Ask HN: How to get into teaching? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to get into teaching?

1 pointRaed6673 comments

I have always been interested in sharing knowledge and helping people learn new things.

When I was in school, I organized a semester-long workshop to teach 12 year-olds Scratch, and it went really well, with super cool projects and bunch of kids getting a first taste of programming.

When I was in uni, I constantly held workshops to teach things like: Git, practical Linux commands, Wordpress developpement, etc..

When I started working as a SWE, I enjoyed having regular workshops, teaching people about tools, frameworks and languages that I thought were too interesting to keep for myself.

Needless to say; I enjoy it. And I'm starting to think I want to teach in a more structured and "official" way. However, I have no idea how to get into the teaching world. Maybe just 1 or 2 classes per-week while keeping my main activity as SWE.

I checked around my area for private-schools, bootcamps, etc...

They don't seem to have a career page for this kind of positions. So I'm wondering if anyone here have done a similar thing? And how did you get your foot in the door?

What country do you live in?

For the USA, almost all teachers are certified teachers who get their certification through getting a degree in education, then taking certification tests. There are alternative paths that do not require the degree, where the school district will take on the responsibility for training you and helping you through the process.

But either way, you either need to seek out an education degree, or go to the HR page for your local school districts and look into their hiring process for alternative routes.

Also, if you want to teach part time, you are talking about being a substitute teacher, which are typically on-call positions with your local district.

Get qualified. Whatever is required. Maybe a lot. Maybe a little. This doesn't necessarily imply a degree. I needed a "working with children" clearance and few other certs.

Alternative pathway: you could volunteer. Or start workshops locally around some topic.

Paid alternative: Set up a youtube channel. Or linkedin channel. Or skillshare. Or whatever similar platform.

Teach. Its a verb. If you aren't doing it on at least a weekly basis, why not?

(This applies to learning or doing anything)

Is there an email or twitter handle I can connect on? There might be an interesting project for us to collaborate on.

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