Instructor checklists

Check with someone before you start teaching

Most importantly, get your setup done well in advance and show your co-teachers for feedback. Feedback and time to improve is very important to make things beautiful.

Lesson revision checklist

If your team also maintains the lesson material, see if there are any updates to be done. You shouldn’t do major revisions every time, but it’s good to see if there is any minor maintenance. See the lesson development section, Lesson review checklist.

Team teaching checklist

See Team teaching

  • Write down the episodes you will teach

  • Choose a model (guide/demo-giver, interviewer/expert, teacher/student) for each episode

  • Choose a primary for each episode

  • Primary does major lesson review and prepares for teaching

  • Secondary also reviews material and prepares for teaching

  • One run-through before the course

Final checklist

  • Have you moved your configurations away and done the course setup instead (or left it unconfigured)?: .bashrc (or equivalent), .gitconfig, .ssh, .conda, etc.

  • Are you using a software environment as described in the workshop instructions (conda, virtualenv, etc). Is it clean and without extra stuff installed?

  • Is your setup as boring-looking as possible, if you are teaching at the beginning of the workshop? The first sessions aren’t the time for distractions. (Instructor computer setup)

  • Is your terminal (Instructor computer setup)

    • Dark text on light background? (if not: create a profile so you can switch now or in the future)

    • Do you know key-bindings to change the font size quickly?

  • Do you have command history set up? If in doubt, use prompt-log and tail the output in a separate smaller window. (Instructor computer setup)

  • Do you have a clean web browser session (different profile for demos)? (Instructor computer setup)

  • If you use an advanced shell, do you have a simpler shell (bash) set up for the demos? (Instructor computer setup)

  • (if online) have you practiced Zoom screensharing “Share a portion of the screen” in portrait-mode? See Instructor screenshare.

  • (if online) have you checked your audio settings (Instructor audio)? Join a test meeting with someone and understand your microphone sound adjustments. Can you control it for the full range from very quiet to very loud, so that you can make whatever adjustments needed? Is your best microphone/headset ready? Audio quality and balance is critical.

  • Have you shown your setup to someone else for feedback?