From Master To Student Again

AST's BBST Test Design class is now underway, with a slightly unexpected modification. When we ran the pilot curse, I assisted Cem in teaching it, which meant I had about one week's more involvement with the material than the participants did, and the old maxim "you can teach someone anything if you are two chapters ahead" certainly held, but it was also challenging to do it in that manner.

As we set up for the first run of the official class, and we accepted the participants, Cem made a suggestion to me. He said "Michael, how would you like to be a student this time around? You didn't get that opportunity for the Pilot, and if you are going to be leading these classes, it's important that you also see the course from the participants perspective". How could I argue with that :)?

So as of Sunday, I am now a participant in Test Design, and I get to be a student again. This is meshing pretty well overall. I did my Foundations class in early 2010, my Bug Advocacy class in early 2011, and now Test Design in early 2012. This will also give me a chance to see how well I understand the material I helped teach the first time around, and if this experience and a different perspective will help open up answers that I wasn't aware of before. In any event, this will be a cool experience, and I expect to learn a great deal from doing it.

It does, however, mean I will have to ask some indulgence from my Foundations class participants to give me a little bit more time to give them additional feedback. Much as I want to, I cannot stuff more than 24 hours into a day, and contrary to popular belief I really do need to sleep sometimes :).