Online coding course for evenings + weekends
Twenty weeks for people with day jobs, night shifts and kids asleep upstairs. Two live classes a week after 8 pm Eastern, a Saturday lab, and a mentor who reads every line you write.
A:\CURRICULUM
Python first, because it reads almost like English. Then the web, because that's where people see your work. Each disk is two or three weeks of short video lessons, small exercises a mentor checks by hand, and one thing you build and keep.
Keep scrolling to load disk 1
How a computer follows instructions, and how to give it some. You write your first program on night one, before the kettle boils.
A tip splitter for the next group dinner.
bill = 64.80
people = 3
each = bill * 1.20 / people
print(f"Each pays ${each:.2f}")Each pays $25.92
Make a program decide things and repeat things, which turns out to be most of what programs do.
Guess-my-number, which your kids will beat you at.
secret = 7
for guess in [3, 9, 7]:
if guess == secret:
print(guess, "- got it!")
else:
print(guess, "- nope")3 - nope 9 - nope 7 - got it!
Hold lots of things at once and find them fast: groceries, shift rotas, phone numbers.
A pantry watcher that tells you what's running low.
pantry = {"eggs": 6, "rice": 5}
pantry["eggs"] -= 4
for item, n in pantry.items():
flag = "LOW" if n < 3 else "ok"
print(item.ljust(5), n, flag)eggs 2 LOW rice 5 ok
Name a piece of work once and reuse it forever. Then read real files, like the spreadsheet export your bank lets you download.
A monthly budget report from your own bank export.
def pay(hours, rate=18.50):
return hours * rate
for h in [32, 40, 45]:
print(h, "hrs:", pay(h))32 hrs: 592.0 40 hrs: 740.0 45 hrs: 832.5
Ask other people's computers for data, politely, and do something useful with the answer.
A leave-now alert from the live bus feed.
import requests
data = requests.get(URL).json()
tonight = data["periods"][0]
print(tonight["name"], tonight["temp"])
print("Coat:", tonight["temp"] < 50)Tonight 41 Coat: True
Structure and style for the web. The point where your family finally sees what you've been doing at the table.
Your own homepage, with your projects on it.
<h1>Hi, I'm Faye.</h1> <p>Night nurse. Day sleeper.</p> <p>Learning to code at 9 pm.</p> <a href="projects.html">My projects</a>
Hi, I'm Faye. Night nurse. Day sleeper. Learning to code at 9 pm. My projects >
JavaScript in the browser: clicks, forms, live data and pages that remember you.
A streak tracker that remembers your nights of practice.
let nights = 0
button.onclick = () => {
nights = nights + 1
label.textContent = nights + " nights"
}[button clicked 3 times] 3 nights ■■■□□□□
Git, code review and putting things on the internet. Then a capstone of your choosing, and five minutes on stage at demo night.
A capstone, live at a real address, shown on demo night.
$ git add . $ git commit -m "demo night" $ git push
[main 4f2a1c9] demo night 3 files changed, 41 insertions(+) Live. Text someone the link.
One catch-up week in March, no class. Demo night for the winter cohort is Thursday, June 3, 2027, on video and in person at our Pittsburgh office for anyone nearby.
A:\PROJECTS
Eight small programs and pages, each one something you'd actually use. They go in your portfolio and, if we're honest, on the fridge.
TIPS.PY · DISK 1
BILL ............ $64.80 TIP (20%) ....... $12.96 PEOPLE .......... 3 ------------------------ EACH PAYS ....... $25.92
Your first real program: numbers, text and rounding money properly.
GUESS.PY · DISK 2
I'M THINKING OF 1-100. > 50 TOO HIGH > 25 TOO LOW > 37 TOO HIGH > 31 GOT IT IN 4! PLAY AGAIN? (Y/N)
Loops, choices and your first bug report from a nine-year-old.
PANTRY.PY · DISK 3
PANTRY CHECK SUN 7:42 PM EGGS .......... 2 LOW RICE .......... 5 MILK .......... 0 OUT COFFEE ........ 1 LOW !! SHOPPING LIST SAVED.
Lists and dictionaries, and a shopping list that writes itself.
BUDGET.PY · DISK 4
OCTOBER 2026 RENT ################ 950 GROCERY ####### 412 GAS ### 168 TAKEOUT #### 221 TOTAL ............. $1,751
Functions and files: it reads the export from your own bank.
BUSALERT.PY · DISK 5
BUS 54 · NEXT IN 9 MIN WALK TO STOP ..... 4 MIN >> LEAVE IN 5 MIN TEXT SENT 9:51 PM "take the umbrella"
Live data from the internet, turned into one useful text message.
INDEX.HTML · DISK 6
+------------------------+ | HI, I'M FAYE. | | Night nurse. | | [Projects] [Email] | | +------+ +------+ | | | tips | | quiz | | | +------+ +------+ | +------------------------+
Your own corner of the web, readable on any phone.
STREAK.JS · DISK 7
NIGHTS OF PRACTICE M T W T F S S X X . X X X . X X X X . X X X . X X X X X STREAK: 9 NIGHTS
Buttons, saved data and a small daily nudge to keep going.
YOURS · DISK 8
DEMO NIGHT · THU JUN 3 PAST CAPSTONES: - SHIFT-SWAP BOARD, ICU - FOOD PANTRY STOCK SHEET - CHORE CHART, GOLD STARS - LITTLE LEAGUE SNACK ROTA YOURS: ________________
Your idea, live at a real address, shown on demo night.
A:\LESSON23
Loops that do the dishes. Fourteen minutes of video with Renee, then this exercise. Pick the dishes and press Run. Then indent the last line and run it again.
"Indent that last line and the kitchen gets declared clean after every mug. Everyone does it once. Some of us still do it weekly."Renee, 08:52 in the lesson
Press Run. Then try adding the big pot.
A:\MENTORS
Every one of them learned to code around another job. There's one mentor for every six students, and they read every exercise you hand in, usually the same night.
Founder · lead instructor
Eleven years of ICU night shifts at a Pittsburgh hospital. Learned Python at her kitchen table in Polish Hill, between 7 am bedtimes. Now builds scheduling software for nurses.
Data mentor
Fourteen years as an overnight 911 dispatcher. Taught herself spreadsheets, then Python, then SQL. Now a data analyst for a regional food bank.
Back-end mentor
Fixed city buses on the overnight crew for fifteen years. Now writes the software that tracks them, and the code reviews everyone quietly hopes he'll do.
Front-end mentor
Ran the line at a Strip District diner for nine years. Now a front-end developer at a Pittsburgh health-tech company. Thinks every page should load like a short-order ticket.
A:\SCHEDULE
About seven hours a week. Every live session is recorded and posted by 11 pm Eastern, so a double shift doesn't mean falling behind. Pick your time zone to see it in your hours.
| PROG | DAY | TIME | WHAT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TUE | 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM ET | LIVE CLASSNew material, questions welcome, recorded |
| 2 | THU | 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM ET | LIVE CLASSWorked examples and this week's exercise |
| 3 | SAT | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET | LAB: BUILD TOGETHERCameras optional, kids in the background expected |
| 4 | SUN | 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM ET | OFFICE HOURSDrop in with whatever is stuck |
| 5 | ANY | 3 × 45 MIN | PRACTICE ON YOUR OWNWhenever your week allows |
Tue Jan 12 → demo night Thu Jun 3. No class the week of March 22. Applications close Friday, December 18.
9 of 24 seats leftTue Jul 13 → demo night Thu Dec 2. Same evenings, same mentors. Applications open March 1.
Not open yet · join the listA:\PRICES
Model 1 · self-paced
$390once
Start tonight.
All eight disks of video lessons and exercises, with instant automatic checks. Go at your own speed and keep it for good.
Model 2 · cohort
$1,800total
Or 6 monthly payments of $310.
The full twenty weeks with a cohort of 24 and a mentor who knows your name and your code.
Model 3 · cohort + 1:1
$2,700total
Or 6 monthly payments of $465.
The cohort, plus ten private 45-minute sessions with a mentor, booked around your shifts.
RefundsFull refund until the end of week 2. After that, we refund the disks you haven't started.
Pay what you canFour seats per cohort start at $0 for people between jobs. Just ask; nobody else will know.
Tuition benefitWe'll write the letter and itemized receipt your employer's tuition program asks for.
We don't publish a job-placement rate. With 24 people a cohort, that number swings wildly from year to year, and plenty of our students come to automate their own work, not to change careers. Any school that promises you a job is guessing.
A:\HELP
Can't find yours? Call Renee at (555) 017-8462, weekdays 4–9 pm Eastern. She answers the phone herself.
No. If you can split a dinner bill, you can do every exercise here. The math in this course is adding, comparing and the occasional percentage.
Any Mac, Windows or Linux laptop from about 2017 on, with 8 GB of memory. A Chromebook works for disks 1 to 5 in the browser; you'll want a laptop by disk 6. Short on hardware? We lend refurbished laptops to four students each cohort.
It's why we exist. Every class is recorded and posted by 11 pm Eastern, office hours move around the week, and the 1:1 plan has 6 am slots for people coming off a night.
Tell your mentor early. You can pause after any disk and rejoin the next cohort at the same disk, once, at no charge.
It might, and we'll help with portfolio reviews, mock interviews and introductions where we have them. But twenty weeks of evenings makes you a capable beginner, not a senior engineer, and anyone who promises a job is guessing.
Plan on seven hours a week: three live and about four on your own. Disks 4 and 6 run longer for most people, which is why March has a catch-up week.
Yes, from disk 4 on, as a tutor that explains rather than a ghostwriter that types for you. You'll learn to ask good questions and to check every answer it gives.
You keep the lessons and the forum, and there's a free alumni lab on the first Saturday of every month. Plenty of graduates stick around to mentor the next table.
A:\ENROLL
Applications for the winter cohort close Friday, December 18. There's no test. We just want to know what you'd like to build and when you're usually free.