Transcript
[0:21] Hello and welcome to teaching python my name is Sean Tibor I am a coder who teaches.

[0:30] Will Kelly we're sitting here around your dining room table this week cuz it's still thankfully summer for another week or two.
And we're about to get back to to school today we're going to talk about building lessons in planning the curriculum for computer science,
of how we're going to structure our classes we are switching roles a little bit and you're taking on a new grade level.
We all change it up and so has our students now have a year of python under their belts in the seventh and eighth grades or sixth graders are still,
getting introductory python instruction what are 7th and 8th graders have already had one course so now what do we do now.
Is Arabic that's her big question for the.

[1:19] It's going to be a fun it's going to be a fun year I can't wait to to get the hands on her 7th and and co-teach with you in a course so that we can,
plan together so this is one of the aspects that we're going to have over going to talk about in this podcast I think.
So Kelly.

[1:37] What's your win this week what's been your big when I know you've been working through a lot of your own professional development when it comes to coding and banging your head against a while I think there's an indentation like right there from some of that show you been trying to be here
this is the spot where I always could we talk a lot we took about.
Not in recording but we've talked about how we always sit in one spot to record this is my code this is my spot where I code,
and I'm always here my one of the week well.
I'm still not finished with my udemy course with cold steel but I've made a lot of progress with that finishing up I'm over halfway which is huge,
and then because you know I learning is never enough I started with my with pie bites and I did three pie bites yesterday which was a huge win for me and I power through them.

[2:28] With a little bit of grit and perseverance and I got three pies and I tweeted about that so that was great Julian and Bob actually text us,
and saw that I was on the on the site so it's pretty cool that they see new new people entering that side so I recommend that that was a good win for me to type,
Bob and Julian Run is it they're very responsive and they're always looking for ways to make it a very personal learning experience I think they do that exceptionally well.
I know that one thinks it was kind of cool when I was working to the hundred days of code,
I project was that Julian recorded a personal video message for me when I finished one of the big challenges that was kind of an awesome thing that I know they're trying to make more of a systemic approach where that as you reach certain milestones in the chorus,
you get in a personal video acknowledgement saying hey you made it to no day night 19 or day 32 or whatever the big the big one was.

[3:27] And that really helps students feel motivated and that someone's actually watching others that accountability also and support to get it done I think it's,
like most of the community and python they are hard workers and so I put in that little bit of extra effort and what they do.
Is what makes them pythonista diving,
took for me I have had an amazing experience last week there was a rocket launch out of Cape Canaveral,
and I know if you've been listening to the podcast for while you know that this is something that I get really excited about and I've got a friend of mine who is also excited about it,
it happens to be a Private Pilot so we flew up last Thursday to watch the launch from the local airport and do the weather we got we weren't able to win but we got close enough,
that we can watch the launch from the air so I got to see the SpaceX.
Falcon 9 launch last week it was delivering supplies to the International Space Station.

[4:31] So we watched it about maybe 15 or 20 miles out and about 4,500 ft.
Which was absolutely spectacular and what was really quite incredible about it is in a weave we see lots of rocket launches here in South Florida you can see them a hundred miles away,
but what was really great about this we got to see that first stage booster come down and land itself on the pad successful you know anyways the,
the 44th successful recovery from SpaceX so it's one of those things now where we used to think it was impossible.
To Landa upper stage booster like that and reuse it this particular booster have been used three times already so it's really coming down on the cost of getting two to space,
and it landed successfully it was a beautiful amazing thing to see and I kept thinking about it through with my computer science hat on about.
How much real-time Telemetry it's processing how the control systems work the code that's running on there because it's not a human Paladin it down,
the boosters landing at South from the onboard computers like I was doing everything in a self-contained system in a.
Just amazing to see it come down and land itself perfectly right there on the path I feel so sorry for.

[5:44] Where is it going from those like taper Estes Rockets.
Now it has to land itself guys and we have to graph out the Telemetry of it and find the angle of the parabola is y I think computer science really can help is that we can,
start to connect those.
Together I mean the basic Estes model rockets the paper black-powder model rockets have been sold for 50 years like they haven't changed much is still pretty much the same thing and it works.
But if we add a little bit of technology to it some sensors some python Hardware whatever it is to collect that data and then analyze it we start to bridge the gap between here's a simple paper rocket.
And here's a falcon 9 launching and recovering it's all you can see here's the data coming out with here's the the information and what could we do with that data now that brings us closer to understanding.
How modern rockets work it's pretty cool even cooler if we can reuse all the co2 cars.

[6:50] Best route from the Dragsters oh yeah
so at least we have that we can recycle the CO2 cartridges,
well I do have one other when it's a shared when we want to talk about if you missed it we were posting it on Twitter,
last week we put in the show notes Kelly and I recorded a webinar episode for the vbrownbag podcast where we talked about strategies and and.
For Learning and teaching python it's all on YouTube down so you can watch it will put a link to that in the show note.
But it was kind of brief summary of ways to learn or python for yourself,
any audience was it professional people who are upskilling their themselves to be able to be more effective at their job or get the next job or whatever it is.
I'm we went through coming over you are teaching philosophy a template for how to learn pretty much anything at including python,
and then some hacks for how to learn better and faster so we'll put on the show notes I think it was a it was a lot of fun to do and we have a lot of thanks for,
for Chris and Joe the co-hosts of the rebound bag podcast for inviting us to do that is a great guy we met him at pycon,
actually met him pre Pikkon as via Twitter which I thought was very cool.

[8:18] And just a nice guy and really eager to learn so you can plug in for them to yeah I think their python series is pretty great like a lease Patel's going to do any presenting Michael Kennedy's going to be presenting,
I got a whole series of people that are presenting on various topics within python including things like how to use asynchronous into the async io libraries in Python,
our key words so a lot of good things in there that I'm I'm looking forward to and they post all of their podcasts or their webinar episodes on YouTube after the fax stuff you missed a live screening,
Yogscast on YouTube also so with that let's move into our topic our topic this week is building lessons in planning the curriculum,
your word right at the beginning of a new school year we've been doing a lot of acceleration,
understanding new things blog discussion but we can include in our our lessons this year but where we start every years actually with our written curriculum so we have a,
campus-wide Master curriculum that includes all of our different grade level and content area,
curriculum or curricula sorry I'm have to get the the plural right there of my Latin I guess it gives us all of that information is all in one place we can look at how it all fits together,
how it integrates how it rolls up and progresses from grade level to grade level as well as within subjects across a grade so.

[9:41] Cuz that's a lot of good insights into our overall curriculum,
where we we changed up our course descriptions and what we were going to teach,
so it's always good when you're looking at a crack at 2 to make sure that you written your last year's Creek elem and you're constantly adding to an modifying not necessarily the written curriculum that you were referring to,
where the standards and everything but hiring a teaching how you going to meet those standards and how you going to make sure that the objectives.

[10:17] For each year are covered and so it's a great opportunity to reflect which we do constantly and from that reflection bring on some new ideas to to enhance those ornaments active.
And I think that's pretty cool I think of this when I first started teaching last year I was thinking of this has layers.
That would happen so near the top layer was your written curriculum standards across everything right that's the big the top layer,
and then at the bottom layer you have your your lesson plans have your day today here's one way that each today,
here's how I'm going to animate all come together his women to communicate his what I want,
the soonest to take away from this individual lesson and then in the middle is kind of the glue between the two right that's our kind of teaching curriculum or something that we put together that.
That connects that day today learning with the overall learning objectives and standards that were going for either as a school or District or even National.

[11:20] That's how I was just looking up trying to get the exact jargon,
but there's this That explicit this written curriculum that we have for the school it's this hidden curriculum this kind of idea and I think that's really cool about computer science is that we have a lot of hidden curriculum of these soft skills the resilience is persistent.
Some people we actually have our hidden curriculum written in our overall school-wide Craig them is called the social emotional learning.
And then there is the actual teaching curriculum so we're going to.
When we talked about our curriculum planning and this episode we're actually talking about the day today the hidden with the the lesson plan.

[12:01] If you're new to teaching or you're more of a coder and less of a teacher like I was and still kind of app I'm working on it but just to give you some context for why this is important why this matters is because teaching has changed a lot,
vacation and learning has changed our idea of learning has changed a lot over the years.
And we used to be when I was a student growing up it would be you know doing a lot of,
rote learning a lot of memorization and recall that information so our tests were based on how well can you recall the information we did a lot of exercise has a lot of problems that's a lot of proof that you know how to do this
we also were doing it because it was in we're told it was important you're going to need to know this some day I'm sorry what.
There's not everything's I weren't in school I use on a day-to-day basis.

[12:47] I typically don't use the periodic table on a day-to-day basis but I know how to find it on Google if I need it so now we do is we are going tomorrow.
Understanding the relationships between things understanding why something is important or how it fits with the other parts of your knowledge,
Enzo Amore casting or were assessing knowledge we're looking for understanding and application and re application to other areas not just,
can you regurgitate the facts as they were presented to you to keep in mind because stage and I think that was something that,
you might have experience when and I'm experience when I was in school that my teacher knew every.

[13:35] My teacher was the one that gave me the information that I couldn't find that information anywhere else but we know that that time has gone bats passe because we have Google and we have this.
This opportunity to acquire our own knowledge and to figure out and test our understanding
somewhere else besides with that teacher so that is that then now aspect of we now have the students acquiring a lot of their own knowledge we are their facilitators we guide them through these experiences
and that's really important with this this cricket and planning that we keep that in mind that.
It's not just python coding or it's not just us giving them the Code we're now going to make them.

[14:19] Be in charge of their own learning I think it if you are a trainer if you work with adults you see a lot more of the direct learning right away those soft skills the persistence the,
resiliency has been acquired already otherwise they probably would have gone as far as they have.
But what you do see is a lot of the I need the direct knowledge I need to understand how this works I need to know how it relates to all the other knowledge that I have how to integrate it,
and that's something that you know we're trying to set Warren Moore up in the early stages of Learning and Development,
so that by the time our students become adults they're very proficient at being able to,
acquire knowledge either in a self-directed self-paced manner or when they go to an in-person training or take a course they're really maximizing the the effect of the time that they have.
And I actually had a good friend of mine is taking a new position at a new school new role new position new grade level,
ask me for advice on how to teach robotics cuz I have been teaching robotics in the past and he's he was saying I don't know enough about robotics I said you don't need to you're a great teacher make sure you stylize it in this idea where.
The kids are fighting the knowledge the kids are doing it the inquiry and making more project base and roll with it just roll with it and keep on with your teaching.

[15:41] So that kind of rolls right into our philosophy of teaching.
And why we do things the way we do so this will help frame the conversation we have around curriculum in the choices that were making,
in our day-to-day lesson planning an archive middle,
curriculum between the the top level in the bottom level,
that you know you can put on your resume had we if we ever did want to leave which I don't think we'll ever leave Pine crab speaker bio or like a synopsis for a caucus
resumes but here's what I'm saying so as we go through our teaching floss favor and do a little bit different we have some points
we're going to go through a teaching philosophy and how we use this to build out a cricket on because I think it's important that your teaching philosophy is actually part of what you teach.

[16:35] So it might want to see how this goes for us cuz we haven't done this while you guys are getting it fresh and raw from from like the Inception here.
Teachers We Believe first that true learning comes from multiple sources and it's learned from failure.
How we do this on a constant basis we also honestly I introduce so many sources I tried to limit a little bit in the beginning cuz it gets kids get a little bit overwhelmed.
But I do show them on day one and activity where.

[17:12] Here's a source of information I'll take what you just learn from this information and try out at Allen,
and if you get it wrong it's okay and we build that into into our classroom things about computer science especially at these early stages where we're just learning or practicing things,
is it failure is cheap and it doesn't hurt us right,
and so we can get over some of those fears are that apprehension that a lot of students have of getting the wrong answer by saying you survived your still breathing right like it didn't work you got an error,
so what let's fix it you know what's what's repeat through it so that process of failure and have it not working not working not working.
It's his part of the wiring process in fact it's a critical piece of the learning process because once you have that break through and it works.
You want to get the immediate gratification right that dopamine hit your brains and yes it worked.

[18:09] And then you also have gone through that process of understanding all the things that didn't work to get you to the correct answer.
And that's the secret I tell my students is I'm not a fantastic coder I've just been through so many errors and so many failures over the course of my coding career,
that I know where they all sitting out right and I know when I encounter them that one it's not a big deal into I've usually seen something like that in the past I know how to.
And the beauty of coming from multiple sources I think we do that a lot and we're planning on continuing to use at this year is the idea of we teach a certain way in class we provide challenges in class,
and then at home we give them a different way of learning the same concept,
I'm really excited about Tinker offering up a microbit activity for the sixth graders.
We haven't seen it yet hasn't been launched yet but I'm hoping it's going to be just as good but the idea of.

[19:05] Trying out a for Loop in class and then going home and practicing it a different way.
Might help them to develop a better understanding or a different way of looking at that activity and that is a maze.

[19:26] And I think what you may have what you may have experienced or what you may have seen sometimes is that you know it's easy to get frustrated.
By students who take a little bit longer till we're in the same content or right or is easy to praise students who quickly just get it and then just happened.

[19:40] But what's amazing about this is that.
Each student in that process if they can really individualize it and incorporate those different sources and learn from their failures.
Each student's individual Personal Learning Journey goes at different Paces but often results in these beautiful unpredictable outcome.
That are really great to see like that's why I student project day when everyone's Dillingham projects is one of my favorite days because I know.
This turns out they're really quickly we're really proficient and capable at getting a project done and then I know the students that struggled all the way through,
and then had some sort of breakthrough right at the end we're just clicked and they said all I get it now and they kept coming with us Amazing Project that they wouldn't have otherwise seen if they hadn't gone through the struggle.

[20:28] And I used to teach in What's called the nyp or the middle years programme of the Ivy and what's the width that they have certain criteria and we.

[20:39] Sort of use that philosophy in our class we have specific criteria that we want the students to learn and as long as they are on a positive gross trend.

[20:50] We consider that learning and I can't find anyone out there who would argue against that not being learning as long as there's a positive trend.

[21:00] And knowledge being Acquired and an understanding happening then that's just amazing and we really hold on in,
I think it would be great is if we can get those kind of growth Trends printed out for the parents and then they wouldn't be so stressed out if you know they're their child,
struggles a little bit in the beginning a scatter plot a right and a best fit line is long as that best fit line has a positive no Trend to it,
it it totally works on making that but that's a goal check where's the pensive for the next point is actively connecting to your learning improve stickiness and we do that a lot.
Trying to find ways like I just did with the NYPD is I connect to something.

[21:49] In my past something that is important to me and that keeps that idea stuck in my head and we really,
stress that a lot in our classroom that only works if.
The Learning Experience is owned by the student I can't make it personal for a student where I can't make it something that's relevant.
All I can do as a guide in as a coach is to offer them the opportunity to connect to it right to find ways to make suggestions to give them options,
and so when they are owning their learning experience or actively making these connections there so I know how this fits with something else that I did write I'm hoping that,
this next year now that we have students with more experience are going to be able to connect it back to last year and say oh I remember when we did that or when I did this before I didn't really understand it but now I get it,
so that,
that process of actively connecting in a owned way by the students were they really feel personal ownership in their wiring process makes it highly authentic relevant and more effective way of learning and there's many ways,
that you can get choice.

[22:57] Into your curriculum that that connecting part where it's owned by the student whether it's about a passion that they like.
Or maybe it's a time frame weight sounds teachers don't like to give that but you know you give somewhere in between this two weeks you need to have X completed,
or maybe just looking at a position or place where they can sit in the classroom that allows them to have that connection maybe it's in the bean bag or maybe sitting in a chair changing up that idea,
and this is going to allow them,
on their learning experience and we offer that a lot in our classroom we're actually adding a new table into our classroom which is going to be on a large table not really sure where we're still deciding on its at 8 seating 8 seater,
8 seater table,
eight seats that's you know so much more fun plus fun 8 seat table sort of like a large dining room and I guess just allow maybe collaboration or to work on projects together,
and giving them that opportunity to choose where they want to learn can also help them to connect.

[24:04] With the topic I mean the walkway that's when the nice things about being in Florida where our doors open out to be in outside we also offer as soon as the opportunity at times to sit outside and coat or to work together in Paris sitting on the sidewalk outside our classroom because it gives them.
What a feeling of feeling connected and inspired potentially by the environment around,
true this you brought the point of the 20% time and that the project and that's something that we are going to continue this year we might change up.

[24:35] A couple of the checkpoints or the opportunities to complete,
we truly believe that motivation comes by linking to a bigger higher goal so this,
we're not just about teaching python we're not just going to say here's how you write a for Loop here's how you write a while true but here's this goal this is something that you've been dreaming about,
and we may not be able to finish it in this quarter.
But we're going to keep our eye on the prize and we're going to make this product as best as we can was that each student find something that.
Personally interesting to them about computer science something that they find fascinating irrelevant that they want to do or problem that they can solve using computer science and I want to help them solve it,
I want to help them do it,
so that they feel like they've accomplished something real and meaningful on the class so that idea of linking to a bigger higher goal is something that you can both.
Coach them through like help them identify and help them size it appropriately but then also role model that behavior for them as well to show them here's what that looks like when I'm doing it has the teacher.

[25:48] Every time we talked about this I always dress back to the AI presentation with the professors from FAU Learning Land.
And every time a student comes in.
He one of the professors ask what's your major and if they say English he wasn't that awesome that's great for a perfect perfect for coating that Concepts we take into our class that.
You don't have to be in there to produce at a python game where you don't have to be in there to be a topcoder but there is that higher goal.
And then the last one I think this is important to both keep in mind as well as reminder students persistence and discipline always beets raw motivate,
because motivation can a Ben flow right it's a very ephemeral sort of thing sometimes I can be motivated one day like I get up in the morning I can come and get this stuff done and then Lifehouse.

[26:45] All the motivation all the good intentions that I have at the beginning of the day.
May fall side because other things have come up so nobody's fault but these things happen this is life but persistence and determination that discipline of sank I know that life has happened and I'm going to find a way to do this anyway.
Still sitting down to write code everyday,
that's the time you're going to read That's deciding to listen to a podcast in the car instead of like boring talk radio so you guys are doing it if you're listening to this podcast in the car congratulations you're being persistent and disciplined right hopefully you're learning something to,
that idea of being persistent being.

[27:23] Is what gets you through to your end goal it's not just having motivation you need motivation also but if I was asked to pick two out of the three I would pick persistence and discipline hope for the motivation to come along also.
In a learning environment we know that most times the students motivation comes from grades and one of the things that we like to do in our school is either a not post grades right away,
because we don't want the students motivation to be a grade
we want the students motivation to be a learning and that helps to develop their persistence and their discipline in understanding computer science vs that wrong motivation of earning a grade for computer science,
it's something that I feel strongly and I think.

[28:10] John is I speaking for yourself that you feel strongly that it's not about that a at the end of the at the end of the quarter although we liked it the most kids like to have it.
But it's like that passion they want to come back to her classroom they come back,
and during lunchtime or after school and they want to continue to takoda at home they take out the book and sometimes sometimes finding out how we can beat their their motivation for earning a grade.
Will help develop more persistence grades are both absolutely necessary and they're the first thing I can get rid of if I if I had a magic wand right like they.

[28:48] Stearns place a lot of emphasis on their grades and in some ways it's one of the main signals that we have to them and for them to give their parents about what they're actually learning at school,
what I like to remind them is that grades are not an output.
They're not the reward they're not the outcome that we're seeking they are a side effect or a byproduct.
Of the educational process so I'm thinking of education's a factory and I'm making cars.
Grains are like really just the the measurement of how good the cars are being made the Grays are not the output the car is the output.
So that's the the difference for them and helping them to understand that if they focus on the product.
Which is their own learning and their own knowledge and understanding the grade will take care of itself.
Yeah so now we've got this philosophy and yet we've given you some examples of how we use that and how we think about it,
in our classroom the way that we discuss it with our students will make it visible to them so they understand our philosophy.

[29:51] Now how do we take this philosophy how do we take our curriculum and standards.
And how do we merge those together and translate it down into an actionable,
plan4learning with our students and this is something I've been thinking about of having more of because throughout the year last year I changed up.

[30:16] The order a lot of the things and I moved around.

[30:21] Some topics and played around with different ways and we were really trying to figure out what worked best,
and what work best in first-quarter necessary necessarily pan out in 4th quarter and so this road map this way that's what the students need to learn is something that we're going to be working on this year.

[30:41] And one of the things that I really like going back to again my udemy course with cold still is his idea of identifying those are ineffective.
He does a great job of doing what a teacher should do.

[30:52] Putting the learning objectives in front of the student not as the student will learn but pretty much of a sense of questioning you know how will you learn this.

[31:03] By identifying those learning objectives whether it's for the week or for the day is a lot better than identify him as the whole quarter,
for the whole year you know single him out so that the students know exactly what they're going to learn during that last sin is something that we're going to focus on this year.

[31:22] I mean it's wants to fit into an overall structure right there still the bigger picture of,
I want to make sure this year for example that our students get exposed to data science and machine learning and those are two areas that I want to focus on.

[31:38] I know that I'm going to dedicate a significant chunk of time during the wheel to those areas.
But I'm not going to be able to sit at the beginning of the quarter and say okay I'm going to use days 38 through 42 to cover machine learning,
what I will say is that okay,
in weeks 7 and 8 I want to be covering these topics and I will move it around as needed based on how fast the students are progressing
if they're ready sooner I'll move it up or if there's a nice fit in in the 101 lesson because as we're learning it,
as teachers are learning the best way to teach this we move things are we want that adaptability and flexibility to make it happen.
And then also to make sure that our learning activities are.

[32:25] Centered around are specific learning objectives it's really important to have a specific learning activity that is going to come with a specific outcome not necessarily you know a plus b equals c.
But with it a generalized outcome that can be assessed.
There's a I'll give an example cuz it's it's an easy one from summer camp this year so what I did with Camp as I was teaching each week is not necessarily connected to the other ones I have some soon to come back from week to week but it's a different group of students each week.

[32:58] So the smallest block of the smallest unit of learning that I have is one week in the summer.
Which is great because it's I can really focus it on one concept that I want the students to learn and I have 5 days to build up to that concept and help them in the mud.

[33:16] The first day isn't entirely exploratory around that topic to say in free sample I wanted them to warn about RGB.
To this concept that if I take a red light a blue light and a green light and put them together in varying intensities I can create an entire spectrum of light.
Turn invisible why right to the human eye so we start by talking about.
You know light levels in general I will start with one light and we'll turn it on and off and then look at the color that it produces really brighter Troy dim and how the numbers that I give it as input.
Affect the output of it to 55 is really bright zero is really dim and then I say we know what if we put three of these lights together and we start to change them okay now we can start to see different color.
When I how can I replicate a car to we just are building up and building up and each of these learning activities.
Is focus on the objective of understanding how the human eye perceives color.
How computers represent collar mathematically and then how Hardware is used to,
present that car to the user in a way that they can see it and then how that's used in the things that they see all around them like computer screens and phone screens and,
LED light board and even the lights in your house that can change color with us mark.

[34:33] That's really cool and I actually that was such a that's a good point to bring up because based on what you did this summer I also we also did that.
And those the free sample the ones that I focused on where algorithms my my week was based on what are algorithms and how do we use them and I introduce origami.
And following steps that was one of the first activities I did during the week.
I then worked on conditional statements and algorithms and we did how we did procedures within a block we played games with it.
We also use that in order to build squishy fish of making sure you know we only have a week.
And we only have a year with our kids during the school year we only have a quarter and so we have to be specific we have to be intentional with our teaching.
In order to one not only introduced that concept but to introduce it with with different sources of information.

[35:41] We have to be able to allow them to fail at it to try it and to figure things out but at the end of the day we have to give some sort of assessment we have to make sure that we're measuring that grows do they understand,
algorithms do the understand RGB colors can they can they persist,
and something as irritating as building origami and and have a product produced by following a set of plans.
Brighten so this pattern that we've applied or this Arc that we use for the morning starts with exploration Ryan starts with demonstrating something or exposing students to a new idea our new concept or just showing them something.

[36:21] Asking good questions about it what is this how does it work how do you think it works.
Having them the students asked the questions that matter to them about this concept.

[36:32] Then we do some teaching right where I'm sharing information with Mr I'm showing them how it works or explaining something answering some of those questions for that
direct direct instruction,
guiding the students do their own research process how can you answer some of those questions what are some good sources for that one.

[36:54] How do you Google that right like that's a great question but maybe it's not something you in Google easily.
So how can you start to break it down into smaller pieces and then we're going to some practice so some hear some exercises or maybe something that is.
I want a bit of a structured can,
approach to till morning at or practicing it and then we go into the application how can you apply this to something that's your own idea or your own creation so this five steps fits really nicely into a standard school week,
where Monday we can be exploring by Friday we can be applying students work at different Paces sometimes they might be ready for application by Wednesday,
sometimes they might just be getting to application Friday morning and at the end of the week but this gives us as teachers the ability to work with students in a way that,
what's them direct more of that learning and becomes more of an exploration and understanding activity rather than a I'm just going to directly and start you on this topic on Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday I'm going to quiz you on,
yeah and it doesn't necessarily have to be that 5 week so one of those great.
You actually produced a really good lesson plan for us for your for your interview.
But that idea of the hook or the exploratory activity you know maybe it's a smaller concept maybe it's just an introduction.

[38:19] To trying to think Basics again but maybe it's just an introduction Dakshin to pushing a button if button is pushed maybe it's this,
the hook lesson and the the research and the exploration and the assessment can't happen within one day and sometimes you'll see this reader to reader cycle with us in the way that we teach.
Just depends on the topic so again there's always a sort of.
This pattern that we do follow this road map of here's our kind of our objectives here's the exploration here this specific activities here's how we're going to access,
assassin and we can have some sort of closure for me the assessment is more along the lines of.

[39:05] Did the students demonstrate understanding by being able to take that concept then apply it.
Can they explain the concept in their own words is it something that they're using their own voice to describe right that that student voices coming through clearly.
Even if it's not a hundred percent correct maybe there's some room there to build on that.
That error and so he won't let me understand explain this to me in a better way and then further build our understanding.
Can I share it with others how they share with others have they been reflective about what they want,
so that assessment process is something that I do to be honest rather organically right now I don't have a numeric assessment is not Quantified in any way.
But I am always seeking to check their their understanding and assess.
Did they really get this and if they didn't what can I do to help them lock it in or how help them go deeper formative assessment will post on I have an article,
from that I got this summer from pbl on different ways of assessing formatively.
It doesn't need to be a full written code it doesn't need to be five lines of code it could be a simple exit card,
or a Post-It it could just be tell me one thing you learnt from today and this is that assessment as long as there is.

[40:29] A specific outcome that you are.

[40:33] Searching for and the kids can regurgitate we don't want to regurgitate it answered but we want.
Some sort of answer to provide an assessment to keep that positive learning chart going in that that upward growth that's what we're searching searching for.
And make sure that it's closed well like I think that that that's something that I would shy Dunmore of last year.
Is how to effectively close out a lesson or unit or a concept with students in a way that was more reflective and brought them a sense of completion that they had accomplished something it was complete.
And that there was a Next Step that led them into the next piece of learning
for every one of the ones who but that's something that's really I struggle with as well you you want to get in all that information you want to keep learning or maybe they're there is a Zen going on you lose track of time,
that little reminder to yourself that being o you have two more minutes left of the class.
Is something that might help us to close out that lesson but we was coming to the neck.
Part which is after it's done how do you know it worked how do you know that it's working how do you test yourself to make sure that what you're doing is working that is being effective.
And one things that I did at the beginning of every quarter after the first one was to ask students what did you hear about this.

[41:59] What do you expect in this course and how do you feel right now walking in.
So kind of kind of hit that intellectual the social and the emotional parts of where they are on day one of the court and I'm specifically looking to understand what they're hearing from their friends so taking the course before,
and the things that.
That were most affirming to me where the thing where that was the feedback that this course is really interesting you make it really fun I heard it's really hard but you can get it.
Those were the things were like okay that's affirming to me right like that so positive affirmation on the teaching that I'm doing.
The things you get concerned concerning for me that once I'm always listening for is what's really easy or it's really fun or you know without that,
corollary of it's fun and interesting or that you know or it's just okay I don't know it's okay that's fine,
that those me of the things that I was important they won't be maybe I I need to find a better way to address this aspect of those are the the flags for me to go dig deeper and figure out what's going on.
That's at that closure of that metacognitive approach that we constantly talk about something to 2.

[43:17] Just keep in mind when you're closing out your lesson as how can you add some reflection or did you add reflection or did you add a time.
For your students to really process the information how do you know,
and I think that's a constant if we can we can ask her so how do we know how do we know that we did a great lesson how do we know that the students learn something how do we know that the students are in a positive growth trend.
And if you can constantly reflect as well while you're teaching.

[43:48] You can't really go wrong yeah she might make mistake but oh well you know it's all about the learning process,
and that if you claim to never in a not be able to make mistakes if you're having a rough time mistakes are part of the process and we own them and we learn from them.
So as we go through this is my plan for this year is to,
iteratively improve across the year I felt like third quarter this past year was my best wheel it was the where I had most things figured out along the way and we weren't,
yacht on the 4th quarter where students were starting to look ahead to the summer.

[44:32] That being said I'm so really proud of my fourth quarter students cuz they stuck with it and they were into it and they got focus on it they were really engaged with it far more than I was expecting for you know the man June months out of the year.

[44:46] And as we go back into school we start on Friday.
We'll be we'll be touching more and more on what we're doing with in the creek and we have a great season ahead of us on the podcast we have a lot of topics lined up.
And we can't wait to share we're also looking for more guests as well so you know what this summer you've heard a lot from Kelly and myself because it.
You're more convenient prices were running around in various places this summer for us to get together but we would love to hear more voices from the teaching community so for those of you who we've already met you may be getting an email from us soon about,
joining us on the podcast to talk about a specific topic,
if you have a topic you'd like to share or discuss with us on the air in a purely fun conversational sort of way,
you can always find us either on Twitter at teaching python,
or you can go to our website which is teaching python. FM there's a contact form there and we read every single one of the contact submissions or some been some really great ones in there,
there's there was a great one that I haven't gotten to yet on the air I'm going to bring that up for one of the future episodes which is around using the selenium package.

[45:56] Browser automation to do web scraping which was like it's a really powerful way of.
Grabbing information from the internet using selenium which is the way of browser sees the internet not just the way some of the Python packages to the internet,
pretty exciting stuff coming up telling are going to be presenting in November at a conference would I be talking about,
the classroom of 2024 so five years from now and the way that technology is going to be integrated more and more into the classroom,
so that's going to be at the Florida Council of Independent Schools in Orlando Florida so if you're a member of that organization will be presenting their on the administrator track I believe.
And then if you are interested in meeting up with us at any other conferences let us know we're starting to plan our conference schedule this year so we're looking for opportunities.
Connect with other people face-to-face where it where we can so let us know if there's any conferences that we should be looking for Florida is a great place to be.

[47:03] Why were talking about plugs.
I had to plug I don't know if you saw this one from Nick told her that he he posted on GitHub a hypercard inspired GUI framework for Mo and it his video I don't know if you haven't checked it out.
It is great and just the idea of showing kids a different way of interactivity.
Within python is very exciting so give him feedback he loves feedback he's only giving announcements on,
on Twitter but I know he's still reading,
things from Twitter so check it out it's on his Twitter page and also in his GitHub,
man I don't know if I'm ready to open up the hypercard
he's a great educator he he's come from education background so during his video presentation
I was sitting there watching it while the kids are at the pool and I was like oh I totally got this so there goes another thing to add to my list of things to to try out.

[48:16] But I think that will do it for us this week again if you want to reach out to us on Twitter or on the web if you have questions you have ideas for topics you'd like the cover if you would like to be a guest on the show,
please feel free to reach out to us so for teaching python this is Sean.