Weekly wins: a TA's guide to success at Carolina Code School (part one)
Hello everyone!
My name is Chelsea Snider, and I am the teaching assistant (TA) for Carolina Code School’s 18th web development cohort!
I am creating a mini blog series to give you, the tech curious, a sneak peek into the unique and transformative inner workings of Carolina Code School’s Web Development Immersive course. This course is where we turn fledging aspiring software developers into qualified junior developers, and I can't wait to share more about it with you.
My journey into software development
To give you an idea of who I am, my journey to become a developer started during the pandemic. Having just entered my thirties, I was tired of my career as an Optical Laboratory Technician. Craving more of a challenge and a way to use my creativity to build something cool, I decided to pivot my career and further my education. Although software development had always intimidated me, with encouragement from friends and a meeting with the amazing staff at Carolina Code School, I became convinced that it was the right path for me.
Today, I can proudly say that I am a graduate of Carolina Code School, having completed the course in March 2023. Afterward, to get more training and experience, I applied to the Develop Carolina Apprenticeship program and was accepted. CCS provided the knowledge and experience needed to become a software developer and prepared me to apply to Develop Carolina. I gained hands-on experience as an apprentice software developer at Booz Allen Hamilton, building on the skills I learned at Carolina Code School.
my role in the classroom as a teaching assistant
During my time here, I have been continually impressed by the talent of this current cohort and the latest curriculum from Carolina Code School. What sets this cohort apart is that they all completed the same part-time course at CCS before joining the full-time course. This has made their transition into the full-time Immersive Web Development course smooth. They started off strong with the knowledge and the relationships from their shared learning experience! With their previous exposure to JavaScript in the Foundations course, the cohort quickly moved on to learning Python in the second week!
Adapting quickly to a new and unfamiliar language, the students began to understand the syntax and structure of Python. In just a few weeks, they progressed from printing 'Hello World!' in their console to creating, storing, and manipulating strings and variables for a simple hotel management application. By the end of week three, the cohort had accumulated enough skills to develop a text-based game in Python! In the last two weeks, the students have explored APIs and SQL, preparing to build a backend, create a database, and utilize an API to develop a full-stack application.
The role of a TA has been so exciting! I can give back to Carolina Code School by helping students troubleshoot their problems while providing additional support to understand concepts and issues they may be struggling with. Learning how to code is no easy task, but anyone can succeed with the right amount of help, access to a phenomenal teacher and team, and an encouraging alumni community!
Truly, the role of a TA isn’t just about providing technical help; it’s also about providing support within a team effort to prepare the students throughout their journey to become full-fledged software engineers. Pursuing a career in software development is no easy task, but guiding students every step of the way is how we at Carolina Code School transform the curious and the bold into qualified developers.
what to expect from this series
If you’ve made it this far, I am so excited to share more of my experience as a TA with you as we countdown to Demo Day in July! Please stay tuned for further updates and blog posts about my experience as a teaching assistant at Carolina Code School and the latest news. There is more to come!