The lab provides the machines; you provide the thinking. The list is short, and it is nearly the same as last year — with one addition that matters more than it looks.
Every class
- Your journal or a notebook — yes, paper. Sketching a class diagram, a call stack, or a plan away from the keyboard is a professional habit, not a school one, and Code Journal explains what goes in it
- Something to write with
- Your school login details, memorised. Class time spent on password resets is class time gone
- The name you commit under, set up and consistent. Your commits are the record of what you contributed to the team project, and commits made under a different name on a different machine do not count for you — see How Marks Work
Sometimes, and I will say when
- Headphones or earbuds for days with video or audio work — one ear only when a teammate is talking.
- Your own device is welcome once you have Python and version control working on it, but it is never required. Everything in this course runs on the lab machines and on free software. If you do use your own, make sure your work reaches the shared repository the same day; code that exists only on your laptop is code your team does not have.
- For partner meetings: your questions written out, and a way to take notes that does not put a screen between you and the person talking.
The phone rule
Phones live in bags during build time. The device in front of you is already a computer; the one in your pocket is a distraction machine wearing the same costume. Filming or photographing anyone’s screen or work without their okay breaks Our Classroom Norms, and that absolutely includes anything belonging to a community partner.
Forgot something? Borrow from the front desk, return it at the bell, and nobody will make it a thing. If equipment or connectivity at home is ever a genuine barrier — and in a course with a team project it can be — tell me quietly, see Getting Help, and we will sort it out. That includes the case where your team is meeting outside class and you cannot get there.