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What are you doing well as a pair programmer and collaborator?
I communicate frequently on my team.
I respect everyone's varying technical abilities.
I try to keep things humorous.
How do you use your strengths as a team member?
I use my strengths to be inclusive of all members of the team, plan for the future by organizing tasks, to do lists, and deadlines, and get to know my teammates.
How would you like to continue to develop your strengths?
I would like to improve paired programming. I work better alone most of the time, unless my partner is very close to my technical ability. I want to get better at pairing with people both below and above my own technical abilities.
What would you like to improve on as a teammate?
I want to get better at improving my speed.
How would you like your teammates to see you?
As someone they can ask questions to and having meaningful discussions with around code.
How you've used agile as a process at Turing and what kind of project management tools you utilized. Address these questions:
What were you already doing?
Through using object oriented programming, I am already using Agile practices at Turing. This is because we work in small pieces around each object's functionality, and when one piece is finished we move onto the next one. That being said, I have still improved my Agile practices by using tools like Github, Waffle and Slack. I have utilized these tools to communicate more frequently with my team members, have discussions around code, prioritize tasks and split up the work.
What did you put into place in Module Two?
I started reviewing my teammate's PRs much more closely on GitHub. I started utilizing GitHub as a way to communicate and discuss code. For Bike Share, I also started to use Waffle which is a great project management tool connected to GitHub.
What was effective?
Waffle really helps people split up the work and prevents overlap. It also helps you gauge which cards are connected with each other and group related tasks together.
What do you want to improve on in future projects?
I want to get better at Git Rebase workflow, and knowing when to merge pull requests and how I can keep working even when I have a PR waiting to be merged. I also think there is more to Waffle than meets the eye.
Description of the role you played in your pair/group projects this module -- what was your role as a teammate? How did you utilize your strengths and leadership skills?
My strengths are in organization, strategic thinking, database relationships and analytical thinking. I am also getting better at scrutinizing other's code and speaking up when I think there is a better way.
Networking Plans
I attended a WomenHack recruiting event in Boulder last week to get my feet wet and to assess my initial reactions, strengths, weaknesses and what I must prepare for next time.
I attended Go Code Colorado and connected with a DBA to use as a resource for db related questions.
I have also reached out to several Turing mentors and alums to talk about their time at Turing, civic tech and also recieve technical coaching. I'm basically seeking out a ton of people I know work in Civic Tech to build relationships with them and to get to know some rad people.
Reflection on Parable of the Polygon Gear Up
I really enjoyed this Gear Up, mainly because I feel like I have some rebuttal for when people scorn affirmative action. Actions are needed to start changing something that has been embedded in our American culture for centuries. The only thing that could have been better was some better discussion in our classroom - everyone seemed to agree that what the parable of the polygon game preached was true and good. I would have liked to hear some differing opinions, but I feel as though the political culture at Turing is very liberal and people who disagree don't always feel welcomed to share their opinions.
Reflection on Mod 4 Gear Up
I thought the learning through teaching gear up was fantastic and the Mod 4 students did a wonderful job of facilitating discussion. I really enjoyed discussing what it meant to be a good/bad mentor and mentee, especially since I have been both at Turing. I have taken some concrete strategies away from it. For example, if I am mentoring someone I will start the conversation with "how do you like to learn? IE Do you like me to ask you questions about your though processes or share what I think you should do?" I also feel less afraid to go into pairing sessions now as the mentor, because I know I don't always have to know the answer, and finding the answer together as a team can actually help me learn, as well as giving my mentee "access to my brain" and letting them experience how I think about problems. Mentoring and Menteeing is just a great thing in general because it helps you develop your "code vocabulary," formulating specific questions, and become a better technical communicator.
Reflection on Empathy Gear Up
I have always known I am extremely lucky to be in the position I am. I take this knowledge and try to show empathy to everyone, because you are always more privileged than someone else and someone if always more privileged than you. It's a scale. I think it's easy to become resentful at other's who have more privilege than you, but you have to show them empathy too because their experiences are very different than yours. I visited Nicaragua this summer and saw a lot of poverty and not much opportunity for most children growing up there, unless their families were upper class. I really try to keep this perspective in my head when I'm feeling negative about Turing and the workload and its structure, because I know I'm incredibly lucky to even have the chance to attend a coding school like this, and to not take myself and my struggles so seriously.
Individual StoryWriting
I have always been an idealist at heart, and it's something I'm proud not to have lost. I majored in Environmental Studies because on the most basic level I wanted to create a better world. After working in several different environmental non-profits after college, I realized the non-profit world was not best at implementing fast and creative solutions on grand scales. The most out-of-the-box move that my last non-profit did was host an app challenge for environmental health. It was this app challenge that opened my eyes to the world of data and how the growing wealth of environmental health metadata could actually create solutions to curb the growth of chronic diseases, mitigates climate change and help so many other environmental health problems. I excel in my ability to see problems and act on them, which is why I enrolled in Turing to become part of data-driven solutions. Turing has tested my abilities in many ways, but the biggest thing it has taught me is that my conviction to keep pursuing a fix even though I have had to give up a lot of things in the short term.... or something.
Date of feedback conversation:
02/05/2018
How did you prepare for the conversation?
I reflected on the past week and wrote positives and coaching bullets about specific feedback I wanted to give for each of my partners.
How did the conversation go for you? What was easy about the conversation? What was more difficult?
I was #blessed with a fantastic group. All of us were extremely good communicators and excelled in voicing our expectations in all our project conversations. When it came time to give feedback, I really enjoyed it because I had a lot of positive feedback to give to both partners. I also enjoyed giving coaching feedback, since it was all technical and we proceeded to have a beneficial discussion on solutions. I would think giving feedback on something other than technical skills, like feelings of hostility or resentment or failed expectations would be much harder and is something I would like more coaching on.
What principles of feedback did you use in the conversation?
Coaching, kindness