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About Teacher Spotlight: The concept of “students first” is at the heart of everything we are and do at CodeWizardsHQ. We know students learn best when they interact with a talented teacher. We conscientiously hand-select the very best coding teachers, ultimately hiring only the top 2% of applicants. Every month we go behind the scenes to tell you more about one of our amazing teachers. This month, we bring you Kyle Askew!
Who/what inspired your career choice growing up?
Ever since I was a very little person, I always had a fascination with technology and video games. I would have to attribute most of my success, career motivations, and love for technology to my mother who was always there to encourage me when it came to computers. From buying my first computer to keeping me upgraded to sending me to computer camp to learn how to write in QBasic and ActionScript before we had such wonderful online courses.
What has been the most rewarding part of working at CodeWizardsHQ?
For me, I would think that the most rewarding part of working at CodewizardsHQ is taking kids who know little to nothing about programming languages through all the logic, debugging, and challenges until they finally get the “ah-ha” moment and everything clicks. The kids also know how to give back by showing excitement in their learning and showing appreciation towards the teacher. “Oh wow, we get to do that? That’s so cool!”
What is your vision for the future of coding and kids?
As technology improves and becomes an even bigger part of our lives we will need more and more people to manage the limitless amount of software and hardware challenges. I would like to see more automation in “normal” jobs and more tasks being delegated to robots and programming. I would like to see people getting paid more than they are now for doing less physical labor and more hardware and software development and transition systems in place for those whose jobs are soon to be automated so no family gets left behind.
If you could have one teacher super-power, what would it be?
If I had one teacher super-power it would be to slow down time. I remember being in grade school and thinking our forty-minute periods were the absolute longest amount of time there could ever be. Now, as an educator, the hour flies by in the blink of an eye and I have no idea how the teachers in my life were able to fit so much into my brain with such little time.
When you aren’t working, what do you enjoy doing (hobbies)?
When I am not working I am most often still working. In my free time, I do a lot of programming working on various hobby projects. When I’m really, really not working you can find me at home relaxing with my many cats and wonderful girlfriend.
What do you think is the most important thing about working with a company that teaches coding to kids?
I think that the jobs of the future are in tech, so it becomes very important for kids to learn how to adapt to that and continue to carry the torch into a better tomorrow. I think learning to program makes you an engineer for life which carries on to all aspects of growth and applies to our everyday lives. If everybody could approach things from a scientific and engineering standpoint, then I think we could improve the quality of life for those of us that are here and those of us who have yet to come.
