Let's Take a Look At Ourselves

Our work: Round 1.4, Round 2.1

Fernando Perez explaining the IPython Notebook

General feedback on Assignment 1 (from Greg):

1. Almost everyone tried to do too much
2. We are teaching at the speed *we* can absorb material, not at the speed our students can
3. Rule of thumb: take what you think you can cover and divide by two
4. Less is More

Our Reactions to Assignment 1, What did we learn:

1. Surprised by how much time it takes to do this
2. Tendency to make examples too complicated to start
3. Making fill-in examples was difficult
4. Fill in examples should start very simple and become increasingly complex, reaching basically a blank page.
5. Students believe they have to finish all problems, when in fact they can learn a lot by just getting as far as they can
6. Can avoid jargon and complicated words, but do not use terminology incorrectly even if it simplifies things

SWC Teaching Approaches:

1. Students work in pairs
2. Identify strong students who are bored and pair them with struggling students
3. You may have to leave students who aren’t prepared behind
4. Make sure less experienced student is the one at the keyboard
5. Get people to attend in pairs/teams
6. Spaces that encourage collaboration rather than lecture are beneficial (small tables with groups, not theatre style seating)
7. When teaching in pairs have the person not teaching watch the room and signal the person teaching if/when they’re going too fast (often) or too slow (rarely)
8. Can use etherpads in SWC workshops (contact Greg)

General Teaching Notes:

1. Talk of 3-10 minutes and then have a small exercise
2. No one will ever be more motivated that you are (don’t be bored by the material you’re presenting)
3. Self-efficacy: if people believe they are going to succeed they will learn/do better
4. Stereo type threat: reminding people of sterotypes about ability makes everyone perform worse
5. Avoid saying things are easy because this is demoralizing for students who are struggling.
6. Make fun of yourself early (break down hierarchical student-teacher relationship)
7. Screw up first (make students comfortable with the idea that making mistakes is fine)
8. Different people have different teaching styles that work for them
   • Try to identify what your thing is that makes you more interesting

Assignment for Group 2

1. Read Ch. 3 of book
2. Think about how we can use tools like Etherpad to improve teaching

Assignment for Both Groups

1. Stand up in front of at least 2-3 people, teach for 3 minutes (no more), post to youtube and link to blog
   • Due in 2 weeks
   • Key part is video of what you do when you’re teaching
   • We are building toward (but not doing yet) http://www.beasmartercookie.com/

Please look at/comment on our pre-assessment questionnaire