Why teach
18 Mar 2015I thought these were an interesting set of questions, so I’ve decided to post my answers for your edification :).
Why are you interested in Teaching?
I’ve been teaching computer science at a local high school for most of this year and I really enjoy it. I’ve taught a number of different topics over the years from pottery and glassblowing, to dance, to computer science. There’s something about the successful transmission of information that is exhilarating.
Teaching is also really difficult. I’ve recently started reading more about the craft of teaching (TLC anyone?), and have been successfully applying those lessons to my teaching. I like crafts, I like learning about systems (clay, movement, cs, …) and as such teaching is a wonderful combination of my passions. It lets me explore an existing system in a logical way since I need to break it down for students, and teaching is itself a new system and way of thinking at which I can improve.
Describe your background with computer programming, and with teaching/working with students (if any, regarding both teaching and programming).
I studied CS (and Sculpture) in college and worked for Microsoft for about three years after school. I ran and taught a Ceramics studio for five summers where I taught kids aged ten to fifteen how to throw and work with clay, and I have TA’d glassblowing classes in Seattle. I am currently the primary developer for my own startup and did full stack work on my previous two startups bandpass.fm and Shuhari. Shuhari was also an idea (and philosophy) I had for a more structured way of learning. The idea arose from my own experience teaching myself multiple disciplines. I subsequently created a syllabus for Poi which I had most recently taught myself. I love teaching and learning, I think about it frequently, and I would welcome a more formal introduction to it as a craft.
The ability to think in a structured way, both creatively and quantitatively, to solve complex problems is an important element of being a successful developer. Can you tell us anything that demonstrates your abilities in that realm?
A story that I get a kick out of comes from an engineering contest back in college. We were asked to create a structure out of toothpicks and marshmallows, while maximizing for height. However, each toothpick and marshmallow had a cost, and the winning team would have the highest height-to-cost ratio.
I looked carefully at the objective and the materials, and realized I could split the toothpicks with my teeth and insert one into the other (Robin Hood split arrow style) to make a very tall narrow thread of connected toothpicks. We used three toothpicks as a tripod base connected with a single marshmallow and carefully balanced the spire vertically out of that marshmallow. While most teams were forced to use multiple marshmallows (which were expensive), we only had one in our tall, if flimsy, design.
Some people accused us of cheating, but we just hacked the challenge. We didn’t break the rules.