I was talking to the seniors yesterday - last day - about how tough the class was sometimes. We got into it a few times but now we good. They were telling me how this was a *good* class comparatively and I believe them. I had 20 kids and supposedly they were more motivated than the typical HS student - AP class, CS, etc.
By the end I had a formula - nothing can last more than 20 minutes (15 better) before you lose them. Videos are good but not too long. Hands on is good but not too long. They need a a lot of structure for hands on. Baby steps on big concepts - you have to take them with you step-by-step which means complicated concepts take a lot of reps with different approaches. Stuff I thought would take 5mins at the keyboard took them 20. Whole group discussions can be fun but also dangerous - take a minute to figure out what the hell some kid is on about and you’ve lost the rest of the class.
When you have 90 minute classes that means it’s really 4-6 mini-classes which means planning is a LOT. If I did this full time again (I’m not) I’d have the lesson plans I built to pull from. What I think I’m going to do is pitch a week or two week AI Primer to the high schools around here next year. Because of budget cuts they’ve all cut CS teachers and eliminated CS classes which is shit for the kids.
That would be really awesome if you could lock in that gig! Sounds very fun, and applying these all-important task-switching lessons helps you disguise repetition and introduce just enough hands-on stuff.
Jiu jitsu instructors always have the hands-on component but it doesn't always dominate a given class, which is a bit nonintuitive... but all teachers have to balance those forces, and nothing substitutes for experience.
There's a version of education that's purely about test prep and a version that's about giving kids tools they'll actually use. You clearly know which one matters Andrew.
you’re having a lot of fun, aren’t you? I realized today that I was really looking forward to going into the bakery later today to bake up thousands of croissants for the weekend farmer’s markets.
You are living the dream! Teaching coding to kids at such an exciting time, and getting to include AI tools and vibe coding? Rad.
I was talking to the seniors yesterday - last day - about how tough the class was sometimes. We got into it a few times but now we good. They were telling me how this was a *good* class comparatively and I believe them. I had 20 kids and supposedly they were more motivated than the typical HS student - AP class, CS, etc.
By the end I had a formula - nothing can last more than 20 minutes (15 better) before you lose them. Videos are good but not too long. Hands on is good but not too long. They need a a lot of structure for hands on. Baby steps on big concepts - you have to take them with you step-by-step which means complicated concepts take a lot of reps with different approaches. Stuff I thought would take 5mins at the keyboard took them 20. Whole group discussions can be fun but also dangerous - take a minute to figure out what the hell some kid is on about and you’ve lost the rest of the class.
When you have 90 minute classes that means it’s really 4-6 mini-classes which means planning is a LOT. If I did this full time again (I’m not) I’d have the lesson plans I built to pull from. What I think I’m going to do is pitch a week or two week AI Primer to the high schools around here next year. Because of budget cuts they’ve all cut CS teachers and eliminated CS classes which is shit for the kids.
That would be really awesome if you could lock in that gig! Sounds very fun, and applying these all-important task-switching lessons helps you disguise repetition and introduce just enough hands-on stuff.
Jiu jitsu instructors always have the hands-on component but it doesn't always dominate a given class, which is a bit nonintuitive... but all teachers have to balance those forces, and nothing substitutes for experience.
There's a version of education that's purely about test prep and a version that's about giving kids tools they'll actually use. You clearly know which one matters Andrew.
you’re having a lot of fun, aren’t you? I realized today that I was really looking forward to going into the bakery later today to bake up thousands of croissants for the weekend farmer’s markets.
Hmmm croissants. Do you do the ridiculously delicious ones with melted chocolate?
last day of class today; whatever am I going to do now!?
Oh hell yes, two kinds: pain au chocolat and twice baked chocolate croissants. Enjoy your summer