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Would I Be A Good Programming Teacher?

One of the things I've always asked myself is, "would I be good at teaching/coaching programming"?  I guess after 20 years of programming you'd like to think you could teach but do you have to know everything?  How will I come across to the person(s) I'm teaching?  Would I enjoy it?

I'm starting to realize that you don't have to know everything about what your teaching or coaching.  This has been evident from my own experience and from the books/articles I've read (including the one below).  You just have to ask questions!

Recently, I've been coaching/teaching our network guy at my work learn how to code.  And it's amazing how much knowledge comes out when you start to explain things not to yourself, but to another individual.  Plus I've been reading some books that show that teaching what you learn helps you retain that information even better. I've been learning some new languages and while learning these I'm thinking to myself how I would teach what I learned.

I think overall, I'm more aware of the knowledge and skill set I possess and how even more valuable I'd be if I could teach and coach others in programming, databases, etc. 

I wrote about this topic today because I read this article by Lou Bichard called How To Coach: A Programmer's Cheat Sheet - it's a very good article that talks about how programmers who have the aptitude, patience, and willingness to coach have an untapped power!  Yes Super Benjy!  :O)  Just Kidding!

The article also describes a coaching method called the Socratic Method.  It's a method of teaching via questioning.  I'm going to give this method a try next time and see how it goes.

If you're reading this article, have you ever taught before?  If so, do you enjoy it?  What techniques do you use and what have you learned from teaching/coaching?  If you haven't taught before is it something you've thought about getting into?

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