Looking Back at Week 1 of Array
My first week at Array was a very positive experience. There’s a huge list of cultural differences in it’s teaching environment apart from common classrooms across the Nation that were very appropriated for a prospective student. The school approaches these students in a very warm, welcoming, breathable atmosphere that I think propels the brain’s creative intuition to really work!
Our first few days really jumped into the beginning of HTML and CSS (without preprocessors.) We learned a base of coding during our initiation period before Oct. 3rd, which greatly assisted our majority in pacing the medium of our learning curve. One of the things I learned throughout the first week that really stood out was the ability to utilize short-cuts in order to keep my code clean and legible. It really helped to perpetuate a sense of minimal organization and allowed me to focus that same approach into the entirety of my work. Having that mentality allowed me to focus more on the creative aspect of our acquired skill-set.
On the opposite spectrum of the fun things from week 1, there were only slight draw-backs with myself on recognizing particular attributes between margins, padding, position, and their multiple applications. It was not a challenge I was willing to back away from (unlike some of Life’s minor inconveniences.) Rather, this was welcoming and fun in it’s own right. But, I seem to be overcoming this challenge as time goes on and more practice is had.
It’s hard to pick a favorite moment from the week, as the entire week was packed with a lot of awesomeness! But, if I had to select a time, it would be our first day. There were a lot of optimistic thoughts running through my head while the day went on, that I almost wanted to admit to myself that I wasn’t going to be able to handle the future weeks to come. But, since this was the first class for Array, and the seven of us, being the first to set the bar, really inspired me to try!
While week 2 is underway, I am excited to learn more in-depth knowledge on HTML and CSS, as well as it’s preprocessors. Becoming proficient quickly is my aim, now that our atmosphere is set positively!
With that said, my thoughts on our early-developing class culture has been the same; positive! We seven, as a conglomerate, seemed to have been drawn together with similar aims. Our chemistry is very open-minded and friendly, which helps to perpetuate our strength as a team and allows our minds to blossom. Along with a range of good vibes, it’s extremely hard to be stressed in this class!
On Friday for our last hour, we had a guest speaker join us named Carter Parks. He is a freelance programmer with 10+ years of experience with a wide range of abilities in code-writing. His time was spent giving us insight on freelancing as well as sharing his experiences with us and how it influences todays agenda of technology. His information was very enlightening to those of us who saw freelancing as a neat way to make a living off the bat of day 1.
With this blog, I’ll be able to look back and reflect while a swath of new information and knowledge encumbers our collective…in a good way. :)
