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Word Chain
Learning Objectives
A fast-paced word association game that works for both in-person and online groups of any size. If you are playing online, write the order of players in the chat to keep track of who is next.
Set a timer for
- The first player says any word.
- The next player must say a word that begins with the last letter of the previous word. For example: cat → tree → elephant → tower
- Continue around the circle or moving clockwise on Zoom gallery.
- If a player takes longer than 5 seconds or repeats a word, they’re out.
- Last player standing wins.
Variations
- Restrict words to specific categories (animals, countries, food)
- Words must be exactly 4 letters long
- Words must be related to the previous word in meaning
Morning orientation
Learning Objectives
Planning during the week
👣 Steps
If you haven’t done so already, choose someone (volunteer or trainee) to be the facilitator for this morning orientation block. Choose another to be the timekeeper.
🎙️ The Facilitator will:
- Assemble the entire group (all volunteers & all trainees) in a circle
- Briefly welcome everyone with an announcement, like this:
💬 “Morning everyone, Welcome to CYF {REGION}, this week we are working on {MODULE} {SPRINT} and we’re currently working on {SUMMARISE THE TOPICS OF THE WEEK}”
- Ask any newcomers to introduce themselves to the group, and welcome them.
- Now check: is it the start of a new module? Is it sprint 1? If so, read out the success criteria for the new module.
- Next go through the morning day plan only (typically on the curriculum website) - and check the following things:
Facilitator Checklist
- Check the number of volunteers you have for the morning
- Check someone is leading each session
- Describe how any new activities works for the group
- Decide how best to allocate trainees and volunteers for a given block - most blocks will make this clear
⏰ The Timekeeper will:
- Announce the start of an activity and how long it will take (check everyone is listening)
- Manage any whole class timers that are used in an activity
- Give people a 10-minute wrap-up warning before the end of an activity
- Announce the end of an activity and what happens next
🔗 Problem Solving Workshop
In groups, we will work through this Codewars problem. Split into groups, one per volunteer.
Remember: Our goals are to: Understand the problem and make a plan to solve it. These are more important steps than actually writing the code (though we should do that too, after we have a plan).
Morning Break
A quick break so we can all concentrate on the next piece of work.
Time traveller
Learning Objectives
Meet the time traveller
In this insight session, you will hear from an alumni who has been through the course and is now working in the tech industry. They will share their experience of training with CYF and how it has helped them in their career.
You will have the opportunity to ask questions and learn from their experience. If you could ask your future self anything about today, what would it be?
Facilitator tips
Put a call out on main Slack for alumni to volunteer to be a time traveller. They should be prepared to share their experience of the course and answer questions from the class.Please do this a couple of weeks beforehand to give them time to prepare.
Community Lunch
Every Saturday we cook and eat together. We share our food and our stories. We learn about each other and the world. We build community.
This is everyone’s responsibility, so help with what is needed to make this happen, for example, organising the food, setting up the table, washing up, tidying up, etc. You can do something different every week. You don’t need to be constantly responsible for the same task.
🔗 Stand Up
Learning Objectives
Stand-up [30 minutes]🧍♂️
Most software development teams have a “stand-up” every day. Even if a team does not follow the agile methodology, stand-ups are used to discuss progress and identify blockers.
What is a stand-up meeting?
- Daily
- Short
- Focused
Traditional stand-up meetings require everyone to stand up so that the meeting is short.
💡Tip
Standup: a focused meeting where all team members share their progress, plans, and problems in a short amount of time.
📝Note
Activity: Prepare your Stand-up (5m)
Set a timer for 5 minutes
Write down three bullet points:
What you worked on yesterday
What issues are blocking you / What problems you encountered
What you will work on today
Set up 🌼
- Split up into breakout rooms of 5 - 10 people
- Set a timer for 10 minutes
🧩 Time to Have a First Stand-up
- Take turns to describe, in no more than 60 seconds:
- What you worked on this week.
- Something that is blocking you or that you struggled with (do not discuss solutions yet).
- What you plan to work on today. If you need help or want to pair with someone to work on something specific this is a time to communicate that!
- After everyone has given an update, reflect on next steps together. Is there something that multiple people said they struggled with that you could team up with? Is someone working on something interesting that you want to know more about?
- Where else can you ask a question when you have a problem? e.g. what Slack channels are suitable?
💡Tip
No problem solving in the stand-up!
When someone mentions a problem, it’s not the time to discuss solutions. The goal is to identify blockers and plan the day.
Acceptance Criteria 🧾
After this workshop, every participant:
- Has participated in a stand-up meeting and can explain what the structure is
- Has formulated their update in the typical “stand-up” structure
- Has described at least one technical blocker
Review
Look back over the objectives of this activity - check you've met them all. If you haven't, make sure you have a plan for how to achieve them - maybe checking in with a volunteer or a fellow trainee could help?Study Group
Learning Objectives
Trainees
This is time for you to get help with whatever you need help with.
If you didn’t understand something in the prep, ask about it.
If you were struggling with a backlog exercise, get help with it.
If you weren’t quite sure of something in a workshop, discuss it.
If you don’t have any problems, keep working through the backlog until you need help.
It can be useful to get into groups with others facing the same problem, or working on the same backlog item.
Volunteers
Don’t be scared to approach people and ask what they’re working on - see if you can help them out, or stretch their understanding.
If lots of people have the same problems, maybe you can put together a demonstration or a workshop to help them understand.
If absolutely no one needs help, consider reviewing some PRs using the process and guidelines in the #cyf-code-review-volunteer-team Slack channel canvas.
Breaks
No one can work solidly forever! Make sure to take breaks when you need.
Finished everything?
If you have finished everything in the backlog you can use this time to practice some other skills which will be useful in your future careers. We have some suggestions below:
Pair programming
Pair programming is very common in industry so it’s good to practice it now! Find a partner and choose a problem to work on, for example a Codewars kata. One person will be the “driver” and the other will be the “navigator”. Both of you will use the same laptop to complete the activity.
- The “driver” is the person typing on the keyboard, just thinking about what needs to be written
- The “navigator” reviews what the driver is doing and is thinking about to write next
- Switch between driver and navigator roles after
- Don’t dominate - this is teamwork
Code review
You will receive regular reviews of your work from volunteers when you submit a PR, but how comfortable are you giving a review? Find a partner and give each other feedback on one of the PRs you submitted this week. After you have given your feedback you should consider:
- How did you understand what the goal of the PR is? Did you read the title and description, look at the coursework exercises, etc.
- How did you use the different tabs in the PR:
Conversation,Commits,Files changed. - What made a PR easy or hard to review:
- Where unrelated files/lines changed?
- Was code consistently formatted? Did indentation help or hurt understanding?
- How did you review the code? Did you read top-to-bottom? Did you jump around into and out-of functions? Did you look at tests? Did you clone the code locally and try running it?
Prepare for your next demo
You need to give regular demos to complete the course. Use this time to work on your next one. You could:
- Prepare your slides
- Discuss topics
- Practice presenting
Share resources you have found
CYF aren’t the only resource available to you! If you have discovered a new book, YouTube channel or anything else you are using to help you learn this is an excellent time to share it with your cohort.
Retro: Start / Stop / Continue
🕹️Retro (20 minutes)
A retro is a chance to reflect. You can do this on RetroTool (create a free anonymous retro and share the link with the class) or on sticky notes on a wall.
- Set a timer for 5 minutes. There’s one on the RetroTool too.
- Write down as many things as you can think of that you’d like to start, stop, and continue doing next sprint.
- Write one point per note and keep it short.
- When the timer goes off, one person should set a timer for 1 minute and group the notes into themes.
- Next, set a timer for 2 minutes and all vote on the most important themes by adding a dot or a +1 to the note.
- Finally, set a timer for 8 minutes and all discuss the top three themes.