Teaching Time

 Hello all!

Nothing too much has happened since my last post but I have been getting a lot more teaching in a robots. I got a kid fully capable of writing advanced autos and another one wrote four commands with little to no guidance last night! I'll continue to teach now that I have the time. There has always been a lack of strong teaching in the programming department, as most of the leads prior to me have done everything themselves. I'm looking to change that and make the department more welcoming and engaging. 

I took a lot of criticism for my lack of teaching in 2020, and I truly think that people need to step back and realize that one programmer in a very busy season and just as busy offseason cannot teach everything at once. People seem to forget that if the one capable programmer is teaching, nothing would get done. This can appear to be very selfish on the student's part, even if unintended. I taught myself by looking at the code again and again each timed I learned a new python concept. The way the robot code works is very theoretical, and I can't just present a clean explanation. It is critical in my opinion that students do independent work, like homework, and review the language, the theory behind the framework, and how those two concepts tie together. 

Anyway, pardon my rant above. Just wanted to vent somewhere, and I suppose that's one of the reasons I continue this blog! 

But we must not fear, for the time has come to teach! With the current robot as programmatically competitive as it can be, I now have plenty of time until January. No competitions, no major modifications, nothing. We obviously don't have time like this any other year, so I figured now is the time to teach! So, I sat down with the future programming team and reviewed a lot of different concepts. Some more complicated topics have yet to come, but the students who consistently show up now have a decent understanding of their subsystem. As I said, I got one writing simple commands by himself, and will try to get him writing more commands next Thursday! He has also gotten very comfortable with version control by the looks of things, and I certainly hope he continues to explore Linux! The other, our newest member, is now capable of interpreting and writing complex autonomous' programs. He is learning at a remarkable rate! 

All in all, I think the entire programmer team is developing well and quickly! Dare I say it has something to do with the implementation of the scrum board? Not going to lie, I really like the concept of it. It makes tracking and distributing projects much easier. 

To close, I think I will share my senior quote with you guys! You ready? Here it is!

+++++++ [ > ++++++++++ < - ] > + . < +++++ [ > ++++++++ < - ] > . <
++++++++++++++++ [ > ----- < - ] > + . < ++++ [ > +++++++++++++ < -
] > . < +++ [ > +++++ < - ] > ++ . ---- . < ++++++ [ > ++ < - ] > .
+ < ++++++++ [ > ---------- < - ] > ++ . < +++ [ > ++++++ < - ] > .
+++ . -- . ++++++ . < ++++++ [ > ---- < - ] > .

That's right! It's in Brainf**k! I'd love it if someone, some where could figure it out. It is very much school appropriate, but I still am unsure if I'll be allowed to use it. 

Thanks for reading!

"We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it." 

- Barack Obama