The first 10 minutes of an on-site class is crucial. I usually have three goals. First, try to demonstrate that you are capable as a Linux instructor. You can do that by avoiding talk about certifications, experience or the classes you have taught. Instead, have well organized and good looking material. Have your presentation material up and running smoothly before the students arrive. Strike up conversations and present yourself as a regular person. And yes, though I hate “dress for success”, you need to look like you to are personally organized. What you project with your material and appearance is what they will project for the actual class and what they expect to learn. Failure in the first 10 minutes is hard to recover from.
The second thing I try to convey in the first 10 minutes is that I really care about helping them learn. This particular day I told the class I would stay in the classroom for lunch so they could ask questions outside of class. I always make it a habit to be early to class as well, again providing extra access so students know that you care about the fact that they are in a learning process that is difficult. Provide them outside resources like supportive videos, updates to documentation and your personal email and contact information. Of course, there is a limit to access outside of class, but making some effort here goes a long way.
The third thing that is important initially is to layout the format of class, how will the class work. So I provide a basic schedule that they will get Labs and opportunity to move around at least once an hour. Listen to suggestions of the students and scheduling options like when to have lunch as these are important to them.
I always emphasize the importance of students asking questions and reinforce those who do so you can progress in the class so students feel comfortable asking questions in front of others. Students often are not supportive of each other so it is important that you support all students in the class to set the tone. You always have a situation where students are at different levels of understanding so it is important to move at a rate that challenged students can grasp the information but more advanced students are also showing interest. When companies create the training group they often do not think about this aspect so it is left up to the instructor to motivate and manage the class.
Topics covered the first day are an introduction into vi, the boot process, the root user, and process management. It is important to verify students can effectively use a text editor like vi or nano since all of the real work on a Linux server will be done at the command line. Labs to reinforce text editing, searches, text replacement and movement are critical. It seems logical to start with the boot process after an introduction. In reality it is a challenge to bring the boot process to a level everyone can understand. However, Labs really break the ice and help students get into the course. Most students really do not comprehend the power and danger of the root user, especially in terms of making mistakes and security. Having students work in the class as root and make mistakes that cost them is important on the test server they work on so these issues start to sink in. Managing processes is all about the server performing at the level the company requires. Killing unruly processes and restricting processes is an important aspect of learning system administration.
All around the first day is an important day to set the standards for the teaching, the style of teaching that works in communication and relating to the students as an instructor. Linux training is both challenging and rewarding. What you do the first day sets up the second day which will we talk about in the next entry.
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