We provide additional tools that you can use to engage students more in your sessions! At ReDI, we like to use the following tools and icebreakers:

Mentimeter (Interactive Polls)

• Create live polls, word clouds, and Q&A

• Perfect for:

  • Icebreakers: Ask students about their expectations or background knowledge.

  • Quick polls: Check understanding of a topic in real-time.

  • Exit tickets: Gather feedback at the end of a session.

• Login credentials in teachers' Slack channel

• Mentimeter.com

Kahoot (Learning Games)

• Quiz-based learning with competitive elements

• Perfect for Revision & Recaps - You create a quiz, and students participate live in class via browser or cell phone.

• Login credentials in teachers' Slack channel

• Kahoot.com

Icebreaker Ideas

You can use quick icebreakers at the start of your sessions to energize participants, build connections, and create an engaging and interactive learning environment. Here is a list of icebreakers. They shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to run.

1. Two Truths and a Lie

• Description: Participants share three statements about themselves—two true and one false. The group has to guess which one is the lie.

• How to Run: Use breakout rooms for smaller groups or let everyone participate in the main room.

• Objective: Participants get to know each other in a fun way.

2. Virtual Scavenger Hunt

• Description: Give participants a list of items to find in their home within 1-2 minutes (e.g., something red, something that makes noise).

• How to Run: Ask them to bring the items back to the camera and share a quick story about one of them.

• Objective: The activity is an energizer.

3. Emoji Reactions

• Description: Pose a question or statement (e.g., "How are you feeling about today’s session?") and ask participants to respond using emojis only.

• How to Run: Use the chat in Zoom.

• Objective: It is an easy way for participants to share how they are doing.

More Resources

• 13 online icebreakers

• Ice breakers using slido

• Ice breakers in Kahoot

• Ice breakers in Menti

Teaching Method: I Do, We Do, You Do

The "I Do, We Do, You Do" method is a teaching method designed to help students learn new concepts by first observing, then practicing with guidance, and finally working independently.

• I Do: The teacher demonstrates the task while explaining the steps and thought process aloud. This stage is about modeling the correct way to approach the task and highlighting key concepts and techniques.

• We Do: The session owner walks the students through an activity. The students follow along (code or design along). This collaborative stage allows students to apply what they've seen with support, ask questions, and receive immediate feedback.

• You Do: Students work independently on the task. This stage allows them to practice the skill on their own.

Example: Introducing Javascript

• I Do: The teacher introduces JavaScript and demonstrates a simple script that shows an alert when clicking a button. Key concepts like variables, functions, and events are explained briefly.

• We Do: The teacher walks the students through creating a function that changes a heading's color when clicking a button. The students follow and code along. The teacher shares their screen and gives the students time to code along. Together, the teacher and the students write the function, select the element, and add an event listener, with the teacher guiding and asking questions to engage students.

• You Do: Students independently write JavaScript to change the text of a paragraph when a button is clicked in a breakout room. They practice using variables, functions, and event listeners and then share their work for feedback.

Tips and Tricks

• Context before content - We experienced that explaining why a concept is important helps a lot in understanding what the concept is about. Why should you learn this concept? Try to give the context. Maybe explain where you use it in your daily work life. Or explain how this concept can help to solve a bigger problem

• Engage with Students: Ask questions to check understanding. Use their names and keep the tone friendly and encouraging.

• Be Prepared but Flexible: Have a plan but adapt based on student needs.

• Feedback is Key: Provide constructive feedback to help students improve. Celebrate small wins to keep motivation high.

More Resources

• Watch this video on how to run the Regular Class.

• Ice Breakers and Energizers - Do you want to start the session with an energizer? Have a look at Class Engagement

No Content - All About the Project

The Full Stack Circle focuses entirely on working on a project. That also means there is little content being shared with the students. The first three sessions help introduce students to concepts (how to collaborate, team building, and setup). Besides that, we share material ad-hoc if needed to solve a specific issue.

Project Setup

Students can choose which platform or website to clone. This approach allows teams to work on a project they're genuinely interested in while learning essential full-stack development skills. Last semester, the students cloned Airbnb (GitHub Repo).

Requirements for the Project

The final product that we want to produce:

1. A project with a frontend communicating with a backend connected to a data store, transmitting data back and forth and modifying data on the backend

2. The project represents an understanding of testing, debugging and clean code principles

3. One meaningful visual test and one meaningful behavior/unit test set

4. One meaningful complexity level apart from a plain backend/frontend communication (ex.: maps, complex auth, 3rd party API integration, realtime comms)

5. Log of tickets/cards/milestones in the project

Project Setup

Once a platform is selected (in the first 3 weeks), we define the initial set of tickets and establish the project structure, ensuring a solid foundation for development (a volunteer PM named Stefan helps us with this!). The project will be broken down into manageable sprints, each focusing on recreating specific features of the chosen platform.

How do I create more engagement in class?

Best practices for teaching?

More material, feedback, or ideas?

If you find good material, ReDI could use, and if you have feedback or further ideas, feel free to contact Julian via Slack or email (julian@redi-school.org).

Here is a list of topics of subjects we think are important to try and hit for the continued education as well as employability of our students. When we’re doing sprint brainstormings and plannings, or any changes to the course itself, we should keep these goals in mind and push for things that accomplish them. Skills we want our learners to achieve:

Soft skills

1. Teamwork

2. Task management

3. Task specification

   1. Feature specification as a stretch goal

   2. Project management negotiation

4. Proactive communication (speaking their mind/don't be afraid to ask)

5. Self-learning (Career descriptors & expectations as a stretch goal)

Hard skills (frontend/backend)

1. React

   1. Client/server comms

   2. Reusable components

   3. Dataflow

   4. Complex data manipulation (useReducer, redux)

   5. Storage options on client

      1. Session

      2. Cookies

      3. indexedDB

   6. axios/fetch

2. Node.js / express

   1. REST APIs

   2. Mentioning different js runtimes

   3. SQLite NoSQL

3. Web frontend

   1. Implementing common and consistent design

   2. Important UI/UX concepts

   3. Responsive Design

4. Testing

   1. Manual

   2. Automated (Unit + UI)

5. Tooling

   1. Vscode extensions

   2. Package managers/registries (how to deal with unforeseen circumstances?)

   3. Git merging

6. Debugging

7. Clean code

   1. DRY

   2. Naming & conventions (code, docs)

   3. Documentation (README.md, Changelogs)

The final product that we want to produce:

1. A project with a frontend communicating with a backend connected to a data store, transmitting data back and forth and modifying data on the backend

2. The project represents an understanding of testing, debugging and clean code principles

3. One meaningful visual test and one meaningful behavior/unit test set

4. One meaningful complexity level apart from a plain backend/frontend communication (ex.: maps, complex auth, 3rd party API integration, realtime comms)

5. Log of tickets/cards/milestones in the project