Teacher to developer journey

I am starting this blog to document my journey in becoming a software developer after spending the last 5 years as a Special Education Teacher.

My Past

My career journey has evolved with my interests and passions. The building blocks of my interests and passions are rooted in curiosity and determination to do the best I can. One of my favorite aspects of teaching Special Education has been being able to use my curiosity to really investigate how an individual’s disability impacts their learning and then advocating as much as I can to ensure they receive what they need to be successful. My curiosity and tenacity to fight for what I believe in are traits that can be transferred to any domain. As much as I loved fighting for students’ needs in the classroom, I couldn’t help but feel an urge to do more. This is why I have made the decision to start learning how to code.

My Present

I have put a lot of thought into what the next steps of my career journey might be and I landed on the idea of fueling my insatiable curiosity and desire to learn by pursuing a career in software development. Currently, I envision myself working in the field of tech ed where I can use my knowledge in education to help build something that can continue to create a positive impact in the world of education. As I started looking into different programs and ways to learn how to code, it was important to me not to spend a lot of money on a program. If it was possible, I wanted to spend nothing because I knew that people could get jobs without any formal schooling or certificates. I listened to podcasts, read blogs, and scoured the internet to learn about what coding programs existed.

This is how I learned about The Odin Project (TOP).

I started TOP in August of 2022 and have been making my way through the Foundations course slowly. I am fortunate to have a husband who is a very skilled software developer and even more fortunate that he doubles as a patient teacher. There have certainly been moment(s) throughout my learning where I would be in my office, stuck on a problem for sometimes 2 hours and eventually I would cave and ask him for help. He would come in and listen to me explain what I’ve tried, what I know, and what I have been reading, only to be able to understand the problem and have a solution faster and more comprehensible than ChatGPT.