98 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
98 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
## Running this workshop
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Hi there! 👋
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I’m [Richard](https://twitter.com/rtfeldman), and I made this workshop. I hope
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you like it! I’ve [run it for Frontend Masters](https://frontendmasters.com/courses/elm/)
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as well as [for Pluralsight](https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/elm), and
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in person at a bunch of conferences. (If you’d like me to run it at a particular
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conference, have the organizers [ping me](https://twitter.com/rtfeldman)!)
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I released the material I’ve made here under
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<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons</a>
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so others can use it to run their own workshops. If that’s you, great! Here’s
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some info about it that may be helpful in teaching this workshop.
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## Slides
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The [slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sNx5k3_fHwJcgm9QEY1LsMH_TyF5SnnOSDKb8HvFsEU/edit?usp=sharing)
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I use with the workshop include speaker notes. If you’ve seen me give this
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workshop before, you may notice that I’m not following these notes very closely.
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This is because I made the notes for other teachers, not for myself. In general
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I prefer not to use speaker notes, but I thought it would be unreasonable to
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expect other teachers who wanted to use this material to watch hours of video
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to figure out what words the slides were designed to complement. Writing speaker
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notes seemed like a nice way to save other teachers a bunch of time, so
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that’s what I did!
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If you spot any mistakes in the speaker notes, or have any questions about them,
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please don’t hesitate to ask me in the
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[`#teaching` channel](https://elmlang.slack.com/messages/C0MF3BQ7K/)
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on [Elm Slack](http://elmlang.herokuapp.com/).
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## Schedule
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This is designed to be a full-day workshop. You may not have a full day to
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work with, but I figure it’ll be helpful to cover how I use this material. The
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schedule I follow is typically something like:
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* 30 minutes - help everyone get set up, buffer for late arrivals
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* 2.5 hours - cover parts 1-4
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* 1 hour - lunch
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* 4 hours - cover parts 5-10, with a couple of 10 minute breaks sprinkled in
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Definitely get through part 4 before lunch if possible. Teaching gets harder
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after lunch because [humans are programmed to get sleepy in the early
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afternoon](https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/afternoon-energy-boosters#1).
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Part 4 introduces types, and you don’t want to introduce types to sleepy
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students.
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## Teaching Tips
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I gave a talk about [teaching Elm to beginners](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-GhUxeYc1U)
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which has a bunch of my thoughts on the subject. The
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[`#teaching` channel](https://elmlang.slack.com/messages/C0MF3BQ7K/)
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on [Elm Slack](http://elmlang.herokuapp.com/)
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is a great place to chat about workshops, exchange tips, etc. Come say hi!
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One big piece of advice I have for this workshop is to
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**minimize the number of new concepts you introduce**.
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The goal of the workshop is that students will be able to build Elm applications
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on their own. This requires digesting a **ton** of new information,
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and piling on even more on top of what’s absolutely necessary is harmful to
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those students who are already struggling to keep up.
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For example, I only use the term “partial application” to explain that concept.
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I very deliberately do **not** introduce the term “currying.” If a student asks
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“is this currying?” I give a short answer like “Yep!” and move on quickly.
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Why not mention it, though? What could it hurt to throw that in?
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Students who have been cruising through material might easily absorb this info
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and move on, but imagine a student who’s really struggled to keep up.
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Imagine them thinking “wait, I already don’t understand partial application -
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and now I need to learn currying too? What’s the difference? *Is* there a
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difference? Should I raise my hand and ask, or is that a stupid question?
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Argh, this is so frustrating!”
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It can feel shameful to admit publicly that you don’t understand what the
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teacher just covered. Especially when everyone else seems to have gotten it.
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Double especially if you’re sitting near that one student who’s always raising
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their hand and asking stuff like “so it’s an applicative functor, right?”
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They make it sound like this is the easiest stuff in the world! Are they
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going to laugh if you raise your hand and say “I still don’t get why
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`(List.map negate)` compiles. Can you explain how that works again?”
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If a student is struggling, they generally won’t say so out loud. You won’t
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find out until you see the mistakes they make on the exercises. Just know that
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some students in every class will struggle, and that extraneous info that’s a
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nice-to-have for students who are cruising through the workshop may be
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detrimental to those who are barely hanging in there.
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Remember, the goal is that students will be able to build Elm applications on
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their own. **Minimize the number of new concepts you introduce** so you minimize
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the chance that they’ll get overwhelmed and give up before reaching that goal!
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