My overarching goal for Mod was to attain a solid fundamental knowledge of ruby. I came from a non-coding background and wanted that knowledge to allow me to functionally program by the end of the Mod.
- A: End-of-Module Assessment: 3
- B: Individual Work & Projects: 3
- C: Group Work & Projects: 3
- D: Professional Development: 3
- E: Feedback & Community Participation: 3
- 3: Developer is able to write Ruby with some debugging of fundamental concepts
- 3: Developer completes baseline assignment and makes meaningful progress toward one of the Challenge options.
- 3: Developer writes tests that are effective validation of functionality, but don't drive the design
- 3: Developer demonstrates comfort with their tools and makes some use of keyboard shortcuts
- 3: Developer lays out their thinking before attacking a problem and integrates feedback through the process
- 3: Application demonstrates comfortable use of appropriate Enumerable methods
- Not the smoothest application of TDD, but not bad.
- Moved pretty quickly through the baseline, good work.
- Could have spent a little more time understanding the challenge, but I get that it's a timed assessment
Individual work & projects consisted of Jungle Beat (a linked list program) and Battleship (a program mirroring the popular boardgame).
I created a linked list with functions including append, insert, prepend, pop, count, and includes.
- Inconsistent tabbing. I prefer 2 spaces tabbing, and that seems more common.
- Talked about the TDD process. Goal is to start writing tests from pry sessions, before full TDD
- Fixed the pop method, which was the only unfunctional thing
- Comments are fine for education, but discouraged in production code
- 3: Application fulfills all base expectations
- 3: Application is well tested but does not balance isolation and integration tests, using only the data necessary to test the functionality
- 3: Application effectively breaks logical components apart but breaks the principle of SRP
- 3: Application shows strong effort towards organization, content, and refactoring
- 3: Application makes effective use of loop/recursion techniques
I created the a colorized repl and the ability for an AI to randomly place a two-space and three-spaced size ship on a 4x4 grid.
- Starts well. The code isn't all there.
- The code is functional, and solves a difficult problem (AI ship placement), but hasn't been refactored. Clear long names to allow a good refactor.
- 2: Application runs but the code has many long methods (>8 lines) and needs significant refactoring
- 3: Application demonstrates comfortable use of several Enumerable techniques
- 1: Application does not demonstrate strong use of TDD
- 4: Application's REPL goes above and beyond expectations to improve the gameplay
- 3: Application effectively breaks logical components apart with clear intent and usage
- 2: Application runs, but does not work properly, or does not meet specifications.
Group work & projects consisted of Enigma ( a program version of the enigma code and tools to encrypt, decrypt, and crack it) and Headcount (a program used to open and analyze CSV data).
- testing was a little bit of a struggle, had a hard time figuring out how to test in a robust way. talked about how to set information so it is easier to manage and manipulate.
- talked about some refactoring that could have been done and the use of instance variables.
- ran encrypt and decrypt, working on crack.
- 2: Application is missing one of the three operations
- 3: Application shows some effort toward organization but still has 6 or fewer long methods (> 8 lines) and needs some refactoring.
- 2: Application tests some components but has many gaps in coverage.
- 3: Application has multiple components with defined responsibilities but there is some leaking of responsibilities
Professional development sessions attempt to aid in our progression to the professional software development world. They do this by guiding our public professional profiles, resumes, code pairing skills, and taking/giving feedback skills.
I thought this workshop was very useful. While I have a resume for my business-world pursuits, I didn't have one specifically tailored to software development. Furthermore, I didn't previously have a LinkedIn, so that aspect was also very helpful. I think that to be successful getting a job in software development, one must use all the tools available to them to cater to a recruiter. Learning the specific format and design for both the resume and the LinkedIn page was very useful and I look forward to further polishing both as I progress through Turing.
I liked learning to pair quite a bit. Being totally new to software development, I have tried to be a sponge for all relevant information to better myself including learning to pair. The different tried and true approaches to it were very interesting to learn and I was able to utilize what I learned in this session in both of my group pairing project. It was nice to have two pairing projects to utilize these skills and to round out each different approach. For my first project, I was initially uncomfortable driving, by through Headcount I was very comfortable both driving, navigating and consistently switching between the two. I'm excited to further progress my skills in this area to become a better and more efficient pairing partner.
I thought this session was particularly useful. The ability to give and take specific, actionable, and kind feedback is crucial in any industry. We're all here to get better, and one great way to improve oneself is through taking feedback. One must approach the feedback they've received objectively, without emotion, and with intention to use that feedback to become better. Furthermore, it's just as important to give good feedback. Specific, actionable, and kind feedback gives the person you're assessing something to work with to truly benefit themselves without offending them, which would response and take their focus from using that information to get better.
This session was interesting, and I didn't feel that it was quite as useful as the others. However, I really only believe this because we have put 0 time into producing a website over the first mod. I understand that we will be over break, and I'm excited to use what I've learned and the rudimentary outline I've created in producing a professional personal website.
To Amara Lovato: I think that you were a great partner Amara, and I really enjoyed working with you. From day 1, we laid out what our goals were and communicated effectively throughout the entirety of the project. You worked so hard on the project, and were immensely helpful to me. When you took the driver seat in writing code, you went at a pace that I could understand and would explain things to me when I didn’t understand. You also pushed me to really understand, and ask for help when I didn’t instead of letting it go.
As the project progressed and the intensity turned up, I felt that sometimes pessimism got to you…that you didn’t think the goal was in reach and you felt that you needed to double down and do even more work. I feel like this caused you to make some mistakes and that some stubbornness kept us from tackling the problem head on. You were totally aware of this and mentioned it to me several times whenever you thought you had let the pessimism get to you. For me, that sense of urgency that came out kept me from asking you some questions as I didn’t want to bog you down or seem stupid when you were on a tear.
On a brighter note, you also opened me up to pairing. I was originally a little apprehensive to initiate a pairing, but you were right on pairing from day 1 and helped me be comfortable asking literally anyone sitting around for help. I got to meet some great people through that, and I really appreciate you taking me under your “coding” wing. I learned so much from you and wish you nothing but success during the rest of the program…your future partners will be lucky to have you!
From Amara Lovato: Ryan, it was a pleasure working with you. I’m impressed of the constant effort that you put in understanding concepts and looking for solutions to the challenges that we were facing. I also liked your positive attitude and stress control, it’s admiring that you never lost your focus or freaked out in spite of the complexity and the time constrain, that was very helpful in keeping the mindset to succeed. I want to suggest that you ask your next partner more questions, if you don’t fully understand something make the other person know for clarifications and explanation. In fact, asking questions is an excellent way to as a team reevaluate strategies, and generate solutions. Believe in yourself, you know more than you think and your logic understanding is very good. Don’t hesitate to provide ideas and alternative approaches, the times when you did that during our project, we solved problems easier and generated better code. Last but not least, your team work spirit is hard to match and your will to have an open and continuous communication made the workflow smooth and efficient. Thanks for a great pair project experience!
I believe that from day 1 I've "played the part" of a Turing student, and I would say that I've bought in 100%. While I wish there was more I could have done to give back to the community, I belive that I did as much as I could during Mod 1. I joined the Maker Posse and submitted my idea for a potential project working with water quality testing with an arduino microcontroller. While I don't have the functional JavaScript programming knowledge to make that a reality at the moment, I still intend on making that project a reality in a later module. Furthermore, I have given help within my ability or feedback to anyone that has asked for it.
One of the reasons I joined the Turing community was to give back. Giving back and, specifically, helping people is one of my core beliefs. As previously stated, I was disappointed with my inability to to that in Mod 1. However, I voiced my concern with regards to this to both Beth and and Allison. Both assured me there wasn't much more that I could be doing, and I subsequently joined the turing-outreach channel, of which I intend to be active in during the next module.
Finally, I believe one of my greatest assets during Mod1 was to provide a sense of stability to my partners. I've noticed that many people in our cohort, my partners included, get increasingly frazzled as a project progresses. This manifests itself in many ways, but rarely contributes to productivity. I believe that my ability to continually support my team members with encouraging words and my ability to remain unphazed (okay, the mid-mod had me worried) in the face of immense problems or turning in an imperfect project is a boon.
Growth mindset is something that I had unknowingly incorporated into my life prior to Turing. When one strives to take on new challenges and constantly improve oneself, it is essential to have a growth mindset. The ability to believe that you can get better, regardless of topic, through perseverance and passion is key to progressing. Furthermore, believing that is is okay to fail, and that only through failure will you learn and set yourself up for future success is key. I really take this to heart, especially at Turing where failure is certain at some point. At Turing it is already paying dividends, as I have not completely succeeded at everything but I have learned immensely and set myself up for future success.
This Gear Up covered accepting where you stand on the spectrum of introvert/extrovert, realizing the traits that accompany ones position, and working toward understanding and accomodating others in different positions. I found this session interesting, as people seemed to genuinely place themselves accurately. It was good to gain perspective from people that lie on the other side of the spectrum and gain some skills to work in harmony with their personalities.
I really liked this Gear Up, and I thought it was a great idea to include it. Getting perspective on why other students are here and where they had come from was fascinating. I felt as though this Gear Up was a turning point for our mod in terms of cohesiveness. Before this, our mod didn't really have the time to share our personal story with others and I think that in doing so, we were able to really relate to one another and begin to forge solid frienships united by a common goal.
Grit is something that I can completely relate to. Turing is not the first "meat grinder" that I have been through. My accounting major was very similar in terms of intensity and was group-project based with the onus placed upon the student to figure out massive complex problems. It might be odd to say, but I love grit. Grit means that I'm passionate enough about something to dedicate myself entirely to it's cause. In the case of my time at Turing and previous scholastics, I believe that grit goes hand in hand with growth mindset. You have to push yourself through your failures, work the long hours, do the research, etc. to really progress your knowledge in a subject. I'm proud to say that I think I've shown grit in my six weeks at Turing. I've given it my all and have no regrets about the effort I've put forth. Through that grit, I've progressed my knowledge far, far beyond what I thought was possible to attain in only 6 weeks.
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