Evolution of a Coder
I'm a Coding with Kids Instructor. I think it's cool and I appreciate their mission. I still have a knack for interacting with kids.
I'm a University of Denver certified full stack web developer. I got a great overview of full stack through the program. I discovered that I very much enjoy working with APIs and databases on the back end, but I'm more comfortable on the front end and I have a pretty good knack for troubleshooting code.
Since the DU course ended I've been looking for whoever will be wise enough to give me a shot at a full-time gig ;) and revisiting the projects we developed in class. One of the first things I did is partially design this site with Handlebars templates. Fitting, don't you think?
I have yet to see a job posting asking for Handlebars experience. I consider that one of my strengths. I'm curious enough to look in the corners where fewer people tend to go.
Meanwhile...
I was born and raised in Bismarck, North Dakota.
In 1995 I picked up my life and moved to Denver, Colorado. That was a good decision, to say the least.
In 2017 I "decided" to enter the University of Denver's Full Stack Coding Bootcamp. I had been fiddling with coding for decades on my own, but never consistently.
I put the word decided in quotes above. After 21 years of being employed by a local television station, they decided they didn't need humans doing the job I did anymore and I was downsized.
In the two decades I worked there I had my hands on all manner of broadcast technology. When I arrived on the scene it was paper logs and video tape machines. When I left the scene it was electronic logs and server-based program management. I was at the controls for most of the Superbowl broadcasts during those two decades, including the most recent Denver Broncos Superbowl win. So yeah, that was me behind the controls safeguarding the broadcast and the investments in it while you were cheering - or cursing.
I always saw my job as getting everyone's work on the air the way they intended it. Doing that required consistent, quality communication and I was quick at picking up new technologies that arrived and getting the most out of them.
In recent years I had volunteered to work on an internal SharePoint Wiki that centralized information, standard practices and procedures. A sample of that work is available through the portfolio page. I tried to write good HTML, CSS and pretty basic Javascript but I did it all with SharePoint's code editor which bloats code beyond all recognition. What you type into the html editor isn't what you get back when it's reopened. The SharePoint part was frustrating and yet the days I was scheduled to work on it flew by because I enjoyed the work so much.
What's with the growing hole with my GitHub pushes? I'm having a lot of fun teaching, so I'm devoting a lot of time to learning Scratch, Scratch Jr, and Ozobots! Feedback has been very good and things are going very well. I don't take that for granted, so I continue to work on little projects that will delight and amuse my students to inspire them in their own coding efforts.
Reference (conventional)
Reference (unconventional)
...but ultimately I made both of them.