RailsBridge Teacher and TA Training

Why we are here?

RailsBridge Teacher and TA Training

How is this going to happen?

Introducing RailsBridge!

Introducing RailsBridge!

Current Level of Experience

Introducing RailsBridge!

Goals for All Workshops Ever

Introductions

Typical RailsBridge Schedule

First, we get all the necessary technologies onto the students' computers aka the Installfest.

The next day we break into small groups and work through the curriculum.

Installfest

Friday 6-10pm-ish

Keep in mind:

Questions about the Installfest?

Workshop

Saturday 9-4:30pm-ish plus After-party

Workshop - Start with Introductions!!!

Introductions - Things to Look For

Workshop - Establish Ground Rules

Cover Classroom Logistics

Student levels

Blue - Totally New to Programming

Green - Somewhat New to Programming

Gold - Some Rails Experience

Orange - Other Programming Experience

Purple - Ready for the Next Challenge

Curricula

Where to find the curriculum: http://docs.railsbridge.org

You need to read the curriculum through, beginning to end, before teaching or ta'ing it.

Rails

FrontEnd

 

Seriously! You need to read the curriculum through, beginning to end, before teaching or ta'ing it.

What's a TA?

First workshop? Be a TA!

RailsBridge Teacher Training - Soft Skills Edition

How to make your class awesome

We've made three quasi-arbitrary categories of ways to make your class awesome:

We want our students to feel:

Discussion is key! Don't let the presenter(s) do all the talking!

Social Comfort - Establishing trust with students aka "Do you know what's up?"

Discussion points

Know What's Up: Ideas

Don't be afraid to:

Know What's Up: Even More Ideas

Pace yourself!

Social Comfort - Absolutes

Social Comfort: Making the students more comfortable with learning process

Imagine:

Social Comfort: Comprehension

Discussion points

Student Comprehension: Some Ideas

Calling on people

Discussion: Technical Capability

How can you help people feel technically capable?

What kinds of insecurities might your student have?

How can you bolster their confidence?

Technical Capability: Ideas

Explain that:

Dealing with technical concepts:

Technical Capability: More Ideas

Encourage collaboration and interaction

Be Super Positive, Always

Technical Capability: Even More Ideas

Walk the Middle Path

Is RailsBridge Open Source?

WHY YES, THANK YOU FOR ASKING!

RAILSBRIDGE IS VERY OPEN SOURCE!

All the materials you're using were created by volunteers, and are on GitHub for forking and editing and using!

If you see something that could be better, make a pull request. Pull requests are the lifeblood of RailsBridge.

If you don't know how to make one, we'll help!

Where to submit pull requests: https://github.com/railsbridge/docs

How to submit pull requests: http://railsbridge.github.io/bridge_troll/

We need your help! Thank you!!!

Very Important, Very Practical Things

Where to find the curriculum: http://docs.railsbridge.org

You need to read the curriculum through, beginning to end, before teaching it.

Teaching Techniques

Answering questions

Teaching Techniques

Checks for understanding

A tool for assessing how well the class understands a topic before moving on

Reasons to check for understanding

Avoid These Checks For Understanding

These checks tend to have a luke warm response

People may think they understand, but don't actually understand

Suggested Checks For Understanding

Discussion: Teach!

Incorporate at least one check for understanding and teach the following

Scaffolding

Not rails g scaffold

Discussion: Great learning experience

Describe a great learning experience you have had

Why do you think it was so successful?

General curriculum levels - detailed

Blue - Totally New to Programming

Green - Somewhat New to Programming

Gold - Some Rails Experience

General curriculum levels - detailed continued

Orange - Other Programming Experience

Purple - Ready for the Next Challenge

Curriculum levels for JavaScript

Blue - No programming Experience

Orange - Programmer new to Javascript

Purple - Some experience with JavaScript

[contents]

deck.rb presentation

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