Give a person a website…Teach a person to code…

As my career has progressed, I’ve become more interested and excited in teaching* people about coding, digital marketing, and technology.

It started a few years ago when I volunteered to teach my daughter’s 5th grade class about building websites. I love the Hour of Code program but I found it did not demonstrate the creativity and freedom that coding can provide. If you learn a few programming concepts and some syntax, there is no limit to what you can create. Using a tool called HTMLLiveCode, I taught the class the basic building blocks of a web page – HTML, CSS, and Javascript. After a few hours, each student had created a web page about something they loved and did it only by typing out the code. I joked that they were 30 of the ugliest pages I had ever seen but the kids were proud of what they had created, and they should have been. They were great!

Since then, I’ve been given more opportunities to present to chambers of commerce, networking groups, and adult students. I enjoy the challenge of translating “tech speak” into “human speak” and seeing people get excited about topics that they felt were out of reach.

I have a few upcoming classes. I would love to see you there.

• Infrequently Asked Questions about Websites
  Next Door Chicago – February 4th @6:30pm
• Introduction to Coding: HTML and CSS
  General Assembly – February 11th @6pm
• Introduction to Coding: HTML and CSS
  General Assembly – February 21st @6pm

Check out our Technology Coaching page for more information and Contact Us if you are interested in having us present to your group or company.

*[Interestingly, my two brothers have also migrated towards teaching. One has gone back to school with the goal of working with children with special needs. The other is an adjunct professor. Three very different, but parallel paths.]