In 2019, I was working as a high school teacher in New Orleans, LA, and I was in the process of securing a position at new school. Everything was proceeding according to plan... until I learned what subject they wanted me to teach: Computer Science--the fundamentals of JavaScript to be exact. A modern high school hiring a Computer Science instructor to teach JavaScript programming principals makes total sense; however, I wasn't a computer science instructor. Prior to accepting this new position, I was a Film and Digital Media teacher.
Don't get me wrong, I am very technically savvy. I can operate sophisticated video and audio recording equipment and edit on a variety of platforms, but I had never been exposed to ANY programming language before, let alone JavaScript. However, my new school had a plan for that: I would attend an immersive teacher training course focused on JavaScript. For 2 weeks, I ate, drank and slept the fundamentals of JavaScript programming, and it was a completely eye-opening experience.
As a filmmaker and storyteller, experiencing computer programming for the first time was like being introduced to an entirely new creative medium. It was both art and science. I taught JavaScript for a year, although that year was severely disrupted by the onset of the Covid pandemic in the United States. Continually exploring and engaging with the vast possibilities of computer programming was one of the things that kept me going in these chaotic times.
As the crisis deepened, I took that time to attend another immersive training course. Increasingly, I realized that I wanted to pursue this path full-force--I wanted to be a software developer.
Flash forward to December, 2020... Now I am student in Flatiron's Software Engineering program and enjoying every minute of it.
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