{"id":41238,"date":"2021-07-23T18:29:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T00:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codewizardshq.com\/?p=41238"},"modified":"2025-05-06T13:50:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T19:50:48","slug":"teacher-spotlight-cynthia-ramos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codewizardshq.com\/teacher-spotlight-cynthia-ramos\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher Spotlight: Cynthia Ramos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Cynthia, coding has always been about being able to do more with her creative interests. She uses this unique take on coding to encourage students who might have other interests that programming can be for them, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

An Artist in a Digital Ag<\/strong>e<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cynthia grew up loving computers, especially playing games and drawing on Paint. But it wasn\u2019t until college that she discovered that computers could tie into her lifelong interest in art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of my good friends said \u2018Hey, do you know about programming languages?\u2019 And I said, \u2018I have no idea what that is, what does that mean?\u2019 And they said it\u2019s kind of like learning a language, but with computers. I just researched from there and fell in love with the fact that you can create, because I\u2019ve always been a creator. I\u2019ve just been learning every single day since then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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

Now Cynthia uses coding and technology to make her artwork into something completely different, turning hand-drawn pieces into digital works of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVisually I like to draw landscapes, so if I\u2019m somewhere I\u2019ll sketch it out and then take that sketch and put it into my iPad and draw in Procreate. Once I\u2019m done with that I\u2019ll take it and make pixel art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showing Students That Coding is For Everyone<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cynthia has been teaching with CodeWizardsHQ for over a year and has taught classes in our elementary<\/a>, middle<\/a>, and high school<\/a> programs. No matter what level she\u2019s teaching, she always encourages her students to incorporate their other interests in projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love being creative, so I really push that on my students, making sure they take their projects and make them their own. Because when I was learning, it was just the same thing over and over again. So having them add their own little flair to their projects I feel like is a lot better and it makes them want to code.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For students who are new to programming, or who might not be sure if it\u2019s really for them, Cynthia always takes it back to their current hobbies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy first thing that I always do is I ask, what is your interest besides programming? And they\u2019ll tell me they like to draw or they like to play basketball. Then I tell them, when you come back, I want you to take what you do that doesn\u2019t involve coding and I want you to add it to your project,” she says. “Then they\u2019ll come back to me and say, all I could think about was adding images of basketballs. And I say, that\u2019s good, because what you just did there is you took an interest and you are learning about another interest. It definitely opens up their eyes to be like, oh so I can have more than one interest, or I can implement this into the stuff I do in my everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to encouraging creativity, Cynthia\u2019s other biggest focus with her students is making sure they\u2019re having fun. She knows that kids who are having fun will be more likely to want to learn and take the concepts from class even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBesides playing pranks on me, which is their favorite thing to do, I always like to make sure my students have fun. And then also having them share their projects in the beginning — we\u2019re all looking at everyone\u2019s projects and seeing what we came up with. Some of them don\u2019t want to share, but then they come out of that shell and everyone gets together and we laugh and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life Outside of Teaching<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\"Cynthia's<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

When she\u2019s not busy teaching CodeWizardsHQ classes, Cynthia loves spending time with her many pets, including three dogs, a rabbit, a cat, and fish. Her dogs accompany her on hikes when weather allows (it gets pretty hot at times in West Texas). She also spends a lot of her free time learning new ways to combine coding with her artwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a Javascript language that\u2019s called P5 JS, and it\u2019s specifically for creative coding. I found out about it about 6 months ago, so I\u2019ve been taking this time to really brush up on my math, because there are certain portions in there that involve trigonometry. For me it\u2019s just taking regular things, like an image, and using coding to create an animation, or create some sort of difference with code. It\u2019s cool to take my art and just add some code and see some cool things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She then uses these art projects to inspire her students and show them just how much they can do with their coding knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll share my projects, and they\u2019re all \u2018you can do that?\u2019 And I say, yes you can. I have a few students who specifically like to draw, they\u2019re not as into the coding portion, and I\u2019m like, wait a minute, don\u2019t give up on programming yet. Because I promise you can take your art and create something really cool with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she continues to learn more about creative coding, Cynthia says she continues to learn from her students as well even after a full year of teaching with CodeWizardsHQ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just been so glad to be able to teach and be part of something amazing. I learn every single day from my students. I love just letting them be themselves as much as possible,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd anything I can do to help them, I let them know, just bother me every single day if there\u2019s something you don\u2019t understand. We have so many resources and we\u2019re here for you guys.\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