• Software developer and educator explaining JavaScript concepts on a whiteboard, pointing to a flowchart showing input, validation, transformation, and return steps while a laptop with code sits open on the desk.
    Web Development Fundamentals

    Explaining Code: Lessons from Teaching

    When I started teaching, I thought my job was to know the material. Know it cold. Know it forward and backward. Be ready for every question. What I learned instead is that knowing something and explaining something are two very different skills. That realization followed me back into software development. In the classroom, I could solve a problem in my head in seconds. But when I tried to explain it the same way I solved it – jumping steps, skipping assumptions, compressing logic – I would lose half the room. The students weren’t confused because the material was impossible. They were confused because I had teleported from A to D…