ClojureBridge Coaches Training
Today's Agenda
Background and Practicalities
Discussion Topics & Coaching Tips
What is this?
You're probably at a coaches training for ClojureBridge.
This slide deck is a tool to facilitate conversations about coaching best practices and challenges, specifically for ClojureBridge workshops.
It helps to have a whiteboard or those giant sticky notes for the discussions if possible.
Discussion is key!
Don't let the presenter(s) do all the talking!
Code of Conduct
The Berlin Code of Conduct (berlincodeofconduct.org) outlines our expectations for all those who participate in our community, as well as the consequences for unacceptable behavior.
Expected Behavior
- Participate authentically and actively
- Be considerate and respectful
- Attempt collaboration before conflict
- Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior/speech
- Be mindful of your surroundings and fellow participants
- Alert community leaders if you notice:
- a dangerous situation
- someone in distress
- violations of this Code of Conduct
Why ClojureBridge?
We're making tech more diverse and more welcoming!
How?
- We throw super-welcoming, fun, free workshops.
- We provide great networking opportunities for students and volunteers.
- We help our volunteers become more empathatic and better communicators.
Introductions
Who are you?
- What's your name and pronouns?
- Have you been to a ClojureBridge or similar workshops before?
- What's your current favourite place in Berlin?
What's a ClojureBridge?
RailsBridge Fun Facts
- Founded in 2009
- Its goal: make the community more diverse and more welcoming to newcomers.
- Since 2012 backed by Bridge Foundry,
- Also does MobileBridge, ng-bridge, Teaching Kids, and ... ClojureBridge!
ClojureBridge
- First workshop April 2014
- Since then over 40 workshops in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, Scotland, Finland, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, and... Germany!
- Workshops in Berlin since July 2015 and recurring regularly! 🎉
How does a workshop work?
On Friday, we get all the necessary technologies onto the students' computers (the Installfest).
The next day we start with a general introduction, then break into small groups and work through the curriculum, with some talks and breaks in between.
In groups of 3 to 4 students and two coaches we work through the curriculum (a tutorial of Clojure) and then work on a Quil app (graphics library).
Floating coaches are available for extra support.
You get as far as you get, don't rush to "finish" things.
Installfest!
We use the NightCode editor. Of course if people have their own preference then that's fine.
NightCode is pretty easy to install, as it's just an executable JAR. We'll have a couple thumb drives to go around.
Please actually create and run a Quil project, so all dependencies are downloaded and available – this has caused problems before!
Keep in mind:
- There will be people with all kinds of computers.
- Even though Windows might not be your preferred development environment, we're here to encourage people and meet them wherever they are right now.
- Do NOT say bad things about Windows, even if it's frustrating.
- If you're not sure about something, grab another volunteer.
On that note...
- Don't be negative about technologies, even if you're certain they're the work of the devil
- PHP is fine, Windows is fine, VisualBasic is fine
- Appreciate that different technologies have different trade-offs. Being easily accessible is one of them.
Make ClojureBridge a safe space for learners
- Don't hit on people. No sexual advances. This extends to the after-party.
- Don't make sexist, racist, classist, or ableist jokes. Call people out if they do. A simple "That's not funny" and moving on quickly with the conversation will often suffice.
- Don't make gender-based generalizations, even 'positive' ones ("Women are better at X, because ...")
- Don't make references to people's bodies or state your opinion of them.
- Don't use discriminatory language.
Typical ClojureBridge Schedule
Friday, 6-10pm-ish: Installfest
get set up, meet the fellow attendees, with some nice food and drinks
-
Saturday's schedule
- 9-9:30am: Check-in, coffee, small breakfast
- 9:30-10am: Opening presentation
- 10am-12:30pm: Class!
- 12:30-1:30pm: Lunch & lightning talks
- 1:30pm-4:30pm: Class! (with a break sometime mid-afternoon)
- 4:30-5:00pm: Closing presentation & retros
- 5:00pm-...: Free to hang around and socialize
Is ClojureBridge Open Source?
WHY YES, THANK YOU FOR ASKING!
CLOJUREBRIDGE IS VERY OPEN SOURCE!
All the materials you're using were created by volunteers, and are on GitHub for forking and editing and using!
If you see something that could be better, make a pull request. Pull requests are the lifeblood of ClojureBridge.
If you don't know how to make one, we'll help!
How to make your class awesome
How to make your class awesome? We created some arbitrary categories for discussion. We'll go through each one, and get input from the group (whiteboard \o/), and then provide some additional ideas and suggestions.
Social Comfort
Technical Capability
Do you know what's up?
Challenges
Coaching
Comprehension
Discussion: Social Comfort
Imagine:
- You're trying to do something difficult
- You're in a group of strangers, many of whom know how to do it better than you
- You've tried before but got lost or bored or confused
- You don't feel like you can articulate your thoughts and questions
- You don't know the right names for anything
When was the last time you felt this way?
How can we help make this easier?
How can you help people feel socially comfortable?
DISCUSS!
Discussion (Do you know what's up?)
How can you help people feel like you know what's going on?
What are things you can do to help the students trust you?
What are some things to avoid?
DISCUSS!
Discussion: Technical Capability
How can you help people feel technically capable?
What kinds of insecurities might your student have?
How can you bolster their confidence?
DISCUSS!
Discussion: Challenges
Talk about what problems you might anticipate, and what to do about them.
Some issues:
- Student is in the wrong class level
- Student is disruptive
- Student is disengaged
DISCUSS!
Discussion: Coaching
What are the benefits of having two coaches in a group?
How can you divide the roles between the coaches?
How can you get a good dynamic between the whole team, both attendees and coaches?
DISCUSS!
What we came up with
- So now you've been through these discussions, this is what we came up with!
Social Comfort (Ideas)
Introductions
- Include name, profession, why are you here / goals for today's class, and something silly.
- Don't rush, even if you have a big class.
- If someone joins the class late, ask them to introduce themselves.
Icebreakers
- Name games! Admit up front that most people are bad at learning new names.
- Get people talking. The more comfortable they are at talking, the more likely they'll speak up when they don't understand something, or to answer someone else's question.
Social Comfort (More Ideas)
Social Comfort (pay attention to pronouns)
- attendees are women and non-binary people
- attendees are asked to write down their pronouns on their name tags
- please don't assume anybody's gender
- refrain from gender specific terms like "hey guys", "hello ladies"
Technical Capability (Ideas)
Being confused is normal
- Not knowing stuff is normal, even the pros spend half their day googling
- If you keep at it it gets better, more quickly than you think
- No need to make things perfect. Just build stuff, have fun!
- Mistakes == Learning!
Define technical concepts
- Define technical terms! Several times!
- Assume anyone you're coaching has zero knowledge but infinite intelligence.
- Remember people's backgrounds (Javascript, Ruby, Java, HTML/CSS,) and relate where possible.
- Don't be afraid to use metaphors. If they are a cook, try a cooking analogy.
Technical Capability (More Ideas)
Encourage collaboration and interaction
- Explicitly encourage students to try to answer each other's questions.
- If a question is asked, ask if anyone in the class thinks they can explain.
- Be especially encouraging of the first few questions, to try to get things rolling.
- Good responses to questions: "I'm glad you asked!" or "I actually wondered that, too." or "Great question!"
Be Super Positive, Always
- Students have diverse backgrounds. Appreciate this fact.
- If they aren't getting a concept, avoid anything that might shame them.
- Don't be surprised when someone hasn't heard of something before.
- Don't grab anyone's keyboard. Avoid taking over unless you think it's really necessary. Ask before you do. "Mind if I drive for a sec?" But really, don't.
Technical Capability (Even More Ideas)
Find the right level
- Don't go too deep for your class level, but also, don't gloss over things.
- When trying to be accurate, it's easy to go down a rabbit hole of specificity. Avoid.
- Work with the co-coaches to make sure no one goes down that rabbit hole. Accountability!
- Explain the big picture of a command before they type it in.
- i.e., before typing the command to deploy to Heroku, explain the difference between localhost and Heroku.
Know What's Up (Ideas)
Know what's going on
- Mention planned breaks, lunch time
- Remind students that there is a closing presentation at the end
- Make sure they know where the bathroom is
- Let them know they can hang around and socialize afterwards
Establish a few ground rules
- There are no bad questions - welcome questions, even if the student thinks their question is not valuable. "That's a GREAT question"
- Explain that if someone has trouble, the coaches will help troubleshoot.
- If anyone wants to switch classes, tell them they should feel TOTALLY COMFORTABLE switching at any point.
- Have breaks! Eat a muffin! Have a look at what other groups are doing!
Know What's Up (More Ideas)
Teaching style
- Know people's name, and use it
- You can correct people in a nice and encouraging way
- "Well, this might work better and this is why."
- "Can you explain how you came to that conclusion?"
- "Does anyone have a different answer?"
- "Ah, I see what you're trying to do."
- Ask yourself questions and answer them.
Know What's Up (Even More Ideas)
Pace yourself!
- Don't go too fast. You will probably go too fast. Check in occasionally to ensure everyone is still with you.
- You can say the same thing THREE TIMES and it will not be boring yet.
- When you ask a question, wait TEN WHOLE SECONDS before saying anything else. People need time to think.
- Don't let the most advanced students dictate the pacing or answer all the questions.
Code of Conduct Violations
The Berlin Code of Conduct outlines our expectations for all those who participate in our community, as well as the consequences for unacceptable behavior.
Q: How do I react if an attendee complains about CoC violation?
A: Bring them to an orga-team member
Coaching: Build a Team
- We will try to form groups with two coaches per group.
- You can decide on one coach to take the lead, or you can tag-team.
- There will also be some "floating" coaches that can go around and help.
Coaching Dynamics (Ideas)
- Talk with your co-coach beforehand to set expectations
- It can make sense to have one person take the lead
- The other coach can give more individual assistance
- Swap these roles around if it makes sense. Find a healthy dynamic!
Co-coaching (Some Ideas)
- Both coaches can ask questions to encourage students to speak up.
- Ask your co-coach to explain a concept; they may be more technically advanced than you!
- Co-coaches can help people who get lost.
- If someone falls behind, the co-coach can take them aside to do some 1-on-1.
Some people are trialing a new curriculum
But everyone should still install NightCode for now
Practical Recap
👉🏽 Don't forget 👀
- Bring your laptop (with power cord)!
- Go through the curriculum at home before workshop
⌨️ Installfest 🖳
- Friday 6 October, 18:00 at Wunderlist, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 34
Workshop 💕💯🌈
- Saturday 7 October, doors open at 9:00, starts at 9:30
- Location: Wooga, Saarbrücker Str. 38, 10405 Berlin
🎉 Afterparty 🙌
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Social Comfort (Ideas)
Introductions
Icebreakers