Teaching Python

Episode 58: Figure It Out

January 12th, 2021 | 41 mins 40 secs

learning, metacognition, teaching

In this episode, Kelly and Sean dive into the topic of teaching kids to “Figure it out,” a phrase we love to use in class. This year, we seek specific skills that help us teach reluctant learners, techniques for figuring things out, and understanding how different teachers support this skill in their classrooms. In this episode, we ask some of our colleagues to share their experiences on how they as adults solve problems and how they teach their students this critical life long skill.

Episode 57: Holiday Gift Guide for Techy Kids

December 10th, 2020 | 31 mins 55 secs

holidays, shopping, technology

We get a lot of questions about what parents should buy for their children for the holidays. In this episode, Kelly and Sean list out some of their favorite gifts for the holidays. Kelly wins with a student that demonstrates year over year improvement in Computer Science. Sean builds a FastAPI and gets a steep learning curve.

Episode 56: AI and Machine Learning for Kids with Dale Lane (@dalelane)

December 1st, 2020 | 39 mins 24 secs

ai, artificial intelligence, machine learning, python, scratch

In this episode, Kelly and Sean talk with Dale Lane an IBM Event Streams Lead Developer. - IBM awarded Dale, the 2018 IBM Volunteer Excellence Award—the highest form of volunteer recognition given by the company—which also earned a USD 10,000 grant from IBM for Solent Youth Action.

Episode 55: Unfiltered Friday Conversations

November 13th, 2020 | 16 mins 14 secs

computer science, pedagogy, teaching, unplanned

Kelly and Sean flip on the voice recording app and record a random Friday afternoon conversation about teaching approaches for computer science. What makes student learning the most effective?

Episode 54: Making Projects Happen with Eric Matthes (@ehmatthes)

November 10th, 2020 | 1 hr 14 mins

computer science, learning, projects, python

Sean and Kelly invite Eric Matthes, teacher and author of Python Crash Course to discuss student projects in computer science. We talk about starting and completing projects and programming with purpose as a way to help the learning stick with students longer.

Episode 53: Developing for Mobile, the Web, and Desktop with Russell Keith-Magee ( @freakboy3742 )

October 27th, 2020 | 57 mins 47 secs

android, beeware, ios, mobile development, python, web development

This week's guest is Russell Keith-Magee from the Beeware project. Our conversation this week is about teaching students Python with native desktop applications, mobile, and the web.

Episode 52: Teaching the Full Stack with Ali Spittel (@alispittel)

October 20th, 2020 | 59 mins 1 sec

fullstack, programming, python, teaching

Sean and Kelly invite Ali Spittel to talk about how teachers can go beyond their first programming language and help students learn to create more robust projects. If you’ve started with Python, how do you learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to make a front end for a project? Or vice versa?

Episode 51: Engaging Your Students With The Right Language Featuring @jolson_codes

October 8th, 2020 | 1 hr 2 mins

coding, diversity, inclusiveness, python, teaching

Sean and Kelly invite Jeff Olson (@jolson_codes) to the show. Let’s take a look at language in the Computer Science classroom and focus on how we can put our students first by engaging them in the “right language for their learning.”

Episode 50: Teaching Robotics With Python

September 30th, 2020 | 30 mins 46 secs

hardware, python, robotics, teaching

This week, Sean & Kelly discuss how they are using Python to teach robotics in middle school, including the hardware and software it takes to get students thinking about how robots sense, process, and move in the world.

Episode 49: Python Tutor with Philip Guo

September 22nd, 2020 | 44 mins 23 secs

computer science, python, teaching, visualization

This week, Kelly and Sean interview Philip Guo, associate professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego. As a grad student in 2010, Philip created Python Tutor, the most widely-used program visualization tool for education.

Episode 48: What We Are Using in 2020 To Teach Python

September 15th, 2020 | 1 hr 4 mins

education, python, teaching

Let’s take a look at the tools we’re using in our classroom for the 2020-2021 school year to teach Python for middle school students. From IDEs to flash cards, coding challenges to Colab notebooks, and micro:bits to eBooks, we’ll look at what we’re currently using and how each one contributes to the learning experience of our students.

Episode 47: Deconstructing the List Lesson

September 1st, 2020 | 1 hr 3 mins

programming, python, teaching

Let’s take a deeper look at how we teach students about one of Python’s most venerable data structures: the list. For many learners, the list is the first data structure that they encounter and it can be tricky to understand at first.

Episode Archive