First week as an instructor at Codepath
Last time I wrote one of these it was about learning mobile in 8 weeks. I wrote three posts about the first three weeks but I did end up finishing the course last year. This year I am teaching the iOS For Designers course at Codepath. Here are the challenges, realizations, and things I think about while preparing to go through this.
When Tim and Nathan told me about the opportunity I was really excited. I know that it is going to be a lot of work, but helping designers build products in mobile is something that is very important.
It’s not just about teaching them mobile, but how you teach them. The students are very talented working at companies like thoughtbot, Lyft, Uber, Pinterest, and more. They are very smart and determined, so for the most part they will find their way just due to the nature of who they are. I see my role as simplifying concepts as much as possible to make it easier for them to understand so much content quickly. Things like analogies, and pacing become extremely important so we don’t expose too much too soon. This can be tough when people have varying skill levels and crave a deeper technical understanding. But there is a method to our madness. There is so much material to cover in such a short amount of time, and it can be frustrating running into any bumps a long the way.
Looking at past videos and preparing before hand has helped a lot. I am learning more and more just by teaching the class. The students have a lot of questions on things you might not have thought very deeply about. This is great because we can then discuss or look into it more.
During our first lab class they were very determined to finish the exercise. While trying to wrap things up and conclude the class they just kept on working. I had to ask them to close their laptops. Again I attribute this to who they are and why they signed up for the class. By being selective and bringing in this group of people you really start to see something special. A lot of them go above and beyond what is asked of them and are just eager to learn more and more. It is pretty inspiring. Some of the personal stories I’ve heard so far are motiviating as well. I hope once they graduate, they will be able to share some of these with future students and the community.