Maya Puterman: Where are you from?
Mr. Ginsburg: I am originally from Silver Spring Maryland.

MP: What inspired you to learn how to code?
DG: I was always a math-guy and more of a logic person and saw computer science as a really cool cross qualification of math. In 10th grade, I took an AP computer science class with professor Broder, who is now the head of computer science at Stern.

MP: Why did you decide to become a coding teacher?
DG: I was interested in the math and math coding field. What motivated me was that students are often taught to memorize things and not understand. I wanted to understand how things worked and I wanted other people to understand as well. I decided to shift into teaching because I wanted to give back.

MP: What did you before coming to Ramaz
DG: I was working at Amazon as a software developer.

MP: What was it like to work at Amazon?
DG: It was a nice experience but I didn’t find it as fulfilling as I would have liked. We worked remote and very often you would be coding at home all day and occasionally speak to a coworker.

MP: What classes are you teaching at Ramaz?
DG: I teach four 9th grade tech classes, one 10th grade algebra 2 class, and two 11th grade Python classes.

MP: What was the first programming language you learned? How many languages do you know? And which is your favorite?
DG: The first programming language I learned was Java in 10th grade AP computer science and at YU. My favorite is Python. I’ve had some experience with Javascript, C, C++, HTML, CSS, and database languages like SQL.

MP: How do you remember all these languages?
DG: Understand the fundamentals of each language, and when you need a refresher, read through some lines of code.

MP: What are some of your favorite coding projects you have worked on?
DG: I made a simulation for a game of War. I thought of a strategy for War and I wanted to test it out. I found some code online, messed around with it, and I was able to test my strategy. I ran it and found out that my strategy has a 66% win rate. I also created an app that told you the time in base 30.

MP: What’s a fun fact about yourself?
DG: I’ve been skydiving with my grandmother.