Teaching how to write programs in C

This morning, I went to TKIET, Warana - a place famous more for milk, than for Engineering colleges. About 140 kids have done the YES!+ program. Some of them have an ATKT, so I went there to help out in teaching them how to program in C - a subject in which 9 of them have failed.

As I started the 1-hour journey, I started thinking about the days when I learnt how to program. I was in ninth standard when I wrote my first software for my dad's chemical manufacturing business. Way back in 1987, it didn't even have an hard disk - and with 64KB of RAM, it was a power horse!!

As my thoughts drifted to those days, an amazing thought overpowered me. Programming is no different from real life. We go through similar experiences daily - just like a while loop. Every moment we need to make decisions - similar to an if condition. There are objects in real life and so also in C++. We keep everything organized at home - similar to "functions" in any programming language!! And it struck me - thats how I had learnt how to program - and perhaps thats how I ought to teach programming!!

As I reached the college, I thought of a few games we could play. It took me 2 hours - and all the nine students actually started writing programs with basic while loops and if conditions using C. I actually surprised myself - usually in the first 2 hours, people hardly learn how to copy a basic "Hello World" application from the white board, without understanding how it works!!

It is all about teaching - none of these nine kids had ever written any line of code earlier. I guess it's also about life. And how the most complex things in life have a simple solution.

I am going to do more research on how to teach programming to F.E kids. The goal is for them to be able to start having passion in writing computer programs. Maybe next semester, I might actually start teaching a larger audience. Anyone interested in learning how to program, or learning how to teach programming or anything about programming in general, you can join me anytime!!

Until then, Enjoy!!

Back from Ratnagiri.......

Sunday early morning, Me and Yash had gone to Ratnagiri for a YES!+ followup Long Sudarshan Kriya. After the initial getting-up-at-4am hurdle, it was a nice picturesque ride through the hills - until we reached Ratnagiri. The kriya was wonderful as always.

A strange thing happened though - just as the kriya was about to begin, I got an sms. Usually, I ignore - but something told me I had to see it. Turned out that just a few minutes back, one of my wife's cousin committed suicide. She was in F.E - a sad thing indeed. I remember Neha had given an intro talk and asked her to join the YES!+ course in Kolhapur - she had given her phone number, but never answered Neha's calls. Kind of strange feeling I got when I saw the sms - my wife and she were quite close.

As the kriya started, I could feel both helpless (for her) and gratefulness (that I am a part of the solution - a part of a team eliminating stress, rather than creating it) at the same time. Shortly after kriya was over, some students came and told me that they could not concentrate for more than a few minutes. If any of you has that problem, I recommend you Bawa's talk on Technology of Spirituality. We just need to meditate, check our diet and regulate our activities (especially during exam time) for maximum benefit!

One of these days, I'll write about the kind of schedule to follow for exams...... until then.... Enjoy!! :)