Tutoring Dos and Donts

1. Unofficial turtle of CS 5 Green Unofficial alien of CS 42 Tutoring Dos and Donts u Unofficial alien of CS 5 Gold Unofficial alien of CS 5 Black Officialsponsor of this presentation

2. Thank you! Merci! Gracias! Danke!

3. Grutoring Overview Grading: Thursday nights at 10pm We’ll start on 9/8! ½ - please bring laptops! Show submissions… • Black and Gold have shared labs, some shared assignments, and shared tutoring hours • Green has its own labs, few shared assignments, and some dedicated tutoring hours • CS 42 and CS 60 have tutoring times, but no scheduled labs • but… we’re all in this together!

4. In lab/tutoring hours… • Please “make the rounds” • Ask “how are you doing?” • Try to avoid “camping out” at your own computer • Try to avoid being “taken hostage”

5. Help students help themselves • Don’t... • Say “Oh, I see your problem! Just change this here…” • Do… • Ask “What kind of error are you getting?” • Help explain the error message and how it might be helpful • Suggest debugging strategies (more on this on this in a moment) • Ask “Do these strategies sound good to you? Let me let you work on this a bit and I’ll come back in a few minutes to see how you’re doing.” • In some (rare) cases is it good to reveal the problem directly • Student is very frustrated after repeated efforts • You are very frustrated after repeated efforts • You are besieged with questions and need to do triage

6. Some debugging strategies • Look at the error messages and try to explain what they are saying • Test each function independently before moving on • Test on small values that can be “hand verified” • Test on “edge cases” • Use print statements • Use the interpreter

7. If the problem is conceptual… • Back away from the keyboard • If you don’t feel comfortable explaining the concept, see if you can switch places with another grutor – or send the student to one of the profs

8. If you don’t know the answer… • It’s OK! • Admit it -- a great thing to say: • I don’t know…but let’s figure it out! • Model problem-solving and debugging skills. • Wild guesses can do more harm than good.

9. Still don’t know? • Never leave students hanging… • It’s your responsibility to get the question to someone who can answer it. • Do • Find someone else who can answer the question. • Or, help them send clear, complete email to the help alias/Piazza site. • Or, compose the email yourself and cc the students – be sure that the file in question has been submitted! • Don’t • Shrug, and walk away. • Say “I don’t know. Find the prof,” and walk away. • Say “I don’t know. Send an email,” and walk away.

10. What if you DO know? • Be Respectful! • Beware The Curse of Knowledge “Lots of research in economics and psychology shows that when we know something, it becomes hard to imagine not knowing it. As a result, we become lousy communicators.”

11. Preparation • Before you show up to lab/office hours: • Read the assignment carefully! • Think how you’d approach the problems… • Optionally, review solutions • But -- there are often many ways to solve a problem! • These count as paid work

12. Other thoughts/tips? Any strategies that you find particularly effective or ineffective?

14. A Case Study: Monte Carlo Pi The idea Buggy code!