What beginners teach us - New Relic FutureTalk

This talk is about what I've learned from teaching adults how to program in Python for the first time. Mostly lessons learned from PyLadies workshops, with an additional section on how PostgreSQL does code review, and how I think this teaches the fundamental skill of code reading, a basic code literacy skill everyone needs to go from being a novice to an expert programmer.

Transcript

1. What beginners teach us Selena Deckelmann @selenamarie Data Architect, Mozilla Tuesday, May 13, 14
2. Tuesday, May 13, 14
3. http://bit.ly/1fQEXeF Tuesday, May 13, 14
4. http://github.com/mozilla/socorro Tuesday, May 13, 14
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10. Tons more at: http://lqbs.fr/suchcomments/ Tuesday, May 13, 14
11. http://bit.ly/1fOgBSB Tuesday, May 13, 14
12. “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind, there are few.” -Shunryu Suzuki Tuesday, May 13, 14
13. I am a beginner teacher Tuesday, May 13, 14
14. full of possibility Tuesday, May 13, 14
15. the one thing... Next time you answer a beginner’s question Tuesday, May 13, 14
16. take a moment and consider... How will the beginner feel when they hear your answer? Tuesday, May 13, 14
17. I’ve been involved in FOSS Since 1995 Tuesday, May 13, 14
18. PyLadies Get women who code together In September 2012, I joined... Tuesday, May 13, 14
19. our first project... A Coursera Class Tuesday, May 13, 14
20. Walk away or Figure out how to teach? Tuesday, May 13, 14
21. beginners: Open to possibility and overwhelmed by choice Tuesday, May 13, 14
22. TMTOWTDI the best part of beginners mind adventure, possibility, inclusive Tuesday, May 13, 14
23. or... Tuesday, May 13, 14
24. Tuesday, May 13, 14
25. Tuesday, May 13, 14
26. our job as teacher is to answer... “What do I do next?” Tuesday, May 13, 14
27. And to consider: How do people feel while they’re taking the next step? Tuesday, May 13, 14
28. What does learning how to program feel like? Tuesday, May 13, 14
29. Tuesday, May 13, 14
30. When experience is a dead end Tuesday, May 13, 14
31. Tuesday, May 13, 14
32. Tuesday, May 13, 14
33. Tuesday, May 13, 14
34. When PyLadies succeeds Tuesday, May 13, 14
35. OSDC.tw - April 19, 2013 Tuesday, May 13, 14
36. Tuesday, May 13, 14
37. OSDC.tw - April 19, 2013 Tuesday, May 13, 14
38. Engineering experiences Tuesday, May 13, 14
39. “The unwritten first chapter” Big goals Early wins In-person connections Cultivate a learning environment Tuesday, May 13, 14
40. Tools for engineering great beginner experiences Tuesday, May 13, 14
41. From Hacker School: No “Well, Actually...” No Feigning Surprise Tuesday, May 13, 14
42. pairing best teachers are those that just learned Tuesday, May 13, 14
43. 1:3 ratio instruction to doing Tuesday, May 13, 14
44. listen carefully learn from how students rephrase and ask questions Tuesday, May 13, 14
45. PyLadiesPDX 250 women 1-2 meetings per week Tuesday, May 13, 14
46. • New skills • Peer support • Structure and routine • Confidence What PyLadies say they get: Tuesday, May 13, 14
47. teaching people to review code the postgresql.org way Tuesday, May 13, 14
48. PostgreSQL is intimidating. Tuesday, May 13, 14
49. https://wiki.postgresql.org/ wiki/Reviewing_a_Patch Tuesday, May 13, 14
50. “You don't have to ask for permission...” commitfest.postgresql.org Tuesday, May 13, 14
51. • Submission review (skills needed: patch, English comprehension) • Usability review (skills needed: test-fu, ability to find and read spec) • Feature test (skills needed: patch, configure, make, pipe errors to log) Tuesday, May 13, 14
52. • Performance review (skills needed: ability to time performance) • Coding review (skills needed: guideline comparison, experience with portability issues, minor C-reading skills) • Architecture review (skills needed: experience with whole-PostgreSQL- project architecture) Tuesday, May 13, 14
53. • Review review (skills needed: ability to follow the Review A Patch documentation) Tuesday, May 13, 14
54. Key skill: code reading Tuesday, May 13, 14
55. “[N]on-trivial change should be discussed (potentially before the code is even written) on the pgsql- hackers list before being submitted as a patch.” Tuesday, May 13, 14
56. “Design your interface first.” Tuesday, May 13, 14
57. “Follow the style of the adjacent code!” Tuesday, May 13, 14
58. So, code reading. Tuesday, May 13, 14
59. How have I benefited and what have I learned from teaching? Tuesday, May 13, 14
60. write better code write better docs gain perspective Tuesday, May 13, 14
61. recruit diverse members to your communities Tuesday, May 13, 14
62. adainitiative.org openhatch.org pyladies.org Tuesday, May 13, 14
63. and... Tuesday, May 13, 14
64. an informed public Tuesday, May 13, 14
65. Julie Horvath’s blog post http://julieannhorvath.com/2013/07/09/a-different-perspective.html Tuesday, May 13, 14
66. “I didn’t grow up thinking I could do anything I wanted to.” Tuesday, May 13, 14
67. I see this every day teaching adults. Tuesday, May 13, 14
68. People don’t know what’s possible. Tuesday, May 13, 14
69. make a better world! Tuesday, May 13, 14
70. teach! <3 Tuesday, May 13, 14
71. What beginners teach us Selena Deckelmann @selenamarie Data Architect, Mozilla Tuesday, May 13, 14
72. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. All photos are © by owners. PyLadies photos shared with permission. Tuesday, May 13, 14