While many people took up new hobbies during 2020, Justin Johnson (JJ) decided to take that time to learn an entirely new skill – coding. His new training led him to two new jobs, teaching with CodeWizardsHQ and working with a local nonprofit. Every day he sees the benefits of learning to code at a young age.

Pivoting Within Education

Before the pandemic, JJ was working in education and had taught a robotics course and done some basic web design, but didn’t have much coding experience. When everything shut down due to COVID, JJ used that as an opportunity to take a coding boot camp. 

“I actually have a patent on a wearable tech device, but I just patented how the technology would work without necessarily knowing how to write the technology, so to speak, for the software and the hardware aspect,” JJ explains. “So during COVID I thought I could learn how to code so that I could code part of the application for the patent. I was trying to figure out what languages I should learn, and I decided to go into a boot camp that would teach me all these different languages.”

After graduating from the boot camp program, JJ applied to become a teacher at CodeWizardsHQ, which utilized both his new skills and his previous education experience. After nearly a year of teaching coding, he definitely has some favorite courses to teach.

“I really have enjoyed the API course, which is a high school course, because APIs are really important, that’s how websites get data, and it’s just fun. In that course the students can do a funny joke of the day or you can do an advice API, so it’s always fun to teach the students how to interact with that API and then they can read some funny jokes or a cool message that’s motivating.”

Helping Local Teens Through Technology

In addition to teaching with CodeWizardsHQ, JJ works for the nonprofit Next Level NOLA, where he leads the tech pathway. The organization works with recent high school graduates to either prepare them for college or help guide them to a career path. With the tech pathway, JJ guides students through learning fundamentals of coding to get them prepared to take a coding boot camp.

“Before getting back into tech, I wanted to work in what are called under-resourced communities, so it’s great to teach code in a city like New Orleans.”

It’s with his work for Next Level NOLA that JJ really gets to see the benefits of learning how to code at a young age.

“I see 18- and 19-year-olds who are just now learning how to code and it’s a struggle. Whereas if you start in elementary school or middle school, or even high school, and you start learning it in a fun way like you can with CodeWizards, you realize the learning curve just speeds up because you’re learning it at a young age,” he says. “I’ll go into work and I’ll be teaching a 19 year old a concept, and I’m thinking my middle schoolers [at CodeWizardsHQ] know this and they’re having a ball with this concept and I’m trying to help my 19 year old struggle through. If only more people started at a younger age.”

Learning and Growing 

Some of JJ’s proudest moments as a teacher have come watching his students find creative ways to solve errors that come up in their projects. 

“A student and I were working on a project where you interact with a website that would allow you to view a page from 10 years ago, so it’s like a time travel API. The issue was the URL for the API was an http URL, so because Google updated their http to https, when we tried to go back to an older website we weren’t seeing it,” he explains. “Then one of my students and I troubleshooted, but because the student is always studying outside of CodeWizards, he thought of a really cool way to concatenate an ‘s’ into that URL during class. It was really great to see his thought process and then it became a team effort when we explained it to another student. When it finally worked and we could see the previous website from 10 years ago, it was a really great moment.”

While JJ continues to learn and add to his own coding skills outside of teaching, he also loves watching his students grow and appreciates being able to stick with students for several courses.

“I like that you can start out with a student in the middle school program and then if they continue along, you see their progress over those 12 weeks and then the next 12 weeks and so on. The journey is what I really like at CodeWizards because you can get a cohort and you get to stick with them all the way through.”

The post Teacher Spotlight: Justin Johnson appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

Some programmers start coding as kids or teens, often thanks to video games. But others start later in life. For CodeWizardsHQ teacher Angel, it wasn’t until he went to college that he decided to pursue computer science. He saw the possibilities for learning how to code, and now he shares those possibilities with his students.

After high school, Angel spent four years as a police officer in the military. When going into college following the military, he started looking toward the future.

“Where we are going with right now, everything in the world is moving towards electronics and technology, so I just did a complete 180 from law enforcement and went straight into programming.”

Even with his decision to dive head first into programming, he didn’t quite know what to expect with his first coding class in Java.

“It was definitely more difficult than I thought than I expected but I feel much more rewarding,” he says. “What got me interested in coding was the creativity of it, how you can pretty much branch off and do a lot of things with programming. It doesn’t just stick to just doing games, you can branch off and do web pages, you’re very free to do anything with programming.”

Embracing the Excitement

When he started to look for a job toward the end of his college career, that’s when Angel discovered CodeWizardsHQ.

“I was really getting closer to the end of the journey of my school year, so I thought it was time for me to start diving into something that’s going to be in my career field down the line. I just stumbled across the job application, I applied, and I’ve loved it ever since.”

Although Angel has taught classes for all of our programs, the majority of his classes so far have been elementary school coding classes.

“Teaching elementary students has been great, I really enjoy it. The kids are really excited about programming, and I’ve never seen that anywhere before. When I was growing up, coding was not even talked about in school, so coming into CodeWizardsHQ and seeing these young kids excited about coding, that makes me excited, too. It makes me wish that someone had introduced me to programming sooner.”

One of the biggest challenges Angel has faced as a teacher is keeping his students excited through the natural trial and error that comes with coding, which can be frustrating, especially for younger kids.

“Programming is not always 100 percent exciting 100 percent of the time. Sometimes it can get frustrating. It does involve a lot of critical thinking, a lot of trial and error, and one of the challenging things is having a kid go through that on their own. You kind of have them to walk through it, like, hey, this is kind of part of the process when it comes to programming. You’re not always going to get it right the first time right.” 

To connect with his students and encourage them to keep trying, he shares his own experiences learning how to code for the first time.

“I tell them that in my very first programming class, I didn’t do so well. I kind of left that class off in the back like it was one of those classes where I could do everything last minute, and it wasn’t anything like that. So trying to explain that to a child, sometimes you have to find creative ways to explain it.”

Staying Active

When he’s not teaching, Angel does his best to maintain an active lifestyle in between his busy schedule.

“I’m a Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner, I’m blue belt, so I do that pretty often. I go train martial arts every so often as well and then go to the gym. I try to stay active as much as I can because I spend most of my time in front of a computer.”

He also has three pugs at home, Bruce, Luna, and Mimo, who he jokes are kind of like his kids and definitely keep him busy. In a few short weeks he’ll also be graduating from the University of Texas at San Antonio. 

Although he realizes that not every one of his CodeWizardsHQ students will go on to pursue programming in college like he has, he encourages parents to see the classes as an investment in their child’s future.

“Even though maybe your child might not want to use it later on, at least your child knows that they have those skills already. If they get introduced to it again as they grow older, they’ll be much quicker to pick it up with that background already,” he says. “If they do love it, even better, because by the time you get to my age, they should be already a pro.”

The post Teacher Spotlight: Angel Gonzalez appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

Brandon Lombard is a busy guy – he’s a father of two, is finishing up his computer science degree, and started teaching with CodeWizardsHQ last year. One key hobby from his past, though, has led Brandon to do even more than teaching with CodeWizardsHQ.

A Teenage Hobby Becomes a Job

Brandon’s interest in coding started back in middle school when he wondered what was going on behind the scenes of all the websites he visited. That’s when he began teaching himself how to code and make his own simple websites. 

“When I was in high school I actually helped my teacher teach the web design class because I was just so into it by then,” he says.

After some time in the military, Brandon decided to go to school for computer science and previously did some tutoring in web design before coming across CodeWizardsHQ. During his time with us he’s taught classes in our elementary, middle, and high school programs, but he tends to focus on elementary classes.

“I just love the Scratch classes because there’s so much you can do on such a low level,” he says. “The kids just get so excited.”

He’s also been working on a special project geared towards elementary students – our upcoming Roblox summer camp. Brandon was introduced to Roblox years ago by his younger brother and still enjoys playing and making Roblox games, which made him the perfect choice to help create our newest summer camp.

“I tell my students that I’m making this course and it’s so cool to see how excited they get. I’m proud of it and also it’s just so much fun. I’m so excited for it to go live.”

Learn more about our upcoming summer Roblox camp and see what game kids will get to build!

The CodeWizardsHQ Community

When he’s not teaching or doing work for his degree, Brandon focuses on spending time with his kids, who are 3-and-a-half and 6 months old. He also enjoys boxing and martial arts and makes the time to continue classes that keep him active, joking that it helps keep him sane. 

Especially now that he has kids of his own, Brandon considers teaching kids how to code to be giving them a head start in life in general.

“It’s a digital age, it’s not going away anytime soon, and the more you know about computers and programming the better off you are no matter what job you’re going to get. You’re always going to need those problem solving skills that programming teaches you. Also it’s an awesome career and it’s fun, too. You can do a lot of cool projects even if it’s just for fun.”

As much as we love having Brandon as part of the CodeWizardsHQ team, Brandon has enjoyed his time just as much thanks to his students and his fellow teachers.

“I love the community. This is the first job I’ve truly just absolutely enjoyed, from teaching students and seeing their excitement to just having great support from my peers and project managers. It’s been really great.”

The post Teacher Spotlight: Brandon Lombard appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

Mike Ferrera has been teaching with CodeWizardsHQ for more than two years, but before that his career could have taken a very different path. We’re definitely glad he decided to focus on computer science!

A Lifelong Love of Coding

While Mike was already teaching kids how to code in his local area when he found CodeWizardsHQ, his love of coding started much earlier.

“I was an avid video game player my whole life and I just kind of wanted to know how everything worked,” he says. “I finally got an internet connection by 1998 and I actually made my first website. I didn’t use the template engine, I built it from scratch, which I was very proud of myself for. I thought it was amazing and it just went from there, so really this is a lifelong thing for me.”

While studying computer science, Mike got interested in recording and took a detour to work as a sound engineer. 

“I got to sit in on sessions with many noteworthy and famous people. It was a cool experience, but I actually went back to computers because it’s really not a very good way to make a living,” he explains. “I went back to computer programming, and I’ve been in it ever since.”

Connecting With His Students

Since starting with CodeWizardsHQ, Mike has taught elementary, middle, and high school courses, but he does have some favorites.

“I like teaching like the middle school JavaScript class because that gets them into merging HTML, CSS, and actual interactivity via JavaScript,” he says. “That one also has one of my favorite projects, which is the pixel art editor.”

He also enjoys sharing his love of video games with his students, especially since that’s a common interest with so many of our students.

“I tell them that I got into coding through really being into video games. I’m an avid collector, so I show them some of my collection, because I’ve got some rare stuff in there, and they always seem to like that.”

Although he has his favorite projects and classes to teach, what sticks with Mike the most is when he’s able to help a student breakthrough and fully understand a coding concept.

“Earlier in my tenure here, I had a student who was really having trouble with just the general Python concepts. We’d gotten you know to the level where we were doing user defined functions and stuff like that and it just wasn’t clicking with them. So they signed up for an office hours with me and we’d gone through the curriculum, but I also made sure I had my text editor open and I gave him just a lot of simple examples in there of how the data passes along – you put this here, it moves to here, gets stored here, and it moves over here. After that session they were always really fast even in class, they never had any more hang-ups, it was great.”

A World Full of Computers

As much as he gives to his students, Mike is a busy guy outside of class, too. In addition to freelance programming work, he also has multiple businesses he’s working on, and he just got his real estate license. In the free time he does have, he enjoys hiking, skateboarding, and playing guitar, an instrument he’s played since childhood. And of course he also still loves video games.

Although video games were what initially got him interested in coding, as an adult Mike now understands the many benefits to learning how to program.

“You look around you and have so many things that are computerized. One of the things that I thought was great in the Intro to Python lesson that we have here is showing that really computers are everywhere, even in places you wouldn’t think. I always take that a step further with students and give them the true definition of a computer, which is anything that contains a digital object circuit. So literally your microwave with the little number dial, that’s a computer in a way. It’s all around you, so it’s a good thing to know how to actually build and interact in the modern world.”

The post Teacher Spotlight: Mike Ferrara appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

Just like many of our students, Jonathan first started learning how to code due to his interest in video games. Find out how he shares what he’s learned along the way with his students.

Trial and Error

After loving playing video games, in middle school Jonathan decided he wanted to make his own, which started his coding journey.

“I picked up a software called Game Maker and it was a real basic kind of code there, but that’s when I got started and that’s where I got my interest in it,” he says. “I worked on a couple of games and then eventually I went to school for computer science.”

Today Jonathan shares his experiences teaching himself how to code with his students and how much trial and error there was in the process.

“The biggest story I tell students is when we teach them about loops and arrays. When I was first programming, those concepts looked scary to me so I just decided maybe I don’t need them. So I would just start writing code without using loops or arrays. I tell them about these monstrosity programs I’d write with thousands of lines of code. I was just kind of like looking on the internet for how to do it, just trying to put it together.”

Giving Students a Solid Foundation

When the pandemic started in 2020, Jonathan knew he needed to find remote work, which led him to discovering CodeWizardsHQ. In his nearly two years with the company, he’s taught classes in our elementary, middle, and high school programs, but his favorite classes to teach are always the introductory ones.

“I really enjoy the introductory classes, just getting them started on programming. It’s always good to get people a nice first foundation on it. That helps them throughout the rest of their time programming if they have a good start,” he says.

This foundation helps students not only complete their projects, but really make them their own, which creates some of Jonathan’s favorite moments in class.

“When they really get into it and start customizing the projects a lot, that’s what I really enjoy. They just kind of see what the project’s all about, then they add their own stuff to it, and that’s really cool.”

Bonding Over Games

When Jonathan isn’t teaching, he still loves playing video games and also enjoys playing Yu-Gi-Oh. He shares his love of video games with his students, too, and even shows them some games he built when he was first learning to code.

“When they hear about that, they’re like oh wow, this guy’s kind of like me, so they listen up a little bit better. I’ve shown them a couple of my games, too. They’re really basic games, so I don’t really show them off for too long, but that gets them interested, too, and they really enjoy that.”

For Jonathan, connecting with his students is really all about giving them a better start to their coding journey than he had as a kid.

“I would say definitely my favorite thing about being able to teach this is the opportunity to be able to give students an experience that I wasn’t able to get when I was starting out. That’s why I really like the starting classes because this kind of brings back memories of me trying to learn these basic topics. Really teaching them the right way the first time is really, really rewarding.”

The post Teacher Spotlight – Jonathan Ellis appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

CodeWizardsHQ teacher Alex Geer was looking for a way to use his coding background that allowed him to interact more with people, and that’s when he turned to teaching. Now his students benefit from his programming knowledge and his passion for teaching.

While Alex taught himself how to use a desktop computer as a kid, he didn’t have access to any programming classes until college. While some people didn’t enjoy their first introduction to coding in college, Alex was interested from the start.

“I grew up in the 90’s and there was this idea that it could be cool to be able to understand a computer and you could tap into almost a hidden knowledge. I think it is the closest thing to magic that we can do,” he says.

Ultimately Alex went on to major in computer science and work as a developer after college, but he found himself wanting to move on to something that let him interact with others a little more. That’s when he found CodeWizardsHQ.

“It was the middle of COVID, so I was looking around for remote jobs that were in my field, but also I wasn’t too interested in doing development anymore. It wasn’t very people facing, and I wanted to do something a little more human focused rather than computer focused, so this was a good medium between those two areas.”

After teaching coding for over a year, Alex has had the opportunity to have some students over several different courses, making it even more special when they get excited about learning new skills and concepts.

“There are some groups that have been with me really since I started, and I like that there’s a long-term relationship that develops once you’ve taught a student for four or five courses. I definitely have some students who are really enthusiastic. It’s kind of cool when we’re all excited about something at the same time.” 

Before he decided to major in computer science, Alex actually first went to college majoring in classical guitar. Today he still plays guitar and piano regularly. His other major hobby when he’s not teaching is rock climbing.

“I’ve been rock climbing for about seven years now. I started in the gym but now I climb outside. I’ve been to Yosemite and Red Rocks in Nevada and the Sierras and stuff. That’s been a pretty large interest of mine, and for me it’s more about going out and having an adventure with your friends.”

In the same way he looks at rock climbing as a social activity, he encourages his students to have fun together while learning the week’s lesson.

“I try to make the class as interactive as possible, so even if one student isn’t necessarily into the programming, at least we’re having a social experience rather than a purely academic constructive experience. It’s just innate that people want to participate and when other people are talking and sharing things that can draw people in.”

Especially for students who are hesitant about coding at first, Alex’s approach is to make class fun. 

“I try to make the class a fun place where everyone is having fun together and making friends. If students see everyone else having fun, it encourages them to have fun because no one likes to be on their own.”

Ready to level up your child’s learning experience? Take a coding class with CodeWizardsHQ:

• Elementary School Coding Classes
• Middle School Coding Classes
• High School Coding Classes

The post Teacher Spotlight: Alex Geer appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

Before CodeWizardsHQ, Ife Blount’s career took her down many different paths. Ultimately, though, what she discovered she enjoyed the most was teaching kids about STEM subjects.

From Engineering to Teaching

Ife has two engineering degrees, a bachelor’s in civil engineering and a master’s in integrated manufacturing systems engineering. It was through her studies for her bachelor’s degree that she first got introduced to coding.

“There was a coding class that was part of what you needed to do as part of the engineering program, and to be honest I took it because I had to and I didn’t love it at that point in time,” she says.

Even though her start with coding wasn’t the most enjoyable, when she later started working in travel and transportation, she was introduced to coding again on the data processing side. But her real passion for coding came out when she started teaching STEM with a nonprofit that worked with at-risk students in Baltimore.

“I had free reign of teaching STEM and I always skewed towards the technology stuff, so I bought them robots and then I was teaching them Scratch and stuff like that and I thought, I think I like this more. So I was looking for opportunities to just kind of focus more on just the coding aspect of it,” she says.

Focusing on Real-World Applications of Coding

Although Ife has taught classes in our elementary, middle, and high school programs during her time with CodeWizardsHQ, her favorite classes are the ones that allow her to fall back on her past experience with coding.

“My favorite class to teach used to be the middle school JavaScript class, because by that point they get a chance to not only be creative but bring back some of the technical aspects. But it has morphed to the database classes. I’ve done a lot of work manipulating data, so when I get to show them that I’m excited. When they start doing queries and moving data around, I feel like even though it’s a back end thing and it’s maybe not as shiny, I’m like this is real life. I can make it practical.”

In all of her classes, Ife makes sure that no students are left behind (even if their cameras are off and their mics are muted) so that the entire class can move forward and succeed.

“I bring them in and don’t let them run away with ‘I don’t know.’ I tell them you do know and we’re going to think through this and you’ll have an answer. You can take a guess and then let’s talk about what that could have been.”

Storytelling and Traveling

When she’s not teaching, one of Ife’s biggest hobbies revolves around soccer. Not only does she play soccer, but she’s also traveled to many major soccer tournaments around the world.

“Before COVID I loved to travel and I probably did at least two countries a year. The last trip I took was the women’s World Cup in France. I’ve gone to the last two women’s World Cup semi-finals and finals and three of the last four men’s World Cup. So that was a neat way to kind of travel and then follow something that I like to do.”

She also enjoys writing and at one point in her career, she got into writing and documentary filmmaking. Although it’s not something she’s done recently, for her it all ties into her love of storytelling.  

“The way I describe it is that I like the art of storytelling. When I was in school, the engineers and technical people didn’t want to write papers, but I was always still good at English. I hadn’t given myself space to explore that more and as a grown-up, I wanted to take time to look at that. I found that what I was enjoying the most was when I interviewed people, and this translates well into teaching, too.”

Making Coding Personal

While Ife is drawn to the data side of coding, as a teacher she strives to find whatever her students are drawn to and tie that into that week’s coding lesson.

“The goal for me is to have them find something they like. It might be in an assignment something comes up and they get a chance to put their own spin on a project. I also get to learn a little bit about them when they personalize a project.”

Taking it back to her engineering background, she also likes to point out how students can use coding in everyday life, even if it doesn’t become a career.

“I look at coding like it’s practical, there’s something useful in this. You don’t have to be a computer science major, but now you know how to problem solve, or if somebody needed help with a website, you could pull up a website now and you know enough to understand how this is laid out. I like to give them that little bit of a practical application so that they have a reason to want to keep learning.” 

Ready to level up your child’s learning experience? Take a coding class with CodeWizardsHQ:

• Elementary School Coding Classes
• Middle School Coding Classes
• High School Coding Classes

The post Teacher Spotlight: Ife Blount appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

CodeWizardsHQ teacher Greer Jansen counts coding as one of her many interests and hobbies in life. For her, teaching coding is all about showing her students how programming can both enhance what they like to do now and help them in the future.

The Thrill of Solving the Puzzle

Like many of our teachers, Greer discovered her passion for coding in college. She had several friends in the computer science program who encouraged her to check it out for herself.

“It seemed like they were having fun and I ended up really enjoying it, too. There’s sort of a puzzle aspect to it, especially in a lot of those intro classes, and that’s just something I’ve always really enjoyed doing. There’s like a little dopamine rush when you get it right, it’s very addictive.”

Ultimately she double majored in theater and computer science and did some teaching with a computer science program before finding CodeWizardsHQ last year. During her time as a teacher with us, Greer has already taught classes for our elementary, middle, and high school programs.

“It’s a lot of fun to be around students who are just sort of starting out because for me learning to program was something that I found really exciting. It’s interesting to jump between the different grade levels and sort of see what’s up and what’s going on in each different group.”

In all of her classes, one of the things she enjoys the most is witnessing that moment when the idea of programming finally clicks for each student and how much that unlocks for them both in and outside of class.

“When people first start it’s very tricky and it seems very challenging and then it seems like there’s a point at which people’s brains just kind of make a little leap and they start to see their programs very differently. They start to really be able to understand and conceptualize a lot of these abstract concepts and once that happens, they don’t really go back. It’s pretty interesting to see that switch happen and talk through the concepts to bring them there. When you learn to program, it makes you better at programming a computer, but I think it also just sort of changes the way you are able to think about abstract concepts kind of generally across your life.”

A Life Full of Learning

When she’s not teaching a CodeWizardsHQ class, Greer has a wide variety of hobbies that keep her active and constantly learning. Before the pandemic, she took her love of skating to join a roller derby team. These days she keeps up her skating skills by skating at the beach. She’s also gotten really interested in learning more about botany.

“I like plant identification and like to go out and see what’s around that can I eat that’s just growing in a field. I also make a lot of kombucha and sauerkraut and I’ve also been working on growing oyster mushrooms.”

Going back to her theater roots, she also does freelance costume making with some local seamstresses. 

The Importance of Perseverance

Looking back on all the classes she’s taught, one of her favorite experiences was working with a student who didn’t let a challenge discourage him from continuing his coding journey.

“I had one student for several classes and he didn’t catch on as fast as some of the other kids, but he really liked doing it and he was very persistent. He didn’t get discouraged by it even though it was challenging for him. There was a lot of growth there and that was pretty cool to see.”

Persistence is actually one of the key messages Greer tries to pass along to her students. She reassures them that it’s OK if starting to code is challenging and to just keep practicing what they learn in class.

People talk a lot about a fixed growth mindset being an issue for a lot of students, and it’s interesting to see how students deal with the challenge of not being able to get something right away. I do try to really stress not to be discouraged. I tell them this is really hard, your brain is learning a totally new way of thinking. It just takes a lot of practice.

Witnessing that hard work pay off is the ultimate inspiring moment for Greer, watching students take what she’s taught them in class to make something of their own.

“It’s nice when your students are excited about something and they’re able to take the tools you teach them and build something awesome on their own time. I think that’s really rewarding.”

Learn

Ready to level up your child’s learning experience? Take a coding class with CodeWizardsHQ:

• Elementary School Coding Classes
• Middle School Coding Classes
• High School Coding Classes

The post Teacher Spotlight: Greer Jansen appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

For Cynthia, coding has always been about being able to do more with her creative interests. She uses this unique take on coding to encourage students who might have other interests that programming can be for them, too.

An Artist in a Digital Age

Cynthia grew up loving computers, especially playing games and drawing on Paint. But it wasn’t until college that she discovered that computers could tie into her lifelong interest in art.

“One of my good friends said ‘Hey, do you know about programming languages?’ And I said, ‘I have no idea what that is, what does that mean?’ And they said it’s kind of like learning a language, but with computers. I just researched from there and fell in love with the fact that you can create, because I’ve always been a creator. I’ve just been learning every single day since then.”

Now Cynthia uses coding and technology to make her artwork into something completely different, turning hand-drawn pieces into digital works of art.

“Visually I like to draw landscapes, so if I’m somewhere I’ll sketch it out and then take that sketch and put it into my iPad and draw in Procreate. Once I’m done with that I’ll take it and make pixel art.”

Showing Students That Coding is For Everyone

Cynthia has been teaching with CodeWizardsHQ for over a year and has taught classes in our elementary, middle, and high school programs. No matter what level she’s teaching, she always encourages her students to incorporate their other interests in projects.

“I love being creative, so I really push that on my students, making sure they take their projects and make them their own. Because when I was learning, it was just the same thing over and over again. So having them add their own little flair to their projects I feel like is a lot better and it makes them want to code.”

For students who are new to programming, or who might not be sure if it’s really for them, Cynthia always takes it back to their current hobbies.

“My first thing that I always do is I ask, what is your interest besides programming? And they’ll tell me they like to draw or they like to play basketball. Then I tell them, when you come back, I want you to take what you do that doesn’t involve coding and I want you to add it to your project,” she says. “Then they’ll come back to me and say, all I could think about was adding images of basketballs. And I say, that’s good, because what you just did there is you took an interest and you are learning about another interest. It definitely opens up their eyes to be like, oh so I can have more than one interest, or I can implement this into the stuff I do in my everyday life.”

In addition to encouraging creativity, Cynthia’s other biggest focus with her students is making sure they’re having fun. She knows that kids who are having fun will be more likely to want to learn and take the concepts from class even further.

“Besides playing pranks on me, which is their favorite thing to do, I always like to make sure my students have fun. And then also having them share their projects in the beginning — we’re all looking at everyone’s projects and seeing what we came up with. Some of them don’t want to share, but then they come out of that shell and everyone gets together and we laugh and have a good time.”

Life Outside of Teaching

When she’s not busy teaching CodeWizardsHQ classes, Cynthia loves spending time with her many pets, including three dogs, a rabbit, a cat, and fish. Her dogs accompany her on hikes when weather allows (it gets pretty hot at times in West Texas). She also spends a lot of her free time learning new ways to combine coding with her artwork.

“There’s a Javascript language that’s called P5 JS, and it’s specifically for creative coding. I found out about it about 6 months ago, so I’ve been taking this time to really brush up on my math, because there are certain portions in there that involve trigonometry. For me it’s just taking regular things, like an image, and using coding to create an animation, or create some sort of difference with code. It’s cool to take my art and just add some code and see some cool things happen.”

She then uses these art projects to inspire her students and show them just how much they can do with their coding knowledge.

“I’ll share my projects, and they’re all ‘you can do that?’ And I say, yes you can. I have a few students who specifically like to draw, they’re not as into the coding portion, and I’m like, wait a minute, don’t give up on programming yet. Because I promise you can take your art and create something really cool with it.”

While she continues to learn more about creative coding, Cynthia says she continues to learn from her students as well even after a full year of teaching with CodeWizardsHQ.

“I’ve just been so glad to be able to teach and be part of something amazing. I learn every single day from my students. I love just letting them be themselves as much as possible,” she says. “And anything I can do to help them, I let them know, just bother me every single day if there’s something you don’t understand. We have so many resources and we’re here for you guys.”

Ready to level up your child’s learning experience? Take a coding class with CodeWizardsHQ:

• Elementary School Coding Classes
• Middle School Coding Classes
• High School Coding Classes

The post Teacher Spotlight: Cynthia Ramos appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.

Aaron didn’t start learning coding until he was an adult, and it was a bumpy process in the beginning. Thankfully he kept at it, tried a different programming language, and discovered he loved coding. It’s become such a passion that he’s pursuing a second college degree related to technology while also being one of our standout teachers.

How Loving Puzzles Turned Into a Love of Coding

Although he loves technology now, Aaron grew up around family members who weren’t the most computer savvy, so he definitely wasn’t exposed to programming.

I wish that when I was a kid there were things like CodeWizards. Something like coding was kind of equivalent to magic. You know it’s out there, but we have no idea how it works, so I really wasn’t ever exposed to it as a kid and I wish I had been.

It wasn’t until Aaron was in college that he took his first coding class, and at that point he wasn’t interested in continuing to learn programming. He decided to give it another shot when he went back for a degree in cyber security, though, and discovered a passion he never expected.

“With my first degree I was exposed to some very limited stuff with a very basic exposure to C, which is not the easiest language and it’s not the easiest one to learn. I was just like, nope, not for me, I don’t want this,” he says. “Then when I went back for this second Master’s degree, I got exposed to what programming actually was, not just this very basic throw you in the deep end of C.”

After learning Java, Aaron found that coding had similarities to one of his favorite activities as a kid, and that’s what kept him wanting to learn more.

“I’ve always enjoyed puzzles and so to me coding was kind of like a puzzle, because you could do everything that you think is exactly right and you run your code and your code is not working. Now it’s a puzzle I have to figure out.”

Demystifying Coding for Kids

While the concept of coding was basically like magic to Aaron growing up — something that just happens and isn’t able to be understood — today he loves showing kids that they have the ability to code all by themselves.

“It’s not just magic, it’s actually something that is very doable. Programming itself is easy, it’s the debugging that’s hard — I always tell my kids that. Giving them that skill set, giving them that confidence, giving them the keys that they’re going to need to be successful in their future is very rewarding for me,” he says.

Aaron has taught CodeWizardsHQ courses for elementary, middle, and high school students, but some of his favorite moments as a teacher come with the Intro to Real World Programming course in the elementary school program.

“That is the first time that the kids are moving into a real programming sense. Up until that point they’ve been working in Scratch and it’s drag and drop blocks,” he says. “Then you basically show them that the whole world is their oyster, as long as they understand what they’re doing and they understand what code is necessary. Their eyes just light up with those possibilities and it’s just such a cool experience.”

From Coding to Gaming

Aaron’s schedule is pretty full between classes and coursework for his Master’s degree and the classes he teaches for CodeWizardsHQ, but when he does have downtime he still enjoys playing games. These days he enjoys board games, playing video games on his Nintendo Switch or Playstation 4, and he’s a regular fixture at the virtual company game nights for CodeWizardsHQ. He also loves spending time with his most loyal friend, his dog, Doctor (named for Doctor Who).

“I tell all my students when we do introductions that he sits right next to me when I teach all my classes.”

What he also tells his students is to be open to trying new things — after all, if he had stopped after his first experience with C, he’d never know how much he truly loves coding.

Don’t be afraid to go and try new things, especially within programming. Maybe you’re learning Python and it’s hard for you — that’s okay, there’s nothing wrong with that. But there’s also things like HTML and CSS and maybe you’re going to be more inclined to be an HTML and CSS developer. There’s so many different avenues that you can go down with programming and so many different opportunities. Just because one shoe didn’t fit doesn’t mean that all of programming is not the right fit for you. If you can understand programming, you will always have an opportunity for yourself.

Ready to level up your child’s learning experience? Take a coding class with CodeWizardsHQ:

• Elementary School Coding Classes
• Middle School Coding Classes
• High School Coding Classes

The post Teacher Spotlight: Aaron Turransky appeared first on CodeWizardsHQ.