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How to Become a Guest Teacher at Treehouse, Woodworking, and Bibiliophilia with Elizabeth Kozup

Name: How to Become a Guest Teacher at Treehouse, Woodworking, and Bibiliophilia with Elizabeth Kozup
Uploaded: 2017-03-28T16:55:57Z
Duration: 589 s
Description: In this episode we talk about guest teaching with project manager and bibliophile, Elizabeth Kozup.

9:49 with Craig Dennis

In this episode we talk about guest teaching with project manager and bibliophile, Elizabeth Kozup.

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Hi, I'm Craig. 0:00

Welcome to the Treehouse Show. 0:01

The Treehouse Show is our weekly conversation with the Treehouse Community. 0:02

[SOUND] In this episode, we'll be talking about guest 0:05

teaching with project manager, Elizabeth Kozup. 0:10

Thank you so much for being on the show today, Elizabeth. 0:15

>> Thanks for having me, Craig. 0:18

>> I was wondering if we could talk a bit 0:19

to the students about guest teaching and what that means. 0:22

>> We have nine or ten full-time teachers here at Treehouse. 0:25

But there is a lot of technology out there, and we teach a lot of it. 0:29

And not all of it can be taught by our internal teachers. 0:33

So what I do is when they determine that, we want to teach a course. 0:37

I look for subject matter experts to create that course. 0:43

And then I basically manage the project 0:48

from inception to execution when we launch. 0:51

>> That's awesome. 0:54

>> Yeah. >> How do you go about finding them? 0:55

>> Wow, so there's a lot of different ways. 0:58

First of all, word of mouth is great. 0:59

>> Okay. 1:01

>> The Treehouse team has a lot of, that's a really wide variety of experiences and 1:02

people that work in different areas. 1:07

So I get a lot of recommendations from internal members. 1:10

>> Yeah. 1:12

But I also go and look at who's speaking at conferences, and 1:13

I look at who's speaking at a local meet up. 1:18

I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Stack Overflow. 1:21

>> Okay. >> To see who's answering questions. 1:24

There's a lot of different ways that I look for people. 1:26

>> Awesome, if somebody at home is watching this and like, wow, 1:29

I can do that? 1:32

I can teach in Treehouse. 1:33

How would they go about getting a hold of you? 1:34

>> We have a couple different ways. 1:37

>> Okay. 1:38

>> We have on the Treehouse site, we have a teachers page that really talks all 1:39

about the different teachers that we have here. 1:42

They're all listed out. 1:44

So if you teach with us, you get to be on that page as well. 1:45

>> Nice. 1:47

>> But there's a link there that basically says I wanna teach a course or a workshop. 1:48

And you put in the subject you'd like to teach, 1:52

the content that you'd be interested in teaching, then it comes to me. 1:54

And I go through them all, myself. 1:58

>> Okay. >> And 2:00

I do my best to respond as quickly as possible. 2:01

>> Okay. 2:04

>> Depending on whether or not we're interested in teaching the subjects. 2:05

>> Okay, so are there subjects that we're chasing after right now, 2:08

very specifically? 2:10

>> Yes. >> What's that? 2:11

>> Well, we're really trying to build out our design contents so 2:13

we're trying to really refurbish that and refresh that on the site. 2:17

We are also trying to do security courses. 2:22

>> Mm-hm. 2:25

>> We are doing QA content. 2:26

>> Okay. 2:28

>> We are teaching data analysis, and database information. 2:30

>> Wow, okay. >> So those are some of the areas, and 2:34

as you can tell, 2:37

it's a really wide variety of topics- >> Right. 2:38

>> That we're currently trying to teach. 2:41

>> Right. So then that brings up interesting 2:42

question that I've always had. 2:44

>> [LAUGH] >> You can list that in a couple of these 2:46

meetings with you. 2:48

How did you go about doing that? 2:49

There's this new topic area, here comes somebody to talk about it. 2:51

You have to help scope and plan. 2:55

How does that work? 2:57

>> So first and foremost, I am not a programmer. 2:58

>> Okay. >> I'm not a developer. 3:01

I am a project manager. 3:02

>> Okay. 3:03

>> And part of being a project manager is understanding 3:04

the basics around every component of that. 3:08

So whether it's the actual teaching, the video production, 3:11

the development pieces, I have to know a little bit. 3:15

But I'm not an expert on any of those areas. 3:18

So what I end up doing is just before when I'm looking into a subject, 3:22

I spend a lot of time researching it. 3:27

>> Okay. 3:29

>> So not only am I researching the potential teachers, but 3:29

I'm also looking into the subject itself. 3:33

>> Okay. >> So I'm not an expert when I come into 3:35

any of these meetings. 3:36

And I'm usually pretty good at throwing that out there at the beginning. 3:37

But I do have to be able to at least have a conversation about it. 3:41

So I do look on Stack Overflow. 3:44

I do research into the technology and the subject in advance so 3:46

that I can at least have a basic understanding of what we're trying to get. 3:50

>> Right, yeah. 3:54

>> I also rely really heavily on you. 3:55

>> Right. 3:57

That needs specifically? 3:57

>> Well sometimes. 3:58

>> Okay. Yeah, that's true. 3:59

That's true [INAUDIBLE] yeah. 4:00

>> Depending now if we're working together. 4:01

>> [LAUGH] >> But yeah, 4:02

I rely really heavily on our teachers. 4:02

>> Okay. 4:04

>> Cuz in the end, they understand our curriculum and what our students need. 4:05

>> Right. >> So, 4:09

I really do have our teacher's guide those conversations. 4:10

>> Cool. >> And 4:14

try to keep them within the parameters of the course itself. 4:14

>> Right, and that's next cuz nobody is doing that alone. 4:17

Cuz this is a new thing to a lot of people. 4:20

>> For sure. 4:22

>> Some people might not like being in front of a camera, right? 4:25

That might be a thing. 4:28

>> No, some people really don't like being in front of cameras. 4:29

>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, so 4:31

we actually have a couple different ways of working with our guests. 4:32

People that want to be on camera. 4:37

Absolutely can. 4:39

We just ask for demo videos from them. 4:40

>> Okay. 4:42

>> But we also work with a lot of guest authors. 4:43

And so they will write the content that is then presented by people internally. 4:46

A lot of times if you go on our site. 4:50

And you see two author names there. 4:54

One of those is the content creator and the other is the presenter. 4:56

>> That's excellent. 5:00

>> Yeah. 5:01

>> So you can kinda get a taste of if you want to get up in front of event, right? 5:02

>> Absolutely. >> That's cool. 5:06

>> Absolutely. 5:07

Yeah, we start off with a demo. 5:09

>> Okay. >> And with those demos, 5:11

which is a short little snippet of just teaching something, something little. 5:12

>> Okay. 5:17

>> And that will kinda tell people whether or not they feel comfortable with it. 5:18

>> Whether they like it or not, yeah. 5:22

It's an interesting art. 5:23

>> It is an art. 5:24

>> Yeah. 5:25

>> Yeah. 5:26

>> So if somebody out there right now watching this, is like hey, 5:27

I wanna do that or I know somebody who would be great at that. 5:31

What sort of advice would you give to that person? 5:35

>> Yeah, first of all, I recommend it. 5:37

>> Okay. >> But teaching is not for everybody. 5:40

>> Okay. 5:43

>> Teaching is a very challenging job. 5:44

We really do look for people that have either written books on the subjects or 5:46

have prior teaching experience, or have spoken at conferences or 5:53

even their local technology meetup. 5:56

>> Right. >> So having done presentation or 5:59

put together a presentation in the past is really important, because that way 6:02

you at least have a basic understanding of what you're getting into with this. 6:06

There's a lot of amazing developers out there. 6:11

Not everybody is in a position to teach. 6:13

>> Right. >> So 6:15

it's really about what you're interested in as an individual. 6:16

Some people really love sharing their knowledge. 6:21

If you're the kind of person that loves pair programming, 6:24

if you're the kind of person that is constantly going to meetups and saying, 6:27

I really wanna learn about this next thing. 6:31

And hey, I see you working on it too. 6:34

Let's work on it together. 6:36

That's the kind of person I think that ends up doing really well teaching. 6:37

>> Awesome. 6:41

My favorite question that I get to ask people like one of the show. 6:42

What is something that somebody who went to the teacher's page and 6:46

filled out that form. 6:49

What might they not know about you specifically? 6:50

I am really into wood working. 6:54

>> Mm. Wood working. 6:57

>> Wood working. 6:58

Yeah. >> How so? 6:59

What do you mean by that? 7:00

>> About a little over a year ago now, I was looking for 7:02

something to do in the winter months of Portland. 7:05

>> [LAUGH] >> And 7:08

found a program where I could just kind of learn how to build things out of wood. 7:09

So I've built pantry for my kitchen and I just finished a rocking chair. 7:15

>> How do you build a pantry? 7:19

What do you mean you built a pantry? 7:20

>> I was lacking space in my kitchen. 7:23

>> Okay. >> And I built some cabinetry. 7:25

[LAUGH] >> Okay. 7:30

>> [LAUGH] And made a full-out cabinet for my kitchen. 7:31

>> Awesome. 7:34

>> Yeah. >> That's really cool. 7:35

And then, what was the other thing? 7:36

>> I just finished a rocking chair. 7:37

>> A rocking chair that works? 7:39

>> It does, it rocks. 7:41

>> Wow. >> And it rocks the way it's supposed to. 7:42

Not just because it's uneven. 7:44

>> [LAUGH] >> Yeah, that was a challenge. 7:45

Cuz you're working. 7:48

The big things for me was working with new tools. 7:49

Like different blades and to get the right angle for the rockers was really hard. 7:53

>> Okay. 7:59

>> But yeah. 8:00

>> Awesome. 8:01

Another thing that I have noticed about you. 8:02

I can't seem to think of a time when I haven't seen you 8:06

reading within five minutes. 8:09

You are always reading. 8:10

You're a bibliophile if you will. 8:11

>> I am. 8:14

[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] You love the Kindle, 8:15

you love the phone. 8:18

If there's ever a hard copy around, you've always got a book in your hand. 8:20

>> I do. I read a lot. 8:24

Some people really like watching television, which is great. 8:25

Some people like watching YouTube videos. 8:27

I like to read. 8:29

I read a lot. 8:30

I like OverDrive. 8:31

The library app is great. 8:33

I love Kindle Unlimited. 8:35

>> Yeah, I think you're the only person that I know personally that reads all 8:37

the time. 8:41

You're like, at the all you can eat buffet, 8:42

you're the people who have taken all those books. 8:45

[LAUGH] >> Yeah. 8:48

No, my parents are both librarians so 8:49

I was- >> Wow, that comes from a long life. 8:51

>> I do, a long life of reading so- >> How many books? 8:54

>> It is okay. 8:58

It's impressive, I bet. 8:59

Do you think monthly that you read? 9:00

>> Monthly? >> Yeah. 9:02

I probably read about 20 books a month. 9:08

>> [LAUGH] Wow. 9:13

>> But that's sometimes I reread books, to be fair. 9:14

>> Okay. 9:18

>> Sometimes I do reread, so if I've got a series and a new book and 9:19

a series comes out. 9:22

>> Might as well do it again. 9:23

>> I might as well just start from the beginning. 9:24

Which is really bad cuz some series of, I've already got 12 or 13 books in them. 9:26

>> [LAUGH] >> So if I wanna get to the next one, 9:30

I've got a lot of reading to do. 9:32

>> [LAUGH] Awesome. 9:34

>> So. [SOUND] 9:35

>> Thanks for watching the Treehouse Show. 9:39

To get in touch with the show, reach out to me on Twitter, or 9:41

hit us up in the Treehouse Community. 9:44

20 books. 9:46

Man, I gotta catch up. 9:47

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