JumpStart Live (JSL)
As a remote-student participating in JumpStart Live you will be assigned a group with between 2 – 3 other students. You will also be assigned a mentor from the previous Ada cohort. You will work through all of the JumpStart Live curriculum individually and then meet with your group over video chat to discuss your answers, answer questions, and support each other through the learning process.
You are expected to check your groups Slack channel daily and be responsive and receptive to your group members' needs and questions. You should be communicating with your mentor at least two times a week in similar fashion.
As a group you should be having video chats for at least 2 hours each week. It is up to your group to determine if there will be multiple short sessions each week, or one long session each week. Your mentor should be attending and participating in at least one video chat a week.
When you have completed all the work for a particular day, you should send a gist to the lead JumpStart Instructor. There are 6 total days, so this should be at least 6 gists. Feel free to split the work up into more gists if that makes sense for you.
We expect all participating students to arrive on time to their scheduled video chats, and be ready to share their code, ask questions, and help others.
We expect participating students to be active participants in the learning process. The questions below are designed to help guide you.
- Do you make at least one excellent contribution (e.g., insight or question) to each video chat without monopolizing discussion?
- Do you give active nonverbal and verbal feedback?
- Do you refer to other students by name and react to their contributions?
In any group there will be those who speak more and those who speak less; this might be because of differences in personality, language fluency, or culture. Some people like to carefully think before they speak and some believe that interaction should be rapid and assertive.
- If you often find yourself dominating group discussions, or answering all of the questions, try limiting yourself to 3 really good responses, to give others a chance to participate
- Be mindful that others have important things to say too, but they may need a bit more time to speak
- Silence is okay, and sometimes needed for other students to feel comfortable speaking
- Some of the text in the Participation section was borrowed from Benjamin Mako Hill's Teaching: Assessment materials