Culture and Expectations

GA Culture

Your Expectations

• An ability to think like a developer
• An ability to add to your knowledge base

Classroom Culture

• This is an open, safe environment!
• Critique should be framed as positive and constructive.
• Take ownership of your experience.
• Check your ego at the door.
• Channel empathy.
• Don't compare yourself to others, compare yourself to who you were yesterday!

Mentorship Culture

• GA is collaborative and supportive; we lead by offering help to each other.
• Some students are amazing at one thing, others at another. Leverage each other's strengths!
• Helping each other is the best way of truly solidifying your understanding of a concept.
• Your classmates will be the best foundation for establishing a professional network in tech!

Your Responsibilities

• Take responsibility for what you get out of this course. The work you put into this will directly translate to how much your skills improve over time.
• If you have questions, comments or concerns, please address them with the instructional team!
• Help one another and you won’t only improve, but it can help with opportunities like TA/IA roles here in the future!

Our Responsibilities

• Role of ILs (Instructional Lead):
  • Build out all the curriculum that’s needed and continue adding new material
  • Lead the majority of lectures, particularly on more complex topics or newer topics
  • Help answer any questions and walk through how different portions of applications are being read and understood by the computer
  • Help with debugging when needed
  • Handle any student concerns or issues and provide mentorship
• IAs (Instructional Associate):
  • Grade and give feedback to students on deliverables in a timely manner
  • Help debug code from students in breakout rooms
  • Support lectures and help with debugging in the slack channel
  • Lead review lectures on assignments and occasionally lead lectures on new topics
• TAs (Teaching Assistant):
  • Support students outside of classroom hours
  • Troubleshooting and supporting developers work through blockers in assignments or labs.
  • Provide conceptual support to help students better understand how and why things are working (or not) in their code.

Student Expectations

1. Be Present.
   • We take attendance at the start of class.
   • Focus on concepts, take notes, ask questions often!
   • Let us know if you are running late by Slacking your instructor.
   • Attendance Policy:
     • You are allowed a total of 3 absences.
     • 3 instances of tardiness or early departures equals 1 absence; 1 tardy = 1/3 absence.
     • You must stay beneath the contractual limit of absences in order to successfully complete the course and receive Outcomes support.
2. Be Persistent.
3. Be Independent.
4. Be Thoughtful.
5. Be Creative.
6. Be Alert and Mindful; stay focused while learning.

Team Building

• Try to pair with someone new every day.
• Say hello to each other!
• This is your job for the next 13 weeks, so bring joy to the work!

Common Student Concerns.

1. I'm making a lot of mistakes.
   1. Mistakes are learning opportunities! There is a solution for each learning opportunity, which will help you debug the same problem in the future!
2. What about imposter syndrome?
   1. Imposter syndrome is something most of us deal with, and it is okay to feel this way! A quick search online or on YouTube and you’ll find resources to hush that negative chatter in your mind. Here’s one to start! I also encourage you to reach out to a member on the instructional team, we can always chat about it!
3. I don't "do" math.
   1. Math found in code challenges and throughout learning content is kept lightweight! It is good to have exposure to some mathematical expressions!
4. What's the best practice? How do I find the one "correct" answer?
   1. First, we solve it, then we optimize it. Solving is 90% of the problem.
5. What if I don't have a perfect understanding of everything?
   • This course is set up to accommodate students of all ability levels.
     • We use scaffolded learning, lecture notes, homework, and projects.
   • We make sure you at least understand the most essential concepts.
6. What if I'm having trouble building an amazing portfolio/completing all of the assignments?
   • All projects are challenging.
     • What matters is the ability to think through the problems they present.
     • The instructional team is always here to help! Reach out to us and we can have a chat!
   • Aim to complete every lab/homework assignment.
     • They are exercises in programmatic thinking.
     • However, completing an assignment and only sleeping for two hours is worse than sleeping and not completing an assignment.
     • Keep lines of communication open with your instructor team; they can help you prioritize your class assignments.
7. When should I ask questions?
   • Ask for help only when you've been stuck for 30 minutes or more.
     • The more time you spend fixing your own bugs, the more you will learn!
     • Getting an answer from someone else can stall the learning process.

Our Advice

1. Ask for continuous feedback.
2. Stand up and walk around throughout the day.
3. Get out a little bit each day and do something that's not related to programming.
4. Do not compare yourself to others. This is about your journey!