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After Home and School, Where Do You Find the Strongest Feeling of Community?

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After Home and School, Where Do You Find the Strongest Feeling of Community?

Have you heard of the idea of the “third place”? Think of it as the location you can be found most, after where you live and go to school, a place where you seek, and ideally find, community.

What’s your third place? Is it possible to have a third place that is an online environment, like a gaming or social media platform?

In “Prince Harry Wants to Ban Fortnite? Here’s What He’s Missing,” Jennifer Senior writes about the popularity of Fortnite. After observing her son, she argues that it, too, qualifies as a third place for those who play it regularly:

But part of me, I’ll confess, was at sixes and sevens about the sudden appearance of this game. Why — and how — had it so quickly become the rabid preoccupation of so many?

A great deal of the answer is that Fortnite is social. More than social, actually: It is, as the tech writer and developer Owen Williams has written, a destination, an actual place. “It’s like going to church, or the mall,” Williams explained on his blog, Charged, late last year, “except there’s an entire universe to mess around in together.”

Which explains a certain wisecrack my son likes to make when he peels off to play. “I’m going to see my friends now,” he says, though he’s in fact joining them on his headset. Jumping into a game of Fortnite is paying a social call, the equivalent of dropping in on a cocktail party.

That Fortnite is its own place — specifically “a third place,” or lively harbor for communities outside of home and work — matters quite a lot. Middle-class children today don’t have much freedom to find such places. They’re rigidly scheduled and aggressively sheltered — parents of my generation are more inclined to roll their children in bubble wrap and tuck them on a high shelf for storage than allow them to wander off to parks or shopping malls on their own. Gaming is their form of self-determination, a means to take control of their constricted, highly regimented lives.

Students, read the entire column, then tell us:

— What are your thoughts on Ms. Senior’s idea that young people today have “constricted, highly regimented lives”? To what degree does that describe your life and those of your peers?

— Do you play video games? If so, what are your thoughts on gaming offering a means to experience feeling in control? Explain.

— Ms. Senior says she sees a connection between her 11-year-old son’s gaming and his wanting to have “embodied interaction,” seeing the friends he plays Fortnite with in real life. Do you think this is unique to the game they choose to play? Is there something about Fortnite that makes people feel more socially inclined? If so, what is it?

— Above, we asked you to name your third place. Identify the third place of several people you know. Why do you think they gravitate to those places? How have they found a sense of community there? How is their third place similar or different from yours?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Learning to Read Like Writers With ‘Anatomy of a Scene’

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Learning to Read Like Writers With ‘Anatomy of a Scene’

How do you get students to engage in deep literary analysis — the kind that moves beyond basic comprehension and toward critical thinking? Julie Hodgson, an English teacher at Mansfield Middle School in Storrs, Conn., has an idea. In this post, she tells us how she uses “Anatomy of a Scene,” a New York Times weekly video series in which directors comment on the craft of moviemaking, to help students step inside an author’s mind so they can begin to analyze and evaluate literature like a writer.

Do you teach with The Times? Tell us about it here, or browse our full collection of Reader Ideas.

_________

“Get inside the author’s head,” is a direction I frequently give students in my eighth-grade literature course. “Think as if you’re the writer,” I instruct.

The Common Core English Language Arts Standards expect young learners to cite text evidence to support analysis, explore themes and central ideas, and evaluate the specific choices authors make. These important goals require students to be thoughtful and analytical readers who cannot only identify authors’ decisions but evaluate them, as well.

But many adolescents often get so lost in a story that they forget there is an author behind the words — a puppet master who sets the stage, pulls the strings, develops the conflicts and shares a bigger meaning.

I use the New York Times “Anatomy of a Scene” video series to help students get inside the minds of writers. In these short clips, film directors narrate a scene from one of their movies, walking viewers through the decisions they made and the effects they intended them to have. These videos demonstrate to students how to step outside of their personal reader-to-text experiences and examine literature from a wider lens — to see a story, memoir, essay or poem from the perspective of its creator.

Looking at literature from this angle demands that students look at the “why beneath the why,” and explore the fuller intent and meaning that authors and directors hope to convey. Reading becomes a more dynamic process — one that allows adolescents to engage more fully with writers and ideas, and to challenge what they read. As Bailey Messina, an eighth grader in my classroom, stated: “It’s worthwhile, because you can better understand why an author chose to use certain strategies. An author views the book differently from the reader, so putting yourself in an author’s mind-set helps you see it.”

In the following lesson sequence I explain how I use “Anatomy of a Scene” clips in my classroom to deepen students’ literary analysis. They begin by identifying the types of intentional decisions authors and directors make. Then, they watch clips that provide them with the vocabulary they need to analyze these deliberate choices.

Later, students connect a clip to a piece of literature and examine how the author made similar decisions and why. Then, they select their own scenes from published texts and pretend that they are the writers and directors themselves, explaining their choices for character and thematic development, mood, tone and other stylistic elements in their own “Anatomy of a Scene”-style narrations.

Through this lesson, students begin to develop a broader understanding and appreciation for a text beyond its entertainment value. It’s as if they are no longer just passively watching the puppet show, but seeing and evaluating the moves of the puppeteer.

_________

Before introducing the “Anatomy of a Scene” clips, I invite students to “read like a writer.” Two short chapters from texts about reading literature support this work. First, students read the first chapter from Ralph Fletcher’s book “A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You.” This chapter, “Reading Like a Writer,” encourages students to examine text just as a soccer coach might examine the specific moves and tactics of the players with a more specific, critical eye in order to find out the “why” behind the plays. Mr. Fletcher writes: “Writers don’t read like other people. Writers are interested in what’s going to happen, of course, but they are also keenly interested in finding out how the author created the effect.”

In addition, the students read the chapter “Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)” from the book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids” by Thomas C. Foster. This selection also invites students to examine authors’ decisions in crafting a text, like the methods of character development, the use of figurative language, the creation of mood and tone, and how an author may rely on archetypes to deliver a story.

Today’s students have grown up in a media-rich world, so I try to tap into what they already know from film and television. I tell them that authors have to make many of the same decisions that movie directors make: How can I show this character’s emotion? How can I get the reader or viewer to feel this suspense? How can I reveal this epiphany? How can I develop an authentic setting, one that will enhance the characters’ conflicts?

Here’s an example: Years ago, I read an interview with Steven Spielberg about the creation of “E.T.” He said that he intentionally and consistently used low camera angles to make the adults seem a little threatening and to help the viewer see the story from a child’s perspective. This small, but significant, strategy affects viewers in a way many students may have not previously recognized.

Jumping off this example, I then lead students in a whole-class brainstorming session to identify some more deliberate decisions authors might make when writing a story. Here are just a few questions I pose to get them thinking:

• From whose point of view is the story told?
• What and how much do we know about the background of the characters?
• Where does the story take place? Is the setting specific or generic?
• How is the story told? Does it begin in the middle? Use flashbacks? Go back to the beginning?
• How does the author use language? Is it rich and figurative? Or sparse and direct?

_________

Enter “Anatomy of a Scene.” For each one-to-three-minute clip, I have students focus on one or two of the “deliberate decisions” the director made and how these help develop the characters, establish the setting, create the mood or move the plot forward.

The beauty of using these videos is that they are adaptable for any lesson. The Times has published over 100 videos from every genre, so there is ample room for creativity and differentiation for your students’ interests and needs. Do they need to focus on character? Try “Lion,” by Garth Davis. Do they need to see how writers and directors create mood and tone? Use “Annihilation,” directed by Alex Garland. Do they love horror films? The column has a whole section dedicated to it.

Here are a few other clips I’ve used:

“Moonlight,” directed by Barry Jenkins, helps students understand character. In this clip, Mr. Jenkins explains his uses of water, camera angle and acting technique to show “a spiritual transference” between two characters. This segment is useful in showing how relationships develop characters, and how the perspective of the storyteller can enhance the readers’ and viewers’ understanding of characters.

Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” helps students see the importance of detail in a setting. Mr. Coogler explains how he includes small details to “contrast [his] pairings of innovators and traditionalists” in developing the setting of Wakanda and the characters.

Lee Daniels’s “The Butler” illustrates the power of focusing on one scene to reveal a broader context. He explains that “the goal in the scene was to show what it was like to be an African American at that time when [this family] really tried to emulate the Cleavers.”

Tom Hooper, the director of “Les Misérables,” explains the use of inner conflict to develop character and theme. As Jean Valjean reckons with his past, Mr. Hooper explains, “this act of grace, this act of forgiveness starts to suggest to him another way of being, of living this life. This is his epiphany where he really makes a discovery of the power of faith.”

“Lady Bird,” directed by Greta Gerwig, shows how small details can develop a more authentic setting. Ms. Gerwig tells viewers that she wanted to create a setting that was both “honest and beautiful” and to use it to show a relationship between mother and daughter.

_________

I follow each viewing of a clip with a focus on a corresponding text. For instance, after watching the “Black Panther” clip, I invite students to examine how Mark Twain uses a similar approach to develop the conflict between Tom and Sid in “Tom Sawyer.” Or, after watching how Mr. Jenkins develops relationships between characters in “Moonlight,” students might look at how Harper Lee uses the same technique in “To Kill a Mockingbird” in the exchange between Scout and Atticus to learn about walking in another person’s shoes. Short stories like “Spaceman From Adnaxas” by Henry Gregor Felsen and “On a Bridge” by Todd Strasser also work great for this activity.

These connections help students concretely and abstractly see the deliberate decisions directors make, note how authors do the same, offer an analysis of the effectiveness, and then, eventually, try out these strategies themselves.

I provide worksheets with graphic organizers to guide students through this task. Here are two examples:

Setting in “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Spaceman From Adnaxas”

Perspective, Sound and Close-ups in “A Quiet Place” and “On a Bridge”

Finally, I invite students to practice their own decision-making as directors. I instruct them to imagine they are to adapt the text for the big screen. Then, with a little luck, to pretend they are invited by The New York Times to narrate a scene from it for “Anatomy of a Scene.” They take to this task with enthusiasm!

Students start by selecting a scene from their text and illustrating it for the movie adaptation. Then, they write and record “voice over” narrations to explain the deliberate decisions that they, as directors, made in the film.

For example, in the clip below, three eighth graders, Marikate Marshall, Bailey Messina and Kira Shepard, explain how they used sound, perspective, flashbacks and pacing in their film adaptation of “Spaceman From Adnaxas.”

First, Kira notes an important character shift: “We wanted the audience to feel his doubt and his longing for home. We did this by zooming in on his face to show his eyes … In an instant, his eyes hardened and his look of longing has been replaced by a look of determination.”

In the same clip, her lesson partner Marikate begins to explore theme: “This scene also gives hints about a bigger theme present, about not just judging someone based on stereotypes, and how not just one being describes a whole race or group.”

In his narration for “Spaceman From Adnaxas,” Alex Card, an eighth grader, describes how he manipulated light and sound to establish an eerie mood. “In this scene, I wanted the spaceship flying in to be ominous, kind of gloomy and scary in a way,” he begins. “That’s exactly why I wanted to shoot this just before the sun set. The tall forest adds to the effect, as the shadows add to the suspense.”

And in his clip, Gabe Aguero explains how he and his group used perspective and close-ups to develop the main character in “On a Bridge.” “We decided to put a lot of focus on the dropping of the cigarette butt and Adam’s expression because the whole scene resembles Adam’s arrogance,” he says in the clip. “We made sure to get a close-up of Adam’s face when he showed no concern with his actions in order to provide a contrast for the audience when the ‘big guys’ show up and Adam’s face has shifted into being scared.”

Bailey summarized her takeaways from the lesson: “I learned that identifying deliberate decisions by an author is easier because as you’re reading a book, you can envision it like a movie — and not just how I want to see it. By deciphering a scene this way, sort of like a director does, I notice more of the smaller decisions, as well as the bigger ones.”

Through this lesson, students show that they, too, can make the same deliberate decisions that published writers and award-winning movie directors make. Once these tools are in the students’ back pockets, they can practice and master them in their own writing.

What’s Going On in This Picture? | April 8, 2019

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What’s Going On in This Picture? | April 8, 2019

Students

1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:

• What is going on in this picture?

• What do you see that makes you say that?

• What more can you find?

2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)

3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.

From “Level 0” to Working at Google: How Penn Grad Theresa Breiner Started a Software Development Career

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From “Level 0” to Working at Google: How Penn Grad Theresa Breiner Started a Software Development Career

With the rise of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, computer science has become relevant for virtually every type of career. Professionals in fields like medicine, public policy, history, and even the arts are using computer science skills to develop innovative ideas and solutions.

The Online Master of Computer and Information Technology (MCIT) program at the University of Pennsylvania is designed for students from non-computer science backgrounds who want to take advantage of new opportunities to advance their careers. This program brings online the established on-campus MCIT degree that has a history of empowering students from diverse academic backgrounds to succeed in computing and technology fields.

To better understand what it takes for someone with little computer science exposure to land a job at a top tech company in just two years, we talked to recent on-campus MCIT grad Theresa Brenier about how the degree helped her take her passion for linguistics to the next level — and land a software development job on Google’s Speech & Keyboard team.

You got your undergraduate degree in linguistics from Penn. What made you decide to stick with Penn for your graduate studies?

I was graduating with my linguistics degree, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do next. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into academia, which is what a lot of people in linguistics do. I had taken the Intro to Java class at Penn, and I thought that maybe in the future I’d get a PhD in linguistics and do something computational with it. So, I decided I should learn more programming.

I knew one student in the MCIT program and asked him how he liked it. He said it was great and that he learned a lot. I was impressed that he said he “didn’t know anything” before he started the degree. He knew even less than I did, since I’d taken one programming class. I found it really enticing that the program was geared for people that want to start from scratch.

What got you interested in the combination of linguistics and computer science?

I originally got interested in combining computer science and linguistics because I wanted to make the world a better place by bridging communication gaps. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do translation software that would help people talk to each other, or educational software that helps people learn new languages, or something else — I just wanted to help connect people even if they don’t speak the same language. And it worked out really well, because the team I’m on at Google is working to expand language coverage for speech technology to enable more people to use the internet and communicate with each other.

What was your experience with faculty at Penn?

I was impressed with the faculty, because they all knew computer science, but their passion was for teaching. The whole program is centered around teaching computer science to people that don’t know anything about it, and all the professors were ready to answer questions, be innovative in their teaching, and try to help people to learn in ways that suit them.

How would you describe the other students in the program?

Everyone was really willing to help each other out. We all came from such different backgrounds, and no one had studied computer science before. People had studied economics, or Spanish, or biology. And since people had different ways of thinking, it was really helpful working on group projects. If you were stuck on a problem, one of your teammates could bring a different perspective and help you approach it differently.  

I would also say that the students were really motivated, because many had worked in another field for 2-3 years. They showed determination by going through the application process to become a student again.

What about Penn Engineering as a whole? Have you made connections with the alumni network?

Well, the girl that was sitting two desks away from me at the start of the rotational program at Google had a Penn Engineering CS degree! And there’s an alumni lunch scheduled at Google for next week! It definitely seems like there are a lot of Penn Engineering alumni in the Bay Area, and the MCIT connections are strong. Chris Murphy, director of the online degree, was in the Bay Area and a lot of students came out to catch up with him. There’s quite a few alumni at Google, Facebook, and the other big companies in the area.

How did the program help you with your internship?

I interned at a research-heavy team at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. While I had the linguistic background, I’d only been programming for 8 months, and the internship required programming in C++. That’s a trickier language that I had only studied in the MCIT program for about three weeks.

However, what I learned from the program was the ability to be like “OK, I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m just going to sit down and look at this code and try and figure out what’s happening.” I like to use the analogy of learning a foreign language in high school and using Google Translate — you need to know how to look up what you’re looking for to get the right answers. It’s like that in computer science. You learn the foundations, and even if you don’t know something, you learn to look it up correctly.

Have these skills carried over into your job at Google?

Oh yeah, these are key work skills for any job, but especially for programming. Computer science is a vast field, there’s no one with perfect knowledge about everything. Even my teammate, who’s been at Google for 10 years, doesn’t know everything about the field we’re working in. He’s always asking questions. That’s just a basic skill, you have to be able to do it.

What was your Day 1 experience at Google? Did you feel prepared by the program at Penn?

It was the same feeling I had during the internship: I felt like I didn’t know as much as other people, but I also realized that everyone felt that way! Nobody expected you to know everything: at Google, all the tools are internal. You can’t know them before you start working there.

You have to be willing to try to figure out where to find answers and ask for help when you need it. A lot of what you learn is going to be “on the job” anyway, but MCIT’s foundational background primes you to be able to pick up new things.  

What advice would you give to someone looking at MCIT? What is their life going to look like on the other end of it?

I didn’t go into MCIT thinking I’d be a software developer — I thought it would help me pursue something else. It’s good for that, but you should also be ready to realize that you might decide to become a software developer, especially considering how good the job’s work/life balance tends to be. It depends on the company and position, but it’s usually flexible because you can do your job from your laptop. You don’t necessarily have to be somewhere at a certain time. For example, I’m working from Brazil next week!

What advice would you give to someone who’s gotten into the program, and it’s week 1 – how can they make sure they’re successful?

Definitely start learning time management! Even if you think you know it, it’s different with programming. There’s this saying: “The first 80% of the project will take 80% of the time, and the last 20% of the project will take 80% of the time.” It always takes longer than you think it will, especially the end. You might feel pretty good about how it’s going, but there’s inevitably going to be a small problem at the end that takes time to fix. You need to start early, and spend time on it each day.

Anything else you’d like to add about your Penn MCIT experience?

I was really nervous starting the program. Even though I had studied one semester of programming, I didn’t really know what computer science was, or if I would be good at it. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I think a lot of people feel that way, and many of them don’t even have a semester of programming experience.

I would say it’s different from things you’ve done before, but there’s going to be a support network of everyone going through the same thing at the same time and they can help you get through it. Be ready to work and know that it’s all going to be OK!

 

Ask Developers: Why Should You Learn C#?

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Ask Developers: Why Should You Learn C#?

To celebrate our new Learn C# course release this week, we interviewed several developers who work in C# extensively. We got a ton of insightful answers on what it is like to work in C# and why it is a valuable language to learn. Unfortunately, we couldn’t fit everything into the weekly course drop email so we wrote this blog post for the remaining helpful responses from our interviewees. Meet these developers: Nam, Altan, Nada, Jesse, Hayden, Harley, Young and Simon!

  1. Tell me a little about yourself!
  2. How and why did you learn C#?
  3. How do you use C# in your day to day?
  4. Why should I learn C#?
  5. Top tip when learning a new language or specifically C#?

Tell me a little about yourself!


Hey! My name is Altan. I’ve been passionate about technology ever since I was 3 years old playing video games on a Super Nintendo. As I grew older, that passion developed into a curiosity about how software is built and I decided to study computer science when I went to college.

I’ve been working at Microsoft for over 4 years, where I’ve helped build big data applications and mobile device management solutions. In my free time, I love staying active through skiing, weight lifting, and golfing. I try to always be reading a good book and recommend that everybody do the same.

– Altan G._


Hi, I’m Nada! I’m a Texas gal who moved to the beautiful Pacific Northwest 3 years ago. I’m a Software Engineer working in Azure IOT at Microsoft.

Outside of coding, I love spending time outdoors—running, hiking, and skiing, and travelling when I can! My next adventures are going to Japan for cherry blossom season and hiking around Patagonia.

– Nada I._




I was born and raised in New Zealand, when I was 22 I moved to Vancouver and now I live in Seattleworking for Microsoft on the Sway web application. My first experience with coding came from making a simple “Tag” video game with my dad who is also a Software engineer.

My first job in the tech industry was as a game tester for Ninja Kiwi, the creators of the “Bloons” game series. I got to bug test the “Monkey City” and “SAS 4” flash games before they were released. I am an avid video game player and an amateur fencer.

– Harley A._


How and why did you learn C#?

I originally learned C# to write apps for Windows, since I’d just got myself a Windows Phone (RIP). I came to love the language so much that I eventually decided to try it for back-end web development (I’d been using [PHP]() for years and was eager to try something new).

After a couple of failed hackathons struggling with ASP, I finally started to gain my foothold there, and now it’s my go-to! Though I’m starting to finally edge into the Node world, since so much of the front-end world is strongly coupled to it.

– Hayden A._




At work and because it pays the bills. In all seriousness though I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to learn C# on the job with the help of my manager and coworkers. I’ve always been a hands-on learner and so this style of learning-by-doing has always worked really well for me.

One of the reasons I chose to work on the team I currently am in (the Capacity Infrastructure Service team under Azure) was because exactly this. In most teams, at least in Microsoft, you can’t go far before needing to learn some form of it.

– Young K._


I first got in contact with C# during high school. My uncle got me interested in programming at that time and lent me a book about learning to code in BASIC. I wasn’t quite happy with the language and was looking into alternatives already.

At the time our math teacher assigned us some homework that was long and tedious and I didn’t want to do it by hand – instead, I wanted to write a program to solve those tasks for me and I picked C# as the language to write it in. I basically taught myself the basics of C# that day.

Later on when I was at university I got to know the entire C# and .NET ecosystem in more detail and really learned to appreciate it.

– Simon D._



Harley: I first picked up C# during my computer science degree. I remember appreciating how easy it was to debug the code. Stepping through, line by line, and seeing what every command did was the best way to learn how to write C# code. I found that most of the tech companies in my home town were using C# along with the .NET framework, so having these skills was helpful in my job search.

How do you use C# in your day to day?

Altan: Learning C# at my first internship was really useful because I ended up using it at all of my internships and my full-time job at Microsoft!

Here is a quick list of some of the C# projects I worked on:

  • A touchscreen mapping application.
  • A Windows desktop application to monitor a messaging system between stealth jets.
  • An application for graphic designers to fit any custom-made design on blank document within an image (imagine a picture of you holding a blank piece of paper, this application could apply any design onto the paper).
  • An application for photographers to preview what a custom design would look like on natural curved surfaces, such as embroidery on wrinkled clothing or images on water bottles.
  • A distributed system made up of a web application, web service, and big data service that processes terabytes of data daily.

Simon: I am working on some Azure microservices that are almost fully written in C#.

Our client application is a webpage written mostly using Typescript and common JavaScript libraries, but from the code that serves those pages to our users, over the backend all the way to our DevOps and build pipeline tooling (both on our build machines as well as tooling for our local repositories on the dev machines) pretty much everything else is written in C#.

Since I am working on the backend of our service, pretty much my entire day is working on C# code.

Why should I learn C#?


C# is a very versatile language that many organizations use to build web services that scale. In addition, for people who are learning to write code for the first time, C# is a great place to start because of its object oriented nature and extensive library support.

– Jesse F._


Young: In the past some of the more popular languages I’ve used included Python, Java, and Javascript/Typescript. I’m constantly impressed with how elegant programming in C# can be, and how much support it has, both in terms of what you can do with the language itself and the C# community (looking at you Jon Skeet!).

It also goes without saying that a lot of companies (Microsoft included) look for C# developers. Another nice thing about learning a language like C# is it has a lot of similarities to other (C-family) languages, and a lot of the concepts you’ll learn carry over too.

Altan: C# is one of the most ubiquitous languages used in tech today and can be adapted to almost any type of application that you would like to build. For example, you can use C# to build a Windows application, a web application, mobile apps for Android and iOS (when used with the Xamarin library), or a back-end system doing heavy data processing.

The syntax is straightforward, the best practices are tried-and-true, and the documentation is excellent. The developer toolset typically used with C# (Visual Studio) is the best in the business. As a beginner, you won’t have any problem searching the Internet for any issues or questions you have about the language because of its popularity.

Lastly, C# is built and maintained by Microsoft, a company that has an incentive to help software developers become more productive, so it still receives useful updates regularly and will be continued to be supported in the future.

Top tip when learning a new language or specifically C#?


Learning a new language is always difficult. That can be especially true if it’s your first programming language. That said, as is the case with a lot of things in life, do not skip on building a strong foundation to your knowledge. When faced with a bug or a new concept that a language brings, it can be very tempting to rely on easy solutions found on the web.

However, if you spend the time to understand the reasoning behind why a particular solution exists and if you allow yourself to pursue follow-up questions you may have, you will find that you will gain a much more solid understanding of the initial concept you were originally curious about and how it may apply to other similar situations.

– Nam N._


Nada: When learning a new programming language, it’s easy to quickly get lost by the terminology and syntax and be unable to verbalize what you have learned. My advice would be to constantly take a step back while learning a new programming language and ask yourself, can you explain what you’re learning to someone else? If not, spend more doing mini coding challenges to help you better understand what you’re learning.

Young: If you use tabs in a C# file, it won’t compile, so don’t use tabs. Just kidding. My real advice is use an IDE if you aren’t already (e.g. for C#, something like Visual Studio). Code completion can be a real lifesaver when getting started (and even well after that)!

Responses have been condensed and edited for clarity sake.

Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓

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Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓

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Codecademy’s very own Nick Duckwiler (left) and Ryan Tuck from Warby Parker (right) in our office. (📷: Mitch Boyer)

Last month, Codecademy and Warby Parker came together to work on a special Learn SQL from Scratch Capstone Project. It was during this time when I met Ryan Tuck, a Data Engineer at Warby, who played a major part in this partnership. So when he decided to drop by our office for the final QA round, I had to break out my notebook and ask some questions. Enjoy.

Hey Ryan, let’s start off with a question I’ve had for a while — what is a Data Engineer? (Is it similar to a Data Analyst or a Software Engineer?)

At Warby Parker, data engineers are responsible for creating and maintaining the plumbing required to support the data and reporting needs of the business. We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.

What languages/frameworks do you use at Warby?

On data engineering, we use Python as our general purpose programming language, as do most of the other teams in our Technology department. When it comes to databases, we use PostgreSQL for the majority of our SQL needs, and are beginning to use Amazon Athena and Google BigQuery for some of our larger datasets. We use Looker as our exclusive business intelligence entry point to all of this data.

What are some of the projects you worked on?

I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of of smart people in every department at our company to help them solve their varied data needs, from reconciling financial data with the Accounting team to automating and modeling standardized performance metrics for our team of over 200 customer experience advisors.

As part of a team of five supporting the data needs of a rapidly growing company, I’ve tried where possible to focus on helping our analysts solve their own problems. This includes helping people learn Python and commit to our codebase, guiding the creation of data models in SQL, and encouraging people to submit pull requests to add features in Looker, our BI tool.

Seeing dozens of otherwise “non-technical” colleagues opening up PRs on a daily basis, and consequently being part of the democratization of tech that we value at Warby Parker, is probably the most rewarding “project” I’ve been a part of.

One project finished recently during our first annual “Hackweek” is called Pipes, which allows anyone at the company to easily move large amounts of data from wherever to wherever (Looker, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, BigQuery, etc) on a regular cadence, or manually through a simple one-line chatbot interface. The adoption has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re looking to grow this sort of tooling out even more.

“We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.”

What got you into the data field?

I’ve always been drawn to analytical fields like math, and became pretty proficient in Excel during some internships in college. Once I had learned to program and learned more about data science and its applications in artificial intelligence, I knew that anything I could do to immerse myself in the world of data would be a step in the right direction.

Three and a half years ago, I landed a job as a junior software engineer at Warby Parker not fully knowing what I was in for, but am so glad I got the opportunity to help build tools to support an interesting and ever-changing data-driven culture here.

Where did you learn SQL and Python?

I had a background in C++, and was exposed to Python through an Intro to Data Science course. When Warby Parker hired me onto the Data team in 2015, I had never written a SQL query in my life, but picked it up quickly and within a few months started up internal SQL training classes, which I still teach on a monthly basis.

What does your tattoo say?


The ultimate cheatsheet.

This is Bayes’ Theorem, which is an equation that describes how to update probabilities given new evidence. Two summers ago I worked on building a tool to help predict weekly fantasy football performance. Some colleagues suggested a Bayesian approach would be appropriate, since there aren’t really enough data points in an NFL season to be able to use statistical approaches that require larger datasets, and I’d want to regularly update my predictions after each player’s latest performance.

I did a deep dive into understanding the (simple) math underlying Bayes’ Theorem and came out of that experience with a whole new worldview, understanding my entire knowledge of the world as a big and intricate probabilistic model that I was continuously updating with every experience I ever have. It was pretty transformative, and I figured that was worth a tattoo.

What is a concept in SQL/Python that’s essential to your work?

Donald Knuth said, “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” I’ve generally found this to be true, and try to live by it in my work. For example, I’ll generally prefer to keep a data model simple by rebuilding it for all time on a daily basis using a single SQL query instead of making a more complicated model that requires iteratively adding to a table, keeping track of state, updated timestamps, when something last ran, etc.

A wise man once said, “Duplicating data makes things go fast,” but databases are already impressively fast to begin with, without implementing anything to improve performance. Ultimately, I almost always approach a problem thinking about optimizing for my time over machine time, for readability over performance, and for introducing as little cognitive overhead as is required by the problem at hand. Only once performance issues or readability issues present themselves will some code be worth a rewrite.

Last question! Since you wrote Warby Parker’s internal SQL training courses, I know there gotta be some inner Curriculum Developer in you. Can you teach a SQL concept in 2 minutes?

Sure! Have you ever written a query that yields some result set and you think, “I’d love to query the stuff I just produced like it was a table?” Enter the WITH clause.

Suppose I have a mega query that gives the transaction summaries:

select
    transactions.date as transaction_date,
    sum(items.price) as total_cost,
    count(*) as number_of_items
from
    transactions
inner join
    customers
    on
    customers.id = transactions.customer_id
inner join
    transaction_items
    on
    transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
inner join
    items
    on
    items.id = transaction_items.item_id

Using WITH, I can create a temporary table within my query that I can SELECT from and treat it just like a regular old table.

I will put everything from the previous query in a parentheses and use WITH to give it the name transaction_summaries.

Then I’ll apply the date and customer filtering down below for a more readable query, to separate out all the JOIN logic from the actual WHERE filters that I want to apply on that data.

with transaction_summaries as (
  select
      transactions.date as transaction_date,
      sum(items.price) as total_cost,
      count(*) as number_of_items
  from
      transactions
  inner join
      customers
      on
      customers.id = transactions.customer_id
  inner join
      transaction_items
      on
      transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
  inner join
      items
      on
      items.id = transaction_items.item_id
)

select 
        * 
from 
        transaction_summaries
where 
        first_name = 'beyonce'
        and 
        transaction_date > '2018–01–01'
order by 
        total_cost desc
limit 
        5

If you’re familiar with subqueries, this does a similar thing but makes the SQL far more readable, even if your query isn’t quite as performant as it would have been. This is essentially an implementation of the mantra “Don’t Repeat Yourself” that’s common in the world of programming.

Incredible. And love the SQL styling! 😍

Huge shout out to Ryan and the whole Warby Parker team for making this partnership happen. Special hat tips for behind-the-scenes support from:

  • Lon Binder, Chief Technology Officer, Warby Parker
  • Maddie Tierney, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
  • Kayla Robbins, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
  • Kaki Read, Senior Communications Manager, Warby Parker
  • Isabel Seely, Senior Brand Manager, Warby Parker

It’s been an absolute pleasure. And of course, the fam at Codecademy. You know who you are. Couldn’t do it without you.

How Much Do You Know About Panama?

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How Much Do You Know About Panama?

Can you find Panama on a map? What else do you know about this Central American nation with 3.8 million people.

Learning With: ‘With Indigenous Languages in Steep Decline, Summer Camps Offer Hope’

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Learning With: ‘With Indigenous Languages in Steep Decline, Summer Camps Offer Hope’

Before reading the article:

What do you know about the language or languages spoken by your ancestors? Do you speak that language today? Do your parents or grandparents?

Do you know any family stories about people learning a new language, perhaps when they arrived in a new country or region where another language was more common? What about relatives who spoke one language at home and a different language at school or work?

Are you interested in learning a language that is part of your family’s history? What, if any, are the obstacles you may encounter in trying to learn that language?

Now, read the article, “With Indigenous Languages in Steep Decline, Summer Camps Offer Hope,” and answer the following questions:

1. What is Hupa? For how many people is it considered their first language? According to the article, how many people are fluent enough in Hupa to teach it to others?

2. How many languages are in existence today? How many of those languages do experts predict will lose all fluent speakers by the year 2100?

3. What statistics in the article support the statement that language revitalization programs have grown in recent years?

4. In addition to the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s efforts to preserve their language, where else have people been working to save other languages?

5. What events that occurred in the Hoopa Valley led to the eventual decline in Hupa and the rise of English as the language spoken by most, if not all?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

The article states:

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2019 the International Year of the Indigenous Language in an attempt to raise “global attention” to the peril facing indigenous languages, as well as a way of celebrating revitalization efforts like those in the Hoopa Valley Tribe, said Boyan Radoykov, section chief for universal access and preservation in Unesco’s knowledge societies division.

The author goes on to quote Mr. Radoykov as stating that the preservation of indigenous languages “contributes significantly to the promotion of cultural identity and diversity and intercultural dialogue.”

If this is true, what do you think could be the lasting effects of experiences like the language immersion camp you read about in the article?

Have you ever attended a language immersion camp or class? What was the experience like for you?

Word + Quiz: pulchritudinous

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Word + Quiz: pulchritudinous

: having great physical beauty (used only to describe people)

_________

The word pulchritudinous has appeared in five articles on NYTimes.com in the past four years, including on March 30, 2017, in the theater review “Pathos Times Two: A Double Dose of Inge, in Close Quarters” by Elisabeth Vincentelli:

In “Picnic,” Hal (the likable but distractingly gym-buffed David T. Patterson) is an ebullient drifter who lands in a small Kansas town and starts doing odd jobs for Mrs. Potts (Heather MacRae). The mere presence of this pulchritudinous life force sends the local women into a spin, from a suddenly giddy Mrs. Potts to the young beauty Madge (Ginna Le Vine) to the single schoolteacher Rosemary (Emily Skinner). Even Madge’s boyfriend, Alan (Rowan Vickers), gets a touch of Hal fever.

_________

Learning With: ‘Did Dietary Changes Bring Us ‘F’ Words? Study Tackles Complexities of Language’s Origins’

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Learning With: ‘Did Dietary Changes Bring Us ‘F’ Words? Study Tackles Complexities of Language’s Origins’

Before reading the article:

Pick a letter. Any letter.

Choose one of the 26 letters in the alphabet and imagine you have to explain how to make the sound of that letter to a young child or someone who has never heard or spoken it before.

Write a series of detailed instructions for how to make the sound of the letter you have selected.

Before writing, experiment saying the letter aloud in different ways — at different speeds, for example, or by exaggerating the movement or your mouth and lips. Pay close attention to what your lips, tongue, mouth, teeth, jaw, throat and neck are doing as you make the sound.

After writing your instructions, find a partner and take turns reading them aloud and seeing if the other person can produce the sounds correctly from the description alone. Or play a game with the class: Can students guess the letter just from the detailed instructions?

Briefly reflect on your experience: What was it like writing the instructions? What was it like trying to vocalize the letter based on another student’s instructions? Which letter was harder to describe and produce and why?

Not so easy, huh?

Now imagine inventing that sound for the first time …

Next, read the article, “Did Dietary Changes Bring Us ‘F’ Words? Study Tackles Complexities of Language’s Origins,” and answer the following questions:

1. Who is Balthasar Bickel and what are the two big ideas in the study he recently co-authored? How certain is he of its conclusions?

2. Why would it have been hard to make an “f” or “v” sound for hunter-gatherers living 100,000 years ago? What according to Mr. Bickel made them possible?

3. Why is Mr. Bickel’s consideration of biological factors in studying the development of human language controversial? Why are some linguists concerned about possible ethnocentric or racist interpretations that might arise from the study?

4. How did Mr. Bickel research the sounds humans made thousands of years ago, when obviously there were no audio recordings from the time to listen to?

5. What is the relationship between the alignment of teeth and jaws on the sounds one can produce? What linguistic difference does it make if you have overbite versus an edge-to-edge bite?

6. The article cites several alternate scenarios for the development of certain sounds offered by critics of the study. Which counterargument do you believe is strongest and why? How does Mr. Bickel respond to his critics?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

— What was most fascinating or thought-provoking in the article? How does it make you think about human language differently? How convincing is Mr. Bickel and his team’s explanation for the origin of the “f” and the “v?”

— How important is this kind of research? What difference can it make in our lives? Would you consider studying linguistics?

— Do you have a favorite letter? If yes, why?

— Nearly 40 million Americans have speech or language disorders. Have you ever had difficulties with speech or producing any letters or sounds? If yes, tell us more about your experiences. What have you done to address this issue or problem?

— What would you like to know more about the development of human language? Create a list of questions for further study. After you’ve created your list, you might choose one of these topics to explore in more detail. Write a paragraph explaining what you would research, why you are curious about the topic and how studying it could potentially benefit the public and other areas of study.

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