Joel O’Connor - M2 Portfolio
What was your learning focus this inning? What technical and communication skills did you want to grow? Do you feel like you've achieved those goals?
My learning focus for this inning was to progress my knowledge of JS and to explore new languages, frameworks, and libraries. I was also looking to improve my technical vocabulary and ability to speak to my code with appropriate jargon. Through the mod I have progressed my JS skills and my vocabulary has increased greatly in comparison to the end of mod 1.
How do you feel you did in these areas this inning?
- A: Individual Work & Projects: 3
- B: Group Work & Projects: 3
- C: Professional Skills: 4
- D: Community Participation: 4
- E: Final Assessment: 3
Reflect on your individual work and projects throughout the inning. Did they help you with your areas of emphasis (from above)? What was the most challenging? What patterns do you plan to continue for the next inning? What do you plan to change?
The projects this inning helped greatly to further my understanding of JS and to explore new languages such as React. During our projects this inning my understanding of constructor functions and class inheritance has grown greatly and now I also have a new understanding of React components. I felt the most challenging thing this inning was managing imposter syndrome and keeping a positive mind set so to not let negativity cloud my mind and slow my learning. In the next inning I plan to keep up doing daily meditation in the evening to clear my mind and to also attempt to give myself at least an hour before bed that I don’t code or do any school work.
What did you notice changed in your study habits from the previous inning to this one? What stayed the same? Do your study habits serve you well?
My study habits this inning have been dialed in to the next level. Through the mod I have adopted the intensity and consistency that I had in mod 1 but fine tuned it. Where as in mod one I had to struggle with a college study habit of learning to pass a test, during the end of last mod and through this mod my study habits have been focused on learning the material. With that mindset I feel that my efforts have been more aligned and complimenting my goals and helping me achieve success.
- Outcome: Pass
What did you enjoy about Sorting Suite? What was challenging? How did working together on Sorting Suite compare to your work for GameTime? for Weatherly? How does this project serve your Areas of Emphasis (from above)? How does it serve your overall goals at Turing and beyond?
During Sorting Suite I enjoyed learning about recursive algorithms. This was a challenge as at first it seemed like I was having to learn a whole new programing syntax. After the fear of doing something complex went away I was able to see that it is just a JS function that calls itself over and over till a condition (basecase) is met. Sorting Suite would have been very hard without the help of others, as the algorithms are very difficult and I quickly would get suck. Overall this project helped to push the limits of my understanding of JS and gave me exposure to the more computer science intensive topics. I feel that this will be very useful in my future as a programer as some interviews are known to test people on sorting algorithms and also this helps me to look at problems in a different way.
- Outcome: Pass
What did you enjoy about Complete Me? What was challenging? How does this project serve your Areas of Emphasis (from above)? How does it serve your overall goals at Turing and beyond?
I really enjoyed structuring data into a tree! It was a very new way to organizing information and I can definitely see the utility of this over a traditional linked-list or other style of storing data. It was cool to see how spreading the information into a tree could potentially half the amount of data that would have to be searched before finding your desired result. This project helped to further my learning of JS and to make me take a step back and think about how there are so many different ways that you can approach a obstacle.
Reflect on your group work and projects throughout the inning. Did they help you with your areas of emphasis (from above)? What was the most challenging? What patterns do you plan to continue for the next inning? What do you plan to change?
The projects this inning helped greatly to further my understanding of JS and to explore new languages such as React. During our projects this inning my understanding of constructor functions and class inheritance has grown greatly and now I also have a new understanding of React components. In my group projects this inning I felt that that hardest part was to keep pace with my partners who wanted to move much faster than I did. At the end of the day we managed to collaborate effectively and help each other to learn the concepts that were covered in the projects. My plan is to continue to have the same level of professionalism and collaboration with my partners in the next mod. I plan
- Partner: Andrew James
- Game: Frogger
- Functional Expectations: 4
- User Interface: 3.5
- Testing/Code Sanitation: 4
- JS Style: 3
- Workflow: 3
What did you enjoy about GameTime? What was challenging? What skills did you learn that serve your Areas of Emphasis (from above)? How does it serve your overall goals at Turing and beyond?
I enjoyed furthering my knowledge of constructor functions and utilizing importing and exporting content from different files. This helped to further the knowledge I set up the foundation for in mod one and really helped to understand how things connected and how larger applications are produced. I also liked progressing my understanding of testing and how to appropriately implement tests. I can definitely see how beneficial testing could be in a real world application when I start to work in the tech industry.
- Partner: Kevin Krom
- Spec Adherence: 3
- User Interface: 3
- HTML Style: 3.5
- CSS/Sass Style: 3.5
- JS/React Style: 3
- Testing: 3
- Workflow: 3.5
- Code Sanitation: 3
What did you enjoy about Weatherly? What was challenging? What skills did you learn that serve your Areas of Emphasis (from above)? How does it serve your overall goals at Turing and beyond?
I enjoyed learning how to interact with an API and getting an application that uses real world data. This project was great for learning React and also how to test using Enzyme. I found it challenging to learn React fast enough to be able to then implement all the other new things that we wanted to utilize for this project. I can see the knowledge I gained in this project being used in many projects moving forward and also when I get a job I will most likely be interacting with API’s and hopefully React.
- PD Sessions:
- List here -Agile Practices and Leadership -Feedback II -Storytelling II -Feedback III -Outreach and Networking
What did you learn during the PD sessions that was surprising? What skills did you hone? Do you feel better prepared for your future professional life as a developer?
I was surprised to learn about the different approaches that some companies take in the development of their products, such as Waterfall and Agile. I honed my skills to be more constructive with my feedback to others and how to interpret their ideas of how to better myself. These things I will be able to utilize in my career in tech and in my personal life.
- Gear Up Sessions:
- List here -Empathy and Privilege -Getting Better At Difficult Things -AI Caramba
What did you learn during the Gear Up sessions that was surprising? Do you find it important to have conversations like the ones in the Gear Up Sessions? Do you feel like you have the tools to keep having these conversations in the future? in your workplace? with your teammates?
I was surprised to learn how much AI is present in our day to day lives. So many apps are gathering our information and utilizing it to better accommodate us with content that we would find to be more valuable. I feel that learning something new is always valuable and seeking to expand your frame of mind is very important. It will help you learn more effectively and approach problems in a different way. I feel confident that I can approach any scenario with the knowledge that I have accumulated in gear-ups.
Reflect on your community participation this inning. How did you opt-in to the community here at Turing? in Denver? Did you pair with students in other modules? Was the experience enjoyable? Illuminating?
Through this inning I felt very impactful with my involvement. In Turning I helped to keep a positive energy and made sure that if I saw someone struggling and I could help I did. I also made sure to pair many times with the Mod 1 students. I enjoyed this Mod very much and appreciate all the teachers and my peers.
What skills from this inning do you plan to review/strengthen over intersession week? What are you looking forward to about next inning? What are you going to do over intermission week to recharge your batteries and reconnect with your long term goals?
Over the break I not only am planning to do one project in React such as Ideabox. I am setting myself a high goal of attempting to rebuild the majority of my mod 1 projects in React. I know that React will be very important to understand in a much greater depth that I currently do as we will use it heavily in Mod 3 and also I hope to use it in my future career. My plan over break to recharge my batteries is to try to disconnect from my computer for at least 3 days. I want to go camping and go hiking to help me clear my mind and bring me back to a baseline mentally. I also plan to workout so I will feel more physically prepared for the next mod.
Leave blank for instructors