#blacktechie

[IMAGE ID: three flags with nine straight lines each. the first, second, eighth, and ninth stripes are medium-sized, the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh stripes are slightly larger, and the middlemost fifth stripe is much thinner than the rest. the first flag's top four stripes are as follows: off-white, cream, light grey, and nearly-white grey. the second flag's top four stripes are as follows: medium-dark grey, medium grey, medium-light grey, and light grey. the third flag's top four stripes are as follows: black, dark grey, dark-medium grey, and medium grey. every flag has these bottom five stripes: white, bright pink-red, teal, dull blue, and deep dark blue. END ID.]

whitetechie: being both machingelic and a white-related gender, a techie whose gender is related to the color white, etc.; having a white-related gender and being futechinel.

greytechie: being both machingelic and a grey-related gender, a techie whose gender is related to the color grey, etc.; having a grey-related gender and being futechinel.

blacktechie: being both machingelic and a black-related gender, a techie whose gender is related to the color black, etc.; having a black-related gender and being futechinel.

Week one is done and we have accomplished the following (Phil created this for us. It is pretty cool:

# Week 1 - OVA

# Great First Week, Kickhash!

what_we_learned = {

  :dev_environment => [

     "Learned how to navigate the terminal",

     "set up our bash profiles",

     "pushed and pulled with Git",

     "coded along with Sublime"

  ],

  :ruby => [

     "intro to ruby",

     "conditional logic",

     "datatypes",

     "methods",

     "installing and using gems",

     "debugging with pry",

     "intro to object oriented programming"

  ] 

}

review_sesh = {

  :location => "902 Broadway",

  :day => "Saturday",

  :time => "10:30am - 3:30pm"

}

bbq = {

  :location => "66 7th Ave, Brooklyn",

  :day => "Saturday",

  :time => "5pm to 1am"

}

It seems like I really did go through a lot of emotions this week.  I was on the verge of quitting on Wednesday just because things seem so chaotic and I didn't know what the hell was going on with our instructions/instructors. But everyone is affable and a part of me know that this is it for me. I have a lot ridding on this because my future keeps on going back to technology.  The interesting thing is we are going to get there together and if yesterday is an indication of future days then I am happy.  The instructors are coming into themselves and we as students are learning more and more about the flow of things.  

I still don't get much sleep although Thursday night I had help with my homework -Craig helped me, I didn't send it in. I went to sleep that night for 7 hours. Most nights I sleep for 5 hours. This program is going to push my mind and body because I am also boxing early in the morning before class. Getting up at 4 am to get tot he gym by 6 am to do an hour and a half workout to get to class around 8:30 am.  I definitely need to workout because I am sitting all day. 

Today was hard and not because of the material...it is the teaching style.  I am not very happy with teaching style of one of the teachers because he is all over the place.  If I subtract that from the equation I think Web Development Immersive program out of New York is really cool.  My cohort are really interesting and they each have their own benefits.  The GA staff is awesome and very accommodating. Open to help us at will and  they provide coffee. :-)

A cultural of learning was established the first day and the idea of being a unit is very powerful.  I am very frustrated over the teaching style and the only reason I am not S.O.L is because I did the prework so I know some of the material so it is still a refresher.  My concern is what happens when we are out of prework mode? I was thinking of asking to switch classes but I think they setup the classes in a certain way. I am not a quitter and I already know my cohort but is being a frustrated learner a good learner? I have to see how it goes. I talk to one of the teachers and they were receptive. 

The only thing I have to suggest coming from a teacher background is to write down little notes about what you are going to speak about.  If you want to explain git in relationship to github you should be able to do that with your eyes close. Trying to teach the pahtways for git and github and scribbling away words because of defining it wrong will mess up anybodies logical flow in their mind.  On the other hand, diagramming is a powerful tool - when done right. 

The frustration I feel reminds me of when I was going for my Bachelors in Chemistry. The only reason I stayed in my Bachelors' program is because of my professor Tania Peres. She told me to stay with it...so I did. There is another teacher there and she was like don't worry about it things will get better. It isn't like it is bad but you know, for a lot of us this is a turning point and our lives and we want to leave doing and knowing our best. 

The topics covered yesterday were:

git and github

setting up bashprofile

setting up sublime

rudimentary operators

while loop

if - else statements

Variable assignment - supposedly if this is one thing you don't get you are screwed for the rest of your Ruby career.