I was a good student, marks-wise. I was probably a very bad student, class-wise.

Mentoring at RailsGirlsParis, listening to RubyRogues 232 on teaching, I now notice that being the guy who gets things and rushes to answer, was shutting down my peers’ brains.

If some people always answer, first and fast, it discourages the other ones. I was a bad student regarding this, and I apologize to my classmates.

Here are some tricks for the teachers though:

• always wait for a majority of raised hands
• get into the habit of asking students easy things
• thank for participations (questions are not traps, but normal and harmless)
• ask everyone to get a sheet of paper and making them write things down

I strongly suggest you listen to this one :)