Hello All,


I received a grant from my university to organize a 7-month program for academic staff to build their Javascript skills. The idea is all the staff who participate will get together 1-2x per month to share their progress on individual projects they're developing, and get feedback and troubleshooting help from both a peer group AND a paid expert I'm calling a "coach." (Full description below.)


The problem I'm having is finding anyone who is interested in taking the coaching the job. I have not made a public job ad, but I have emailed about 10 folks from campus and community, and asked them to notify their networks and affiliated lis-servs. For example: the leaders of Milwaukee MeetUp groups for tech women, for Javascript programmers, and open data; the web development professor at our iSchool; our campus app development lab; the leader of a local nonprofit that teaches coding to kids; etc. I've gotten positive responses form many of these folks, but I haven't received a nibble of interest from a single person in the job itself. I'm continuing to identify key people whose networks I can tap, but I'm discouraged by the apparent lack of interest I've encountered so far, and scratching my head over what I'm doing wrong.


So I'm turning to you for advice -- specifically, two questions:

1) Do you know someone who might know someone in the Milwaukee area who might be interested in a gig like this? If so, please feel free to circulate this posting

2) Can you spot anything in the ad itself that I could improve? Anything that's a turn-off? Should I include the pay rate in the ad?

(We have a total of about $1100; I figured I would negotiate the hourly rate and total number of hours with the person we found. Although I listed 6 hours/month, that's only the ideal; we could bring down the total number of hours, and pay a higher rate.)

Any other suggestions or ideas? I'd love to get your feedback.


Thank you!!

Eliza


Javascript Workshop Leader / "Coach"

6 hours per month, July - December, 2015


This summer, the Digital Humanities Lab at UWM will begin a professional development series for academic staff from across campus to improve their skills in coding for front-end Web development -- specifically, Javascript. Workshop participants will be professionals from diverse academic backgrounds who each have a real-life work-related project under development. They will have completed some basic training in Javascript (such as the JavaScript course in Codecademy), but are novice-level developers.  In twice-monthly meetings with peers and an expert coach, up to 12 participants will meet for collaborative workshop sessions in which they present progress on their projects, get help on overcoming obstacles, receive short lessons on important topics, and gradually “level up” to become more proficient programming problem solvers.  Our goal is to support staff who have already learned some basics of coding, but need help to start becoming fluent enough to apply those basics in order to design and build their desired products.


We seek an expert front-end programmer with Javascript expertise who will act as coach, mentor, and troubleshooter for this group of learners. Overall, the goal of the workshop sessions will be to build a community of learners to support one another and provide motivation, camaraderie, and practical assistance in overcoming roadblocks. The paid expert will act a coach for the group, providing guidance in matters that are opaque to novice learners, and sharing strategies from his/her experience. Sessions may include short lessons prepared and presented by the coach, but we envision workshop sessions in which the focus of the majority of the meeting time is on individual participants' projects and questions. Participants could also take turns researching and presenting on relevant topics, with guidance from the coach.  The exact format of the sessions will be designed in part with guidance from the coach, and will be subject to revision and changes with input from the group as the project progresses.


The person we hire will:

Be an expert developer of front-end interaction applications. Skilled in JavaScript, and in adopting specialized JS libraries.

Have some experience (formal or informal) teaching, coaching, or mentoring beginner-level programmers.

Have Interest in and competency with a wide range of subject and content applications.

Have comfort with and interest in joining a learning environment that is flexible, collaborative, and open.


To express interest in the position, or to learn more, please contact Eliza Bettinger, [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>


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Eliza Bettinger
Digital Geo-Information Specialist
American Geographical Society Library
UW-Milwaukee
Milwaukee WI USA
414-229-6282