Presented by: Ali Spittel Presented at the All Things Open 2021 Raleigh, NC, USA Raleigh Convention Center Abstract: Programmers are constantly learning new technologies, especially in the rapidly evolving frontend ecosystem. As a result, developers often find themselves in a teaching role -- whether that means mentoring a colleague, writing blog posts, speaking at meetups, or even teaching more formally at a college or bootcamp. So, how can you teach code more effectively? We'll go over strategies for breaking down information, explaining concepts without jargon, using relevant examples, and engaging learners so that you can be more effective the next time you are in a teaching position.

1. Those Who Can Do
Should Also Teach
Ali Spittel
@aspittel

2. Objectives
● Know the ways you can
teach
● Be able to coach students
on a learning mindset
● Know the mechanics of
teaching a lesson
● Go over oodles of advice
(bonus: teaching online)

3. Why am I talking
about this?

4. I’ve taught thousands of
people in-person and
contributed to millions
online.

5. Newbies, kids,
engineers, junior
devs...

6. You probably
already teach
● Answering questions
online
● Mentoring a junior
developer
● Content creation
● Managing people
● Speaking

7. Why should
you teach?
● Reinforce your
knowledge
● Delegate
● Become an “expert”
● Help people
● Learn yourself

8. The Mindset
Behind Teaching

9. Learning
anything is hard,
especially code

10. Put yourself in
their shoes

11. Also think about
their lives outside
your teaching...
especially now

13. Carol Dweck’s
Growth Mindset:
embrace
challenge

14. Instill confidence,
celebrate wins

16. Teach students to
teach themselves

17. Build a classroom
culture where
everyone can
contribute

18. And to reflect on
what they've
learned

19. The Mechanics
of a Lesson

20. Learning
Objectives

21. Framing

22. I do
We do
You all do
You do

23. Hands on
practice

24. Checks for
Understanding

25. Classroom Culture

26. Know your
audience

27. Set clear
expectations

28. Create a safe
place to fail

29. Enable students
to teach each
other

30. Mirror the career
world in the
classroom

31. But make it fun
sometimes too...

32. Teaching Tips: General

33. Link new
information to
that they already
know

34. Appeal to
multiple learning
styles

35. Go over material
multiple times

36. Teach what’s
necessary, not for
your ego

37. People’s attention
spans are 11-13
mins

38. Lecture to the
middle, 1-1
attention for the
outliers

39. Tiered activities

40. Tangents usually
confuse people

41. Break down
jargon

42. Take breaks and
come back to
concepts

43. Gradual release
of responsibility

44. Answer questions,
but parking lot
off-topic ones

45. Emphasize the
unimportance of
memorization

47. Review, review,
review

48. Teaching Tips: Code
Specific

49. Use best practices

50. Use real world
examples

51. Teach the how
and the why, not
just syntax

52. Doing > talking

53. It’s okay to not
know something.

54. Focus on intrinsic
motivation

55. Teaching
online

56. Breakout rooms =
♥

57. Mob debugging

58. Still build a
classroom culture

59. Slack checks for
understanding

60. Take recordings!

61. Work to keep
students
engaged

62. Review at
the end

63. Teaching is probably
something you do
already, if not you can
start now!

64. The Mindset: Learning to
code is hard, prepare
learners for that

65. Structure of a Lesson
- Learning Objectives
- Framing
- I do, we do, you all do, you do
- Breaks
- Review

66. - Review information
- Answer questions, parking lot
off-topic ones
- Memorization is unnecessary
- You don’t need to know everything
Advice
- Know your audience
- Create a safe place to fail
- Link information
- Appeal to multiple learning styles
- Repetition is good
- Real world examples
- Teach the how and why
- Teach only what’s necessary
- Attention spans are short
- Lecture to the middle
- Break down jargon

67. More Resources
Make it Stick, Mark A. McDaniel and Peter C. Brown
How to Teach Online, Maria Weaver (https://generalassemb.ly/blog/how-to-teach-online/)
Learning How to Learn, Dr. Barbara Oakley (https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)
Ness Labs, Anne-Laure Le Cunff (https://nesslabs.com/)

68. When one
teaches, two
learn
- Robert Heinlein

69. Keep in touch! @aspittel