Every session begins with an energiser. Usually there’s a rota showing who will lead the energiser. We have some favourite games you can play if you are stuck.

1. Traffic Jam: re-order the cars to unblock yourself
2. Telephone: draw the words and write the pictures
3. Popcorn show and tell: popcorn around the room and show one nearby object or something in your pocket or bag and explain what it means to you.

1. 🎙️ Nominate a facilitator (trainee or volunteer)
2. ⏰ Nominate a timekeeper (trainee or volunteer)

🎙️ Facilitator

Your role is make sure that everybody gets the chance to speak. Start the discussion by asking the group:

• What are the key ideas in this sprint that you want to discuss?
• What’s the biggest blocker you have right now?

Invite the group to spend ⏰ 5 minutes writing down key ideas and blockers on a board.

Vote on the focus

Give the group ⏰ 2 minutes to vote on what to discuss. +1 on the question is fine.

🐇 Begin with the most popular topic

Give the group ⏰ 10 minutes to discuss the most popular topic. Move the discussion on if it gets stuck. If the group is struggling to come up with ideas, ask them to think about:

• What documentation relates to this topic?
• What other problem is this problem like, that you have met before?
• Is there another way to solve this problem?

🕳️ Move on to the next topic

Keep the discussion moving and help the group to stay on track. Your job is to prevent “rabbit holing” on one topic.

⏰ Timekeeper

Keep the discussion on track by keeping an eye on the time. Use a stopwatch and give the group a 30 second warning before the end of the session.

A quick break so we can all concentrate on the next piece of work.

At CYF we expect you to demo your work to the class. You must have many opportunities to practice how to clearly and simply explain your work to others. This is really important both for interviews and for getting promoted later on.

⏰ Timekeeper

The timekeeper will keep the groups on track.

Split randomly into groups of no more than 5 people. Each person will have 2 minutes to demo their work to the group. After the demo, the group will give feedback for 5 minutes. Then the next person will demo their work.

🧑🏼‍🎓 Trainees

1. Demo

You will demo your work to the group. You will have 2 minutes to explain what you did and why. It’s ok to show broken code or code that doesn’t work yet. Just make sure your demo is interesting.

2. Feedback

After the demo, the group will give you feedback for up to 5 minutes. It’s smart to suggest what kind of feedback you want by asking some “generative” questions. For example:

• I wasn’t sure if it makes sense to try X. What do you think?
• I liked the way I did X, but I know there are other approaches, what did you do?
• I found X really confusing, did anyone else have the same problem?
• I wasn’t sure if I explained what an X was very clearly, how could I have explained it better?

More tips: A Good Question Can Be the Key to a Successful Presentation.

💡 Tips:

• Practice your demo before class.
• Keep it simple. Don’t try to show everything you did. Just show one interesting thing.
• Keep it short. Two minutes is enough.
• Explain what you did and why.
• Show your code.
• Ask for feedback.

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.

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:

Please feel comfortable and welcome to pray at this time if this is part of your religion.

If you are breastfeeding and would like a private space, please let us know.

🧑🏼‍🎓 Trainees

(If you don’t have a guest expert, do study group instead.)

Share your questions in a Slack thread by Friday 10am. This is an Ask Me Anything🧶🧶 Ask Me AnythingAsk Me Anything. style session.

🦸🏾 Expert(s)

Read over the questions and prepare your answers before class if possible.