I am back from teaching Course 512 in Philadelphia. I had a great time. Since Learning Tree doesn't have an Ed Center in Philly, I got to setup a remote classroom with laptops in the Congress room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, located in downtown. It was a terrific spot to have a class, with plenty of places to have lunch and dinner. And yes, I ate a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich from Rick's Original Philly Steak restaurant located at Reading Terminal Market (and it was absolutely delicious!) But the best part of the trip was the people I got to know, particularly my students for the week.
We had fun all week; and though everyone worked hard on the exercises all week, there was no stress. I even had time to show them a little bit of AJAX and SSRS. What made this class special was how they enjoyed the experience and each other; having a class like this makes it easy to enjoy the teaching experience as well. This was also the first time I ever had a group picture taken at the end of class. This is a picture of me and my class standing in front of a mural by the poolside (that's me in the orange shirt and black tie striking the nice pose in the back.)
I want to thank the Philly 512 for a wonderful first ever trip to Philadelphia, for the great hospitality that they showed me, and for being the greatest class ever. I wish them all the best of luck in their ASP.NET endeavors and in their development careers.
You all get an A! :-)