Join us as we talk about everything from our favorite teaching examples, the process of book writing, fostering cats, and more.

Special Guest: Al Sweigart.

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Links:

• Invent with Python — Learning to program makes you a smarter and more capable human being. Rocket science uses programming, but programming isn't rocket science. Whether you're a student preparing for a software career, an office worker buried under spreadsheet files, or a hobbyist who wants to make video games, the Python programming language is an excellent start in the world of programming. Get started for free with the online copies of Al's books!
• The Recursive Book of Recursion: Ace the Coding Interview with Python and JavaScript: Sweigart, Al: 9781718502024: Amazon.com: Books — An accessible yet rigorous crash course on recursive programming using Python and JavaScript examples. Recursion has an intimidating reputation: it’s considered to be an advanced computer science topic frequently brought up in coding interviews. But there’s nothing magical about recursion.
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python, 2nd Edition: Practical Programming for Total Beginners: Sweigart, Al: 9781593279929: Amazon.com: Books — Learn how to code while you write programs that effortlessly perform useful feats of automation! The second edition of this international fan favorite includes a brand-new chapter on input validation, Gmail and Google Sheets automations, tips for updating CSV files, and more.
• Python Programming Exercises, Gently Explained , Sweigart, Al, eBook - Amazon.com — Many books and websites have aggressive programming challenges for top coders. However, this book is for the rest of us. We want challenges that improve our coding skills, not leave us confused and discouraged. Other tutorials and books have taught you the basics of Python, but the 42 programming exercises in this book let you practice what you've learned. Selected for their simplicity, these programming problems include gentle explanations of the problem, the prerequisite coding concepts you’ll need to understand the solution, and helpful templates to put together the programs if you have trouble starting from scratch.
• Amazon.com: The Big Book of Small Python Projects: 81 Easy Practice Programs eBook : Sweigart, Al: Kindle Store — If you’ve mastered basic Python syntax and you’re ready to start writing programs, you’ll find The Big Book of Small Python Projects both enlightening and fun. This collection of 81 Python projects will have you making digital art, games, animations, counting pro- grams, and more right away. Once you see how the code works, you’ll practice re-creating the programs and experiment by adding your own custom touches.
• Beyond the Basic Stuff with Python: Best Practices for Writing Clean Code: Sweigart, Al: 9781593279660: Amazon.com: Books — BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN NOVICE AND PROFESSIONAL You've completed a basic Python programming tutorial or finished Al Sweigart's bestseller, Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. What's the next step toward becoming a capable, confident software developer?
• Cracking Codes with Python: An Introduction to Building and Breaking Ciphers: Sweigart, Al: 9781593278229: Amazon.com: Books — Learn how to program in Python while making and breaking ciphers—algorithms used to create and send secret messages! 
• Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python, 4th Edition: Sweigart, Al: 9781593277956: Amazon.com: Books — Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python will teach you how to make computer games using the popular Python programming language—even if you’ve never programmed before!

How will teachers adapt their online writing in order to communicate and engage learners? What materials will teachers develop to ignite motivation with students? How will connections and community be built via online courses?

In this episode, Sean and Kelly talk with David Amos, a writer for Real Python about how he makes connections with his Real Python tutorials and we will share tips and techniques for developing quality online writing for learners.

David Amos Real Python
https://realpython.com/team/damos/
https://realpython.com/python-gui-tkinter/
https://realpython.com/python-rounding/

Special Guest: David Amos.

Support Teaching Python

Links:

• How to Use sorted() and sort() in Python – Real Python — All programmers will have to write code to sort items or data at some point. Sorting can be critical to the user experience in your application, whether it’s ordering a user’s most recent activity by timestamp, or putting a list of email recipients in alphabetical order by last name. Python sorting functionality offers robust features to do basic sorting or customize ordering at a granular level.
• Join the Real Python Tutorial Team – Real Python — Do you have a knack for writing and want to get your thoughts in front of thousands of Python developers?  The realpython.com tutorial team is known for making the highest-quality Python tutorials available online. Our mission is to “help Python developers around the world become more awesome.”
• Let’s talk: Effectively Communicating with your Online Students – Humanizing Online Teaching and Learning — Introduction While effectively communicating with the students in your online classes aids in the retention of your students, as educators, we should want to do more than just retain our students. We should provide them with a sense of community while enrolled in online classes to avoid the sense of isolation that some online students experience.
• Making Lessons Memorable Designing from Two Perspectives — What do we want students to learn? What do we want them to remember—tomorrow? Next month? Next year? Clearly, we cannot separate learning from memory. Ensuring that what we teach is memorable is a vital component of instruction. The question, of course, is how.
• 4 Ideas to Consider for Online Learning – George Couros — Not only have educators been inundated with information on COVID-19, but they have had to retool, refocus, and rethink completely how they are going to connect with and teach their students.  A lot is going on in our world right now, and my first instinct is that we need to slow down and focus on what is most important at this moment.
• 8 Strategies Robert Marzano & John Hattie Agree On — Robert Marzano and John Hattie have both reviewed the research on which teaching strategies work best. While they used different methods and terminology, they agreed on these 8 powerful strategies.