How I taught e-commerce in high school (part 2, first classes)

In the first part, we stopped at the painful questions that were chasing me on the night before going to the pulpit. So, the first lecture was held, but it was slightly crumpled for several reasons, the first of which was late: students have a habit of being late. In the case of my first lecture, even the word “late” poorly describes the endless stream of “catch-up”. Basically, I was ready for it. From school experience, I knew that someone who was forced to be late would try to go quietly, without attracting too much attention, but the company of loafers, idlers, hanging out two steps away from the audience, would collapse with all possible noise and din. They simply need to attract attention, nothing more. Therefore, when the numerical strength seemed sufficient for me to make statements, I reported the following:

1. Everything is possible, except that it interferes with the teacher and students. So, if we are late - we sit quietly and try to penetrate. If uninteresting - quietly leave.
2. Credit does not depend on attendance. I am only interested in knowing the answers to the ticket questions. The consequence of this statement was the absence of "automata". I sincerely believe that punctual attendance at lectures does not provide automatic knowledge, much less an understanding of the above. Similarly, non-attendance of lectures does not mean auto-forwarding in the standings. However, I continue to attend lectures in the journal - these are the requirements of the dean's office.

The statement about the machines obviously upset some. No matter how sad it is to admit, the girls mainly pinned their hopes on the automatic credit for perseverance ...
The second reason for the not too smooth course of the lecture was my excitement, which was even more intensified when I realized that I had not calculated the volume of the lecture, and there was clearly not enough for two pairs of notes. I had to compensate for “chewing on” some moments (for starting a new topic for 15 minutes remaining before the call did not make sense), well, thoughtful filling in the activity log :)
In my communication with students, despite my efforts, an atmosphere of some embarrassment was established on their part. I remembered them very badly since my studies, but they are pretty good for me. Therefore, it turned out that I addressed them mainly to “you”, and they often addressed me to “you”. Probably, they wanted to get close in this way and get some profit. I hardly noticed it. I had a lot of other problems:

1. How to get feedback directly during the lecture, so as not to continue, if the listeners faltered on an incomprehensible moment?
2. How to put the laboratory work so that they were feasible for everyone, but at the same time were not completely primitive from the point of view of advanced students?

The first question remains for me half covered in gloom. In principle, the moment when the eyes of those sitting in the audience begin to grow dim from lack of understanding, in my opinion, it is not difficult to catch. The problem is that at this moment it's too late. We have to go back to the “point of misunderstanding”, losing time.
To avoid misunderstanding, I tried to minimize what is called “stuffing” - long compound sentences that are difficult not only to write down, but even just to cover, especially by ear. Instead, I tried to make extensive use of information structuring techniques: charts, tables, lists. Once we even sketched something similar to mindmap. Unfortunately, the work was greatly hampered by the fact that in most lectures the projector was inaccessible. You had to use the board (if there are my students here - forgive me for the handwriting, please!), It turned out with varying success;)
After thinking about the problem of laboratory work, I decided to deal with students of a kind of reverse engineering of a training online store. The fact is that on occasion I got an engine written for training purposes (in PHP + MySQL). He was ascetic, provided basic functionality, and, from my point of view, was suitable for educational analysis.
The first laboratory work was devoted to a rather simple thing - the construction of ER-diagrams on the existing database. In general, the students pleased me by coping with the task. True, the base was only a few tables. Most were divided into two camps: half poked into phpMyAdmin buttons, the other half restored the structure according to the database generation script. The minority, unfortunately, was desperately stupid :( For example, some people were slightly stupid about the structure of the simplest table in the database with id and parent_id columns, in which the presentation of hierarchical data was implemented in such a simple way. then the exam (and applied informatics - and coursework) from the databases ... I had to devote a few minutes to the analysis of this structure. We analyzed this case using the example of ... beer. I literally went over the head to use a simplified classification willow by producers, and I have represented something like:

Practically all made the first laboratory without special difficulties. With the understanding of the first lecture (the history of e-commerce, the advantages, the economic prerequisites for the transition to e-commerce) also seems to be no problem. However, despondency clearly reigned in the stream. True, for the most part it was due to the post-cannibal syndrome (after all, it’s still a natural summer in Sochi!), But it was also a part of my fault. Go through the points:

• I was still nervous, and I myself had post-necrosis syndrome. Students clearly felt this. The words did not fall on the language, the ending of the phrase that had already fallen into the head was going back ...
• Talking two pairs in a row is difficult. Especially from the habit.
• Computers were not prepared for classes: problems with Denwer and the learning engine being disassembled had to be solved directly in the course of the first laboratory.

I have not forgiven myself the last and will not forgive myself. This can not be allowed, because it is not only a fall in the eyes of students, but simply a waste of time with respect to study time. But after a couple of years before, during my studies, one of our teachers told me an instructive story about how he, a military technician, being in the rank of lieutenant, after a year in the army came to the post of head of the military school. For some reason, one day in his lab was not tidied up. The officer who led the cadets to school forced our hero to put everything in order with his own hands. The phrase “And here I am, officer, my gender is in front of a group of cadets — after all, it’s my fault that the laboratory was not ready for classes ...” I remember. Students should not notice this. This should remain for them the underwater part of the iceberg. And the point is not in the alleged humiliation in the given example, but in the fact that the mechanism of provision is good when it is quietly and implicitly functioning. The laboratory must be ready, the library is open, the training manuals are available, the hangover , the teacher’s fatigue is not noticeable. This is my principle, but in the future I was hard to try to comply with it. And not only him ...