What went well?

The progress I made; what was achieved and done

This week marked our last algorithmic thinking session. Before the session, my co-facilitator of computer programming at the organization, Kunal, and I were faced with the difficult task of teaching certain kinds of algorithm and their efficiency. These students have no concept of how computers work, let alone computer programming. What was most challenging but rewarding was that Kunal and I had to think back to the way we learned these concepts and how we could communicate them through games and exercises relevant to these girls. I creatively created sorting games and binary search games for the students. To achieve that magical leap of “thinking like a computer,” I asked the students to think like a machine with clear instructions, a concept they practiced and got used to in our last algorithmic thinking session. Using visualization and active exercises, we were able to teach a very successful- and challenging- session. The students completed the session by creating sorting and binary search algorithms themselves!

Additionally, over the past two weeks, I have had students from the last cohort visit me to teach them programming in Javascript. As I have only studied C++ and Python, I had to gain a limited proficiency in Javascript in order to communicate programming concepts. These students struggled with the same issues as my current cohort— they did not know how to think algorithmically, or step-by-step. They did not grasp much of what they were coding at the firms they worked at. So, I utilized my teaching experience and visualization tools to explain basic algorithms like loops, arrays, and dynamic memory allocation.

What could have been done differently?

Things that did not get done and/or could be changed

A routine practice at the organization is to hold practice and mock sessions with the team whenever there is a new facilitator teaching a session for the first time, or if there is a new topic being taught. I held a mock session with the team for my algorithmic sessions, and it did not go very well. Upon only a few improvements, I held the session and the students amazed me. The students did a far more excellent job in creating algorithms. This was because they had no other pre-conceived knowledge, so they were raw thinkers! This helped them think in a more clear and logical way than the team. This should be kept in mind and inform future sessions. What is tested with the team can play out differently with the students. Our minds are more crowded with the knowledge of computers and other ideas, that, unlike the students, it is harder for us to form new ideas.

What did I learn about myself when working with others?

Contributions, behaviors, and values I exhibited

I realized that I think better and more creatively when I am collaborating with someone else. When you study in the computer science field, figuring out an algorithm is much easier when you talk through it step by step with someone else. This allows you to understand better what you are thinking yourself and also gives you a chance to improve your ideas through your colleague’s questions and critical evaluation.

What did I learn about leadership?

Leadership attributes and insights I developed

The main drivers of my leadership this week were collaboration and team working. The most rewarding aspect has been contributing experience of learning algorithmic thinking from university and being able to use my notes and resources to help improve the students’ learning experience. While I was teaching the students from the previous year’s cohort, I utilized my observations of my own professor’s teaching to communicate difficult concepts with the students.

The greatest attribute and insight that I contributed was patience. This week represented the culmination of guiding the student’s thinking in the right direction. I had to reiterate new concepts and spend 40 minutes developing and going back and forth with the students on a for-loop or traversing a queue, for example, just to see incredible, incremental improvement. The satisfaction of the students figuring it out at the end made it all worth it. I exercised patience with great enthusiasm because patience comes with the care and support they need as they discover new grounds.

What do I want to develop or focus on next?

What I still need to develop

For my final week, I need to begin writing to document the pedagogical approaches I took and the tangible impacts I had to help the organization learn from and utilize my experience when teaching their next cohort. This will involve writing on the most important takeaways, like how this week we learned the importance of visualizations through games and objects to communicate difficult concepts.