Episode 28: 10 Things We Wish We Knew
 Sean Tibor: [00:00:18] Hello and welcome to Teaching Python. This is Episode 28: 10 Things We Wish We Knew a Year Ago. My name is Sean Tibor. I'm @smtibor on Twitter and I'm a coder who recently began teaching.
Kelly Paredes: [00:00:29] And I'm Kelly Schuster-Paredes. And I'm @kellypared on Twitter. You can follow me and I am a teacher who started coding what a year and a half ago.
Sean Tibor: [00:00:41] Nice. So welcome back. It's another week and in the world of middle school computer science here for Kelly and I and this week we're going to be talking about the things we wish we knew when we were starting our Python teaching journey about a year ago 
Kelly Paredes: [00:00:57] and we had to at least for me. I had to minimize it or keep it down to five things.
So this is going to be interesting. 
Sean Tibor: [00:01:03] Yeah, so we'll share things and compare notes and see where things line up and maybe where they're little bit different for teachers and coders  This week we're gonna start where we always do with the Wins of the Week. So I think it's my turn to go first, right?
Wins of the Week [00:01:15] I keep making it your problem your fun thing. Yeah my fun thing. this week, I think just the most fun that I've had in a while. We do this thing called fun Friday and the idea is to help students explore and engage with the technology that we have engaged with computer science engage with things that get them to think and Spark interest in a new area.
So,  this is the day where we'll do some VR or will play Oregon Trail or  we'll do some Turtle drawing or something. That's just a little bit different we play with the robots. But this past week what we did was the robot Racing League, which was really fun. We have a couple of new robots in the classroom. 
They're from DJI. They're an education robot. Now, DJI is known for making drones and Steadicam accessories. So they've got these really cool mounts on their drones and for cameras where it keeps things really smooth and steady for filming purposes and cameras, but they also are part of this initiative called RoboMaster in China, and it's a robotics competition with head-to-head laser tag and battles everything looks really exciting and I have to figure out how I can get to China to check it out. But they also have a consumer model that they just released over the summer called the RoboMaster S1. And it's about $400 and I have to say it's pretty well built. I'll put a link to it in the show notes, but it's essentially a robot with a camera.
And a stabilized head tracking system and you can play laser tag with it and it has Vision systems and recognition and you can drive it and it even has those like roller Wheels where you can drive it sideways , so they're really fun and they drive pretty fast. So, of course we had to get two of them and we pitted them head-to-head on Friday where the students were driving them.
And this is the first step in a progression that I have in mind where they are learning what they're capable of doing and piloting them through a course around the middle school. So they were driving through over the sidewalks and over the paver stones and everything through the middle school at fairly high speeds bumping into the walls.
Kelly Paredes: [00:03:19] Running me over almost 
Sean Tibor: [00:03:20] we almost ran you over a few times,  they're great. they're fun robots and just the way the kids were lighting up engaged and excited about it. Everybody got a chance to drive it and try it out  and that sense of competition really brought kids into it in a way that I haven't seen when it's just kind of unstructured exploration.  
 we had students that we're trying to drift around corners. We had roller Wheels popping off with added repair and do pit stops. Just a lot of fun and I saw the kids really engaged and then when we came back to school this week,  they were wanting to program it.
They wanted to say, okay. Now, how do I actually write code for this so that it can do the thing that I want to do?
Kelly Paredes: [00:03:56] It was really cool. You actually posted a video on your Twitter feed and. That's a cool video to look at how you got up close on the on the Bots. If you want to check it out. You should probably check out your Tweet about that.
Sean Tibor: [00:04:08] Well, to be honest the robot wasn't supposed to come quite that close to me and did run over my toes as it went by but I got a nice slow motion shot of a driving by so if you want to see what they look like, it's on my Twitter feed. It pretty fun. That's really cool. How about you Kelly? What's your win of the week?
Kelly's Win [00:04:23] Kelly Paredes: [00:04:23] You know, I'm going to be a little bit selfish on my wins. I'm not going to talk about the kids today because  I had a great three day weekend where I was able to just take some personal time doing some things that I wanted to catch up on. I completed a couple of exercises from my  Michael Kennedy TalkPython training that I had purchased. He had 10 apps and I only got through five of them when I purchased because it was a little bit out of my league at the time when I purchase it. So I was working my way through there doing some web scraping and looking at more the folder layout.
For a couple of apps and I did a couple of Colt Steele exercises again because he had some extras at the end of his course, which was cool. And then I actually read more of my book that I've been reading called Range:  Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World and I think this outlook by the author David Epstein is such a cool reinforcements of things that we like to teach in computer science.
How we really like to take the skills that we're teaching them and computer science not to just make them programmers or coders but to be able to transfer the skills that they learn here into other classes. One of the things that we do a lot is we talk about math activities and math operations and in computer science. We try to support other curriculum and show them how to problem solve and think critically about what they're doing to solve problems and I think this whole concept of deep learning and really getting into the transfer idea is something that I want to follow up on and he's got a great book. 
Sean Tibor: [00:06:00] Yeah, it's a really cool book. I didn't really think about it. I guess explicitly or  in a structured way. But one of the nice things about becoming a teacher was learning about how the transfer of knowledge is a vital part of learning and it's a way to reinforce and deepen The Learning Experience when you're able to transfer something you learned from `one subject domain to another and have to modify it or make it malleable to fit that new situation and I recognize it now when I'm doing it because of the the teaching knowledge that I've gained over the last year. 
Kelly Paredes: [00:06:32] And it's really cool. So some of the things that we do in class that we didn't have a name for like our coding challenges and  putting our students through this sort of stressful activity.
He talks about it in a form of a desirable difficulty. It's like a task that has a considerable amount of effort but it's something that's going to challenge them enough  to take in that learning. 
Sean Tibor: [00:06:54] Yeah, it's like the right size the right level of difficulty too hard and they bounce off of it and it doesn't really help them.
In fact, it makes them feel worse about their learning experience. Too easy. They don't actually grow from it. They don't learn anything new so that desirable level of difficulties are really great concept from the book and a good way to encapsulate a lot of the knowledge.
Kelly Paredes: [00:07:15] And a good way of how I've been learning how to Learn Python, too.
Sean Tibor: [00:07:18] Yeah. that's right. one of the nice things about being at this stage of your python Journey as you're probably able to recognize this is the stuff that's way out of my grasp and these are the things that are too easy already know that and then here's the Goldilocks content  that is just the right amount of difficulty that's going to stretch you and challenge you but it's not going to be too easy. 
CodeGrades [00:07:38]So a couple things that we spotted around the web this week that might be useful for you as Educators and specifically with computer science. There's a great interview with Nick Tollervey, our friend from the Mu editor as well as a few other projects like PyPerCard.
He did an interview on the Test & Code podcast with Brian Okken and they just talk about all the different projects that  he's been working on with a group of people based out of the UK around this topic of Python Education. We had a chance to meet Nick at PyCon last year and just made a really good connection with him because he really gets teaching.
He really understands it. Although he said on the episode. He hasn't been a teacher directly or been responsible for a classroom for something like 16 years. He really does understand what it takes to be a teacher and  places a lot of emphasis on what works in the classroom. Not just what looks good on paper
Kelly Paredes: [00:08:28] He structures a lot of his activities through the teachers lens, which is great.
And I remember  sitting next to him to I thought I was sitting next to a superstar. He is a superstar in my eyes and he's introducing code grades, which is Alpha Project that he's starting and it's sort of like an idea of passing through the grades and and do an eight steps. So I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with this project and I've signed up.
I know it's only in the UK of some hoping he's going to let us beta test in Florida. We're here for you Nick. 
Sean Tibor: [00:09:00] Yes, it does. It does look really good. It's just it's a great way of having some validation on the level of coding knowledge that you have. The idea is if you start off at a code grade of one, you're a true beginner and  you're learning things and you've got some of the basics knocked out. But by the time you get to code grade level 8, you're probably a qualified Junior developer walking into a programming job. 
Kelly Paredes: [00:09:22] And having that Mentor idea is pretty cool. It's kind of what we recommend when you're learning python is to have a mentor and then having this option of having a mentor online with.
Jupyter Education eBook [00:09:33] Sean Tibor: [00:09:33] Yeah, it's basically has a code review as part of each grade level, which is pretty great. Cool. The other one that I found that was pretty neat and I pick this up again. It was something that someone has sent me a while back, but it's an open ebook about python but specifically the jupyter notebook and using jupyter notebooks in education.
So if you're thinking about using Jupyter in the classroom on a course any sort of training or education. This is the book that  was a collaborative group effort around the Jupiter project and using it in the classrooms and tips and strategies for educators. I thought that was pretty cool. 
Adafruit Halloweeen [00:10:07] Kelly Paredes: [00:10:07] And one more just got it in the email today.
It's the month of October so Adafruit. They launched their  website saying that they love to haunt things all through the month of October and they're going to have some projects for every day. Because you know just for Halloween, how boring is that just have it one day and I saw in our mailbox.
We have a candy jar and I'm sure you're going to do something really cool with that. 
Sean Tibor: [00:10:29] Yeah. I've been been looking at some ways to make this a little bit more pythonic. I guess it'll be pretty fun. So we're going to make a candy bowl for our  classroom. That is python-ified. right, so a couple of resources for you a couple things out there if you're looking for project ideas adafruit's got a whole series of project ideas queued up for the entire month of October, and I know that our students really do get into Halloween  and costumes and all sorts of things around this and it's a great opportunity to use some Python and computer science to make it happen.
10 Things We Wish We Knew [00:10:59] So Kelly, I know it's October now, and  we're well into the school year, but. I was thinking about this the other day and it was kind of the reason for our topic was that we've been doing this for a little over a year now teaching python to middle school students. There's a lot to unpack there because for you it's the first time teaching python. For me, it was the first time teaching. I was learning python along the way but now I have more of a traditional computer science and coding background.  The coding part wasn't as difficult for me as it was the teaching part in learning how to teach. So what we thought we'd do for those of you who  are just embarking on this journey is pull together our list of things that we wish we knew when we were first starting out. 
Kelly Paredes: [00:11:41] Yeah, it's funny when we talked about this. I was thinking where I was back last October and I was feeling a little bit stressed and I noticed now in the past five weeks.
I've been doing a lot of I'm sure you can see me happy python dances when I'm able to solve a problem without having to search up online. So yes, it's going to be interesting or five things that I wish I had known last October 
Sean Tibor: [00:12:05] exactly exactly. So  Kelly ladies first, what's your first item that you wish you knew a year ago?
#1 Don't Be Afraid of the Unknown [00:12:12] Kelly Paredes: [00:12:12] Well, I think the whole don't be afraid of the unknown. When I first started last quarter. I was doing very basic coding with the first quarter of kids. I was afraid of touching on something that I hadn't practiced. And I spent hours practicing that lesson and there was always something going wrong and it would stop me from going further and I think the kids did not get everything that they could have gotten out like this year.
They I feel that they're getting a little bit deeper into python quicker because I am more comfortable with saying I don't know let's figure it out and it's something that I think everyone should be okay with. It's easier to say than to do but just don't be afraid of the unknown. Well, I think. 
Sean Tibor: [00:12:57] For me the biggest obstacle to that is in your mind, right?
It's this thought that what happens if I make a mistake what happens if I screw this up or it doesn't work?  It's okay. We're talking about code and for most of the examples especially for beginner Python Programming. You're not going to break a computer. You're not going to suddenly  hack into the Pentagon accidentally.
 you're going to be writing code that if it breaks the consequences of failure are pretty low. So you have to give yourself permission to try something before you fully understand it. You don't have to understand something before you can try using it. 
Kelly Paredes: [00:13:33] Absolutely. Absolutely just so don't let it hold you back.
Sean Tibor: [00:13:36] Yeah don't want on your back just blaze forward  break some things but, you know, try things.
#2 There's Never Going to be Enough Time [00:13:42] So my number one thing is that there's never enough time to do everything.  there's only 24 hours in a day.  I keep myself pretty busy throughout the year and throughout every day.
My days are pretty long and I'm trying to accomplish a lot of things and for me learning to say no in the in the right way was a  big learning opportunity because I wanted especially as a first-year teacher. I wanted to make a good impression. I wanted to show that I was capable.
I wanted to show that I could do. That I wasn't just a coder I was Adept at teaching also and so I thought  initially that that meant saying yeah, let's do it. Let's try it. Let's do this. Let's do that or I had all these big plans and what that turned into was that I kept thinking about all the things that I wasn't getting done and it wasn't until the end of the first year when I looked back and thought about all the remarkable things that we had accomplished all the things we'd created all the students that I had taught all the lessons that we had done.
That really meant something to me. It was in in retrospect. It was a lot bigger  of an accomplishment than it felt like at the time and I think this year going into it. I'm still have a lot of things going on, but I'm not beating myself up over the things that I'm not getting done because I know that we're still making forward progress.
We're still making things happen, 
Kelly Paredes: [00:14:55] and I think that's really important just to get through the day you have to have those one things that you just have to get done but everything else can wait. So picking those battles and choosing what's best for the students and best for your personal growth.  that's a huge lesson to learning with your first year of teaching.
Sean Tibor: [00:15:09] Yeah. It  really just came down to  prioritizing what's best for the students and part of that is how do I make sure that I take care of myself so that I can help the students. 
#3 Reading Error Codes [00:15:19] Kelly Paredes: [00:15:19] very good. So one of my big aha moments and it kind of was a prolonged over the time aha moment and  I laugh about it all the time is.
Learning to read error codes better. It's been a very long process. I read about error codes. I talked to some people at pycon about  error codes and how to teach it to students and I thought wow that's a pretty cool lesson and then but I didn't really get it and then I had an article that Michael Kennedy posted in his Python bites was on the episode that.
I spoke with him about and it was on tracebacks and I started to get the oh, that's what they're called and it just started to following in and I think had I learn first about the error codes and really learned how to decipher what I was reading. I think my process of coding by myself. Not with the kids, but by myself would have been a little bit smoother.
So error codes: definitely know what they mean. 
Sean Tibor: [00:16:19] When I would even add to that. I think one of things that I've seen you doing this year that works really well too is reading test output. So not necessarily errors, but reading all those assertions to really understand what it means and for me as someone who's coated for a long time.
I guess I didn't really think about. What it feels like to be a beginner reading an error code and trying to navigate through the stack trace  or the trace back and even just the fact that it reads from the bottom up is something that I take for granted are just intuitively do because I've been doing it for so long.
So for me the kind of corollary to this as a coder is learning how to teach error codes and testing better. So. That's been  my push this year is to do a better job with my students of showing them how error codes work how to read them and more importantly how to. Interpret them to be able to solve the problem.
Kelly Paredes: [00:17:06] Yes, and don't do what I did when your new teacher learning how to code don't associate test with test of your normal test. I remember the moment when Brian Okken was talking about test and I didn't understand what he was talking about. But yes, it does kind of help to look at Tinker to look at the code challenges.
I think when you look at CodeChallenges their test really help you learn how to read the output of a code and those things. You take for granted, I guess as a coder, but that has saved my first quarter teaching the kids because I'm just like read what does it say? And I didn't have that.
Sean Tibor: [00:17:41] So it's kind of it really does turn into more of the here's what your code needs to do in order to pass. and we think of that as teachers as being went demonstrating knowledge or passing by demonstrating the an. Our Mastery of knowledge, but when we're talking about code, it doesn't do what it's supposed to do no more.
No less does it does it make the test work? 
#4 Simple and Slow beats Complex and "Correct" [00:18:02] Absolutely. Alright. So for me, the next one is simple and slow beats complex and correct. I put correct in quotes because  I always try to think about what's the better way to do this. What's the more sophisticated way to do this? And when I'm teaching sometimes that's harder to explain or harder to communicate to others why you would do it that way especially when students are just learning this knowledge for the first time.
They don't even have sometimes the vocabulary to be able to associate all these different concepts together. So for example, we just barely get into objects and object oriented programming, so it doesn't necessarily do me a lot of good to code things using. And oop approach or to write a class for something if students don't really understand that so I find myself doing a lot more functions and variables in Global's and things like that that I can use to more clearly communicate an idea as part of my teaching rather than doing it the way that I would code it if I was writing it as a project for myself or For Hire.
Kelly Paredes: [00:19:04] Yeah. I think that that's huge a learning curve and I have. Met that side where I'm getting into class or objects. I still code with the basic Boolean and conditional statements in the functions. And I think going back to how you first learn how to code and how you do everything simplistic as a really big lesson.
Sean Tibor: [00:19:28] And now the challenge is really trying to make it so that when I am coding with this limited scope of functionality, there's limited scope of the language. How do I make that as clear and concise and easy to parse as possible and then  optimize it within that framework? So it's still a challenge and it's a good one to be able to write code that way and if I'm writing and then I transform that if I'm writing it for something that needs to be running on a server somewhere.
I will add the object oriented methods to it it it has forced me to go back to basics a little bit.
#5 Read a little. Code a lot. [00:20:01]Kelly Paredes: [00:20:01] It's good. So I think we're at number five. It's for me. Read a little to learn and then coat a lot. I think I was trying to consume a lot of information over the year and I wasn't going into that deep learning method and since I've been reading the book on Range just going back and doing little things like functions doing them a whole bunch of different ways.
I would read about functions and just code a lot of functions. I think trying to take too much in and not really understanding that concept kind of set me back a little bit. So I wish I had just dug into what were , Boolean statements. What were conditional statements are Boolean logic and just look at different examples and do a lot of coding as you're learning and do them multiple times.
Sean Tibor: [00:20:52] Yeah, it's amazing how much repetition and practice really helps. It's the everything from the muscle memory of typing in the def statements and remembering to put the colon at the end of your declarations and everything those sorts of muscle memory things help the repetition and the ability to apply it in different places helps.
So the practice practice practice really goes a long way and I like your approach. Read a little bit code a little bit like absorbing information apply the information in this really fast iterative cycle rather than trying to do large chunks of it all at once.  #6 Projects Really Work [00:21:35]  my number three  I'm still amazed by how well projects really work for student learning and engagement. bringing out student voice and choice in what they're working on and having them work through the problems to solve them and to communicate them to others to collaborate with others to make it work. There are so many benefits for that in the course. And so I found this year. I'm doing more mini projects and many challenges where they have to.
Try to come up with an idea on their own and have more Direction over it and it feels slower in many ways. It feels like we're not getting through as much but what I'm seeing more of in the classroom are the students that are getting the information and they're having to apply it and their minds are a little bit more Nimble this year and rather than last year where it was more of a structured environment.
I have to set that environment very carefully for my students so that they know the expectations that they're still structure. Even if it's not with the didactic or  direct instructions and 
Kelly Paredes: [00:22:37] that goes along with the social emotional skills. We're slowly building them up. We did the small projects with the seventh graders and over the time as we do it the 6th and 7th, the 8th graders are going to be able to do larger chunks of projects.
It's some that learning moment for us. We were just like jump into the project got two weeks go for it and they worked and we had a lot of successes. But at the same time, we don't really talk too much about some of the failures of the kids losing speed 
or finishing early and not pushing the the project a little bit further.
So that idea of keeping those projects going with choice and doing a lot of them. It seems to be a little bit more successful. 
Sean Tibor: [00:23:17] Yeah. It seems to be going really well this year and I think that was the moment we found more towards the end of last year was where we really hit our stride with projects.
#7 You Have to Teach To Someone [00:23:24] Kelly Paredes: [00:23:24] Absolutely. So if we can't say it enough you have to teach to someone think one of the biggest benefits. To me learning python was the fact that I had to stand up in front of a hundred and twenty kids by the end of the year last year and teach python. So the the concept of teaching it and teaching it again and again and again and finding a new way to explain it to someone who has no clue what you're saying has really helped.
Push me to the learning. I just wish last year I had. Taught a little bit more maybe to a dull or to somebody in my household the teach to a duck teacher video recorder teach to something because when you say it's just like studying for a test when you when you are reading something in your head, it doesn't necessarily process, but verbalizing it and trying to explain it orally is a lot better right?
#8 Reach out to the Python Community [00:24:21] Sean Tibor: [00:24:21] You really have to think through. the next big thing for me was realizing how much the python Community was always able and willing to help we spent a lot of time on Twitter. I follow a lot of people I love reading what everyone else is doing and what I was amazed by was both in-person at places like PyCon, SciPy as well as  during Twitter or even there's a python educator slack Channel everyone's willing to help and they're willing to give of themselves.
To help you be successful and it's created this beautiful Community where we all are trying to give to each other and help out and that's been a really good thing to see and I've gotten so many good pointers and tips and ideas from the python community in terms of how to help great example,  Daniel Chen set with me for an hour over lunch at SciPy and we just talked about ways that I could use Jupiter.
And data science in my computer science course where I can get data sets from the proper sequence of doing it what parts of his book to use that might be helpful versus other ones that  they might not be ready for it yet. So just things like that  there's nothing necessarily in it for Daniel other than the fact that he just wanted to help and he was a really nice guy and it was invaluable to me.
Kelly Paredes: [00:25:31] Yeah. It's still a little bit surreal to me. The fact that you have this community as teachers, we kind of go into our classroom and we have a community with it with our class with our students, but it's not as easy to collaborate. If you don't have the time set aside to collaborate with teachers, and yes, you can talk to the teachers and passing and at lunch and we talked a lot but having this this group we've relied on a lot of people on our Twitter feed and they're just.
They're there to answer questions. And once you find that it's amazing. 
Sean Tibor: [00:26:08] Yes, we haven't said it enough. Thank you to all of you has been amazing this past year to have your help and encouragement and support along the way. 
#9 DonŐt Let Imposter Syndrome Get You [00:26:16] Kelly Paredes: [00:26:16] So the last thing that I wish I had known is don't let this imposter syndrome the the lack of confidence in the lack of knowing everything get you stuck.
There were so many times last year. That I kind of had a personal load inside where I just didn't think I could make it. I was like what am I doing? I cannot believe I'm teaching python. I can't believe I'm doing this podcast. I don't know enough. How can I be doing this and there were a lot of times where I really doubted myself and I still have a lot of those doubts coming in sometimes but I'm learning to get past that.
Sean Tibor: [00:26:55] one of the things that I heard over the past year that was brilliant was this concept that the only difference between a beginner and an expert is that the expert is really good at being a beginner. There's this concept that if you're an expert you've been through that education the problem solving the feelings of frustration or the Imposter syndrome or whatever it is and that you be by being an expert.
You know that you've been through that many. Before and that there is a way through and that you will get through because you've done that before and that was one of the things that I think really helped me this past year was knowing that I've done a lot of things, you know, I've done something I mean out of taught before but I've done this other thing and I know I knew how to figure that out and for you with learning how to code as you went along I could see that your confidence was building because you had figured things out you knew how to make them work.
And that pattern of success built upon itself. And so you may still feel the Imposter Syndrome from time to time or maybe feel that sense of self-doubt, but now when it comes about you're saying like, but I know how to do this and don't help me. I'm going to figure it out because you see the value and figuring it out that you know, you'll get there 
Kelly Paredes: [00:28:10] and that's the big thing is just being able to tell someone.
You know, I don't want your help. I need to go away. I need to walk away from this computer for about 5 seconds before it goes out the window and I'm going to come back and I guess that whole idea of that lack of confidence phase is realizing when you're at your low and being able to take a walk,  watch a video take your mind off of that code in order to be ready to hit it again.
Sean Tibor: [00:28:37] Yeah, and  in the classroom with the students when they come up with that same sort of. Feeling of I can't do this. I don't know how to do it. It won't work. It won't ever work. I'm never going to be good at this. We stopped that and we say no you will we see it happen. We tell them it's five to six weeks into our wheel when it starts to click.
Sometimes it's more sometimes it's less but it will click for you and just knowing that there's someone there to tell them no, you will get this.  Seems to do the trick. It seems to really help them have the confidence or at least the  fuel to persevere through what they're currently going through.
So if you're currently in that first five weeks of school teaching it for the first time you will get through it will happen 
Kelly Paredes: [00:29:16] and you have to remind the parents to just trust us. We don't we're doing yeah. Well, they'll get there. Yeah. All you have to do is be two or three days ahead of them in your life.
 #10 You DonŐt Have to Answer Every Question [00:29:24]Sean Tibor: [00:29:24] for me, my last one is actually kind of related, which is you don't need to answer every student question. You don't need to. Give them the answers. You don't need to be super available to them,  you need to be responsive, but it's not always telling them the answers. I found over the past year that often times the students knew the answer were or were on the verge of getting the answer.
Themselves and they were using me as the crutch because I was available and I could they could ask me the question. I'm like the better version of Alexa because I actually most of the time can hear them. 
Kelly Paredes: [00:29:59] That's my line. That's what I tell you. You're much easier than Alexa help us solve the problem right?
Sean Tibor: [00:30:04] But but what I found is that sometimes just limiting that or giving them part or just a gentle nudge in the right direction often is all they really need and what's better for. To figure out the problem themselves because then it really clicks and it really sinks in. So for me the one question rule  was really helpful the past year was limiting each of the students to only being able to ask one question.
If you ask if he can go to the bathroom, that's it. You're done. That's your one question. But just getting them to Think Through what they really wanted to know and what they were trying to solve often times. Got them to solve the problem before they even asked the question. So even just reframing it into a statement or directive or declarative.
Suddenly got them over the hump that they needed to solve the problem. 
Kelly Paredes: [00:30:52] And that's that's a difficult skill for most teachers and  seen how you develop that over the past year. So rapidly, it's really nice. It's so easy just to give the students answers because you can give them the answers they walk away and you're like, yep, I showed them answers, but we know our hearts of heart , we know that if they struggle a little bit if they have that.
That feeling of I can't do this. Oh wait, I did it. It's a lot better for them and for us because that learning sticks so sticking to that one question encouraging redirecting the question as a question or the answer as a question really helps 
Sean Tibor: [00:31:28] well, and I will always direct them towards resources or research help them develop the skills that they need to be able to find the answer for themselves or to figure it out for themselves.
I'm happy to help them find it. Rather than just give it to them 
Kelly Paredes: [00:31:41] and I always at the end. I always like see see how much better it was that you figured it out on your own and nine times out of the tens with the little disgruntled. They say yes, I do agree with better. Well, how do you have a sense of Victory?
Sean Tibor: [00:31:54] Right exactly. Like it's a sense of Triumph when you can solve your own problems,   that's our top 10 between the two of us. I think it's been you know a heck of a journey and. This year's already off to a strong start. It's been really nice to have returning students that we can build with and grow you've been working with our 6th graders who are experiencing python for the first time and.
I've no that's been at least fun some of the time. 
Kelly Paredes: [00:32:20] They're quite interesting. They're getting better. Now that I've trained them they're going to be leaving me in three weeks. I don't know what I'm going to do. 
Sean Tibor: [00:32:27] Yeah, it'll move along pretty quickly and then you'll miss them.
Kelly Paredes: [00:32:30] I know 
Sean Tibor: [00:32:30] so that's our topic for this week.
Wrap Up And Close [00:32:32] If you have some of the things you wish you knew when you first started your coding Journey or your teaching Journey or your journey through the Himalayas,  bring better socks. I don't know what it is. But if you have those you can always share those with us on Twitter. We're at teaching python on Twitter through our website, which is teaching python dot f m-- and if you'd like to support us, we also have a patreon which is at patreon.com teaching python.
So if you want to support us like a few of our listeners do that's the best place to do it Kelly any last thoughts. 
Kelly Paredes: [00:33:03] No, happy coding. 
Sean Tibor: [00:33:05] All right, so have a great October keep coding and keep hacking and  we will keep teaching and will keep recording. So without any further Ado for teaching python, 
Kelly Paredes: [00:33:16] this is Kelly 
Sean Tibor: [00:33:17] and this is Sean signing off.