The Grateful Life of a Teacher Assistant at Ironhack
On 2019 i was blessed with a new job: teacher assistant of the ux/ui part-time course at Ironhack. I started with low expectations, thinking more about the extra money i would make than about the job itself sometimes. I love when life surprises you.
First great bonus was that i had the chance to watch the classes as a student (when not doing any t.a. work). That was amazing for me as i was working already in a P.O position by day and many of the subjects we discussed inside the classroom was very real in my day to day basis. I assimilated the content in a deeper way than when i first attended the course myself (i’m a former ux/ui bootcamp student) and was able to apply some of the learning right away.
Now, the soft skills aspect. When the course began, i did what i thought i had to do: organize classes, take attendance, figure out the students motivation and doing some "janitor" work. As classes went by and my relationship grew stronger with the students, i found myself many times in the role of a psychologist, a cheerleader and a friend (the last one eventually came true).
These "extra roles" are very handy at a bootcamp environment as the majority of students that seek for the Ironhack courses are looking for change. Change for a more senior position, change of career, change of field of expertise. That is quite a turbulent period for anyone. Specifically my classroom was filled with very skilled people which their main concern wasn't to be an expert in Adobe XD or any other tool, but to thrive, to enter this tunnel of 360 hours of classes and projects and exit from it with succeed and confidence to achieve what they were first looking for: transformation.
All that experience was amazing, and i feel that it really added value to my professional career. But that was possible because of people. People are everything! I had amazing co-workers and great students! All of them very different and unique, made me step up my empathy game and learn a lot about respect, inclusion, how to deal with different type of people and to fight against our prejudice and biases that most of the time turn out to be unreal.
Thank you guys and Ironhack! Not only i witnessed your evolution and empowering, but i felt that happening to me as well. I thought i wasn't suited to be a teacher and thought that would never happen in my life, but i now realize there's room for me in this field too :)
cc: Fulvio Irente, Mel Garcia, Aline Melo, Daniela Castro, Nathalia Sacks, Paty Zambrini, Lucas Prandi, Eris Fernandes, Vanessa Miura, alexandre diorio, Rodrigo R A Andrade, Fernanda Medeiros, Erik Hashizume, Andres Fernandez, Belinha ❤
