Session Assistant

The Session Assistant's role is to help the Session Lead get through the session as smooth as possible. That means primarily helping trainees when exercises are given. But it can also mean teaching some topics, coming with another perspective in the session, keeping the Session Lead focused on the learning goals.

Another important part is helping with reviewing assignments.

Remember to talk to the Session Lead about how you should be assisting the session. Should you fx. help teach some topics, is it okay if you interrupt the Session Lead, etc.

Responsibility

Your responsibility is to help/assist the Session Lead so they are not overloaded with work.

Mentor	Assess	Feedback
In our teams we often have a wide range of ability and so it is essential that we mentor the trainees who are struggling so they don't fall behind. Take the time not only to teach but also to motivate and connect with the trainee. Many of our trainees may never have met a programmer before and this can be a great opportunity for them to ask questions about your background and day-to-day life.	When interacting with trainees, try to gauge how they are doing in the lesson. Spot trainees who are doing well and those that are doing poorly. It is important you feed this back to our coordinators at the end of the day. Giving feedback and assessing assignments from the trainees is also an important job for you as a teaching assistant.	As a teaching assistant you are uniquely placed to give active feedback to your Session Lead. Never be afraid to ask the Session Lead to explain again if you think the trainees don't understand a topic or to offer extra clarification. Wherever possible, feedback to the Session Lead on how the trainees you're interacting with are doing. Additionally, we encourage feedback on the lesson itself. We try to foster a community of growth and education for everyone at HackYourFuture - not just our trainees.

Session Rules

1. ​Follow the Code of Conduct

   • You should report any violations to the staff

2. Don't touch the trainee's keyboard.

   • Unless you're 100% certain that whatever you're doing is outside of the trainees required understanding

3. Be empathetic.

   • Our trainees come from many different cultures, have many different levels of English, have different levels of computer literacy, have many different employment statuses

4. Don't demotivate.

   • It can be easy to demotivate trainees using dismissive language (e.g. "c'mon", "it’s easy, just do this")

5. Be patient.

   • Everything takes time and they will get there in the end

6. Remember you are an expert.

   • Be aware of your blind spots when working with beginners

Tips

Ask don’t tell

As a Session Assistant, your job is not to understand what the trainee doesn’t understand but why they don’t understand it. You are in the lucky position of working closely with the trainees and so are uniquely placed to fix core misunderstandings in their mental models. The most important question in your arsenal is “What do you think the answer is?”.

Assignments in mind

When mentoring a trainee you should always have the assignments for the week in mind. You should be helping them to understand concepts well enough so that you can confidently say that they will be able to complete the assignments to a sufficient level. If you don’t know the assignments for the week, ask your Session Lead.