Engineers build nations. Teachers build engineers.
I have been a “teacher” since September 2015. Here is what I have done/do in this lifestyle:
- Learn and/or teach C, Java, PHP, Apache, MySQL, Hadoop/Map-Reduce, Linux, Shell scripting, Android app dev, Python, Perl.
- Guide & mentor CSE & non-CSE students in their final year (major) and pre-final year (minor) projects. (Data deduplication, Web bots, Android Apps, Map Reduce Jobs, Women’s Safety Web site, Integrating Cameras in Human Powered Vehicles, Product Life-cycle Management, …)
- Set question papers and evaluate answer sheets.
- Built a REST based web service. (.NET/C#, FoxPro)
- Built an Android app that talks to the above web service. (Android Studio, Java)
- Built a web site, crawler, bot. (HTML, PHP, MySQL, Apache)
- Built a Hadoop cluster and wrote Map Reduce jobs. (Hadoop, Java)
- Designed an algorithm to correlate data across databases. I & my students presented this in the Smart India Hackathon 2017 Grand Finale. (Java, PHP, MySQL, Solr)
- Run a Coders Club that focuses on problem solving. (Math, Data structures, Algorithms, C, C++, Java)
- Work on research problems. (0/1 Knapsack, Big Data)
- Play Caroms with kids. Teach them problem solving.
- Go mango picking with entire family thrice every summer.
- Built a roof top garden with varieties of roses. Bull-shit is great manure, I tell you 🙂
- Sleep peacefully.
- Cherish Mondays.
- Don’t have a boss, finally!
To summarize:
1–3 are the only official job responsibilities.
4–7 are practicals done for effective teaching.
8–9 are “stretch goals” to see my students do better than me in life.
10–16 are the benefits I can’t even imagine in the software industry.