Episode 46: Musings About a Very Different School Year
Sean Tibor: [00:00:00]  hello and welcome to teaching Python. This is episode 46 musings about a very different school year. My name's Sean Tibor, and I'm a coder who teaches.
Kelly Paredes: [00:00:25] and my name's Kelly Schuster pres and I am a teacher who codes.
Sean Tibor: [00:00:29] so Kelly, welcome back. It's it's been a few months since we've recorded. We took a little bit of time off, I think for our own mental sanity at this point. not that helped, but we thought it was worth a try.
Kelly Paredes: [00:00:41] Yeah, I'm not sure. I think sometimes when we don't talk, I think there's more of a chaotic brain confusion going on for me. This whole Python podcasting helps me to process a lot of, my Python thoughts.
Sean Tibor: [00:00:57] all right. So then  we promise everyone and ourselves that we're not going to do this again. We're just going to keep going. it was nice. It was nice to have a few months to other things. And I know that several of our listeners have been asking where the heck are you guys what's going on?
Everything's okay. Everything's fine. We just decided to take a break for a few months and then come back and hit everything in the new school year. And as you can imagine, it's a very different school year. That's in front of us. but before we get to that, I'd like to just ask about wins of the week.
So Kelley what's your win of the week? This week?
Kelly Paredes: [00:01:30] Oh, wow. I haven't really had a wind specifically this week, but last week I had a couple of, I had a really good when I solved my first, I think they're called reg ragexe, but I kinda like to call them rejects because it takes me about a hundred pieces of code trials to actually get something that's not rejected, but I saw.
I sold my first reg ex pie bite. And I'm not sure it was actually a reg ex, but I use reg X on it and I am addicted to failing at these things.
Sean Tibor: [00:02:09] I don't know fun is the right word, but I was so happy when you were telling me about solving those rejects, challenges. So if you haven't seen these before, they're regular expressions and it's a way of matching texts. you can search for different texts, patterns and everything, and.
I don't know if you felt the same way I did. When I first started learning about them, I am definitely not an expert. I can learn them as I need to be able to solve a problem. but regular expressions look like gibberish. To me, they're just, a whole set of characters and there's a structure and a logic to them.
But, the first time I saw one, I was like, what are they talking about? I don't even, I don't get this. And then. have that moment where you're like, Oh, I see. Did you have that experience when you were going through it for the first time
Kelly Paredes: [00:02:51] Oh, absolutely. I was like, there's no way in bleep that I can actually do this. I was looking at it. I'm like, okay. Our single quote carrot. I'm like, I don't even know where these keys are on my keyboard. This is ridiculous. I solved one today, though. It was,  once you start getting into it, the backslash D and then the .
Curly bracket too. You're like, Oh, okay. That means two digits. I totally get it. Why would someone come up with that? I don't know, but Hey, it works. I solved a couple. I'm definitely having fun with the difference between the recompile and the refined. All my favorite is the find all because it just. Knocks it out in one go.
But when do you use compile? When not to use compile it's? I feel like a proper coder now, the whole time I kept thinking, I've I said this. What a year ago, how long have we been recording? Two years almost when I was going to do my project about the student, , database, it's still there in my head and I still have a lot of notes, but now I know how I'm going to search for a certain student or maybe a certain course or maybe a certain skill.
, So every time I was learning something during the reg X, I was like, ah, yeah, I could do that. And then combine it with my pandas. I'm almost all there. Ready to write it down for my project.
Sean Tibor: [00:04:13] to hear you talk about that. Just cause the way you were feeling, the triumph of it, the way that you feel like you accomplished something. And I could tell that it was connecting a lot of pieces for you, and that's why we do regular expressions.
Not because we love the different pieces and the complexity of it. It's the fact that it lets us do really cool things.
Kelly Paredes: [00:04:31] it does. It does. And it's I tell you what I've been using a wealth of, , Tools about reg ex between,  real Python articles. I've got a couple of dev Otter calls that I was looking at it. And then you gave me the, , the Pythex,
Sean Tibor: [00:04:44] yup.  dot org. I think it is. I will put a link in the show notes.
Kelly Paredes: [00:04:48] Yeah, which totally helped me on the I'm looking for an HTTP because I was like, why isn't it coming up?
And I was like, Oh, it's looking for all the ages. All the, I was like, Oh, that makes sense. Now, why keep failing this pie bite? Sh don't give it away. I'm not telling you which one it is.
Sean Tibor: [00:05:09] the pie, Tech's a site and there's a bunch of them like that, but I like Python X because it's the Python version of regular expressions is a really great way to test your regular expressions and see how they match before you have to run your code. So I use that a lot when I'm trying to figure out a particular lawyer, regular expression, or just solve some code challenges.
Also, it's worked out pretty well.
Kelly Paredes: [00:05:30] Yeah, it was pretty, I was pretty psyched. I've gotten. Gotten pretty far on my code challenges. I've got a great CoLab. I've been keeping my notes and coding all my code challenges in there. And I like to put, , a nice little check Mark next to the ones that I've completed. I've got a couple in here still that are just , halfway solved and they're, , getting some curse words at them.
I haven't thrown my computer far enough yet, but I've got it. We're getting it.
Sean Tibor: [00:05:57] it's definitely  a good point for reflection because  you and I started working together two years ago this month. I think at that time you were just cracking the books on Python. You'd worked on it over the summer with me,  and we'd like shared some notes and stuff, but you were.
Still very much a beginner and learning everything. And two years later you're getting excited about regular expressions and, , pandas data frames and things like that. So it's definitely a good moment to take a time to look at it. How far you've come and how much you've learned over the past two years.
Kelly Paredes: [00:06:30] Yeah. I'm pretty proud of myself. It's, , it's amazing when it starts to click really click beyond the basics, I should say. And I was thinking to myself, , we're totally gonna write this book about how you can learn Python in nine weeks because you can learn Python and nine weeks. But in order to really be a coder and start getting into it, , it takes a little bit of time and I love Bob bell.
Ross always says , what do you need most in order to become a developer? And he's like a lot of time. Yes. A lot of times. So we're there. We're getting there. It's pretty cool. What about.
Sean Tibor: [00:07:06] well, that's the thing I like about this community too, with the Python is that it seems like everyone's still is learning something new and we're all coming out with just new things to learn and new things, to try and to explore all the time.  And I really like that about being part of this community, not just a Python developers, but just developers in general, there's always something new to learn. And if you like learning, being a software developer or being a teacher who is a great place to be because you have a lot of things to explore and try out.
Kelly Paredes: [00:07:36] absolutely. And I have to say this. The one thing that actually has helped me, I've done 57 straight days. I get up at six 20 and I code from six 20 till. About seven 30, my kids start waking up and then I go and I'll just read some more after they wake up. but from four an hour, when they're still sleeping, in there either learning something, reading something, trying something, writing code and what a huge difference that is that like time commitment I made and, I'm hoping I can keep it up when the school year starts, but we'll see.
But that's one of the reasons why we haven't been recording too much because we have been really learning a lot.
Sean Tibor: [00:08:21] it's been good. and you've inspired me with all of your consistency in coding that daily activity. I'm not quite as consistent as you are, but I think I've coded. pretty much every day for the last three weeks, sometimes it's code challenges, but I've been working on some of my other projects and it is really good.
And I've been seeing a lot of progress in my own knowledge, just from that consistency. just an hour, a day or half an hour, a day, it goes a long way.
Kelly Paredes: [00:08:48] absolutely. So what else have you been learning?
Sean Tibor: [00:08:51] I, my one of the week is actually, one that I picked up from last year. So last summer I took on the responsibility coordinating all of our iPads at our school. So something like 1200 iPads, and we use a server called gems, which, manages all those devices and keeps track of inventory and Deploys, apps and everything to it. so I last year had spent a lot of time automating the boring stuff with that and writing some Python code that would run in Google cloud and automate some of the more routine tasks that we have and allow us to do some bulk updates in bulk changes and things like that. So last year we used it to enroll something like 250 new devices, we're sunsetting some of our old iPods and we're bringing in new ones and deploying them to different classrooms. And we took that process from, something that would take, two weeks for someone to go through and update all these devices and enroll them into something that we did in, about half a day or maybe a day's worth of work just by automating all of it.
this year, our school is going to, for I think four different grade levels. Every student is getting an iPad. so we're taking all of our shared devices from across the school. We're redeploying them. 
And our goal is to have every student having the same hardware in their lab so that we can better support them and make it more consistent. So  the teachers don't have to deal with five different devices, in a classroom of 10 students, some kids have iPads, some kids are on their parents' computer.
Everyone's gonna be on the same hardware this year. it meant that not only did we have to, prepare all of these brand new iPads that were going out, we also had to take a bunch of the iPads that were already out there and redeploy them and reconfigure them. And the win was that I went back to my code from last summer.
And over the course of the school year, I had updated it from time to time and just had it running as a, in the cloud as microservices. were able to get it working again, very easily. It took, maybe a little, just a little bit of time to update some of the functions for the new versions of the software on the server.
But we've been deploying hundreds of devices and has been going pretty smoothly, the whole way through. And I'm just really pleased with how well it's going. And it was really nice to pick that code back up and see that, may not be perfect, but it's pretty reliable. And it runs really well.
and we haven't had to make a lot of changes to it. So it made me feel good about the quality of the work that I put in last summer. And we're making a lot of headway this summer. So it's been pretty cool to see.
Kelly Paredes: [00:11:21] that's just awesome. I can't imagine having to have, the way it was when you weren't here. I don't even think I could get my head wrapped around having to write in all those manually, because I'm not sure we would be at the point where we were in order to write that code, to deploy them. It's such a huge win for us.
The tech specialists that work with you. yeah, that's great. I love it.
Sean Tibor: [00:11:47] Yeah, it's really been, been a big win for everybody and I've just been really happy with it. It's been something that has been an interesting problem to solve and a good project.  it's taken me a long way with my own knowledge. I also have to give a big shout out to Brian Okken and his Pytest for, Python testing book, because one of the reasons why I was able to pick this back up again was because I had been writing tests for most of that code, so that when it came to pick it up this year, I could run the tests and see where it was failing against the server API, and make those changes quickly.
So it really saved me a bunch of time to put those tests in place. So big, huge shout out to Brian Okken for that.
Kelly Paredes: [00:12:23] that's awesome. I'm on test or on my things to do. But not right now.
Sean Tibor: [00:12:31] happens to be a few pie bites about that.
Kelly Paredes: [00:12:34] Yeah. I just opened up the logging errors. So let's start small.
Yeah.Main Topic: The Upcoming School Year [00:12:43]
Sean Tibor: [00:12:43] this week, we're going to be talking a little bit about the upcoming school year, and obviously there are a lot of changes and things are happening. Moment to moment. I know that in speaking with our school administrators, they're doing an amazing job of.
Being flexible and nimble and putting together a plan to handle quite a few different possible scenarios. and here in Florida where it's a really big hotspot, things are changing quickly. We don't know what the new school year will bring. Exactly. We know that there will be several different potential models, but what we wanted to do today was talk about how we're approaching some of those different scenarios and how we're keeping the flexibility.
In our teaching style to be able to accommodate whatever scenario gets put in front of us.
Kelly Paredes: [00:13:25] Absolutely. And we have to admit that we've, we have it a little bit easier in the fact that we taught a whole course last year. Of course and a half. cause we teach in nine weeks chunks. So we got to play with it one and a half times. So we have a little bit of a, an, one-up I guess, on the other teachers who only taught the last quarter or the year of their entire course.
So there's been a lot of chances for us to think about new things, new ways to teach and really get a hold of that. Asynchronous synchronous, virtual, online, learning you name it, blended learning, flipped learning, all those little words that everybody's been throwing out this summer.
and it's definitely, it sounds bad. I'm I'm looking forward to it because it gives us a chance to try out new ways of teaching. if you have to spend it on a positive note,
Sean Tibor: [00:14:20] I think that's the only way to do it. Like the only way you can really be successful is to try to find the positive opportunity and what would otherwise be a pretty bleak situation. I think everyone wants things to go back to normal. but. if someone said right now the phrase when coronavirus is over is starting to sound a lot.
Like when I win the lottery. Yeah. who knows when that will happen. but, but I think you're right. The, I actually was reflecting on last school year. And I thought about the fact that, because we went to distance learning at the end of the year, there were a lot of things that were already in place.
We already knew. A lot of the students, we knew the processes, the procedures, things like that. We had students that we're comfortable or familiar with our schools setting and the teachers that they had so that when we went to distance learning, we had to get used to the distance learning model, but we didn't have to get used to new teachers, new students, new processes, new things like that.
So when we go back this school year, We want to take all those things that we learned from distance learning last year, include those in our hybrid model that you know, that we're using and then be able to take on the new students, the new teachers, all of that new school year started the year things that really go, that really challenge us in a normal school year.
Kelly Paredes: [00:15:44] absolutely. And in preparation of that, I've taken so many courses this summer I've taken, ed puzzle course and being an ed puzzle like user in order to use, to add some opportunity for the kids to reflect and think about things while we do a screencast, I've taken a, a pro Screencastify course I've looked into loom, which is like a Screencastify, I am finishing up my ISTI summer learning Academy, which is about, all online teaching.
And they've given us a lot of great ideas that, we're looking at. And I also took a learning how to learn, which was a selfish one. Cause I was doing that from myself to try to better myself, learning techniques and, but also helping the kids to really, Suck in, or, consume the knowledge that we're going to get them.
So we've got a lot of cool things that, I think we're going to play with when we, when you go to teach.
Sean Tibor: [00:16:45] well, and I'm very optimistic, for this year and this new model of teaching because of the way that things went last year, I felt like our fourth quarter students actually got more from the distance learning model in coding. And I know that some of that is. Due to the coding model, Where it's very introspective, it's very, introverted and a lot of ways.
but the ability for students to spend a little bit more time on it when they were in the right head space for, it seemed to really make a difference that the students who got it really got it at a deeper level than I had seen with a lot of other and unfortunately there were a lot of students who fell off and they didn't just fall off the wagon in terms of getting.
the work done or being able to do things for, for my class, it was across the board and finding ways to help them in my class could help them in other classes too. So there's definitely those two extremes where you have. really successful students. And you also have students who are really not successful and did not do well in the distance learning model that needed extra help.
So needing to be with them and find ways to reach both of those groups of students. But I'm very optimistic about the opportunity to do that. I think there's really is something that we can do here that is different for students and potentially better in a lot of ways for helping them learn and helping them find something that they get passionate about.
Kelly Paredes: [00:18:12] absolutely. as you were talking, I was like generating this list where I was thinking that we could go through a couple of them and I'm sure we always add in more as we go along, but, just so some of the opportunities and things that we are planning on, incorporating into our class.
Do you want to try it?
Integration Opportunities [00:18:31]
Sean Tibor: [00:18:31] Sure. I think it's important to set the context a little bit too, of what we're planning to do.  our plan right now is that we will be on campus teaching in a hybrid model where some students will be in the classroom and some students will be at home. The goal with that is that we can accommodate a variety of different families depending on what they need and what they want. And in order to make that happen, we've decided that we're going to make all of our classes synchronous. Where if we're teaching in the classroom and we have students who are remote, that those students who are remote will be able to dial into the classroom using zoom and partying as close as possible to as if they were really there. so there's some things we've got for that. We've got some upgraded video cameras, like a Logitech meetup, Is looking pretty good for our classroom. also trying out the meeting house. So there's some hardware that supports that. But I think there's some other things that really support that hybrid model and the distance learning that will make it a better experience for the students in the classroom and at home.Safely Teaching Physical Computing [00:19:33]
Kelly Paredes: [00:19:33] Yeah. And we're also looking at, the.camera. We used it a little bit last year, but, I think just being able, because we're going to be a little bit more isolated in terms of walking around the classroom, which is something that I am. Not really used to, I like flopping down into a bean bag next to a student when they're having issues.
And, it's gonna take a lot of a restraint from, for me to stay back away and keep my distance. But we're looking at, maybe the power of using that doc camera. I can imagine when I'm teaching the microbead. So just being able to show the kids both in class and at home. What we're doing and what I'm, when I'm plugging what I'm impressing, what's showing up on the microbit, because that's something that we got, we missed out a little bit on, last year because the kids didn't have the microbead.
and I did feel a little bit of, I guess not really growing pain, but coding pain, not having that tangible product for my sixth graders. I think that, Having something tangible when you're teaching kids for the first time, how to code and script was something that yeah. Was a definite must and need.
So I'm looking forward to that document again.
Sean Tibor: [00:20:42] Yeah, and also if at all possible you'd be able to get that hardware home to students. So we've been looking at ways that we can get microbits to all of our students so that they have one that's assigned to them for the duration of the quarter so that they don't have to share it with anyone else.
They can use it at home, they can do whatever they need to. And it's actually very much like the original spirit of the microbit. Where it was given one to every seventh grader in the UK. We're going to try to do the same thing and see what happens with our sixth grade students. that's a really good point in terms of being able to use tangible devices and something that's very visual, and tactile. The other thing that works pretty well, and I'm seeing more and more development in this space is there's more simulated devices.
So I'm familiar with, and I know that, we've used before and with the sixth graders, if you're using make code and Java script to program your microbit, there's an emulator on line with Microsoft's make code site where you can. use, make code online and see how it works with a device that's simulated in the browser recently.
And I think this was just featured on a talk Python episode. There's a device simulator that works in Python as a vs code extension. So if you are ready to go to that next level and maybe we'll try it with some of our eighth graders this year, if they're ready to use vs code to write Python code.
There's a plugin that you can get or an extension that will let you simulate a microbit, a circuit playground. And I think that the new ADA fruit clue device with the, with the vs code browser, so then you wouldn't need hardware. And if you had students who were remote, you could have them, basically download their device instead of having to buy one or have one shipped to them.
Kelly Paredes: [00:22:24] very cool. I did use one of, the emulators with Python. Last quarter, it was a little bit different and it wasn't as intuitive for a sixth grader. I liked it. but the kids had to know to press and ad and turn on the, a button and the B button and the seller barometer. And it was just, I felt it was a little bit too hard to, for me to explain to them.
Via zoom without my document camera and showing it with the video. And I'm trying to share my screen. And, but yeah, emulators they're definitely, if you don't have the funds to give the students a microbits to borrow, then, definitely look into those emulators. That'll be cool.
Sean Tibor: [00:23:10] and it might work better at different age levels. So maybe a high school or college level,
Kelly Paredes: [00:23:17] Cool.
Sean Tibor: [00:23:17] the other thing that we're looking into doing is restructuring some of the ad homework that we do, or some of the independent work that we're doing to use, to give the students a little more choice and freedom and what they solve and what they learn and what they want to explore with Python.
So we're looking at using the pie bites platform more in our classroom. This year so that our students have code challenges that they can solve. And we're going to use the newbie bites quite a bit, because they're a great way to refresh everyone and get them back up to speed. And then the other thing that we're looking forward to is being able to write our own bytes.
So the ability to write a pie bite for our students and have them try it out and have it be tested and get that immediate feedback on whether it's working or not. So that one's going to be pretty exciting. I think for our students,
Kelly Paredes: [00:24:02] very excited. There are 25 newbie bites and they do two things, which I love. they require the students to read. Which is one of those teachers things inside, that I have about students actually reading from top to bottom, which is a great skill. It sounds silly, but especially when you're a coder, you need to be able to read the entire text and figure out what's going on.
the other thing is, I think we're, there might be a few more, I'm hoping few more newbie bites being added with, how to, Look at classes and everything. So they really do take you through the whole base six. And it's going to be an exciting time, I think, with the newbie bites and adding that into our classroom.Flipped Classroom [00:24:47]
Sean Tibor: [00:24:47] For sure. and what's talk a little bit about, we've talked a little bit about hardware that's coming, but I think in current, in terms of classroom structure, that's something that's also different this year and will require some adjustments. as much as I love the hardware and the cameras and the zoom sessions, it can still be hard for students at home to really feel like they're part of the classroom, especially if there's a discussion going on or a lecture or something like that.
And I also am always mindful about using the medium, for its best use. So zoom works really well when you're having a conversation or when people get to talk and discuss and collaborate and work together. But if it's as simple as I'm where screencasts can go a little bit further because then they can see it at their own pace and rewind if they need to review it and everything.
In terms of classroom structure. What I'm looking to do more this year is that flipped classroom idea using the technology to help do the instruction. So recording more, screencasts recording more lessons that students can watch, whether they're in class or at home, and then use our time together as a place for questions, for conversation for working time or coding time, where I'm acting less as a. As a font of information and more like the coach or the guide to help them navigate the problem that they're trying to solve. So I look forward to that a lot because I think that's going to be a really great model for how the students can turn this into their own continuous learning over time.
Kelly Paredes: [00:26:20] absolutely. I think this whole, curriculum shift is going to be something that, we are going to take on. with a strong force, with a positive attitude. I think for us using these opportunities to provide, different learning experiences for the students is going to be something that we're looking forward to.
One of the things that I'm really going to focus on, one of my goals is trying to build up. Enough information on a YouTube channel enough, a short five minute or less video clips with playlists. So here is all the things that you can do with the print function in sixth grade. And here's some fun things with F strings so that I can, not only just build up coding videos, but also I'm looking at going back to Eric Mathis as, Concepts and vocabulary flip cards and making some of those flip card opportunities for the students to learn vocabulary.
the, one of the things that I learned last quarter was I would tell the kids in a rubric, you need to, add a code of F strings or you need to do a conditional statements. And they were not connecting that vocabulary from my rubric and to what they had to do in code. And. I think I'm going to try a little bit of adding a day of here's the vocabulary or a video.
I haven't quite figured out how I'm gonna approach it, but definitely want to work on some vocabulary with our younger kids.
Sean Tibor: [00:27:55] I think that makes a lot of sense. And then even having those, items in the Hyperloop, in the rubric hyperlinked back to the video, just so it's a click away for them that gives them a little bit more information at their fingertips. And if they. Think they remember something they don't have to try to guess they can actually go find it or learn how to Google it and how to research it, which is one of the things I like about the pie bites.
So I see a lot of these things coming together in a really nice way where we're not just building the coding skills, we're building those Metta skills for researching for critical thinking, for problem solving that and collaboration that are really important for them to become more well rounded as.
Problem solvers. And as, as coders.
Kelly Paredes: [00:28:39] absolutely. And also combining in different ways. I know you did this a lot last quarter with using articles and screencast. And so I want to add that in and add it up, add up level, really honing in on the visual, the audio and the written text. So that we're giving that opportunity for the kids to learn it in all different contexts and to really help it  stick in there.
So maybe looking for some pictures or drawings or something that the kids have to do or see in order to make those concepts stick.
Reflections [00:29:14]
Sean Tibor: [00:29:14] Yeah. And I think that the overarching point that we need to keep in mind with all of those too, is how do we keep them engaged and relevant? because if we just put the content in front of them, if they don't see the relevance of it to their own. Learning or to their own lives. It really doesn't make a difference for them.
One of the things that was rather surprising to me in terms of the reflections that I read last year was one of the most common exercises that students reflected on it. They enjoyed the most, or they got the most into right. Was when they had to write their own class schedule as a list of dictionaries in Python.
yeah. They had to write that out and then it would, we use tabulate to make it look nice, but they kept saying how much that really. Was a cool project because it was their scale. stuff. And they felt real ownership over it. I know that they worked hard on it because they were learning data structures, concepts before, before most people learn about right.
They were learning these like really advanced concepts and they were doing a really great job of it, but they had to earn it like that. They really had to work to learn that. Information. And so when they reflected on it, they said this was something that I really felt good about because it was my schedule and I did it.
Kelly Paredes: [00:30:31] absolutely. And speaking of reflection, one of the things that we learned in every other computer science teacher learns is how do we keep those kids from cheating or copying code? and one of the things that, I'm hoping to employ. Hopefully once a week. Let's see if we have enough time in a week, but some sort of reflection of the process.
I want the students to not just give me code. I want them to write about it. We know that when you blog about it or when you write about it or when you have to teach somebody about coding, it sticks better. So being able to add in a little bit of quick reflections, we're not talking essays, but.
Quick paragraph, this is my code. This is what I did. Here's how it works or here's what my muddiest point was. Or. Here's the point where I just have no clue what I was writing. I found this online and it worked, or I Johnny showed me how to do a deck of cards, but now I realize what's going on. I think in order to combat that I got this code from or I found this piece of code online, adding that reflection piece.
Will really help the kids process. Cause we know we find the information online, we find it from someone else or we get help from someone else and that's okay, but what's not okay. Is submitting that code and saying it's their piece of work.
Sean Tibor: [00:31:56] Yeah. And I ran into that a few times. so far over the last couple of years in each time when I had the conversation with the student, it was always, it was the classic shortcut. They felt pressured. They felt like they didn't have enough time. They didn't understand it. And they just wanted to get it done and submitted.
And so I think by adding that reflection piece and having the reflection carry just as much weight as the actual assignment means that they have the opportunity to be honest about their learning and be truly reflective and thoughtful about what they've learned and have that count for something that the answer isn't the bulk of the achievement.
It's the learning process, the bulk of the achievement.Choice Boards [00:32:36]
Kelly Paredes: [00:32:36] Absolutely. another thing that we're really big on and I learned this little trick was students agency, allowing the kids to pick their project. We did that a lot when we, we had our projects at school and it was nice cause the kids could pick a project and code and we were there to help and facilitate.
I'm not sure. If we're how we're going to continue that this quarter. But I do want to add in this thing, I call it found yeah. Choice boards, where you have a bingo card of activities. Maybe it's an article they read, maybe the one center block is something they have to do, like our opening screen casts, but then giving them the opportunity.
Maybe you want to write a poem, which way poem, or maybe you want to do a grocery list? I don't know. I haven't quite figured out every step of the way, but just giving them the opportunity to pay, pick, which boxes, which activities they want to do out of. Eight 15 that you want to sign and allowing them to feel like they have a plan of their own, within a set frame.
Sean Tibor: [00:33:39] Yeah. And I think there's an opportunity there to combine that with some gamification elements also, for the students who are motivated that way, not every week every student is, but to give them the opportunity to earn points or achieve levels or unlock things that. They get through that choice of their own by choosing what problems they want to solve or which projects they want to tackle.
And I have some ideas for this, especially for my eighth grade students. And this is the part that you and I have been looking forward to for the last three years, the students that we started teaching Python in sixth grade. Are now becoming eighth graders. So this is the third year, and we're finally getting that third step of progression across the group grade levels for our students.
And so looking at that eighth grade year, W a lot of what we want to accomplish is the ability for them to choose their own path for them to find their own things that they're excited to learn about and try and explore, and for us to be less of the leaders in terms of their education and more of the guides or the support for them to go explore.
And we believe that will really set them up well for upper school and for other projects that they want to tackle and accomplish.
Kelly Paredes: [00:34:53] Yeah, I'm really excited for, I know last quarter they were about. Five kids that really, I was Googling every night trying to figure out where their errors were because they were doing things and it was their code because you can tell when it's their code versus code that's online. I can't wait for them.
I kept saying, Oh my gosh, you're going to have so much fun next year with mr. Ty, where you're going to have so much fun with mr. Tyler. I'm just pushing the boundaries and giving that those kids, the opportunity is going to be great. One more thing that I was thinking of trying to really focus on.
So I was focused on student agency. I also want to focus on routines. We started, we had tinker Tuesday last quarter and we had fun Friday, but I haven't gotten witty yet, but I want to think of something like. Thinking Thursday, it sounds silly can find something less corny, but that's my metacognitive day.
Routines and Rituals [00:35:45] That's the day when they go through and talk about what was the muddiest point or the hardest thing that they learned, or the reflection piece, and try to build some routines. Because I found that when we were, online, having to teach students remotely, those routines really help them in their learning.
So coming up with some sort of routine, a daily routine of how we're going to start the day or here's the video, or did you watch the video and really stick that in at the beginning of the quarter?
Sean Tibor: [00:36:16] that makes a lot of sense. I saw the same thing last quarter when we were working on how do we keep everyone engaged, having that routine really went a long way. And so I'm looking forward to that as well. What are the rituals? What are the things that we're going to implement in the classroom to help ground and center everyone so that they can get started on the right foot every day?
And what I think, going into my third year of teaching now that I'm so experienced,
Kelly Paredes: [00:36:46] Such an expert.
Sean Tibor: [00:36:48] in teaching,
Kelly Paredes: [00:36:49] I want to interject though real quick third year of teaching, but you've taught it now. It'll be, you had to do it so many times in a year, so really you've tripled.  
Sean Tibor: [00:36:57] One of the things that I found is that I was initially resistant to a lot of routine and a lot of structure.
And one of the things that I found over the distance learning model is that just because you have structured doesn't mean. Preclude, any spontaneity that you can have structure and still explore and go off on interesting side trips with your students into areas that they may not have learned. So some of my best lessons have come because we've pulled on a thread that a student asked with a question and saw where it led us.
And so I just having these rituals are not. They're not structured that binds you. It's a way to establish a framework and to get everyone centered and grounded and then explore from there. And I think that's a really, that was a really big thing for me to wrap my head around and realize in my teaching style.
Kelly Paredes: [00:37:51] Yeah. And there's always that line. you'll see a lot of teachers always love routine and sometimes teachers get too routine, but if you make your routine, I don't know a flexible, topic within the routine. For example, I have, craft drawer at my house. So it's like a mess.
It's one of those actually two craft doors, and it's just junk everything you can possibly fine. And a routine is we were doing crafts for my kids. When I say we're doing crafts, I just pull open this junk door and they may be painting. They may be, sewing or whatever. So building that. Routine in a flexible manner.
So maybe this is going to be a thinking Thursday, but what does that mean? What does that product of thinking Thursday? I don't know yet, because that it might be something that the students can come up with on their own.  I like having things that are still have a hard routine, some of them, but most of them are flexible.
If that makes any sense. We always eat dinner at five o'clock at my house. That's a hard, that's a hard, no on anything. It's five o'clock. Cause my stomach starts rumbling, but yeah, adding routines I think, is going to really help us, develop a stronger learning, climate in the classroom.
Teacher Self Care [00:39:19] Sean Tibor: [00:39:19] and I think it's also good for teacher self care too. It would be really easy this year to get down and get depressed and let your own mental health diminish with all of the new things that are coming. There's a lot of change that's going to happen this year. whether it's the change that comes from going into distance learning, coming out of distance, learning, Corona virus, precautions, and standardization measures and different logistics needed to happen.
There's a lot that's coming our way this year and having that structure, the routine, the ritual, the framework for yourself to be able to have some sort of grounding is going to be really important for your own mental health and your own wellbeing. And we can't lose sight of that. Yes, we are here for the kids, right?
We are here to help them learn, but in order to take care of them, we have to take care of ourselves. And that's where the rituals and routines and the structure can help us maintain some mental health and take care of ourselves in the midst of a very challenging environment.
Kelly Paredes: [00:40:21] absolutely. And speaking of mental health, one of the things that killed me last quarter was trying to get feedback to the kids. one of the things that I learned in, I can't remember which course it was, but we all know that feedback is one of the top. Items in a teaching that really helps to move learners forward.
And we know by giving not just good job, you did, you got it. Hey, are you good enough giving quality feedback on what you can do right or wrong really helps to move learning ahead. And I know I got really, Bogged down with answering emails or kids were staying on zoom calls for so long. and I was answering the same question and a lot of the times, so one of the tips I learned over the courses, the summer, we're finding ways to give immediate feed feedback, even whether you're doing synchronous or asynchronous learning.
and it was make yourself a cheat list. Of possible feedback, comments. And I added that forward with thinking, what if I just recorded myself? Giving feedback to a student say, hypothetical on the deck of cards. It's always the same question when we're making the deck of cards or the card game.
That's always about some nested for loop or the Tupelo or pulling out or popping an item. So if you make small, Screencasts or videos and save them. Next question that comes up or when there's an error, you just plop that video in a hyperlink, in the comments next to that error in the code.
And there's that feedback for the students. You're not overworking, you're not answering the same question 20 times now you're just dropping in a link. So one of the things, this is just helping my mental health is not. Going crazy and typing a new email for all the students and answering the same question a hundred times.
So that's one of my goals. That's another, that's my third goal. This quarter, a lot of goals.
Sean Tibor: [00:42:21] if we codify that, basically, so if we find a way to make that a rubric for ourselves, the first time you're answering a new question, you write out the answer the second time you're answering the same question. You copy and paste it. And the third time you're answering the question, you're recording a video for everyone else after that.
Kelly Paredes: [00:42:38] Absolutely. and then the fourth time, you're automating it with automating the boring stuff so that we just, don't have to do anything.
Sean Tibor: [00:42:47] also put it in like a keyboard shortcut. If I take these sequence of characters, it will spit out the link and everything.
Kelly Paredes: [00:42:53] Is there a reg X for that?
I'm on it.
Sean Tibor: [00:42:59] that also brings us to the last point too, which is, I think.Setting Realistic Expectations [00:43:03]
Especially this year, it's all about setting realistic expectations for yourself, right? We always go into each new school year. At least I have the last two years with really high expectations for myself. I have all of these things that I want to do. And I honestly get through a lot of them. I try a lot of them out and some of them work and some of them don't and I find new ideas along the way, but.
This year, I think it's really important to set realistic expectations with both yourself and your administrators, your department heads. This is a very different time that we're going into. And I think this is one of the few years where student health and safety and wellbeing is going to be at the foremost of all of our minds and the educational process that we make.
Is going to be secondary to that. Yeah. And I think it's okay. In this context, I would much rather have my students be safe and healthy than have them learn about reg Xs. it wouldn't be, it would be nice. but really this is about setting realistic expectations for yourself and for your students.
So that's one of the other things that I will do in the beginning of the course is I'm going to have an expectation setting. Session with the students and say, look, this is the third year, and we're going to try some new things. We're going to have some fun, but let's also be realistic that we may not get to everything that we want it to.
And we're going to learn some new things, but we're not going to learn everything. And the important things here. Are really to make sure that everyone's healthy and safe and that we cover. And we get to a lot of those ideas around, how do you learn? How do you reflect, how do you set your own path so that as you go forward, you can go off and learn the things that we didn't get a chance to this quarter in the computer science course.
Kelly Paredes: [00:44:43] Yeah. Keep it simple, stupid kind of thing. I just wrote that kiss then Shawn's probably thinking like what kiss? No, keep it simple. Stupid. And the number three always comes to my mind. What are three things? Just, I think I've heard in so many courses. What are three things that you're going to your goals?
what are three tools that you're going to use as a  staple? What are the three outcomes or the three objectives? Cause we know that our minds can't take more, some of us, then three things, some of us can do seven. I actually learned that in learning how to learn, but most of us around three to five things in a learning session.
if three things is  all you can do for the quarter or for the school year, for the first month.  what are those goals, pick them and stick to them. I think number one, like Sean said is staying healthy, both physically and emotionally, just really working on what it's like to come back to a classroom after being away from a classroom for five months.
it's going to be a huge goal for a lot of us.
Sean Tibor: [00:45:48] I agree. And I, it goes back to something that I learned in business writing many years ago, I had an amazing business writing course, and it was all about. Convincing people. So if you have to make a recommendation or a proposal and you need to convince someone that you have to have these justifications for it, and I'm sure you've seen this also, sometimes someone says, Oh, you need to do this thing.
And here are 11 reasons why you should do it. And the business writing instructor said, you don't need to do 11, 12. You don't need to be exhaustive with  all the reasons why someone should do the things that they should do. Pick the top three, most compelling reasons why they should do this and you want them to do, because if they won't do it for them, those three, they're definitely not going to do it for number four or five and six.
So make sure that you are being focused and prioritizing the most important things and keeping, I think that's a good, a reflection point for a lot of teachers going into this school year. And a lot of students is what are the most important things to me? What are the things that I want to make sure happen this year?
keep in mind that students will not remember everything you teach them, but they will remember everything about how you make them feel. So if you can make them feel like they are safe, And that they are capable and that they are smart and knowledgeable and are able to learn things that will carry with them a lot longer than anything we can teach them about Python.
So keeping those priorities in mind, go a long way towards making sure that everyone gets the most out of this year.
Kelly Paredes: [00:47:19] absolutely passion for learning. That's it.
Sean Tibor: [00:47:22] for learning. and for those students that are coming from a place where maybe right now they're anxious, they're scared their family is not handling Neo quarantine well, to help them know that they are cared for and that they are safe, can make all the difference. And they may find it in the English classroom.
They may find that in the computer science classroom, but we have the opportunity to help them feel that somewhere in their school day.
Kelly Paredes: [00:47:46] absolutely  Wrap Up [00:47:47]
Sean Tibor: [00:47:47] we should probably wrap this up. we will be back on our regular weekly schedule. We will be also posting more to our Twitter feed .
we are going to try this year to get more blog posts up. I have a list that I've been compiling over the summer of blog posts that I should have written while I had time. And didn't but we'll get those out to everyone. over the course of this year, and we would love to hear what you're looking forward to most for this upcoming school year, where you think the big opportunities are. You can always send us a message through our website, teaching python.fm. There's a form there where you can fill it out and send us a note. We also will happily respond to you on Twitter at teaching Python, and in the future, we'd like to find other ways to connect with you, maybe with new guests on our show with voicemail recording.
So we're looking forward to that and we're looking forward to our new school year. So for teaching Python, this is Shawn
Kelly Paredes: [00:48:38] and this is Kelly.