The next couple of months are sure to be interesting. I am teaching CIS 405 at DeVry University in Phoenix this term, which is a class which can go a couple of ways. In some ways the book leads you towards a class dedicated to Oracle, Oracle forms etc. The curriculum guide provides a different view point. It is really a class about stored procs, external access to a database and some DB administration topics.

For the student it is an interesting course no matter which route you take. You should have control logic in PL SQL (for Oracle remember) along with some actual DB access and the joins etc. that go along with it. Then we move to accessing the information from another programming language. In this case we are going with C#.

Students should kill to attend this class. It has so much to offer. The trouble is packing it into 8 weeks. As an instructor I realize this is hard on the students as it is also hard on me. I need to meet all of the TCOs within the time we have allowed. I do all of this while working full time and trying to have a family at the same time.

As much time that the student spends on homework I spend preparing and grading. I really spend a lot of hours outside of class preparing or grading or answering emails. It is really interesting work and it does teach me a lot at the same time.

Why do I do it? Well being offered a teaching position was really a something I couldn’t refuse. I then could have used the extra income (who couldn’t?). I then realized that DeVry would pay for my MBA at Keller. And finally I enjoy it. My wife realizes this, students see it when I teach and I know it. I am excited for this 405 class because many of the students are from the previous 349 class which was outstanding. We should be able to maximize what we get out of this class!

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