Summary

• Organise class in short sections, make it interactive and with plenty of exercises that students need to code.
• Make sure ALL students participate and answer questions.
• Be very visual, gesture and make use of boards to explain.
• Ensure that supporting mentors are guiding students during exercises.

Class Guidelines for Mentors

• Students should arrive before 12pm and start preparing the room.
• Around 12.15pm a stand-up is organised with the students to go through the work of the week.
• The class should start no later than 12.30pm.
• Upload the class in the repository the day before the class.
• Spend brief time on discussing homework problems of the previous week and make sure different students are presenting; encourage the ones that speak less to share. Have a clear idea of new concepts introduced and present them first as images, flow diagrams, etc. before going into code examples.
• Organise students to code the examples.
• Always ask questions to different students to make sure they are following.
• Prepare small sequence of tasks to work in solos and pairs. Check that supporting mentors are making sure everybody gets to write and understand code.
• Organise a group discussion at the end of the class of areas not understood. Encourage short explanations of different students to make sure they followed the class and know what they are doing.
• Make sure people connecting remotely have screen sharing (e.g. using Airtame).
• Request the mentor of the previous class to include any reading material as preparation for the class.

Teaching methodology:

• Speak slowly and support explanation with visuals, board, screen.
• Ask questions to different students in the class (Note: do not rely on group questions that nobody answers/ same people answer).
• Divide the class in different segments.
• Check that supporting mentors are helping all students.
• Find simple language to explain, speak slowly, gesture.
• Look for analogies in simple drawings, make use of whiteboard.

Timetable Example

• Code review (let different people present their work, group feedback, good intro to new concepts) @12.30pm ~30mins
• Introduce New concepts (visual, including non-coding images for each concept) + short practical exercises @1pm ~20mins x 3
• Coding (working alone and in pairs with longer exercises) ~1.5h –
• (break for lunch around 2.30pm for 30min)
• Group discussion (what remains unclear) ~15min
• New assignment explanation ~15mins

Assignments (Homework) Guidelines

• It should include 4 different areas:
  • Readings and videos reinforcing the concepts and preparing for the next class (blogs, youtube, chapters of books, etc)
  • Complete some online coding tutorials (FCC, sololearn, codewars, etc)
  • Creative Coding task (with answers that can’t be found easily online)
  • Review each other’s code

Note: Assignment should be uploaded in the repository before the end of the class and explained in group.

Tips from codebar http://www.codebar.io/effective-teacher-guide

• You don't need a laptop for our workshops. You are there to watch and guide the students. If you don't feel comfortable with the tutorial you should spend time on it before coming if you want to help out. Do not take over the keyboard! This can be off-putting and scary.
• Encourage the students to type and not copy paste.
• Explain that there are no dumb questions.
• Explain to students that it's OK to make mistakes. Always introduce yourself. Say why you want to help out and are spending your own time on this, why you like programming.
• Give your students the opportunity to get to know each other. Ask their names, why they are here, what they do in their day jobs. Encourage a brief discussion before starting.
• Assume that anyone you're teaching has no knowledge but infinite intelligence.
• Work collaboratively with your student. If you have two students, you should work with both. Don't focus all your attention on one of them.
• Let students have a go at answering the questions first. Help with open and leading questions. Encourage a discussion.
• Take it slow, you are the teacher, they are the student. Allow for time between questions.
• Don't say no when the students are not doing something right. Be gentle, approach it in a mild way.
• Use pen and paper or go to a whiteboard! Often students are coming from a non-technical background. Drawing and explaining with visual material is really helpful.
• Let them stumble. We learn by making mistakes, getting frustrated, and working through problem in our own way. Be supportive, but let them explore.