Last week felt like an extremely long whirlwind to me. I feel that the progress made at boot camp is very fast-paced, exciting and a little daunting. For me, a lot of pieces suddenly clicked into to place, no doubt due to great resources like this video and this flexbox game.
Certain terminology is now becoming quite common in our cohort chat and I can see everyone growing in confidence. Having a group space is beneficial to the team feeling and, during these COVID-19 times, certainly helps me to feel less isolated. It is gradually becoming a safe space where questions are asked well, successes are celebrating and we even (sometimes) have a giggle.
So what did week two look like?
Full. In a word. Here’s a run down.
GitHub & Asking the right questions.
We had a quick lecture refresh on basic Git commands. Hold on to your hats, this is the thing I’m most wary about. Some that we have covered and been using a lot are:
git init – initiates a git respository.
git add – adds files to the staging area.
git status – shows untracked files (I use this a lot!).
git commit -m – used to create a point in the timeline with a message showing the changes being made.
git log – shows all the commits made (I also use this a lot!).
git remote add origin (URL) - connects the remote URL to your local repository.
git push -u origin master – sends all new and modified files to the repository.
We also had a lecture on how to ask questions. Surely, you just ask them, right? Well, to a point yes, but the key thing at boot camp is to grow as an independent learner and developer. When I trained to be a teacher there was a trend of “brain, book, buddy, boss” which really stuck with me. Firstly, try and solve in yourself, do you need to go away and have a quiet think? Reset and step away; the solution might just come to you. Then you turn to your own notes, or resources made available to you. A huge part of being a software developer seems to be researching solutions independently. If you still have no luck you turn to your buddy or colleague and brainstorm with them, and your last resort should be your superior/tutor.
It’s also vital that you ask questions in the right manner, with clear examples, what led you to your current point and what solutions you have tried. Our tutors made it clear from the beginning that this was an independent learning journey; not a solo one where you are left to struggle, but independent in strength. We are encouraged to flex our brain muscles and memory before asking questions to tutors.
HTML & CSS
A large part of our learning this week was to build HTML webpages and commit them to GitHub and this repetitive process has really helped me. I still get a little stomach clench when I hit “enter” but I’m getting much better at remembering the steps and understanding the messages which come back.
We learned a lot about HTML and I discovered that the idea of the World Wide Web is 8 months older than me! How’s that for a comparison? Why yes, I do still look 25, thank you for saying. For the history lovers among us you can go here and learn about it too!
I personally loved the module on HTML, I love seeing the code come alive in front of me and all the different elements working together. A bit of further learning which was new to me was all about Accessibility; making your site’s contents available and usable by anyone. My mum has a background in Adult Social Care so I was highly interested in this, fascinated by watching a screen reader being used and also really proud of Manchester Codes having this key element so early on in our course.
Then it was on to CSS. Again, my visual self was very happy here and I was really interested to learn about the Box Model which I hadn’t really encountered before. The CSS can be summarised thus:
All HTML elements can be considered as boxes, “box model” is used when talking about design and layout in CSS and is essentially:
Content - The content of the box, where text and images appear.
Padding - Clears an area around the content. The padding is transparent.
Border - A border that goes around the padding and content.
Margin - Clears an area outside the border. The margin is transparent.
I am now at the point where I am learning in-depth about Flexbox and will then apply my learning to my HTML webpages which I created last week.
Here’s to week 3 of bootcamp!
My Key Take Aways
Time Management - You will not have time to read, re-read, make notes on absolutely everything, watch 6 videos, tweet about and actually learn it. I’ve had to really think about how I’m using my study time and between Pomodoro and Notion I think I have it down (for now).
Have some time off – I spent 13 hours at my desk on Thursday. I know you’re all telling me that’s unhealthy. It just so happened that I had to do it (work and bootcamp) so I had Saturday and Sunday night off. I try and plan my week to manage this and keep my brain, body and soul happy and healthy.
Celebrate – I cracked something on GitHub all by myself this week and I was psyched. I also shared my first webpage with just about everyone in my phone book. Even though it was all very “basic” I reminded myself I’ve only been doing this for a fortnight and it feel so good!