[Texas] brainstorming PyTexas 2011

[Brad Allen]

On Sat, Apr 30, 2011 at 4:13 PM, Jeremy Kelley <jeremy at 33ad.org> wrote:

> Concerning tutorials, (and I don't recall if last year this was done
> this way or not) but what if we came up with a list of 4-10 topics
> that needed teachers and solicited people to do them?  This is a
> little backwards but might help kickstart the topics along with guide
> the offerings.

I agree this approach could be helpful, especially if we adapt the
idea toward creating ready-made tutorials for the Python Teach-In.
Last years's Teach-In was a somewhat chaotic, but it seemed to work
for a lot of people. It could be even better if we hand out ready-made
tutorial materials at the registration desk, like so:

Registration Interaction:
-------------------------------

Registrar: "Welcome to PyTexas! Please fill out your name next to the
wifi key, and tear off the login info. Here is your t-shirt & badge.
Perchance are you available to help out with the Python Teach-In this
morning?"

Attendee: "I would like nothing more than the opportunity to
experience the joy of helping others improve their Python skills.
Sadly, I have nothing prepared to teach, for I am a busy Python
professional and ever so distracted by my work."

Registrar: "Never fear, gentle attendee. We can put your skills to
good use with our ready-made tutorials. Please proceed to the Teach-In
Desk posthaste."

The attendee goes to the Teach-In desk in front of the plenary room.

Teach-In Coordinator: "Feast your eyes upon these small booklets with
their attached flash drives; each contains a modest guide suitable for
ad-hoc instruction on a particular topic of interest."

The following stacks of booklets appear on the table:

    * Python for Absolute Beginners
    * Python for Experienced Programmers New to Python
    * Python Koans
    * Automated Testing in Python
    * Practical Python Packaging and Installation
    * Object Oriented Concepts in Python
    * Iterators, Generators, and Comprehensions

Attendee: "My, my. Most of those those look easy enough to teach. I'll
take them all!"

Teach-In Coordinator: "Splendid! In that case, you qualify for the
Wizard's Hat, provided by one of our generous sponsors. Please don the
hat, proceed to the large Teach-In room, and look around for someone
wearing an Apprentice Hat whose light is blinking. Those are the ones
who need help. If you find anyone without a hat, send them to me. This
room is a hats-only room."

Attendee: "Very well, this game seems simple enough. But what are
those booklets I see stacked in the corner? Those look much more
interesting."

Teach-In Coordinator: "Those are the advanced tutorials. We are
setting those aside for later! After all, we don't want you to get
distracted away from helping the beginners!"

Attendee: "Oh..."

The attendee spied the spines of the advanced booklets :

    * Whiffing the Waft of Code Smells in Python
    * Plumbing the Forbidden Mysteries of Zope Toolkit
    * Coroutines for Concurrency
    * Own the Dot: Descriptors Demystified
    * Migrating to Python 3
    * Join the SQLAlchemy Project
    * Bite into PyPy
    * Proctoring Python Puzzles
    * Fun with itertools
    * Design Patterns in Python

There were a few others in the pile but that was all he could make out so far.