A field guide to my pedagogy
I want students to leave with more than working code. I want them to leave curious, capable, and confident enough to build something of their own.
Connect the new
to the known.
Built in classrooms. Refined together.
Flatiron School / Kode With Klossy
I co-founded Flatiron School and helped develop the program and curriculum at Kode With Klossy. These are lessons from that work, and from the teachers and students who made it better. [S6]
01 / The principles
A philosophy is useful when it changes what you do next. These are the ideas I come back to, and the classroom moves behind them.
Open a principle to go deeper +
Give people a reason to care.
Before I explain how something works, I want to make it matter. A story, a familiar problem, or a connection to something a student already loves can give a new idea somewhere to land.
Start with the thing they want to make. Then introduce the tool that makes it possible.
CONNECTION [S1]Help without taking over.
A working program is not the same thing as a person who can program. My job is to help a learner see the next move, not make every move for them. Ask, demonstrate when needed, and return the work to the student.
“What did you expect to happen? What happened instead? What could we try next?”
AGENCY [S2]Challenge needs a way forward.
I want students to stretch, not disappear into frustration. The useful question is not “Is this hard?” It is “Is there a next step this person can take?” Sometimes that means a hint. Sometimes it means slowing down or changing the conditions.
Keep the challenge. Remove the needless friction. Never turn asking for help into a test of worthiness.
COURAGE [S2][S5]Build belonging in the small moments.
Know someone’s name. Make room for their interests. Admit when you do not know. Let students help shape the room. I want care and curiosity to be things people experience, not words on a wall.
Model the behavior. Invite participation. Make helping a classmate part of being good at the work.
CARE [S2]Make something worth finishing.
I would rather a student finish a small project they care about than imitate an impressive one they do not understand. Constraints create a place to start. Ownership gives them a reason to keep going.
Choose one person to help, one problem to solve, and the smallest version that delivers something useful.
CRAFT [S2]Turn values into feedback.
A teaching philosophy has to survive contact with the classroom. Ask students what is working. Observe one another. Connect feedback to specific behaviors. Then change the lesson, the tool, or the way you explain it.
Not just “Was the class good?” Ask whether the student felt cared for, understood the connection, and could explain their own work.
HUMILITY [S4]A way into understanding [S1]
You want to make a playlist for a friend. The songs matter. So does the order. Start there, with something worth making.
A reason to careNow a collection of items is not an abstract exercise. An array is one way to hold those songs, put them in order, and work with them.
A place for the idea to landThe pattern is bigger than music. A reading list, a queue, a set of tasks. You can carry the idea into something you have not built yet.
An idea you can take with youAn illustrative example written for this site, using the stories, context, and abstraction framework from How to Teach Love.
02 / The teaching lab
Not a speech. Not a rescue mission. A useful question, an example when it helps, and a next step the learner can own.
GIVE THEM A NEXT MOVE
“Show me what you expected to happen. Now show me what actually happened. Where do those two stories stop matching?”
Make their thinking visible before choosing a hint. A smaller question can make progress possible without replacing the learner’s reasoning. [S2]
“What is the smallest thing we could test?”
SUPPORT WITHOUT SUBSTITUTING
“Let’s do one step together. I’ll explain why I’m choosing it. Then you try the next step and tell me what you notice.”
Model when it helps, then hand the work back. Independence is the destination, not a condition students must meet before they deserve help. [S2]
“Can you explain that step in your own words?”
FIND THE MINIMUM LOVEABLE PROJECT
“Who is it for? What is the one thing it should help them do? Let’s make that work before we build anything else.”
A small, complete project gives a learner something real to test and improve. Reducing scope is not reducing ambition; it is making the first version possible. [S2]
“What could a person actually use by tomorrow?”
CHECK UNDERSTANDING, NOT JUST COMPLETION
“Great. Walk me through one decision you made. What would you change if the problem were a little different?”
Completion is an invitation to check understanding. Explanation, variation, and teaching a peer show more than a checked box can. [S4]
“Could you help someone else understand it?”
Illustrative teaching responses, not historical transcripts or a live AI tutor. The examples are grounded in the source guides. Nothing you select is collected or sent anywhere.
03 / From belief to classroom
A curriculum draft. A teacher guide. Questions for students. Field notes about what did not work. This is where the ideas become a practice.
04 / The source notebook
Selected materials behind this site. Open a note for the source language, how I am using it, and what the artifact does and does not establish.
The writing above is a present-day synthesis. The original materials include collaborative guides and drafts. Linked Google Drive files may require access; no permissions have been changed.
People love meaning.
The presentation connects motivation to meaning, then explores stories, context, metaphor, history, and abstraction as ways to connect new ideas to what a learner already understands.
Reading this source: A teaching philosophy, not an experimental study. Quotations from other thinkers in the original deck remain theirs. The hero artwork is newly typeset, not an original slide image.
Open original · Google Drive access may be requiredUnless absolutely necessary, don’t grab a student’s computer during a lab to explain concepts. Have them do the typing.
A practical guide covering belonging, resourcefulness, teacher behavior, challenge zones, student reflection, short interactive explanations, collaborative labs, and small real projects. It connects educational values to specific classroom actions.
Reading this source: A collaborative KWK program artifact. The site draws on its practices without claiming sole authorship or that every proposed activity was implemented. Challenge zones are a coaching lens, not a diagnostic tool.
Open original · Google Drive access may be requiredWhat is the web, and how to become a web maker
A two-week high-school program draft combines understanding the web, programming, and hacker culture. The draft includes writing about learning, publishing a personal website, role-playing the web’s components, and connecting code with creative and social purposes.
Reading this source: An early high-school program draft, not the adult immersive syllabus or a current curriculum. Proposed activities are evidence of design intent, not proof that every idea was delivered.
Open original · Google Drive access may be requiredGreat teachers want great feedback.
A first-pass Flatiron framework maps teacher development practices to student survey questions and an observation rubric. It asks about care, lesson connections, respectful treatment, challenge, explanation, and mutual investment between classmates.
Reading this source: A first-pass framework intended to evolve with faculty input. It documents an approach to teacher support, not a verified school-wide rollout or a measured effect.
Open original · Google Drive access may be requiredTeachers describe adapting the curriculum to real school conditions: interruptions, onboarding, vocabulary, device and internet access, pacing, grades, peer support, and the difference between completing a lab and understanding it.
Reading this source: An anonymized synthesis of selected teachers’ accounts. Their observations belong to them. Names, schools, individual statistics, and identifying details are not reproduced here.
Open original · Google Drive access may be requiredAvi’s account establishes the relevant background: co-founding Flatiron, helping design KWK’s program and curriculum, and building Learn.co with a team. The KWK entry explicitly credits Karlie and her team.
Reading this source: Avi’s retrospective account provides role and collaboration context. This site does not use it to claim independently verified learning outcomes or sole creation of a program.
Open public worklogThe thing I keep coming back to
That is the kind of confidence I want to help people build: grounded in work they understand, with enough curiosity to begin again.
Explore more of my work