Merge pull request #378 from gvwilson/incorporating-notes-from-issue-56

Adding points from #56 to the teaching guide

novice/teaching/01-general.md

@@ -8,6 +8,61 @@ This is a placeholder for general notes about teaching.
 
 #### Teaching Notes
 
+*   For bootcamps that extend over more than two days (e.g. four afternoons spread over two weeks), it's a good idea to email the learners at the end of each day with a summary of what was taught (with links to the relevant online notes). Not only does this allow absent learners to catch up before the next session, it's also a great opporunity to present the lessons of the day in the context of the entire bootcamp.
+
+*   Plan for the first 30-60 minutes of the bootcamp to be spent on installation and setup,
+    because it's going to happen anyway.
+    Running a pre-bootcamp "help desk" doesn't really affect this:
+    the people who are most likely to have installation problems
+    probably won't show up.
+    (We fantasize occasionally about turning people away if they haven't installed software,
+    or at least downloaded the installers,
+    but in practice it's hard to do.)
+
+*   Have learners post a red sticky note
+    on their laptop
+    whenever they have a question or need help.
+    Have them take down their sticky notes at the start of each practical exercise,
+    and then post a green one when they're done
+    (and a red one when they need help).
+
+*   At lunch and again at the end of the day,
+    ask learners to write one good point (i.e., something they learned or enjoyed)
+    on their green sticky note
+    and one bad point (i.e., something that didn't work, that they didn't understand, or that they already knew)
+    on their red one.
+    It only takes a couple of minutes to sort through these,
+    and it's a quick way to find out how things are actually going.
+
+*   At the very end of the bootcamp,
+    ask learners to alternately give one good point or one bad one
+    about the entire bootcamp. 
+    Write these down on the whiteboard as they come in,
+    and do not allow repeats
+    (i.e., every point has to be new).
+    The first few negative points will usually be pretty innocuous;
+    after those have been exhausted,
+    you will start to get the real feedback.
+
+*   As a variation on the red/green sticky notes,
+    make little name tents out of red and green paper,
+    held together with name tag labels.
+    The learners write their names on the name tags,
+    and prop the tents either green side up or red side up
+    depending on the feedback they want to give about the lesson being too fast or too slow.
+
+*   Keep a running list of the commands encountered so far in the lesson
+    in the Etherpad
+    or on a whiteboard adjacent to the projection screen.
+
+*   When the co-instructor isn't teaching,
+    she can answer questions on the Etherpad
+    and update it with the key points made by the instructor
+    (along with commands
+    and any related points the instructor may not have mentioned).
+    It's less disruptive to the "live" instructor than interjecting with these points,
+    but allows the attendees to get the shared expertise from both instructors.
+
 *   For bootcamps that extend over more than two days (e.g. four afternoons spread over two weeks),
     it's a good idea to email the learners at the end of each day with a summary of what was taught
     (with links to the relevant online notes).

novice/teaching/02-shell.md

@@ -110,6 +110,25 @@ as long as learners using Windows do not run into roadblocks such as:
 *   It's hard to discuss `#!` (shebang) wihtout first discussing permissions,
     which we don't do.
 
+*   Installing Bash and a reasonable set of Unix commands on Windows
+    always involves some fiddling and frustration.
+    Please see the latest set of installation guidelines for advice,
+    and try it out yourself *before* teaching a class.
+
+*   On Windows, it appears that:
+
+    <div class="in" markdown="1">
+    ~~~
+    $ cd
+    $ cd Desktop
+    ~~~
+    </div>
+
+    will always put someone on their desktop.
+    Have them create the example directory for the shell exercises there
+    so that they can find it easily
+    and watch it evolve.
+
 #### Windows
 
 Installing Bash and a reasonable set of Unix commands on Windows