Training the Next Generation of Developers with She Code Africa

I was scrolling through my timeline on X (formerly Twitter) when the notification icon showed that I had a new notification. Oluwaseun Afolayan had mentioned me in response to a post calling for applicants to facilitate a training for the She Code Africa Academy Program. I had told Seun earlier this year I wanted to do more speaking and technical workshops, so he never failed to send opportunities he thought I was qualified for my way. I applied to be a facilitator for the back-end track shortly after reading the tweet.

During my interview, I was honest that my schedule was pretty tight. I worked in a role that demanded a lot from me, I had things I was learning on the side and I had recently become a first-time father in February. But I promised to give it my all. I told the interviewers that I had dreams of training developers since when I was an active member of Meta (Facebook) Developer Circles, Lagos but it just never happened. And now that the opportunity was within my grasp, I was going to do everything in my power to make it work. I didn't know if I was convincing enough, but I was hopeful.

Days later, I received a congratulatory e-mail and my onboarding began. Classes were going to be for three months with two classes per week. The organizers were kind enough to allow me choose the days and time of my classes. While thinking about how to give my students the best online class experience, I remembered my brother had gifted me his old microphone over a year ago. So I decided this was a perfect opportunity to have a dedicated audio setup for my home office. I bought equipment to make the microphone functional and my audio setup was ready just in time for the commencement of the program. By the end of the program, I had upgraded to a bigger office table, and added a ring light and second monitor to my home office. I had about 18 students and attendance for classes were great. I guess this was because attendance was part of the final grading to determine students eligible for graduation.

Teaching the students version control using Git and GitHub, NodeJS, NPM, Express, building server-side rendered applications and APIs using Express was quite a journey. I had to prepare for each class, reading documentation, sometimes preparing PowerPoint presentations, and having an agenda for the class. Making different concepts easy to understand for all students was my biggest challenge as I soon noticed that they had varying familiarity with software development in general. The biggest shock I experienced during the programme was discovering that I needed to give assignments and grade them. I guess I was so excited about being a teacher that I forgot that aspect of teaching. To be frank, I still don’t enjoy grading assignments.

What started as something I would usually forget about until my POC (Person of Contact) reminded me gradually turned into something I really looked forward to. Weeks into the program, I realised that classes had become a way for me to let off steam after a long day. While on a trip to speak at Sailsconf Africa 2024, I met other software developers into developer education and doing great things. We shared our experiences and had a good laugh. Obviously, they were more experienced than I was in the space. Our conversations strengthened my resolve to explore more opportunities relating to developer education.

I want to appreciate the team at She Code Africa for the opportunity to be a facilitator for the She Code Africa Academy Program. A special appreciation to Georgina Ignatius, my POC who never failed to remind me of classes, assignments, gradings, etc throughout the duration of the program. My shout out also to the Queens that started and finished their training in the various tracks; it definitely wasn't easy but you did it. I really can't wait to read about your success stories.