teacher-tips.slide

GoBridge Workshop - Teacher tips

GoBridge
support@golangbridge.org
http://golangbridge.org
@golangbridge


* General Teaching Advice

When planning, don't think about what _you're_ going to do. Think about what _they're_ going to do.


* Metaphors and Stories for Teaching Programming

A program is like a recipe.
There are two parts: a list of instructions and a list of ingredients.
Think of code as the instructions and data as the ingredients.

Also, to extend the metaphor, think about doubling a recipe:
the instructions don't change even though the data are different this time.


* Metaphors and Stories for Teaching Programming

Computer memory is like a warehouse with lots of boxes.
Each box has something inside (the data) and it also has a label (the variable name).


* Metaphors and Stories for Teaching Programming

The command line as Zork. You are "in" a room (a directory) and can either act on things in the room (commands) or move to a new room (cd).

It's very important that you know where you are!

Teach how to read the command line, and do an "ls" (or "dir"), "pwd", to look around.


* Notes

- Have one volunteer be a runner to remind people when it's 10 minutes until the next break. (This works really well.)
- Make sure all of the projectors have Mac adaptors
- Handouts with all of the code that people need to type
- Tell people at the beginning where to find the material online
- Have a volunteer leader, make sure they are distributed evenly


* Notes (...cont.)

- Start with live coding - watch and type along, don't even use slides.
- If there are line numbers, we can say go to line 32
- Go into Go Playground to practice basic concepts first, don't discuss what a variable is in the abstract right away. Learning by doing first and talking later works better.
- Discuss Go idioms where appropriate.
- Get a good night's sleep before the class, it is important to be well rested and fresh when teaching or TA'ing.