
Learn by teaching someone else
Whether you’re a beginning coder or an expert, you’ll often encounter confusion. Maybe you had a game plan and now things aren’t making sense. My
Many teachers attempt only to place information into the minds of their students. But I look at the big picture. If you want to really learn, then you need 3 things from my lessons:
It’s important that I allow you to develop understanding through your own insights in the way that’s most comfortable to you.
It’s important that I allow you to develop understanding through your own insights in the way that’s most comfortable to you.
I believe that you learn best when you’re not under stress and when you’re given bite-sized information that you can absorb easily. I set aside my perspective as an expert and focus on seeing things from your perspective.
My style of teaching developed from my early attempts to teach younger students at Caltech. In addition to my technical studies, I played trombone in the school bands. I wrote a short booklet called “You Already Know How to Play Trombone,” which described trombone techniques in terms of common actions.
I continue that tradition today by focusing on explaining complex things with simple metaphors.
In the 2000’s I worked at a NASA laboratory in Pasadena and part of my job was to teach programming to the rocket scientists. (Simple metaphors help rocket scientists, too!)
I also took a 500-hour training course in the application of mindfulness to learning. I find applications for mindful learning in computer science and in many places, even my study of music composition at Cal State University, Northridge.
Here are 6 important strategies I use when I’m teaching:
Helping you connect the dots before we progress to the next level.
Showing that a large goal can be reached by many small steps.
Avoiding unnecessary complexity.
Using your imagination to make ideas concrete and easier to remember.
Thinking clearly and precisely about the solution.
Asking you to solve problems through your own insights, whenever possible.
Whether you’re a beginning coder or an expert, you’ll often encounter confusion. Maybe you had a game plan and now things aren’t making sense. My
(Also check out my guide to studying computer science. I mention some additional important things there.) The Free Response Question (FRQ) section of the AP
This is a guide for students studying computer science. It covers some of the ideas I teach to my students every day. Here, I’m giving
You can work through typical stumbling blocks with a greater sense of ease by using outside-the-box methods and “working smarter.” You can give yourself permission
Tiny steps are a key part of my teaching. Why do tiny steps make things easier? It works like this. Any job you try to
Problem solving: Dealing with the unknown The central challenge in coding is problem solving. By “problem solving,” I mean working through a problem when you