Here are stated Learning Goals for this introductory course. This will grow as I plan lessons. It is mostly a note to the instructor.

Structure

One Way To Teach

Hook, Book, Look, Took, a mnemonic for basic teaching given to me by a seminary professor. Simplistic, yes. Cute, yes. But way better than no structure at all to your teaching.

• Hook: pique interest
• Book: What’s the text say? Here’s where I put stated knowledge goals.
• Look: How does the new info apply?

• Took: What do you want them to walk away with? Here I put stated capability goals: the student should be able to do X.

This morning I teach translating skills to four people.

The topic: a computer language called Python that we use extensively for checking and cleaning translations.

The place: China, Indonesia, Vietnam.

That’s why I wince a little when people ask me where I work. I ate breakfast in Michican and sat down at my desk. But my service today is to translations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Later today I will work on a tool used mostly by our African translating teams.

Where do I work?

Back home now after two weeks in Ontario. I already miss my colleagues. It’s so refreshing to work shoulder-to-shoulder for awhile. Now it’s back to email and phone to tie us together.

And don’t forget the Spirit, I tell myself. The deepest tie spans time and space, lives in our heart, resists malware, is always connected.

Spirit, hear my prayer. Go out with my brothers and sisters, anywhere hearts serve you. We see, we taste this new thing you are doing on the earth. Work through us.

And now for laundry and catch up on bills, all the little prices we pay after a trip.

• Main
  • DiveIntoPython a Longer tutorial, also available in ActivePython’s help file.

• Python.org Tutorial by the inventor, very up-to-date.

• Unordered
  • Dense Reference Reference (33 pages).
  • Python Exercises.
  • Python in 10 Minutes, borrowed with permission and edited on this site.

• Think Like a Computer Scientist: Learn With Python

Last full day. We’re talking about the future.

Money is tight and will no doubt get tighter. If you were to take away the people in this room, many Bible projects in the world would languish…or fail.

The biggest question—and worry—I have, is what would happen if the group disappeared…

But how do I describe these people? How do I describe myself? What I do? What we do?

There are translators. There are Bibles. There are printers and audio ministries. But we aren’t those.

We are the people in between.

Before The Session

1. Read: Dive Into Python Chapter 3.

1. Do the exercises from previous session.

After the Session

• Review learning goals for this and the previous sessions.
• Download PyTrainExercises.zip.
• If you have WingIDE, open the project, Project04.wpr.

• Be Warned! This file has indentation problems. Your first job will be to learn how to deal with them. Answer No to all the dialogues, then read the comments. You may want to open the file in another editor (like Notepad.exe) first.

Before The Session

1. Read: Dive Into Python Chapter 3. Focus on the first half of the chapter.

1. Do the exercises from previous session.

After the Session

• Download PyTrainExercises.zip.
• Open exercise03.py
• Read the comments carefully. Do what they instruct.

• Send your results to your instructor.

Before the Lesson

Read: Dive Into Python Chapter 2. Unless they are helpful, ignore paragraphs describing other languages, such as VisualBASIC, Perl, Java.

After the Lesson

• Download PyTrainExercises.zip.
• Open exercise02.py and module02.py
• Look at the comments in exercise02.py and do what they instruct.

• Send your results to your instructor.

Have fun!

Plan

• Read: Python.org Tutorial Chapter 3

• Learn:
  • Start Python IDE.
  • Interact with command prompt.

• Explore scripting constructs

• Do:
  • Download PyTrainExercises.zip.
  • Open exercise01.py

• Follow the instructions in that file.

• Optional:

• Try the exercises at the end of How To Think Like a Computer Scientist: Chapter 1

Have fun!

Thanks to Poromenos for letting me use this tutorial from his site.

Thanks for the stuff, Poromenos!

Python in 10 Minutes

Preliminary fluff

So, you want to learn the Python programming language but can’t find a concise and yet full-featured tutorial. This tutorial will attempt to teach you Python in 10 minutes. It’s probably not so much a tutorial as it is a cross between a tutorial and a cheatsheet. I assume that you are already familiar with programming and will, therefore, skip most of the non-language-specific stuff. The important keywords will be highlighted so you can easily spot them. Also, pay attention because, due to the terseness of this tutorial, some things will be introduced directly in code and only briefly commented on.