Week number one is in the books! I haven’t blown up my computer (yet), quit, or fallen hopelessly behind (yet). I’d say that is a win!

WEEK 1 SUMMARY

The first day of school! My buddy's kid (she is seven) advised me to try to be nice and stay in my seat on the first day. I thought it was pretty good advice, so I tried to follow it to the best of my abilities. Thanks for the great advice, Sophie!

Day numero uno was filled with your typical onboarding type procedures. We met our support/administration staff, our instructor, and our fellow classmates. The rest of the day was spent setting our computer up to make sure it was ready to go for the rest of the cohort.

The second day was spent learning terminal commands and generally getting more comfortable working from the terminal. In addition, we were introduced to the ins-and-outs of Visual Studio Code.

The third day was spent learning about and setting up our github accounts. Github sounds like a very useful tool and I’m sure I will think nothing of using it soon enough, but for right now, it is very intimidating. It’s one thing to mess up my own computer, but quite another to mess up somebody else’s code or project!

The fourth day was spent learning the basics of computer programming through Python. There was coursework we were recommended to complete prior to the start of the cohort. I did complete it and I am thankful I did as most of the information has been review.

Friday morning was spent working on various algorithms. I was able to work through an algorithm that has always alluded me (the Fibonacci sequence), so it was a major win for me personally. While I was unable to solve all of the algorithms, I was able to come close and understand the solutions. Finally, that Friday afternoon, we had a guest speaker. The guest speaker was a DigitalCrafts alumni. She spoke about her own bootcamp experience and her transition into a software engineering career. She was a very engaging and informative speaker.

Overall, it was a pretty easy week. However, I get the feeling this is the calm before the storm.

TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE

-Terminal commands.

-Github desktop, git and github commands.

-The basics of Python: variables, types of data, different forms of data, and different ways to manipulate said data.

-Visual Studio Code commands and shortcuts.

NON-TECHNICAL INSIGHT

I am quickly discovering I am not nearly as fast nor as accurate of a typist as I had previously thought. Apparently, autocorrect has made me weak and sloppy though the years. Plus, the special symbols and numbers require me to employ the old hunt and peck method. Not good! I’m going to have to make sure I get more fluent with my typing skills these next few days.