Make sure everyone has a similar development environment and similar expectations around how the course will run.
- List some of the common checks for understanding
- Describe the schedule for a normal day of training
- List the ways to communicate with the instructors
- Understand the assessment structure of the course
- Create a development environment on your local machine
We'll start with some quick name games
- Say your name and one place other than Denver that you'd like to live
- Say your name and favorite movie or book
Consultants will try to name everyone.
- We will take attendance at 9:05am and 1:05pm every day
- No more than 4 unexcused absences
- 3 tardies = 1 absence
- Completion of 80% of homework
- Completion of all 4 projects
One of the things you'll notice about the trainings is that we'll chop them up and ask you individual questions, and make sure everyone is keeping up. We'll be using several techniques and tools to look at how the whole class is doing and one of those techniques is called the Fist-to-Five. Everyone holds up between 0 and 5 fingers depending on how they feel. We'll typically use Fist-to-Five in two cases: to check on how you understand some piece of content or to check on agreement.
| Value | Learning | Agreement |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Did I walk into wrong class? | I am offended by this |
| 1 | I need help | I have strong reservations |
| 2 | I think I need some help | I have a few reservations |
| 3 | I understand | I'm OK with this |
| 4 | I think I can teach this | Not the best idea, but close |
| 5 | I can teach this | That was my idea! |
Throughout the first week, we will be asking each Developer to find out one cool thing about one of their fellow Developers every day. There are only two rules to this:
- You can't choose the same Developer twice.
- You can't say the same "cool thing" twice.
Another tool we'll be using is the A-ha Board. This board is located at the whiteboard in the back of the room. To use the board, whenever you suddenly get something, whenever you have that "A-ha" or "light bulb" moment please get up and put the topic on this board. It can be anything in the course even if it's not related to the current topic and might have been something we covered a few weeks ago.
"It's not at all important to get it right the first time. It's vitally important to get it right the last time." - Dave Thomas (Not the Wendy's Guy)
The typical schedule for the week is below:
| Time | Monday - Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 | Module 1 | Review |
| 10:30 | Module 2 | Outcomes |
| 12:00 | Lunch | Lunch |
| 1:00 | Module 3 | Review |
| 2:30 | Module 4 | Begin Weekend Lab |
| 4:00 | One-on-ones/Training start | Rest |
Each module is usually a training section or a lab section. They'll run about 75 mintues each and then we'll have a quick break. If you need to step out of the room for a bathroom break or a phone call feel free to during the class.
We'll have a detailed schedule up for the next week by the end of the Friday of the week before. The schedule is available on GitHub. We'll fill in the links for the specifc lesson plans at the beginning of the day.
Feel free to use #wdi-den-june for any conversations outside of lectures for general course content questions. For any other discussion not related to the curriculum, you can use #wdi-den-random.
There are also general WDI conversations in Slack (not Denver-specific) on #wdi-fundamentals and #wdi-lounge.
One of the most important things that you'll learn in this course is how Developers learn things. Ultimately this will be a Read-Search-Ask (RSA) policy.
- Read the instructions and/or documentations...
- Search using Google, and finally...
- Ask someone.
As we progress, the Developers will be expected to get more and more independent. Consultants are here to help, and we understand that the beginning of the course will require answers from us and your peers.
Slack has a great feature like Twitter where you can use @zebgirouard or @jpbarela in the #wdi-den-june channel, and we automatically get notified of that message. Putting content questions in the Slack channel has several benefits:
- Other Developers might have the same question(s) and we can help everyone at the same time
- Other Developers in the class might have worked through the issue and might be able to help before the Consultants can answer. The Consultants will review Slack each night for questions. Note that Consultants will not be available 24-7, but will do their best to answer questions as soon as possible. If a Developer doesn't feel their questions were fully answered by the next class, please bring it to the attention of the Consultants at the beginning of class.
If you would like 1:1 help from Thomas, mention @tbraine in the #wdi-den-june channel, and he will set up appointments on a first-come, first-served basis.
There are also a number of ways to work directly with the Consultants. We take 1:1 appointments after class Monday through Thursday. We might combine 1:1s into a small group if several people approach with the same issue.
Consultants can take direct messages for other non-content related issues. Direct messages are a great way to schedule a 1:1 or talk about any issue that you're not comfortable talking about in a public channel.
"No one is born knowing how to code." - Various
Sleep Getting a reasonable amount of sleep (6-9 hours per night, depending on your needs) is important, and can be a useful general guide for a schedule and how much material to work through.
Exercise Getting out for some exercise everyday will help you learn and think creatively, so don't be afraid to take some time for exercise.
Family/Free time The course moves fast, and it will take a lot of time, but don't feel bad if you need to take time for family or just take a break. You'll usually find you can make more progress when you come back from that break.
###General thoughts on assessments:
The best way to program is to program. Try things out. Make mistakes and fix them. One of the great advantages of programming is that you can gain your 10,000 hours of practice with constant feedback from the computer itself. The important thing to remember is that this is a safe place to make these mistakes, fix them, and learn from them.
Also, if the computer does what you want it to do, you've succeeded. This can be really confusing, but generally, "No news is good news," with a computer. If you are ever unsure of what's happening "under the hood", use the Read-Search-Ask policy. Your peers and the Consultants are here to help.
"If you want to run fast run alone, if you want to run long run together." - Keynan proverb.
Initial 1:1s will take place the second week of the course and are required. These meetings are to help the
Consultants to understand any early challenges, look at your goals, and help make sure the class is a great experience.
Let us know if need to schedule a 1:1 closer to the end of class to meet other commitments because some of these meetings
might go until 5:30pm.
Homework will be reviewed every night. If you have specific questions around homework, we'll have some time in the morning, on Slack, or during 1:1s for questions around homework. Keep in mind, we've chosen to write the homeworks in a way that will make them a good future reference, and will challenge all students. Sometimes this may be more than you can accomplish in one night. If you're spending several hours on a homework and not making much progress, submit what you have done and move on to something else. As mentioned earlier, sleep and well-being is important.
Submit homework by 9am the following class day. To submit, use Slack to send the appropriate GitHub link or similar link directly to the assigned Consultant for the lab day (either @jpbarela or @zebgirouard).
To re-iterate, submit all of the homeworks. Even if you don't make much progress on a homework, submit it, as that's important feedback on how we're doing as Consultants and as a class.
Labs will not be formally reviewed, but questions that come up after the lab can come through Slack and 1:1s. Labs are similar to homework in the sense that we're writing them to be good references on the topic, and sometimes there may be more work than you can do.
Projects will include a rubric, or a predefined set of standards that will be evaluated. For projects 1-3, the Consultants will go through your code and highlight any specific issues that we see to help you understand how to write better code. The Consultants will also have a 1:1 with each developer where we go through the rubric and celebrate your progress in the rubric and help work through any issues.
"You are not your code." - Multiple Quora Users
If any Developers need help with the installFest materials they received last week, we are here to help.
** [https://github.com/den-wdi-1/installFest/blob/master/mac-dev-tools.md](Setup your Mac Development Tools)
** [https://github.com/den-wdi-1/installFest/blob/master/express-stack.md](Setup your Node Environment)
** [https://github.com/den-wdi-1/installFest/blob/master/ruby-on-rails-stack.md](Setup your Ruby Environment)
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