Second day..

Of teaching. What?! It's been a while since I've updated this blog (which is basically how it always is), and a lot has happened since my last post at the beginning of phase 3. Basically, I made it through phase 3 (mostly) intact. I did Wallbook for my small group hacakthon, with Christian Soler, and it was challenging yet fun to build something like that from scratch in only four days. After that, our entire troop moved on to working on Staffing Online for about a week and a half. Christian and I were the team leads, and Abraham Thomas was our project manager, which was awesome because he actually has a PMP certification. After that, we all split up to do our individual hackathons. I worked on and implemented all of the requirements into my portfolio, which was fun and gave my project a purpose (besides furthering my knowledge, of course). So now I have a snazzy looking portfolio, a website and database hosted using Microsoft Azure, and it feels great. Now I can actually show my family what I've been working on while I've been off their grid for the past 9 weeks.

After I presented my portfolio to everyone at camp, I had a conversation with David. I had been talking to him on and off about the possibility of working for Coder Camps over the previous few weeks. Now, my plan coming here was to move away to my dream city (Denver, Colorado) as soon as I graduated. Over the course of talking with Dave, I decided I'd be willing to move plenty of places, as long as they weren't in the south. But, I realized how great of an opportunity I have here in Pearland, working with these awesome people and helping improving people's lives. So, when Dave offered me a job to teach here in Pearland, I gladly accepted. Yesterday was my first day, and it was a little nerve wracking, but it feels great to give back to this company that has given me so much opportunity, and I'm helping give that same opportunity to the students now. It's a very rewarding experience. On top of that, teaching this material requires a much more solid understanding of it than being able to do it does, so when I come out of here I'll be the best developer I can be, which is awesome.

Anyway, it's day two of me teaching now and I already feel more relaxed about it. I can confidently answer nearly every question thrown my way off the top of my head, and, if not, a quick Google search gives me the information I need. Right now I'm just teaching fundamentals, but I can already tell the students from this troop are good about asking questions when they're confused and even asking questions well above our current scope of learning on day two, which is great. That's it for now - see you in another month or two!