The next round of Instructor Hangouts is almost upon us, this Friday, Sept 26 at 9 AM and 9 PM PDT! As always, there are many things to discuss; the lineup as it stands is as follows:
First Session – 9AM PDT
- As always, we’ll be welcoming new instructors to our ranks – special shout outs to the new alum from the SWC Instructor Training course that just wrapped up at the University of Virginia earlier this week. Feel free to jump in with any questions you have for your fellow instructors!
- Next up, we’ll open the floor for a discussion about meeting students’ experience – over the last week, the Software Carpentry discuss list has had a great conversation about how to approach tools (like GUI spreadsheets) that don’t immediately fit the paradigm we may be teaching, but nonetheless are relevant to our students’ experiences. How do we show learners better options, without insulting their current methods – and what role does that discussion play in our bootcamps?
- A roundtable on setting the level of a workshop, as requested by Rachel Sanders of PyLadies. How do you make sure your workshop is aimed at the right skill level for your learners? What can you do beforehand, and what can you do to correct problems in situ? Rachel and I and others will be sharing strategies – please add yours to the conversation, too!
- Any other business – any remaining time in the hour is as always open for discussion!
Second Session – 9PM PDT
- Welcoming new instructors, as above.
- Our first Video Review of instruction! This week, we’ll watch Damien Irving‘s recent shell lesson from ResBaz‘s recent SWC workshop, and generate some feedback for him on his teaching. This is a great opportunity to watch an expert teacher do his thing, and to practice thinking about feedback for workshop instructors.
- AOB, as always.
Logistics
Despite what was previously claimed, we will not be using Hangouts on Air this time around – we need to sort out some details around how to do that right, so maybe next time – but this week is just a plain old regular old hangout. Links!
Looking forward to seeing you there!