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Teach
Introduction
Tips and Tricks
References
Topics
Asking questions
Assessing class performance
Cognitive load
Flipped classroom
Learning styles
Lesson plans
Lesson plans extra
Live coding
Mental models
Misconceptions
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Motivating students
Notional machines
Pair programming
Pedagogy
Peer instruction
Problem based learning
Exercises
Learning Paths
Code of Conduct
Contributing
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Notional machines
what does it mean to learn a programming language and runtime environment?
One workable answer is to learn a "notional machine".
Just a fancy way of saying that you are comfortable using words and diagrams to explain what is happening inside of the computer at any point in your program's execution. A series of
  • visualizations
  • diagrams
  • refactoring techniques
  • vocabulary
That are accurate but manageable; correct enough that you can use them to predict program state, debug your projects, and accurately translate between diagrams & code. But not so precise that you get lost in low-level implementation. An important feature of a notional machine is that they are not built on overly-familiar analogies. It should build new intuitions based on how teh programming language actually work, instead of building on old intuitions from elsewhere in life that sort-of work like the programming language.
An easy danger when teaching programming is relying too heavily on approachable analogies that are not quite correct. This is especially dangerous because programming languages & computers are not like other things students have learned before. An intuitions built off of previous experience can be misleading and can lead to un-learning later on.
Using a common set of visualization tools, and correct vocabulary from day 1 is super important. Building up a shared and correct understanding is only realistic when you, your peers and your coaches all discuss the same visuals with the same vocabulary.

Topic Applied

A tricky part of teaching with notional machines is related to rule #6 from teachtogether.tech​
  1. 1.
    Never hesitate to sacrifice truth for clarity.
This is a fine line to walk. On one hand an approachable analogy is the definition of sacrificing truth for clarity. On the other hand, a misleading analogy will lead to less clarity in the future when a student learns something about their language that does not fit with the analogy they learned before.

Topic Applied to JavaScript

Fortunately JavaScript has a couple tools that help you to teach a JS notional machine, and more importantly allow students to continue developing theirs while not in class:
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Topic Applied to JavaScript