I have already taught others programming for several years.
There have been many supporters and opponents of me and my methods through these years. I have had students I still friend with, and I have had students where it ended severely.
From my experience, I want to focus this article on the positive and good parts. I firmly believe that your reasons for teaching should correlate with your inner voice, and only after that can you deliver quality education to aspiring developers.
There have been many supporters and opponents of me and my methods through these years. I have had students I still friend with, and I have had students where it ended severely.
From my experience, I want to focus this article on the positive and good parts. I firmly believe that your reasons for teaching should correlate with your inner voice, and only after that can you deliver quality education to aspiring developers.
The most important thing you can do for yourself and your existing or future students is to sincerely understand why you are doing it.
I've seen many teachers do it for money. It's a source of extra income for many. For others, the reason could be their publicity and then bragging about it. To me, these are all wrong reasons.
My reasons and philosophy can change over the following years as I get older, and I do a good retrospective of this part of my life, but as of now, these are my reasons:
1. I Challenge Myself
This is the most obvious and important one for me. As I grew from a developer to a tech manager, I wrote code less and less. I still write code, sometimes I plan my time to challenging tasks and dedicate my work time to them, sometimes I play with side projects and new technologies at home, but your skills become surprisingly blunt if you don't sharpen them often.
Teaching others how to code help you be in shape: revisiting technical materials, explaining them to others, and programming exercises help you sharpen your programming skills.
Teaching others how to code help you be in shape: revisiting technical materials, explaining them to others, and programming exercises help you sharpen your programming skills.
2. I Donate 100% of the Earnings to Good Causes
Money has never been a reason to me. I can earn much more easily as a developer. Though, I found it to be a source of sponsoring exciting projects.
- Teach PHP? Donate to PHP foundation...
- Teach Django? Donate to Django foundation...
- Do you like that fancy package/library that you use often? Donate to a package author...
- And so on...
In the end, it's a win-win for you, your students, and the person or foundation you are donating to.
3. I Sense the Prospective Good Developers
As the demand for good developers grows and the costs are skyrocketing, many tech people (including me) rely on finding and onboarding junior developers and training them. There even is such saying: "good developers are not hired; they are trained in the company." This is primarily true.
I have had situations where I hired my students or referred them to the others looking for them. It's a win-win for both students and me.
I honestly do not know if I will be teaching or not in the future, I may end up focusing my energy on something different, but since I teach, I need to have a good reason for it, so should other teachers...
I have had situations where I hired my students or referred them to the others looking for them. It's a win-win for both students and me.
I honestly do not know if I will be teaching or not in the future, I may end up focusing my energy on something different, but since I teach, I need to have a good reason for it, so should other teachers...