Francisco Cupen is a Civil Engineer with a master’s degree in project management. He is currently working as Senior Angular Web Developer. In this article he’s showing us his techniques for balancing between working as a developer and teaching coding.
I’m Francisco Cupen and I was born and raised in Valencia, Venezuela. I remember I have always been passionate about teaching and being able to share my knowledge and experiences with other people.
I think there is nothing better than being able to transmit that enthusiasm that one feels for a subject.
I have been working as a developer since 2009. In order to be able to pay for my studies, I had to work on many projects as a freelancer as well as working full time for a company. I spent hundreds of hours in the days and nights programming to then go to college.
One of my biggest struggles back then was to organize my time to be able to complete several tasks almost at the same time.
I ended up being pretty good at handling several tasks at a time, but when I graduated 5 years later I felt relieved. I could finally focus on programming and being with my people.
However, once I finished my degree, I felt that I was still missing something.
Discovering a passion: Teaching
At some point, I realized that I had spent long hours helping my classmates while I was studying for my degree and that I was missing exactly that kind of support myself at times. It’s then when I discovered my passion for teaching and I had to do something about it!
But how to do it and continue working as a programmer?
I started looking for online platforms for tutoring and distance learning but I couldn’t find much in my mother tongue, Spanish. However, I became aware of the demand, there were many people that wanted to learn online!
It’s a fact that everyone should be in continuous learning but this is especially important in the area of software development. Technology changes pretty fast and so do the processes.
Frameworks change and so does the way we teach.
The change to learning online
Nine years ago when I started to code it was not common to learn online. However, the landscape changed quickly and the concept of e-learning was born.
You no longer need to go to class with a notebook, a pen and a teacher in front of a blackboard. Now you only need a computer, internet access and the desire to learn.
Online teaching sites that I’ve used
There are many platforms that offer courses, mentors and where you can learn something new online.
Here’ a list of the online teaching sites where I’m teaching programming and engineering and my personal experience in each of them.
1) Udemy
It think it’s a great platform where you can post your videos and support materials to complement student learning. It has a very good interface and many students willing to learn.
My only little critic on Udemy is that you don’t have a direct contact option to resolve doubts and questions immediately. Udemy is currently available in 15 languages.
2) Classgap
It is a platform with a different concept. You have your own website where you can develop the classes and where you will have a whiteboard to write on, you can add images or share your screen.
For me, this approach is essential for teaching web development and programming. It is a good way to develop and test the the code explained as well as the methodologies, frameworks, etc.
I’ve received great review from students learning on Classgap and I’m one of the outstanding teachers there.
3) TusClases (only Spanish)
It is a Spanish platform where you can give classes from home or in person to students in Spain. You can set up a radio to determine how far you are willing to go to give your classes.
For me, it’s a great platform and they especially excel at student management. It is a good community for private teachers.
4) Crehana (only Spanish)
It is platform created in Peru that focuses on creative minds. But you can also learn front-end development, for example. You can create your own videos of classes and share them with your network of contacts.
The courses need to follow some time and content requirements. It’s a great platform to share your classes and earn money with them.
5) Superprof
It is a platform where you can give face-to-face classes and / or virtual lessons. You can easily find a teacher near you if you prefer learning in person. It is also available in other languages such as German, Dutch, or French.
All the mentioned options are good online teaching sites and depending on what you’re looking for you should take a closer look at them. All of them help to share information in different ways at different rates.
Other platforms to learn and give online classes:
- Skillshare
- Teachable
- Udacity
- Coursera
- Pluralsight
- Linkedin Learning
Currently I teach JavaScript in general from the most basic to the most complex, although I have experience in Python, C ++, C #, PHP, and relational or non-relational databases.
My video courses can be found in Udemy Angular 7 from 0 to 100 and if you want private classes you can find me on any platform that I mentioned above.
How I organize my time – Tips and day-to-day life
I divide my day in three parts. The first part is the personal time, I use it to take care of myself physically, read books, learn new things and update myself on the latest technological trends. The second part is the social time, that I spend with family, friends and my loved ones and finally professional time, when I combine teaching with programming.
Although during the week I often invest more than 10 hours a day working, I always make sure to add a bit of personal time before and after work. I reserve the weekends completely to myself and my loved ones. It’s the moment I use to disconnect from the working world.
Sometimes it may also be the case to teach some classes on weekends, but these are special cases.
My best tip in terms of time management is to not forget about yourself. Make sure you have time to keep learning and to continue to train yourself in your field.
Also for those learning development, I recommend you to be consistent and not give up easily. It’s a field where the learning curve has many ups and downs.
If you are looking for online learning platforms (or just realized that you would love to teach yourself!), I invite you to learn more about each platform, to see which one best suits your learning / teaching expectations.
If you would also like to motivate new professionals in your field of work, I invite you to try this alternative and a fast growing community for online teachers, such as those I mentioned above.
This article has been a contribution from a member of the freelancermap community. If you want to share your experience or give an independent professional advice or expertise in your area of work, we will be happy to have you in our blog. Write to info@freelancermap.com.
