, or facilitating exams. It wasn’t that bad though and it was a welcome break on some of the busier days. It’s reading week next week so I don’t expect to be busy at all, which makes me enjoy the busier times even more.

We received more good feedback this week about the exam cram. The only downside was that we had way more students then we had planned for so we were over crowded and lacking pizza. Fortunately we made plans to fix this for future exam crams, and have too many students is honestly more good than it is bad. I spent most of this week supervising students who came in to either redo the exam cram as extra review, or try it for the first if they missed it for some reason. This was in addition to the usual appointments and drop ins and class time. We’re starting to get really busy as exams approach and I’m basically fully booked which makes the day go by faster.