Editing Mentoring
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The [[CDSW]] curriculum is designed around extremely high mentor to learner ratio of at least 5:1 and its usually closer to 4:1. The curriculum pushes students to become independent and | The [[CDSW]] curriculum is designed around extremely high mentor to learner ratio of at least 5:1 and its usually closer to 4:1. The curriculum pushes students to become independent and writing and modifying code ''on their very first day programming'' and this is only possible because we have an enormous number of generous mentors to help students walk through trouble they encounter during their first steps learning the basics of programming and data science. | ||
Those of us that have done this a few times feel that mentoring is deeply rewarding. Watching students grow and learn and programmers as they become frustrated and overcome those frustrations is an inspiring thing to be a part of! | Those of us that have done this a few times feel that mentoring is deeply rewarding. Watching students grow and learn and programmers as they become frustrated and overcome those frustrations is an inspiring thing to be a part of! | ||
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== FAQ == | == FAQ == | ||
;How | ;How much should I help?: Some. But be careful not to just give away the answer, to focus too much on elegance or technical correctness. Be careful not to overwhelm the learners. Learners are usually trying to get something to work ''at all'' and it's more important to get folks to a solution than the insist that they do in the Right Way™. Once they have a solution, you can share alternative ways! A good clarifying question is very often all a student needs and the best thing you can provide. | ||
; | ;What if I miss the morning sessions?: If you're missing the morning sessions, that's OK, but ''please do'' look over the morning lecture notes and cheatsheets to get a sense for what students have learned. For example, we're intentionally not going to cover objects, classes, iterators, list comprehensions, or recursion in ''any'' of the sessions so bringing this up might overwhelm and confuse participants. Taking five minutes to familiarize yourself with what we've covered will help a lot. | ||
; | ;How do I help?: Some people who are struggling will not ask for help. We encourage mentors to reach out to students and ask them how things are going by walking around to every single person to ask, “How are you doing? What are you working on? Show me what you’re doing.” Don't wait for students to ask! Simply giving them the opportunity to talk through a problem, even if you don't give them advice, can be a useful part of learning. Very often, you'll find stuck learners just staring at their screens. | ||
== Dinners and Drinks == | == Dinners and Drinks == | ||
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Microsoft has a matching gifts program that extends to volunteer labor. Basically, Microsoft will donate money for every hour you spend volunteering for certain non-profit organizations. Fortunately, the UW Department of Communication, which the organizational home for the CDSW, is on that list and has been willing to accept money for us which we can then spend on things like drinks for the mentor gatherings described above! Contact Tommy Guy ([mailto:richardtguy84@gmail.com richardtguy84@gmail.com]) or Ben Lewis ([mailto:benjf5@outlook.com benjf5@outlook.com]) for information on how to set this up. | Microsoft has a matching gifts program that extends to volunteer labor. Basically, Microsoft will donate money for every hour you spend volunteering for certain non-profit organizations. Fortunately, the UW Department of Communication, which the organizational home for the CDSW, is on that list and has been willing to accept money for us which we can then spend on things like drinks for the mentor gatherings described above! Contact Tommy Guy ([mailto:richardtguy84@gmail.com richardtguy84@gmail.com]) or Ben Lewis ([mailto:benjf5@outlook.com benjf5@outlook.com]) for information on how to set this up. | ||