Platform.sh: Deploy Friday – E-learning Tools and Strategies (June 2020)
In this discussion, I highlighted key strategies for effective online learning, including how to choose between synchronous/ asynchronous/hybrid approaches, the importance of giving students reflection points throughout the learning process, and how to keep students engaged in a virtual environment.
Coding Sans Podcast (May 2020)
This interview was a fun opportunity to talk more about social engineering and team building. I discussed how to identify characteristics of a strong team, how to use social engineering techniques to improve team dynamics, and the importance of psychological safety.
Develomentor Podcast (April 2020)
Some of the topics that I discussed in this podcast include the basics of social engineering, what I do in a typical day as a Technical Curriculum Developer at AWS, how sharing your ideas on Twitter can help you get started with conference speaking, and how I accidentally got my family’s AOL account suspended as a kid. (Lesson learned: Always make sure to cover your tracks!)
No BS Engineering Podcast (July 2019)
The topic of this interview is “Learning how to learn.” I discuss some of the strategies that I’ve discovered about my own personal learning style, how I get unstuck when there’s something that I don’t know, and a few of the parallels between learning world languages and learning programming languages.
TabGeeks Podcast (June 2019)
My first ever conference talk was on overcoming fear of failure. At the time, I was actually too afraid to even apply for conferences, because I was afraid that they would all reject me.
In this episode of the TabGeeks podcast, I discuss where the talk idea came from, strategies for dealing with procrastination and imposter syndrome, how to shift into a growth mindset, what I recommend for introverts like myself who sometimes struggle with networking, and more.
Voices of the ElePHPant Podcast (April 2019)
I first became involved with the PHP community when I spoke at the Southeast PHP conference last summer. Earlier this year after I gave a keynote talk at the Sunshine PHP conference, Cal invited me to come onto the podcast to talk about my background and what I do now as a trainer at Cloudbakers.
There’s a lot that I’ve learned from PHP conferences that I’ve been able to bring back to my work as a trainer. For instance, learning more about unit testing in the context of PHP programming has helped me to become more intentional about how I test out different training strategies, with a particular focus on knowing which specific outcomes I should be looking for in end-users’ behavior.
This was a fun interview to do, and it was great to talk about topics such as how I initially got into programming as a child, the creative approaches that I take with technical training, and how I went from not being a runner to doing eight half marathons, and eventually the full Chicago Marathon.
How to Code Well Podcast (March 2019)
I met Peter Fisher, the host of the How to Code Well podcast, at the Sunshine PHP conference. In this episode of his podcast, we talked about teaching and training, as well as some of the work that I’ve done at other points in my career, including teaching in Chicago Public Schools.
The 6 Figure Developer Podcast (March 2019)
After I presented a talk on mentoring at CodeMash, I met Jon Ash, one of the hosts of the 6 Figure Developer podcast. In this interview with the three podcast hosts, it was great to chat about strategies that can help people to become better mentors, and also what I’ve learned from the mentors who have personally helped me throughout my career.