Ben, Justin, Dev, Miao, and I had a nice wide ranging talk today. Some points of interest:

a. Doing the 5 minute teaching part of the checkout is hard but Miao thought it might be easier if he taught the lesson at a workshop first since then he would have first hand experience with it. (I'll add after the meeting that just watching it be taught at a workshop would probably do as well.)

b. I reminded everyone that finishing the check-out is not required to teach, see a. above. There are still a couple sessions available to teach if you're interested.

c. The lessons have challenge sections. This time can give you an opportunity to re-group and refresh your memory on what comes next to help you keep the flow of the lesson going. You don't have to remember hours of material, just to the next challenge when you can look at your notes again.

d. Dev wants to do a workshop Jan 27 & 28, likely an R based Software Carpentry.

From: Discussion of teaching informatics skills <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Matthew Collins <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2017 8:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: UF instructor mentorship group opportunity

Thank you to everyone who responded to the whenisgood. It looks like Thursday afternoons are the best time for the most people. I've scheduled the following three events:

Thursday, 7/27 4:00 - 5:00 pm

Thursday, 8/3 4:00 - 5:00 pm

Thursday, 8/10 4:00 - 5:00 pm

at the UFII conference room.

Notice that the last meeting is conveniently the week before our planned workshops. Please come to any or all of these if you would like to discuss:

- The instructor checkout process

- How workshops are organized

- How the Carpentries work

- Questions about specific lessons

- Coordinate with your fellow workshop instructors

- Anything else, including just to hang out (there might be chocolate)

Cheers,

Matthew Collins
Technical Operations Manager
Advanced Computing and Information Systems Lab, ECE
University of Florida
352-392-5414

From: Matthew Collins
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2017 10:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: UF instructor mentorship group opportunity

During the Carpentry instructor training in late May, we talked about how to get help finishing instructor certifications checkouts[1] and opportunities to join peer groups through the Carentries' mentorship program. It is going to be a while before the Carpentries open another mentor round so I would like to organize one locally.

I propose three weekly meetings to get started. New instructors and experienced instructors are invited and we will discuss where everyone is in the certification process, answer questions about it, and you can work on completing it together. Anything else you'd like to know about becoming an instructor is also fair game.

I have made a WhenIsGood to help us pick a time in the next two weeks to have the initial meeting. Please paint over the time blocks that might work well for you and I'll arrange the room and final time.

http://whenisgood.net/mq98y7p

And don't forget that we're looking for instructors and helpers for our workshops the week of August 14 - 18. This is a perfect opportunity to finish your certification and teach for the first time! More details to come.

(If you are wondering why you got this email, I BCC'ed participants in the instructor training course if you're not already on the informatics-teaching-l because we talked about mentorship groups during the training. I will only be contacting you about things directly related to your participation in that workshop.)

[1] https://swcarpentry.github.io/instructor-training/checkout/

Thank you everyone and I look forward to seeing you,

Matthew Collins
Technical Operations Manager
Advanced Computing and Information Systems Lab, ECE
University of Florida
352-392-5414