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Values

All strong communities are built on a shared set of values. As a community of learners, these are the things we think are important for achieving a great outcome in SEI.

Gradual Release of Responsibility​

Being able to ask for help effectively will become increasingly crucial as the course progresses. During the first project, for example, we will be holding office hours throughout the dedicated project days. By the fourth project, however, all support will be conducted using Github issues. Between those two projects, instructors will be placing an increasing onus on the students to solve problems on their own with increasingly limited instructor support – what we call a “gradual release of responsibility.”

While instructors love helping out, we’ve found that students become stronger developers by learning to solve their own problems. Your instructors won’t be following you to your jobs so it’s important to develop a sense of self-sufficiency while you’re here.

Re-learning how to Learn​

The most significant skill you will gain from this course is not proficiency in a particular web framework or programming language, but rather learning how to teach yourself

You will learn this in an environment that is specifically tailored to this goal, where there is heavy support, instruction designed to structure your self-learning process, and safety to ‘fail’.

We will progressively “back off” over the course of the cohort, encouraging the development of your autonomy as a developer, allowing you to stand strong on your own.

You Will be Uncomfortable - Regularly​

  • Don’t be too hard on yourself.
  • You will probably feel somewhat lost on this week’s topic, feel more comfortable with last week lessons, and notice that a few weeks ago looks easy.

Productive Struggle​

  • The pace of this course is designed to push you past your limits.
  • The brain is like a muscle; sometimes it gets sore.
  • Struggling with the material doesn’t mean you aren’t learning; on the contrary, it reflects sustained and meaningful engagement with the material.
  • You get out what you put in,

Embrace “Failure”​

  • Here we learn by doing, and things don’t always (and usually won’t) go right the first time.
  • This is normal. Expect it.
  • Fail early, fail often, fail forward.

The Dodo Video

There is No Winning or Losing​

  • This is a non-competitive environment.
  • Everyone enters and leaves at different levels.
  • Use your classmates’ work as inspiration to improve your own!

Nothing is Magic​

“Magic is indistinguishable from any sufficiently advanced technology” -Arthur C Clarke

  • Humans have reached a considerable degree of technological sophistication, there are so many places where we can begin to discover how a technology works, how the technology developed, how the technology is put together, what problem does the technology solve (or what does it make it easier to do?) etc.
  • ‘The Programmer’s Mindset’ will come with time, but it begins with the question, “How is this working?”

Balance​

  • The intensity of this course means that we have to make room for balance.

Cooperation​

  • You’ll be learning, eating, growing, failing, and succeeding together for the next 12 weeks.
  • Each iteration of SEI has been driven in part by student feedback, and for that reason, we rely on your feedback. Please don’t hesitate to provide us with feedback!

We are here to navigate, you are here to drive​

  • We will teach every lesson as best we can, but if you don’t pay attention then there’s no point.
  • Past students have said, “this program works if you do” and that is 100% true.
  • We will navigate you through the process of becoming a junior web developer but you have to do the peddling.

We will not give up on you​

  • Even when you might have given up on yourself!
  • None of the instructors are here just to collect a paycheck. We’re passionate about web development, education, your interests, and your professional and personal growth.