{"id":38698,"date":"2021-02-27T03:20:36","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T09:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codewizardshq.com\/?p=38698"},"modified":"2025-05-01T01:40:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T07:40:23","slug":"teacher-spotlight-james-capps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codewizardshq.com\/teacher-spotlight-james-capps\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher Spotlight: James Capps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our CodeWizardsHQ instructor, James Capps, loves music and it shows. He owns 7 guitars and puts his musical talents to use in learning and writing code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

From Guitar Shop Owner to Coder<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

With 20 years of experience as a guitarist, James Capps was poised to become the owner of the guitar shop he had been managing for several years. From a practical view, accepting the business proposal made sense, but on a deeper level, he was facing a dilemma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got to thinking about whether that was what I really wanted to do and realized it was not,\u201d says James. With that realization, James had something else to think about \u2013 Now what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His older brother, a software developer, offered to weigh in on the topic. The best programmers he knew were musicians, so maybe James should \u201cgive coding a shot.\u201d Since technology was one of James\u2019 hobbies, he decided to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"James<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

He started by learning HTML, CCS, and JavaScript. \u201cI got into it and fell in love with it,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery moment I was not at work or sleeping, I was programming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James found that his music background actually helped him learn to code. \u201cI definitely feel that there are similarities. Even with music, I would approach it in a very logical, step-by-step sequence.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although James doesn\u2019t think that every musician will be good at programming, or every programmer good at music, he finds there are parallels and overlaps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust as there is structure in programming, like if-then statements, there is structure in music, like 4-4 loops.\u201d James, who also plays piano, drums, ukulele, and base, says that\u2019s how he approached most instruments when learning to play them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important for kids to learn to code for a couple reasons,\u201d he says. \u201cLike music, working with code stimulates your brain and helps develop your logical thinking skills. From a broader perspective, the world needs people who can code. Technology is a bigger part of our lives every single day, so we need people who know how to do this.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Encouraging Kids to Keep Coding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

James stays engaged with his students by interacting with them on the platform and forum, and has also mentored the first class of CodeWizardsHQ interns.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"James<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI loved working on the internship project,\u201d James says. \u201cIt was really cool to watch students make that dive and see them use Git and Slack and things like that, and see them graduate from us holding their hand to really building a project and delivering it to somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing I enjoy most about teaching is watching people grow and change their perception of what programming is. When they start, they think, \u2018Man this is too hard,\u2019 but then they realize, it\u2019s just practice. Like anything else in life, it just takes time and practice to get better at it. I really like watching the kids who just steadily get better and better each day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James says the most challenging aspect of teaching is helping students overcome blocks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes in programming, there\u2019s something that\u2019s blocking you from understanding how to achieve a result or fix a problem. I\u2019ve seen it with myself, and I\u2019ve seen it with kids. As a teacher, you try explaining it several different ways, but it\u2019s still not clicking. There\u2019s just something there that\u2019s blocking them from getting it. If I had the ability to see the twist that\u2019s blocking the understanding, and explain it in a way that would turn the light bulb on, that would be my superpower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy best piece of advice is to just keep coding. It\u2019s hard to see yourself getting better because you\u2019re dealing with yourself every day. But if you just make it a habit and do it every day, there\u2019s no way you won\u2019t get better. Remember that, really, all it takes is doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practical Uses for Programming<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Outside of class, James likes to put his programming knowledge to practical use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy dad is a diabetic, so I built him a blood-sugar tracker so he could keep track of his readings throughout the day. That\u2019s probably one of the favorite things I created,\u201d James says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When not teaching, James enjoys walking his 13-year old basset hound Earl, playing video games and listening to his vinyl record collection. He likes the fact that you can actually hold and collect records. \u201cVinyl has the most superior sound quality,\u201d he says. With every subsequent offering, CDs, MP3s, and streaming options, there\u2019s been more convenience, but also a degradation in sound quality. \u201cIt just seems weird to me that we got that right the first time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What James especially likes about teaching at CodeWizardsHQ is the opportunity to share his experiences and know he\u2019s teaching students skills they can use now and in the future. \u201cWork doesn\u2019t feel like work anymore,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve found something that I enjoy, and I\u2019m glad to be doing it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to level up your child\u2019s learning experience?<\/strong> Take a coding class with CodeWizardsHQ:<\/p>\n\n\n\n