I'm strongly in favor of more structured mentorship - the problem is
finding time both to set it up and to actually do it. I hope a member
of the Steering Committee that's to be elected at the end of January
will take this on as their primary responsibility.
Cheers,
Greg
On 2014-12-12 4:42 PM, Justin Kitzes wrote:
+1 from me also, although I want to make sure that we don't lose sight of
Bill's original question, which was about how to bridge new instructors from
post-training to becoming confident independent instructors, not about how to
prepare for the training.
I've suggested several times, most recently on the SWC blog [1], that we should
have a more structured mentorship program for new instructors in which they're
guided in person and individually by more experienced instructors. I feel
fairly strongly that the mentorship direction that we seem to be headed in by
default, which is a mix of conference calls, written post-assessment, and
written guide books (see [2] for example), is fundamentally not the right
approach. Teaching this stuff is difficult, and I believe that learning to do
it requires something closer to an apprenticeship than a distance learning
course (e.g., joining a lab to earn a PhD rather than taking a series of MOOCs).
I'm not sure why, but I've felt in the past that there wasn't a whole lot of momentum for
setting up a structure for this type of "thicker" interaction. (Incidentally, I
thought that the need for this was the #1 takeaway from the Building a Better Teacher
book that many of us read on Greg's suggestion.) I'm OK if this isn't a direction that we
want to go now, but I can't help but continue to think that the issues raised by Bill
would be better solved by this approach.
Best,
Justin
[1]:
http://software-carpentry.org/blog/2014/09/further-thoughts-on-better-teachers.html
[2]:
http://software-carpentry.org/blog/2014/12/plans-for-2015-mentorship-and-assessment.html
On Dec 12, 2014, at 1:08 PM, Greg Wilson <[email protected]>
wrote:
I'd like to +1 Matt's comment as well -- given how many workshops we run, and how much
demand there is for instructor training, I think it makes sense to say that people ought
to attend or help at a workshop before starting instructor training. ("Ought
to" because there will always be exceptions: some people have lots of teaching
experience in other grassroots groups, and when we're moving into new geographical
regions, it won't always be possible for people to attend one before starting training.)
Thanks,
Greg
On 2014-12-12 3:41 PM, Ted Hart wrote:
I'll also +1 Matt's comment. Way back in 2012 I attended my first SWC workshop
hosted by the CS dept at UBC, taught by Greg. I then helped organize a couple
more where I co-taught with Greg and Ethan at different workshops. I had this
experience under my belt before I began instructor training, I think one of the
first that Greg ran online.
It seems like path to becoming an instructor is a bit different now, starting
off with instructor training, and then running a workshop. Less of the
'journeyman' system of a few years back. And while sending helpers around
isn't feasible because of $$, what about requiring interested people to
organize a workshop and they could help, if one isn't already being run
locally? After all, it was that effect of getting one or two instructors out
of each locally run workshops that helped us get so many instructors in the
first place.
Maybe it's not a good idea to take on instructors if they haven't at least
attended a workshop (I'm not sure how common this is though)
T
On Fri Dec 12 2014 at 12:24:03 PM Kara Woo <[email protected]> wrote:
Helping at real workshops would indeed probably be the best way to build
experience, but it's not going to be logistically or financially feasible for
everyone, since as far as I know workshops don't typically cover travel costs
for helpers. While not a substitute for firsthand experience, a network of
community support and resources for new (and experienced!)
instructors will definitely help people (or at least, me) feel
more prepared and confident.
On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 11:44 AM, Marianne Corvellec
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hello,
I would like to +1 Matt's comment. I don't really see how you would
do without this very natural, gradual, beneficial process.
I know people who have attended, helped and sometimes instructed at
several workshops but haven't taken the instructor training program
(yet). So when/if they become Software Carpentry instructors, I think
the transition will be pretty smooth...
As a new instructor, I don't see how you would want to read a
guide/manual rather than helping at real workshops, because that's
when you start feeling useful and you learn a lot and you're not alone
and that's a great experience. :)
Marianne
On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 2:01 PM, Matt Davis <[email protected]> wrote:
I had one question after reading your post, and that's what role being a
workshop helper/assistant has in the instructor on-boarding process?
A couple years ago before our explosive growth and the instructor training
program, the on-boarding process was (perhaps informally), something like:
- attend or be a helper at a workshop
- teach at a workshop with an experienced instructor
We have different processes and more people now, but you can't discount the
value of "learn by doing".
- Matt
On Fri Dec 12 2014 at 10:47:53 AM Bill Mills <[email protected]>
wrote:
Hey everyone,
I spoke privately to some of you over the past couple weeks on what it's
like being a Software Carpentry instructor, particularly a new
instructor - what are the challenges you face, and what can we do to
make your first few workshops a smoother experience? I summarized the
most popular comments in this blog post:
http://mozillascience.org/starting-instruction-feedback-from-the-new-instructor-community/
One of the main things that came out of this, was a need for a smoother
on-ramp going from Instructor Training to your first workshop - what are
the steps involved, how do you prepare, and what are everyone's
responsibilities? To this end, I think it would be valuable if we
created a short Welcome Package explaining these things and providing
some clear instructions for people, and a Mentor's Guide for more
experienced instructors guiding this process. More details are in the
blog post, but we're brainstorming ideas for both of these things in the
following etherpads:
New Instructor Welcome Package:
https://etherpad.mozilla.org/newInstructorWelcomePackage
Mentor's Guide: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/SWCmentorsGuide
What do people think? Please jump in and share your thoughts! Thanks in
advance,
--
Bill Mills
Community Manager, Mozilla Science Lab
@billdoesphysics
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