What Learnt from PPD

           Since last two years we had PPD as a compulsory subject. But the PPD is over from this semester. But we learnt lot of things from PPD.

As we are Software Engineering students we have to study so many subjects.But among them PPD is a very interesting and important subject to us. Because this subject improve our personal qualities and how we communicate in our day today life. Without of these things we have not studies anything.

We Started our PPD session from introducing ourselves in front of the class. After that we did so many group activities, games, presentations, workshops, in every week. However in the first days it was very difficult to talk in front of the class and not confident about it. But  we can understand we are getting improve day by day among these activities. Miss Sarasi always told us to communicate only in English with others in the PPD session. Not only that WE have Presentations, speeches, dialog s,etc. From these activities we Improve our soft skills.

We learn so many team works and games. We learn from that

• How work with a team.
• How respect others.
• How to work as a leader.
• How work under a leader.
• How we follow the rules.

As well as

• How we communicate with others.
• How we respect to others.
• How we understand the opportunities and barriers.
• How we choose the best option.
• How we manage the limited resources withen the given period 

First of all we thank for you given those opportunity to us. We got so many life experience from our PPD session. When we are going to the industry in the competitive world, we had to perform that qualities. As a software engineers always we have to work as a team to archive given tasks. PPD session changes our lives. It was very interesting and we enjoy a lot and we improve our soft skills.
Thank you madam for given those opportunities to us.

Self Reflection

What is Self Reflection?
Self Reflection is like looking into a mirror and describing what you see. It is a way of assessing yourself, your ways of working and how you study. To put it simply ‘reflection’ means to think about something. Reflecting and composing a piece of self reflective writing is becoming an increasingly important element to any form of study or learning.

Self Reflection is very important to us. Because Reflecting helps you to develop your skills and review their effectiveness, rather than just carry on doing things as you have always done them. It is about questioning, in a positive way, what you do and why you do it and then deciding whether there is a better, or more efficient, way of doing it in the future.

In any role, whether at home or at work, reflection is an important part of learning. You wouldn’t use a recipe a second time around if the dish didn’t work the first time would you? You would either adjust the recipe or find a new and, hopefully, better one. When we learn we can become stuck in a routine that may not be working effectively. Thinking about your own skills can help you identify changes you might need to make.

What are the Reflective Questions to Ask form yourself

• Strengths – What are my strengths? For example, am I well organised? Do I remember things?
• Weaknesses – What are my weaknesses? For example, am I easily distracted? Do I need more practice with a particular skill?
• Skills – What skills do I have and what am I good at?
• Problems – What problems are there at work/home that may affect me? For example, responsibilities or distractions that may impact on study or work.
• Achievements – What have I achieved?
• Happiness – Are there things that I am unhappy with or disappointed about? What makes me happy?
• Solutions – What could I do to improve in these areas?

This is a simple Way to the process of self reflection:

STOP: Take a step back from life or a particular situation.

LOOK: Identify and get perspective on what you notice and see.

LISTEN: Listen to your inner guide, the innate wisdom that bubbles up when you give it time and space to emerge.

ACT: Identify the steps you need to take moving forward to adjust, change or improve.

Cake Activity

Another Activity in our PPD session. We divided in to groups and Miss Sarasi given us a rectangle piece of cake. She told us to divide cake in to 8 pieces in three cut.

However madam gave us the one threat to cut the cake. But we haven't any idea to how cut the cake to 8 pieces. We get the lot of ideas of our team members. However  everyone cannot give the good idea for it in the time Period. Only One team won that activity.

What we learn from this activity

• Time management.
• Working with others.
• Listen to other ideas.
• Working with a group.

After we shared the cake and enjoy it.

Trust Walk

            Another activity In the last PPD session we have to find a partner. After we cover the eyes of the partner. The other person had to give instructions to the blind person about the where to turn,obstacles and paths.The instructor should navigate the listener to the final destination. This activity had two rounds where the listener of the first round became the instructor in the second round.

If we trust someone we should not trust him or her bindly. We can not see anything we have a brain to think. We can give to instruct the other person when he or she does a wrong things. If blind one communicated with the instructor well they won't do such a mistake.When someone keeps his or her trust on us, we have a responsibility of protecting it. Some times some people keeps their life on another persons hand trusting him. In this activity also the blind one keeps trust on the instructor. If one step was taken in a wrong way sometimes the blind one may fall. So we should a good instructor to the others. Protect the trust that someone lay on us.

These things are really important when we live in the society. When we work we have to trust so many people and follow their paths. Trust the people but not trust blindly... 

Emerging Technology Trends

        Another PPD session  we had a important industrial session. It based on Emerging technology trends.This Session was conducted by vice president of research at WSO2  Dr. Srinath Perera.

         It was an interesting session.At first he explained the history of technology trends.After he explained the trends that he understood.


        After that he explained the key trends of the two sections. Current trends and growing trends. Each of the current trends and emerging trends are well explained to us.


       Finally  he give time to ask  the doubts and questions from him. he gave the answers for our questions. And also he gave us a pen from WSO2.

How to write a CV

       Have you thought how important a CV is when you apply for a job. Our CV is the first chance we get to make a good impression on a potential employer.A top quality CV will consider chance of getting face to face interview.  So it is worth spending time and effort on the content and presentation. It will difference in obtaining the position you want. So that you must highlight your skills,experience and value.

Make sure Your CV should not generally be longer than two pages. So make sure that you tailor it specially to the job you are applying for and include the skills, qualifications and experience which are most suited to the job.An employer will want to find the following information in your CV

Personal Details:-
           Include your name and address,a phone number and your email address.You may also add your nationality.gender and date of birth if you wish. But they are not obligatory.

Personal Profile:-
          This is optional. But it can be very effective in summarizing your areas of expertise and characteristics. It is good to include your enthusiasm about working as a Legal Secretary and what motivates you about the industry. Use keywords and keep it brief and concise.

Key Skills:-
          Include any skills you have learnt such as secretarial or IT skills. Explain what you think your personal skills are.

Employment History:-
          Start with your current or last employer and work backwords. You should include the dates of employment, your job title, name of employer, nature of business, responsibilities, duties and achievements.Try not to leave gaps in your employment history.

Education and Qualification:-
          Write in chronological order a brief list of school,college and university qualifications.such as GCE O Level, GCE A Level etc, together with grades you obtained.Then list any futher qualifications you have obtained,together with the names of the awarding bodies. When you include the legal Secretaries Diploma, make sure that you Secretaries and PAs. If you are currently studying for a qualification, mention it together with any results achieved so far.

Interests:-
          This is optional but gives you a chance to portray something about your personality. Keep it simple. mention what you do in your free time and note any achievements.

References:-
          There is no need to write the details of your referees on your CV. Simply state that they are available on request, but make sure that you know who your referees are and that you have asked their permission to use them. Presentation as well as content is important. There is no set way in which to present your CV.

We must shoud:-

• Use good quality paper.
• Be clear and concise.
• Check your Spelling and Grammar.
• Highlight headings so that the stand out.
• Be neat and precise.
• Use a confident and positive language.

Employers can receive many CV's for a job which has been advertised so it is important to create a good impression to attract their attention. So if you write a professional,high quality CV you will stand out from the rest.

Technical Writing- Visit to WSO2

           On the 12th September.Our 2nd year batch of Software Engineering degree programme visited WSO2  company. It is the one of the leading Software Company in Sri Lanka. That was a good experience to start our new semester.

 At the entrance we were given a very nice note book and a pen.What i first notice at there was they were well prepared and has organized everything before hand. We went there at 8.30 a.m.

The agenda of our session is

• Introduction to technical writing
• Grammar Lab(Hands -on Session)
• Write to win(Group Competition)
• Technical Writing as a Career
• Fun activity
• Gifts and Conclusion

In the first session they gave us an introduction about what the technical writing is. It is kind of a interesting job. Because technical writer has do writing only about 5% from their job. All other things deal with requirement gathering.Study about the product etc.There are lot of job positions are associated with the technical writing. We can go some higher positions in future from this path. Our English speaking and Writing skill  is very important to start our career in this path.


It was not like a Lecture.We learned valuable things from this workshop. We learned some English grammar areas. Then there were  given some exercise to fix some grammar errors.

After the exercise we had a small competition and it was a group activity. We were asked to write a user manual for a user who wants to withdraw 1500 rupees from an ATM.

Then the competition we got some refreshments and after that there was a fun group activities.In the fun group activities we had to think about an object as a group and write four sentences about that object to describe it. Other groups want to tell a correct object using that describe.It was very fun activity.






However by the time we reached the end of our session. Finally they announced that winning team of the ATM activity and the fun activities and given some gifts for them.

Finally We took  some photographs with them. It was very interesting session and we have learn many things. As well as I'm very proud to them for given us this opportunity. They showed the ares that we need to improve to become a Professional.

Facing an Interview ?

             Have you got a call/ letter from a Company? Asked for an interview........... This is the path for it.
Another activity in our ppd session. It was the we have to face to a small interview which was conducted by our friends in ppd session.

             In our ppd session miss sarasi teaches us how to face an interview. So that in this day we have to face that interview in the classroom. We walked with confidence, Kept a smile on our face. answers what our friends asked. At that moment we really think about job positions about our strengths,weakness. So that we think that what we want to improve as well as to do to show our strengths in an interview.
In some occasions we forget to keep eye contacts. Sometimes forget to keep the chair when we got up and forget to say thank you..

            Most of us made simple mistakes during our interview. But we got little experience from that interview. That was the first time interview for all of us.

But we learn lot of things.

• Shake hand properly. Don't show them you are nervous and all just act natural.
• Introduce yourself Correctly.
• Don't tell too much.
• Don't ask for salary.
• Dont ask how many people appear for that position.
• Thnak the interviewers.
• Put chair back before leave the place.

Story Writing

               Another activity in our ppd session. We were divided in to 3 groups and asked to sit facing back to the White Board.In each group one team members was given a white board marker. After She told us to write a story with a good Ending. Each student can write one word at a time. There were four rounds and we were not allowed to talk with the team members and make the quick story. Everyone had to go to the white board and write a word. 

                     We ran to the white board and read the story and wrote the next word. It was So difficult to us.  At the last round miss sarasi changed the order of  the team members. However we wrote the story. But it is not a good story and it was funny to read.

 From this activity we learn lot of things. 

• Hard to do a group activity without discussing each other.
• Communicating is very important.
• Different people think in different ways.
• We have to listen the others ideas.
• Team work is useful to communicate with others.