Python Office Hours

Every first and third Thursday of each month at 7pm PS:One holds Python Office Hours. Everyone is welcome, regardless of skill level! Show up and introduce yourself! When you do show up to an office hours understand that we try to Be_excellent_to_each_other. When I, SMiguez, am hosting, please be aware that you will need to follow my [personal code of conduct] for learning events which extends the "Be excellent to each other" code.

RSVP

RSVP is not required, but it is convenient so that we know how many people to prepare for. We have meetups in the Chicago Pythonistas meetup group.

What is this?

This originally started out as a study group for people working through the same online course. But you don't have to be taking an online course to come to office hours. Perhaps you are curious about programming, or curious about python. Perhaps you have something you want to build and know that python can help.

This is a chance for people to get together for moral support, project assistance, and homework assistance. We’ll have an experienced python developer or two on hand to help answer questions and explain difficult concepts. This is an “office hours” event with volunteer teaching assistants. For students, the expectation is that you watch lectures, read tutorials and attempt homework on your own, then use this as a resource to aid in learning. For people who may not be students but have ideas for projects, the expectation is that you can bounce ideas off of other people in the group for review, and get help with any python bits along the way. If you don't have a project, or aren't taking a class, but are just curious about python, or maybe even about programming in general, then we might be able to help by giving you a starting point to explore.

Curious but don't have a specific question or project?

If you don't already have something to work on, look through the resources below for something to try.

First, some philosophy. Many people who start learning to program want to know how to get better or want something concrete to work on rather than working through lectures. This blog post, Contributing to Libre software projects, talks about finding Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects. When you show up to office hours and see someone you haven't met before, ask them if they are a contributor to any project. Maybe you will find a shared interest.

Here are some suggested starting points.

• if you are new to programming, try out the beginner Boston Python Workshop materials
• if you are new to python but know a little about programming, try out the intermediate Boston Python Workshop materials

I'd like to get some curricula for these topics.

• web development
• robots
• raspberry pi
• open data / civic hacking (in process of being developed Intro to Programming Using Open Government Data)
• games
• open science
• teaching
• young coders (see example from pycon Young Coders Tutorial)

Learning resources

Books

• Learn Python The Hard Way (it's actually easier)
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python

Interactive online tools

• https://www.pythonanywhere.com/
• http://www.pythontutor.com/
• http://codingbat.com/python
• http://www.learnpython.org/
• http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/python

Online courses providers

• edX
• Coursera
• Udacity
• Python Learn
• Software Carpentry