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wdi-matrix_w01d01_morning_lab.md

ga

WDIR-MATRIX

Title: Introduction Work
Type: Lab
Duration: "1:30"
Creator:Kristyn Bryan & Matt Huntington
Course: WDIR-Matrix
Competencies: Course Expectations, Slack,
Prerequisites: None

Unit 1 Squads

Open the Squad to see the instructor and student names.

Neo **Instructor:** - Thom Page
thom.page@ga.co

Students:

  • Kaylie Weable
  • Shannon Matloob
  • Abigail Auslander
Trinity **Instructor:** - Karolin Rafalski
karolin.rafalski@ga.co

Students:

  • Cameron Cardosi
  • Kathryn Ehlmann
Morpheus **Instructor:** - Kristyn Bryan
kristyn.bryan@ga.co

Students:

  • Jessica Beardsley
  • Stephanie Blondet
Agent Smith **Instructor:** - Matt Huntington
matt.huntington@ga.co

Students:

  • Andy Sartori
  • Blaine Boudreau
  • Sophia Fazal

Student Lab Work

Part 1

Learning by Making Mistakes

Read this article http://www.psychotactics.com/art-retain-learning/
Answer the questions What was your biggest takeaway from this article?

Part 2

Get to know Slack

Read this article http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/08/11/the-ultimate-guide-to-doing-anything-in-slack/#gref
Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvJAcElFMUU
Answer the questions

  1. Name two things that you just learned about Slack that you didn't know before.

  2. Name one thing that you just learned about that you think would be useful for you to use in the Slack classroom. Why do you think it will be useful?

Downloads Download the Slack app on your computer AND your phone. Log in on both devices (it's preferred not to use Slack in your browser). https://slack.com/downloads/osx

Part 3

Setting you up for success

Read these notes
  • Ways to avoid distraction
    • Change your voicemail to let people know you will not be able to respond immediately
    • Set auto reply to email to let people know you will not be able to respond immediately
    • Say goodbye to friends and family. Tell them you'll see them in three months. Like you're moving to another country.
    • Quit your job/s. It is almost impossible to succeed at WDI while working even a part time job
    • Send children to daycare/family members. It's impossible to watch a child and take this course
    • Deactivate social media
    • Turn off your phone during class time and while doing homework
  • If you are late/absent, email all instructors
    • A previous student got into a car accident, went to the hospital, checked herself out of the hospital, and was only late by 15mins
  • Check your homework by figuring out ways to test your answers to see if they are correct. Don't wait for feedback.
    • You should be able to answer the question "did I do it right?" on your own.
    • In the real world, you'll need to figure out how to test your code to see if it works. You won't have someone to read your code and tell you if you did it right.
    • There is no "best" solution. Ultimately, the only thing that matters is, "does it work?"
    • Code "quality" (how your write code) doesn't matter as a jr developer. Only your ability to solve problems matters
  • Try to create a relationship with all other students. You don't know when you'll need a second set of eyes. Sometimes bugs are really stupid, and can be spotted by anyone. It's like writing an essay where your eyes know what you're trying to say and don't see mistakes
  • Finding a job has a lot to do with timing, what the employer needs vs what the student wants to do, and personality matches. Because of this, it's never that the best students get jobs first. Rather, the group who get jobs first will contain a diverse set of students. This group of students who get jobs first are often a way into a company for others, so be friends with everyone. Someone you think would be unlikely to get a job could be one of the first ones to get one and could help you out.
  • growth mindset vs fixed mindset
    • growth mindset
      • people who believe that ability can be learned are highly successful
    • fixed mindset
      • people believe that ability is something you're born with are not successful
    • focus on the learning process, not on the results of your current task
      • you'll succeed more and have more fun
    • different types of fixed mindsets. Monitor your reactions for these feelings:
      • You’re Wrong I Rule: person is unable to accept that they did something wrong
      • You’re Right I Suck: any criticism immediately sends person into feeling like they're worthless
      • Blame it On The Rain: any mistake a person makes is explained away by circumstance. The person believes this won't happen again, so there's no need to correct
      • Optimist Without a Cause: criticism is not important, given everything else that went well
  • Programming is like writing an essay in a language you don't know. Know what you want to say and then research how to say it
    • come up with the solution to a problem on your own and then research any syntax you might need in order to implement it. Do not research the answer to the problem itself
  • Help out everyone. IAs are often chosen by those who help other students a lot during class
  • Plagiarism (passing someone else's solution off as your own) will only result in you getting job that you're unqualified for and will get fired from
    • Your employers will quickly discover that you don't know what you say you know
    • If you feel you can't complete the work, come to your instructors and we can figure out a way for you to turn in something meaningful. There is always a solution
    • You can usually receive a partial refund or continue in another course if withdrawing for family/external issues. Not for plagiarism. Come to us before doing anything extreme
    • The General Assembly name means nothing. Even if you succeed in making us believe you are responsible for plagiarized work, ultimately, when you graduate, you will have only a meaningless certificate and none of the knowledge to back it up
      • Do not think that just because you graduate, people will give you a job
      • GA is not Stanford or MIT. Nobody will be impressed with the GA name on your resume
      • Bootcamps have not been around long enough to gain any clout
      • The education you gain here is priceless, though. In reality, most devs who interview you will go into the interview believing you're unqualified. Your ability to problem solve on the spot and talk thoughtfully about your code is going to be what changes their minds
  • Project weeks
    • community bonding time. Help each other out
    • a chance to simulate the real world and see where you need improvement
      • this is where you'll get a lot of practice with researching and debugging
  • Bringing up your mistakes during class often illuminates good points to talk about
    • it's very difficult as an instructor to come up with scenarios where a student will make a mistake, since everyone makes different kinds of mistakes
  • Projects and grades mean nothing
    • No interviewer really will be impressed by your projects or your grades. That's because you're still just starting out as a developer
    • They will, however, be impressed if you can answer interview questions and talk thoughtfully about your code
    • The education and knowledge you gain from projects, homework, labs, etc is what will get you past an interview. Not the actual work itself
  • Don't compare yourself with other students. This is not school, where everyone comes in with roughly equivalent experience
    • There is plenty of work available for graduates at all levels, as long as you fully understand the work you present to employers
  • Don't let problems/questions of any kind (programming or personal) fester. Bring them up immediately to an IA or an IL
  • We only "open the doors" you have to walk through the door. We guide you, but you'll have to do most of the work.
  • Learning how to debug your own code and read documentation/articles/forums takes practice. This is not really something that can be taught. Make sure you struggle and read a lot on the internet on your own time. Don't immediately ask for help
  • Development is like creating a recipe, it's just a series of basic steps
  • Learn what kind of mistakes you make
  • Type things out, don't copy and paste. Copy and pasting takes your mind off of what you're doing.
  • There is a disconnect between knowing something at a conceptual level and being able to use it. Make sure you can do both
    • Just because you can look at code and understand it, doesn't mean you can build something like it
  • We create increasing levels of independence: lecture (very hands on) -> lab -> homework -> project (very hands off)
    • This is to ease you into what it will be like in real life
  • Your community of students is the best aspect of GA. They will help you with finding work and help you when you are stuck on a problem at work
Answer the questions 1. Write down five things that you learned from reading this. 1. Write down five things that you plan to change about yourself when taking this class.

Submission

How to Submit Your Work - You will normally be doing your homework in a file that is saved locally that you submit to us via a Github issue **BUT** we have not shown you the workflow for this yet. We will get to this tomorrow!

  • For today's work, please put the questions and your answers into an email and send it to your Squad Instructor.

  • The subject line of your email should say "w01d01 Lab Answers - Your Name - WDI-Matrix"

Hungry for more?

Stack Overflow - Sign up for a StackOverflow account http://stackoverflow.com/
  • Did you have any questions about what you did in Fundamentals or about your Memory Game? This is a great place to search for answers! If you can't find an answer, you can ask your own question and others from the forum will help to answer it.
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