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Teaching Tips

General Teaching Advice

When planning, don't think about what you're going to do. Think about what they're going to do.

Metaphors and Stories for Teaching Programming:

A program is like a recipe. There's two parts: a list of ingredients and a list of instructions. Think of code as the instructions and data as the ingredients.

Also, to extend the metaphor, think about doubling a recipe: the instructions don't change even though the data are different this time.

Computer memory is like a warehouse with lots of boxes. Each box has something inside (the data) and it also has a label (the variable name).

The command line as Zork. You are "in" a room (a directory) and can either act on things in the room (commands) or move to a new room (cd). It's very important that you know where you are! Learn how to read the command line, and do an "ls" (or "dir") to look around.

Notes