Expectations and Guidelines for Instructors and Teaching Assistants (Summer 2023)

guidelines-for-instructors-and-teaching-assistants.md

Expectations and Guidelines for Instructors and Teaching Assistants (Summer 2023)

This is a living document and will be periodically updated.

Able to answer questions

All instructors and teaching assistants must be deeply familiar with curriculum. Please take the time to work through the assignments so you are prepared when students ask questions. If you encounter any issues/bugs, please log an issue on the teaching feedback repository here

Available to answer questions

We plan to host pop up office hours throughout the course. Since tech prep is remote/async, we expect teaching assistants to make time during standard AND non-standard work hours (evening, weekends, etc.).

Please monitor the discord chat and Ask to answer questions as they come up.

Please create a link for students to book you for a 1on1 and share it on the course home page. Calendly is a good option.

Calendly Tips

1. Make sure people can book you within an hour. The default is 4 hours which seems long.

• In the event settings, click "When can people book this event?" -> "Additional rules for your availability" -> "Scheduling conditions" and set it to something sooner. I have it set to 30 miniutes

2. Invitee Questions

• Make sure to ask for name, email, location (zoom), and "Please share anything that will help prepare for our meeting. (eg assignment name, technical issue, etc.)". Make this last question required.

Log impressions

It is absolutely critical to log interactions with students:

1. We can identify patterns of behavior and triage issues early
2. We can get to know students and make informed decisions
3. We can celebrate wins and monitor progress as a team

We created a tool to log interactions with students on the dashboard. I expect all instructors and teaching assistants to write up impressions.

Standups

Please share your standup updates in '#standups' channel (slack or discord)

• what did you work on yesterday?
• what are you working on today?
• blockers?

Tasks

We use GitHub for tracking tasks here. Please update your GitHub notification settings to receive updates.

Dashboard

We built the dashboard to help us make data informed decisions. I expect instructors and teaching assistants to work on issues and create issues for new ideas and bug fixes.

Teacher's Manual

Please consult the teacher's manual for best practices on conducting office hours and answering questions.

Class Meetings

I will try to broadcast and record lectures on Zoom. Please monitor the Zoom broadcast during lectures to make sure it is being recorded properly (sound on, sharing the correct screen, etc.)

Attendance

Things to update (WIP) -

Attendance:

Make sure you are logging and updating attendance for future reference. This is located on the dashboard attendances tab. (If student is not in the dashboard database yet, you will have to either add the latest canvas report, or wait till its been adding and update the attendance after). Keeping these up to date is crucial for the end of cohorts when we have to confirm that a trainee has attended the minimum amount of riversides & durable skills required. link to current cohort

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Standups:

could remove slack mention since we do not use it

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Retros:

Retros take place during lecture on Wednesdays after the 2 week sprint has ended. Trainees are then assigned to their want to improve issue for accountably purposes.

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Biweekly Feedback Report:

Feedback reports will be sent out every 2 weeks on Wednesday after the sprint has ended. @aldoportillo will add in the steps for completing these.

1. Download snapshot from Canvas, including all missing and late assignments.
2. Upload into dashboard Feedback Report tab.
3. This will generate a feedback report to send to each trainee.
4. You will have the option to edit, but shouldn't need to.
5. You will then send each report, all missing/late/impressions are already within the message.
6. Click send, and this will be send to the trainee over discord.

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Zoom:

Lectures will take place in the office at the round table at 1pm every day. Mondays and Wednesdays are SDF lectures, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are for INTRO. With Fridays being either a Deep Dive or a Code Kata.

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Teachers Manual:

TA's will also be expected to teach lectures. Please refer to this teaching manual.

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Sprint Planning:

Take place Thursdays the week before. Morgan will send out a itinerary list before the start of the meeting, please make sure to ask any questions during this time if clarification is needed. You will also be assigning who will be teaching what lecture the following week.

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Teaching Lectures:

Lecture preparation is needed in advance of teaching. Please refer to these previous TA's lecture to get a sense on how you will convey topics. link to benny lecture example link to aldo lecture example

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Deep Dives:

Also known as Code Katas, are the lecture for Fridays. Usually and preferably, we want previous trainees to come and show off what they have been working on. For example, Alexis doing his course on story telling, and Adolfo giving us an intro course to googles IT support course. Every few weeks, it is best to send out a feeler in the alumni discord channel to see if anyone would be willing to share their learnings. However, if there is nothing planned, we will do Code Katas, also formally know as DSA Fridays.

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Launch Plan Creation:

This is another task of the TA's to complete. In the bridge program, every time there is a new placement, you will be creating an assignment in there stating the core responsibilities, daily tasks, and reference videos and courses available for trainees to take if that is a similar chosen path. Here is an example for a role at UL Solutions

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Intro Information Sessions:

These are usually run by Gary and Chandhu, but if for whatever reason they cannot attend, you will be asked to fill in. Gary will make sure to include the correct slide show, but all you should need to do is go over all the technical aspects of the intro course and show them a walkthrough of how to move from assignments on Canvas to assignments on Learn. At the end you will host a quick Q&A if time, and feel free to answer any questions you can. If you do not feel comfortable answering some because you dont think you will have the correct information for them, you can just direct them to emailing their questions to Gary.

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Mock Interviews & Real Interviews:

A few weeks before each round of interviews for the next cohort, we will host one day of Mock Interviews for any Intro trainee that wishes to practice their skills before the real thing. You will work with the other TA's to pick an older question, or write your own and then the trainee will have 20min to complete said problem. There are a few different roles TA's will play in both these processes.

1. Navigator: This TA will sit with and guide trainee as they complete problem, making sure to lead them towards the correct answer but not give it away
2. Score Checker: This TA will be checking off each time the trainee complete one of the many points of error within the code.
3. Rubric Filler: This TA will be the one filing out the rubric for the trainee.

Important to note During mock interviews, you will fill this out in front of the trainee, giving them a clear explanation to why or why not they received points and give it to them to study. But during the real interviews, you will wait till the trainee is out of the room and then fill out the rubric.