MASCOF – Checklist & Guide to Succeeding in CTD’s Classes

Instructional Materials
Assignments
Mentor Sessions
Community
Final Project /Practicum

NOTE: Practicum (listed alongside Final Project) is an 8-10 week period after students have completed their advanced class work. Students in practicum learn about project planning and team development as they work in small groups to build something from concept to deployment. Only students who complete an advanced (Node, React, or Ruby on Rails) course can participate in practicum.

There are five components to Code the Dream classes: Instructional materials, Assignments, Mentor sessions, Community, and Final projects. Each week you have responsibilities in each of these areas. This list takes you through each component of the class and gives you a guide for what to do each week.

You can use the suggestions below each week as a kind of checklist for what you need to do, but success in CTD classes is more than just checking some boxes. Each component is designed to help make you a great programmer and ultimately help prepare you for a great job as a software developer. This isn’t a school class where you are graded on each individual video you have watched or not watched, it’s about helping you build a foundation of understanding programming and development. However, if you dedicate sufficient time to each of the class components, we do believe you can be successful.

MASCOF CHECKLIST

___ (M) Instructional Materials
___ (A) Assignments
___ (S) Mentor Sessions
___ (CO) Community
___ (F) Final projects

M: Instructional Materials & Videos

Code the Dream partners with Treehouse to provide video instruction in the Intro and Ruby on Rails courses. CTD will provide every student with a Treehouse account, and will be able to review each student’s progress on Treehouse. There may also be additional articles and tutorials that you are assigned to read. In the React and Node classes students may have video content to watch and/or text to follow along with.

___ Watch all assigned videos, and Read any additional articles or materials provided. The videos may take several hours to get through.
___ Code alongside the videos in your code editor (or in Treehouse Workspaces).
___ Take notes that you can access later (Google docs are great, because you can search by term, unlike pen and paper, but paper might be easier to write on as you are watching and coding).
___ Make a list of questions you have about the material; highlight them so you can find them easily later. These are questions you can ask in the mentor sessions, or post in Slack.
___ Consider: When you finish the videos (and/or readings), what is your understanding of the key learning concepts? How would you explain it to someone else? What parts do you need help understanding?

A: Assignments

You will have coding assignments each week. This is probably the most important aspect of the week’s tasks. The following applies to the majority of CTD lessons, though not all. Make sure you are following the instructions for your week’s lesson.

___ Read through all assignment instructions.
___ Work through your assignment in your code editor (or other designated space).
___ Ask students and mentors for help if you get stuck, as well as reviewing your notes, the videos, and googling.
___ Make a list of questions you have about the assignment; highlight them so you can find them easily later. These are questions you can ask in the mentor sessions, or post in Slack.
___ Double check your work when you finish the assignment:
- Does your code run as expected?
- Is everything properly indented?
- Do you have any errors in consoles/editors?
Submit your assignment:
- For Intro students weeks 1-5: be sure you’ve run npm test in the Shell of repl.it. You don’t have to have all tests passing, but try and get as many to pass as you can.
- For everyone else and Intro students weeks 6 and beyond: Push your code to Github, then open a Pull Request (PR).
- ___ Submit via the Assignment Submission Form bookmarked in your Slack class announcements channel or bottom of your lesson page. Paste the URL that points to your pull request (or repl.it assignment) in the form.
- ___ Submit a link EVEN if your code is not running correctly. Your submission is the only way we know you have worked on your assignment.
___ Be patient with reviewers. All of our assignment reviewers are volunteers and it might take up to a week for your assignment to be reviewed. If you are not receiving feedback on your assignment, make your Cohort Instructional Leader aware.

S: Mentor Sessions

Mentor sessions are small group meetings with a professional developer to review the lessons and assignments for the week. Students also have the option of meeting 1:! with a mentor. Students should attend two mentor sessions each week; you can attend more if you want or need to. If you attend mentor sessions at the beginning of the week, the mentors know you won’t have finished the material.

___ Sign up at the beginning of the week for the mentor sessions you plan to attend that week.
___ Attend your mentor sessions. The mentors do take attendance. If you cannot come, let the mentor know, and sign up for a different session instead.
___ Prepare in advance for your mentor sessions; you can even share your questions with the mentor ahead of time. Share your progress in terms of the videos and the assignment.
___ Catch up with 1:1 mentor sessions if you need to, but still come to the regular week’s sessions, even if you are behind. Just let the mentor know ahead of time.
___ Thank your mentors! They are all volunteers who really want to help you learn, but they are also busy professionals!

C: Community

An important element of a learning environment is a supportive community where you can ask questions and explore. All Code the Dream classes have active Slack channels. Each class has their own Discord channel to continue the conversation. While you aren’t allowed to copy each other’s code, we definitely encourage helping each other. Make the most of the opportunity to learn alongside others!

___ Post your questions in the Slack class discussion channel. If you have a question, most likely someone else does too! Mentors are also in the Slack channel and can help answer questions.
___ Respond to questions others have asked, if you can, and/or share your own experiences with the issues asked about. We can all learn from each other and can all pitch in.
___ Request a one-on-one session with a mentor to work on specific questions that need more time
___ Schedule video chats and study sessions with classmates if it is helpful for you to work together with others.
___ Help each other! We are in this together, and part of Code the Dream’s philosophy is about giving back. Students are on different levels. If you have more experience, please help people who are newer to coding.

F: Final Project

For the front-end and back-end classes, the final project is perhaps the most critical aspect of assessing your overall comprehension in the class and will, in large-part, contribute to whether or not you move on to the next level or apprenticeship. The Intro to Programming final project is different. Rather than a new, stand-alone app, it is a culmination of what you have built on in the class and can be used as your professional portfolio.

___ Envision: During the first couple months of class, start to envision practical examples of how to apply the skills you are learning. Start to think of what kinds of projects you might like to create.
___ Check the Rubric. Make sure you look at the requirements for the final project for your class.
___ Work: You can, and in some instances, will work on your final project for some/most of your course. Even if there aren’t specific weeks at the end of your course dedicated to working on/putting finishing touches on your final project, you can work on your final project alongside your weekly lessons and coding assignments.
___ Present: At the end of class, you will present your final project by doing a short demo of your app in front of your classmates and mentors!