So, am I a teacher now? Reflections on Girls Who Code

The following is pulled from LinkedIn posts I made while teaching Girls Who Code in the summer of 2019.

Day 1: Made it.

I survived my first day of instructing a Girls Who Code Campus program. I'm exhausted, my feet hurt, and I have even more respect for teachers! Seven hours on your feet, leading lessons, answering questions, and keeping the energy high is a challenge.

Things I did well today: I learned every student's name (23 of them!), spent time with every one on their individual projects, and kept my energy high the entire day.

Things I want to do better: Tomorrow I'm going to focus on checking in for understanding (I tend to blaze ahead!) and getting these young developers on their feet and moving around during breaks.

In other news, if anyone wants to recommend a Spotify playlist that's both age appropriate (11-18 year olds) and highly energizing without being distracting, shout them out!

Day 2: Should I be worried my students may like coding... too much?

This afternoon in Girls Who Code Campus, as we built multi-page websites in HTML and CSS, I needed to insist my students get up from their seats and take a walk down the hallway during a break - the majority of the group would have gladly coded straight through the day!

Things I did well today: I slowed down and took time with each student, and every one reported feeling supported as a result. I also got my students to walk around during the break, and invited them to share what they were hoping to get out of the program. I have some great feedback to implement now.

Things I want to do tomorrow: I plan to actively demo more material, and find more opportunities for pair programming (the girls LOVED pair programming.. #surprise?). In addition, we're going to make some breaks into info sessions based on the feedback.

Music update - the girls enjoyed today's beats, including a mix of suggestions from the students and from my friends and colleagues. Keep 'em coming!

Day 3: who would think to turn JFK's Moon Landing Speech into a Mad Lib?

Today, my Girls Who Code Campus students dove into JavaScript. It was a challenge for everyone to get through all the Intro material (because programming basics are roooough, y'all) and lunch was a horde of mentally drained zombies. But afterwards, everyone paired off to program and all of a sudden, everyone was having a blast creating their own Mad Libs.

Some of the Mad Lib topics included the Friends and Phineas and Ferb theme songs, I'm a Little Tea Pot, and yes, even JFK's Moon Landing Speech.

I'm humbled and amazed by how creative and ambitious these girls are. One pair spent most of their time just figuring out how to make a reset button, and they were so thrilled when it worked, with 10 minutes to spare!

I finally started getting song recommendations from the girls, but always open for more! Any good #TBT recommendations?

Day 4: I designed a pizza and it turns out I'm an extrovert

Boy are we happy it's Friday - Thursday of Girls Who Code Campus was by far the most challenging conceptually. Our first attempt at diving into conditionals was more of a flailing belly flop.

But we recovered! The afternoon project was another winner - designing BuzzFeed style personality quizzes. There were multiple quizzes to tell you what character you are from The Office (I'm an Angela?), whether you're an extrovert or an introvert based on your pizza choices (extrovert!!!!!) and of course, Hogwarts houses (Slytherin forever).

Today I'm going to check in on not just my students with their hands in the air, but also the ones who are starting to excel - I can't wait to see what they can challenge themselves to achieve!

Week 2, midway: me and my 22 new friends

The second week of Girls Who Code #Campus is primarily project driven - the girls pick their own groups (mostly - the middle school aged girls needed some help grouping up), their own topic, and in this case, design their own website.

While the topics are worldly and conscientious, right now they're mostly static websites, so I'm going to be brainstorming more challenges to put forward for the groups - more code, more fun!

Yesterday we took a trip to Barnard College for a quick tour and finally got a great group pic!

Final: So am I a teacher now?

For two weeks, seven hours a day I was. The hours were long, and yet, it flew by.

I'm back to being a dev manager now (and I'm sure Clearpool Group is happy I didn't catch the teaching bug... yet ;) and so I don't forget, here are my top five favorite takeaways from the experience.

- Time away from work doing something for others, even something challenging, is as refreshing as a vacation.

- Coming up with 80 hours of clean playlists is tough

- Teenagers haven't played The Sims or Roller Coaster Tycoon... yet.

- Centering things in CSS is borderline impossible.

- Girls, even in their early teens, are clever and creative programmers, and they're going to change the world.

Thanks to Girls Who Code Campus for letting me be a part of this awesome experience, and Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) for being a great host. And a special shout out to Madelyn Nelson - the web design curriculum is so good, it practically runs itself, and your support of other instructors is inspiring!