Teaching Recommendations

Overall Tips

• Prepare your lessons beforehand. Know what material you will cover. Do the practice problem(s) yourself. Take the quiz yourself. Think about how you will present the material.

• Distance learning is hard. It has unique challenges, such as the lack of human interaction. You, as a teacher, will need to adapt your teaching style to make sure that your students feel safe, included, engaged, and ready to learn!

• Be patient and encouraging rather than punitive if someone makes a coding mistake. Emphasize that debugging is a part of programming and is how they will learn as coders.

• Think about the teachers at school who helped you learn best and emulate them.

• Remember that as a teacher, you also have flexibility on how your classroom runs. Use that flexibility to make your lessons more creative and fun!

Lesson Structure

For 6 week, 2 classes a week courses

1. 5-10 min: Warm-up coding problem that either reviews previous material or introduces this lesson’s material

2. 15-30 min: Lecture on new material
1. Refer to course content, but do not read off of the website.
2. Live coding is always better than talking for an extended period of time
3. Check in with students every 5 minutes or so if they have any questions on what you just covered.

3. 15-20 min: Present the practice problem(s) and have students work on them.
1. Encourage them to work independently, but to ask questions if they arise.
2. When going over the solution, have 2-3 students also share their solution. This allows you to point out any common errors or bad programming style, as well as alternative solutions to problems that you or the students might not have thought of.

For 2 week, 3 classes a week courses

1. 5-10 min: Warm-up coding problem that either reviews previous material or introduces this lesson’s material

2. 15-30 min: Lecture on new material
1. Refer to course content, but do not read off of the website.
2. Live coding is always better than talking for an extended period of time
3. Check in with students every 5 minutes or so if they have any questions on what you just covered.

3. 15-20 min: Present the practice problem(s) and have students work on them.
1. Encourage them to work independently, but to ask questions if they arise.
2. When going over the solution, have 2-3 students also share their solution. This allows you to point out any common errors or bad programming style, as well as alternative solutions to problems that you or the students might not have thought of.

4. 10-20 min: Lecture on new material or do more practice.

5. 5-10 min: Closing