It’s incredibly hard for me to reflect on the past week because most of it was spent in a state of panic and anxiety. However, I am trying and here are some of the things we covered last week at bootcamp.
So what did week 4 look like?
Interactivity with JavaScript for our web pages
Having (somewhat) successfully traversed the DOM and started to get my head around targeting specific elements, the next task was to add a contact page to my website. When the user clicks the submit button on the contact form, an alert box would appear with their details! How exciting! Our first cohort dive into JavaScript. Cue much head scratching and googling about Event Listeners.
I have to say that JavaScript thinking is not coming naturally to me. I have spent a lot of time revising over the weekend and writing out lots of notes. At the moment I am trying to do a little bit every day and not put too much pressure on myself. I’m also trying to focus on what I knew last week, compared to now, or even a month ago. The progress has been significant and incremental. The sheer nature of bootcamp is quite fast-paced and I struggled this week, though it was rewarding. I have also added a portfolio page which has CSS cards on it, showing the first two web pages made right at the beginning of the course.
The thing I have enjoyed most about this set of tasks is that it has turned into a bit of an experimental sandbox. With each new page I grew in confidence of trying things out, making mistakes, reverting them, trying something new. Yes, I am still asking for help and looking things up, and that feels good, because these are habits I am embedding and going to need forever! I am looking forward to seeing how my site grows and changes the more I learn.
The importance of communication
A lot of our lectures and talks during bootcamp so far have been to do with how we can improve our own learning or the importance of non-technical skills when it comes to working in tech or a developer role. This week we reflected on a couple of key areas and how important it is to hone communication skills. This is, of course, true in many roles, but especially roles which cross a myriad of different working areas, skill sets and foci. Communicating with a wide range of audiences isn’t always easy, especially when you aren’t face-to-face and a great place to start is actually within our own cohort. We are encouraged to help each other, explaining our problems or solutions, using clear language and sharing in Slack. I find it helps to always presume you can learn from someone, leaving pride behind, and explaining something (either typed or out loud) is a brilliant way to check understanding.
On the back of this discussion we also spoke about our tools, particularly VS Code and some of the extensions you can add to it. I have done a bit of exploring and found some I think I will try out. I’ve listed them below. Please let me know if you have any further recommendations:
Interestingly as I wrote this post, this article came up on my Twitter which goes into excellent depth and discussion about getting the best out of VS Code. The key take away for me with this is, don’t just install an extension because it’s popular. Think about what you need and if it will help you in your work, otherwise what is the point in having it!
Here’s to week 5 of bootcamp!
My Key Take Aways
Attend drop-in sessions (if you can) - I went to half of my Saturday drop in session for boot camp and it was great to see some different faces, get some help and see how other people worked. It was also great to see that the tutor couldn’t fix the problem I was having at the drop of a hat. This has really normalised the process for me.
Be patient - This will probably come up a lot. I am not a patient person. I am working very hard to be at peace with this learning process and enjoy the growing my brain is doing. It hasn’t done any proper work in quite some time, shocks all round!
Play on CodePen - I love putting a bit of code into CodePen and seeing what happens. I’ve saved a few silly projects on there as well as some practice following freeCodeCamp exercises and Codecademy projects. Sometimes I don’t want to faff around with VS Code and CodePen gives me instant gratification.