Especially by high school, most students have a strong sense of who they are, and to what groups they belong. A student might think of himself as an artist, a musician, or a writer.
Our goal as Code Evangelists is to find ways we can relate with these existing identities and interests. To do that, we need to get to know each student individually. We can use this information to find subtle ways to encourage them to explore coding, in a way that individually excites them.
Getting to know a student requires, well, talking to them. (And, more specifically, asking questions!) To be effective, we need to get to know every student at the event: a daunting task which will take a little bit of strategy.
Students, generally, will not start conversations with us. It’s very important that we’re intentional about seeking out each student and starting a conversation. To use a technical metaphor, this is a push, rather than a pull, model.
If you walk up to someone and have literally no idea what to say, you can use the same few we list in the “Friendly” section:
Like with being friendly and enthusiastic, this feels, at times, awkward, but it’s best to embrace the awkward, and ask questions anyway.
Our goal is to gain useful information about the students at our events, not just rote facts. What’s the difference?
How do we go from fact to insight? A simple technique we can use is to ask “why” until we feel like we understand. This technique, called “5 Whys,” was originally developed by Toyota, who realized that asking “why” five times usually led to a deep understanding of manufacturing problems.
Here’s an example of how asking “why” a few times might help us understand more about someone: