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 this inning was to get more comfortable writing code in both javaScript and React. I also wanted to get better at TDD. In terms of communication skills, I very much wanted to get better about arguing/asserting my opinions about code.
I understand javaScript much better and feel comfortable writing functions in es5 and es6. I'm still struggling to put the pieces together to make a coherent program in React. TDD continues to be an area that I can improve in. As for communication skills, I'm great at asking for help (maybe too good. I should probably stay on the struggle bus a little longer), but I have difficulty articulating my opinions about code format or flow because I often don't have a precise, "better" way to do things, I just have a feeling that there's a better way.
- A: Individual Work & Projects: 2
- B: Group Work & Projects: 3
- C: Professional Skills: 3
- D: Community Participation: 4
- E: Final Assessment: 2.5
Individual work was very challengin for me, but probably the most valuable in terms of working toward my goals. It forced me to write code on my own, which is something I struggle with. I am happy to work in a group, but this often leads to me deferring to other people because I assume they know more. Sometimes they don't. It was really gratifying to have great pseudo code for quicksort...even though my quicksort is not that great(it doesn't seem to be able to sort as many numbers as other people's), I'm proud of my code and happy that I grasped the concept of the algorithm. CompleteMe was a little bit harder for me. When we decided to get together and work as a group, I ended up doing to typing on screen for the whole class and I was quite distracted by people telling me what to type and didn't look at the code until later. Array prototypes, though not an assignment, were a piece of the curriculum that I struggled with in a group and do much better on when I work by myself. I need to try and work more on my own, despite my social nature so that I own my learning more.
My study habits changed a little this mod in terms of evening work. I avoided evening work last mod because I'm generally a morning person. But I decided to just read over notes from the day or maybe the lesson plan from the next day at night to either give myself a review or preview. I will probably keep doing that throughout my time at Turing. It made me feel less anxious about the lessons and new concepts. I would like to study more alone too. Apparently I'm prone to suggestion and let other people take the lead even though it's not necessarily something I need to work on.
- Outcome: Pass/Fail
Sorting suite was really scary for me when it was introduced. I am still working on creating code from my pseudo code and logic process and the thought of making sorting algorithms was daunting. The physical examples of sorting algorithms in Clarke hall was very helpful for my understanding of these. I struggled with the multiple for loops on bubblesort, but insertion sort was easier for me to grasp giving me confidence to move on to quick sort and merge sort. As mentioned above, quick sort was conceptually easy for me to grasp and the pseudo code was spot on in terms of steps. When the time came to do merge sort, the number of steps overwhelmed me. I need to remember to break things down.
Sorting Suite helped me develop some code writing skills that I continue to grapple with. It helped me get a better understanding of javaScript and also about efficiency (the big o). I had no idea how different algorithms that do the same thing could perform so differently under different circustances!
- Fundamental JS and Style: 0 - 4
- Testing: 0 - 4
- Encapsulation/Breaking Logic into Components: 0 - 4
- Functional Expectations: 0 - 4
- Code Sanitation: 0 - 4
CompleteMe was hard. The blending of the binary tree and linked list lessons made it difficult to separate out what our trie was doing. Additionally, I also became the typist for the suggest method when we all worked togther. I liked the group atmosphere, but I felt that I didn't get to really think about the code because I was trying to listen to everyone's words. I did enjoy creating a thing that I actually see in use on a daily basis and I liked how we all worked together, though the group may have been too big in all honesty. I wish I had done more on my own for CompleteMe because I think I would have gotten a better understanding of what was going on. I do feel that completeMe was the first project that I began to grab how to test (not React...I still an unsure of that) so that was fun.
I actually learned so much from my group projects this mod, and not just technical skills. I was able identify work and development patterns that aren't serving me such as deferring to someone else and not asking to drive enough. Also, collision detection is not that hard and I'm glad that Jeremiah and I didn't use the library. I also worked so well with Jeremiah that I didn't recall our debreifing talk because it didn't feel like work. It cemented that the environment/peers that you work with is very important. Working with Arram was also good because it forced me to be a little more argumentative about my code and opinions (which means I rated a 1 on a scale of 0-really opinionated). It shed some light on the areas of collaboration I can improve upon next mod.
- Partner: Jeremiah
- Game: Centipede
- Functional Expectations: 0 - 4
- User Interface: 0 - 4
- Testing/Code Sanitation: 0 - 4
- JS Style: 0 - 4
- Workflow: 0 - 4
GameTime was a great project. It was also very challenging and I think I felt the most discouraged in this project when we weren't making progress. Once we got over that particular challenge, it was relatively smooth sailing. I was lucky to have had such a supportive partner for that project. I learned that taking a step back and looking at something with fresh eyes (after pizza) is sometimes exactly the right answer and that garlic breath does not impede work. But in all seriousness, the greatest thing I learned from gametime was tenacity/perserverance and the feeling of producing a product worth showing.
- Partner: Arram
- Spec Adherence: 0 - 4
- User Interface: 0 - 4
- HTML Style: 0 - 4
- CSS/Sass Style: 0 - 4
- JS/React Style: 0 - 4
- Testing: 0 - 4
- Workflow: 0 - 4
- Code Sanitation: 0 - 4
I enjoyed learning React...or trying to learn React. The challenge in this was that neither Arram nor I had fully processed React when we embarked upon this project, so we were working with half-baked knowledge of the programming language. That said, I find it much easier to see when code gets messy in React than I do in javaScript. Hooray for modular components! Obviously working in React is going to be a big part of life for the rest of Turing and beyond so this initial foray into it was quite valuable.
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PD Sessions:
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Agile Practices and Leadership
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Feedback 2
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Storytelling 2
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Feedback 3
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Outreach and Networking
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List here
PD was great this mod. I really do feel like it is helping to prepare me for the job search. Agile structure is such a buzz word right now that it is nice to havde an entire session devoted to it so I don't feel so out of the loop in conversations with people in the industry. I actually had a friend ask me for the agile session notes so he could apply/share them at work. Verbal feedback is an important skill to have - both giving and receiving so I'm glad we did that. I still have quite a bit of room for growth in that area. I also liked seeing what people thought about me as a partner. It was generally positive, but I try and emphasize those traits and that may down play some of my more intellectual qualities. Being as social as I am, networking comes naturally to me, but it's nice to get some technical terms for what I'm doing.
- Gear Up Sessions:
- Empathy and Privilege
- Getting Better at Difficult Things
- Community Gear-Up: Biohacking
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 loved our Gear Ups this mod. In fact, I would suggest that the empathy and privilege one be a recurring Gear Up. Many of my male peers expressed interest in this, too, which surprised me. I think it gives us a opoortunity to get to know one another on a deeper level. And while we may have the tools to discuss this independently, it is nice to have time blocked out for it when we'd otherwise be talking about projects/school.
Getting better at difficult things was also great. I think it combined some practical 'try-this' advice and some more general advice. The Te Nehisi Coates article was very poignant in expressing that mastering something is a journey and the more comfortable you get with being uncomfortable, the great your potential for success.
This community Gear Up was awesome. They put together an engaging presentation and I found the resulting conversation quite fun. I really didn't know much about biohacking - some of it is weird, but some of it is very cool and the potentials are exciting.
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?
I am a pretty active member of the Turing community and this is a huge part of what makes Turing enjoyable. I'm happy to be an SAB rep to help plan events that benefit students and staff (frankly I want there to be a schoolwide basketball every Friday). I also gave a school wide lightning talk about learning which was one of my most favorite things I did this mod. I signed up for that under diress because I had joined the public speaking posse and everyone (the other 2 group members) was doing it. In the end I was super happy to do it and I would like to do another one next inning on a similar topic. I also paired with a few students from mod1. This was enjoyable to a certain extent, and I often felt like I didn't quite help them in the way that I was helped by upper mod students when I was in their shoes.
What skills from this inning do you plan to review/strengthen over intermission weeek? 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 longterm goals? I need to strengthen my code writing skills in general which means I will be re-doing some mod1 projects in react in hopes that I can hit the ground running in mod3. I have a few coffee meetups planned for the break to explore what being a developer advocate looks like. I'm also going to start excercising again...because I did not do enough this mod and I think it affected my mood and brain capacity negatively.
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