Hi, I'm Craig.

Welcome to the Treehouse Show.

The Treehouse Show is our weekly conversation with the Treehouse Community.

[SOUND] In this episode, we'll be talking about guest

teaching with project manager, Elizabeth Kozup.

Thank you so much for being on the show today, Elizabeth.

>> Thanks for having me, Craig.

>> I was wondering if we could talk a bit

to the students about guest teaching and what that means.

>> We have nine or ten full-time teachers here at Treehouse.

But there is a lot of technology out there, and we teach a lot of it.

And not all of it can be taught by our internal teachers.

So what I do is when they determine that, we want to teach a course.

I look for subject matter experts to create that course.

And then I basically manage the project

from inception to execution when we launch.

>> That's awesome.

>> Yeah. >> How do you go about finding them?

>> Wow, so there's a lot of different ways.

First of all, word of mouth is great.

>> Okay.

>> The Treehouse team has a lot of, that's a really wide variety of experiences and

people that work in different areas.

So I get a lot of recommendations from internal members.

>> Yeah.

But I also go and look at who's speaking at conferences, and

I look at who's speaking at a local meet up.

I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Stack Overflow.

>> Okay. >> To see who's answering questions.

There's a lot of different ways that I look for people.

>> Awesome, if somebody at home is watching this and like, wow,

I can do that?

I can teach in Treehouse.

How would they go about getting a hold of you?

>> We have a couple different ways.

>> Okay.

>> We have on the Treehouse site, we have a teachers page that really talks all

about the different teachers that we have here.

They're all listed out.

So if you teach with us, you get to be on that page as well.

>> Nice.

>> But there's a link there that basically says I wanna teach a course or a workshop.

And you put in the subject you'd like to teach,

the content that you'd be interested in teaching, then it comes to me.

And I go through them all, myself.

>> Okay. >> And

I do my best to respond as quickly as possible.

>> Okay.

>> Depending on whether or not we're interested in teaching the subjects.

>> Okay, so are there subjects that we're chasing after right now,

very specifically?

>> Yes. >> What's that?

>> Well, we're really trying to build out our design contents so

we're trying to really refurbish that and refresh that on the site.

We are also trying to do security courses.

>> Mm-hm.

>> We are doing QA content.

>> Okay.

>> We are teaching data analysis, and database information.

>> Wow, okay. >> So those are some of the areas, and

as you can tell,

it's a really wide variety of topics- >> Right.

>> That we're currently trying to teach.

>> Right. So then that brings up interesting

question that I've always had.

>> [LAUGH] >> You can list that in a couple of these

meetings with you.

How did you go about doing that?

There's this new topic area, here comes somebody to talk about it.

You have to help scope and plan.

How does that work?

>> So first and foremost, I am not a programmer.

>> Okay. >> I'm not a developer.

I am a project manager.

>> Okay.

>> And part of being a project manager is understanding

the basics around every component of that.

So whether it's the actual teaching, the video production,

the development pieces, I have to know a little bit.

But I'm not an expert on any of those areas.

So what I end up doing is just before when I'm looking into a subject,

I spend a lot of time researching it.

>> Okay.

>> So not only am I researching the potential teachers, but

I'm also looking into the subject itself.

>> Okay. >> So I'm not an expert when I come into

any of these meetings.

And I'm usually pretty good at throwing that out there at the beginning.

But I do have to be able to at least have a conversation about it.

So I do look on Stack Overflow.

I do research into the technology and the subject in advance so

that I can at least have a basic understanding of what we're trying to get.

>> Right, yeah.

>> I also rely really heavily on you.

>> Right.

That needs specifically?

>> Well sometimes.

>> Okay. Yeah, that's true.

That's true [INAUDIBLE] yeah.

>> Depending now if we're working together.

>> [LAUGH] >> But yeah,

I rely really heavily on our teachers.

>> Okay.

>> Cuz in the end, they understand our curriculum and what our students need.

>> Right. >> So,

I really do have our teacher's guide those conversations.

>> Cool. >> And

try to keep them within the parameters of the course itself.

>> Right, and that's next cuz nobody is doing that alone.

Cuz this is a new thing to a lot of people.

>> For sure.

>> Some people might not like being in front of a camera, right?

That might be a thing.

>> No, some people really don't like being in front of cameras.

>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, so

we actually have a couple different ways of working with our guests.

People that want to be on camera.

Absolutely can.

We just ask for demo videos from them.

>> Okay.

>> But we also work with a lot of guest authors.

And so they will write the content that is then presented by people internally.

A lot of times if you go on our site.

And you see two author names there.

One of those is the content creator and the other is the presenter.

>> That's excellent.

>> Yeah.

>> So you can kinda get a taste of if you want to get up in front of event, right?

>> Absolutely. >> That's cool.

>> Absolutely.

Yeah, we start off with a demo.

>> Okay. >> And with those demos,

which is a short little snippet of just teaching something, something little.

>> Okay.

>> And that will kinda tell people whether or not they feel comfortable with it.

>> Whether they like it or not, yeah.

It's an interesting art.

>> It is an art.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> So if somebody out there right now watching this, is like hey,

I wanna do that or I know somebody who would be great at that.

What sort of advice would you give to that person?

>> Yeah, first of all, I recommend it.

>> Okay. >> But teaching is not for everybody.

>> Okay.

>> Teaching is a very challenging job.

We really do look for people that have either written books on the subjects or

have prior teaching experience, or have spoken at conferences or

even their local technology meetup.

>> Right. >> So having done presentation or

put together a presentation in the past is really important, because that way

you at least have a basic understanding of what you're getting into with this.

There's a lot of amazing developers out there.

Not everybody is in a position to teach.

>> Right. >> So

it's really about what you're interested in as an individual.

Some people really love sharing their knowledge.

If you're the kind of person that loves pair programming,

if you're the kind of person that is constantly going to meetups and saying,

I really wanna learn about this next thing.

And hey, I see you working on it too.

Let's work on it together.

That's the kind of person I think that ends up doing really well teaching.

>> Awesome.

My favorite question that I get to ask people like one of the show.

What is something that somebody who went to the teacher's page and

filled out that form.

What might they not know about you specifically?

I am really into wood working.

>> Mm. Wood working.

>> Wood working.

Yeah. >> How so?

What do you mean by that?

>> About a little over a year ago now, I was looking for

something to do in the winter months of Portland.

>> [LAUGH] >> And

found a program where I could just kind of learn how to build things out of wood.

So I've built pantry for my kitchen and I just finished a rocking chair.

>> How do you build a pantry?

What do you mean you built a pantry?

>> I was lacking space in my kitchen.

>> Okay. >> And I built some cabinetry.

[LAUGH] >> Okay.

>> [LAUGH] And made a full-out cabinet for my kitchen.

>> Awesome.

>> Yeah. >> That's really cool.

And then, what was the other thing?

>> I just finished a rocking chair.

>> A rocking chair that works?

>> It does, it rocks.

>> Wow. >> And it rocks the way it's supposed to.

Not just because it's uneven.

>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, that was a challenge.

Cuz you're working.

The big things for me was working with new tools.

Like different blades and to get the right angle for the rockers was really hard.

>> Okay.

>> But yeah.

>> Awesome.

Another thing that I have noticed about you.

I can't seem to think of a time when I haven't seen you

reading within five minutes.

You are always reading.

You're a bibliophile if you will.

>> I am.

[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] You love the Kindle,

you love the phone.

If there's ever a hard copy around, you've always got a book in your hand.

>> I do. I read a lot.

Some people really like watching television, which is great.

Some people like watching YouTube videos.

I like to read.

I read a lot.

I like OverDrive.

The library app is great.

I love Kindle Unlimited.

>> Yeah, I think you're the only person that I know personally that reads all

the time.

You're like, at the all you can eat buffet,

you're the people who have taken all those books.

[LAUGH] >> Yeah.

No, my parents are both librarians so

I was- >> Wow, that comes from a long life.

>> I do, a long life of reading so- >> How many books?

>> It is okay.

It's impressive, I bet.

Do you think monthly that you read?

>> Monthly? >> Yeah.

I probably read about 20 books a month.

>> [LAUGH] Wow.

>> But that's sometimes I reread books, to be fair.

>> Okay.

>> Sometimes I do reread, so if I've got a series and a new book and

a series comes out.

>> Might as well do it again.

>> I might as well just start from the beginning.

Which is really bad cuz some series of, I've already got 12 or 13 books in them.

>> [LAUGH] >> So if I wanna get to the next one,

I've got a lot of reading to do.

>> [LAUGH] Awesome.

>> So. [SOUND]

>> Thanks for watching the Treehouse Show.

To get in touch with the show, reach out to me on Twitter, or

hit us up in the Treehouse Community.

20 books.

Man, I gotta catch up.