Becoming a Techie
It has been a whirlwind.
My progress within just the last two months amazes me. I am blogging about it because, upon reflection, I am already starting to forget the small details of this amazing journey. The most recent chapter of my story begins at the end of February, when I formally decided to devote my weekends to learning to code. Prior to that, I had made a commitment to follow this path, but was too exhausted to follow through after working full time all week and then part time most weekends. So, I cleared my schedule and closed my availability to the part-time job. I started watching lots of developer testimonials on YouTube to find out where to begin. Fast forward to today—I’ve completed seven courses, designed two websites, served as a volunteer teaching assistant, set an appointment to meet with a mentor, and I NOW CODE EVERY DAY!
Table of contents
First Steps
My son, who is already a software engineer, became my primary mentor and advised me to learn React as soon as possible. He sent me to a couple of tutorials on YouTube, but I found them hard to follow. Using the command line, which my son also stressed as very important, was and still is a struggle. I realized that first I needed to review HTML and CSS, and to learn JavaScript. I signed up for a specialization at the University of Michigan on Coursera. The lessons were all compiled into a 10-hour video that I came across and previewed on YouTube. I liked the instructor Dr. Colleen van Lent’s teaching style, and I completed the entire specialization of five courses. The specialization offered introductions to HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and JavaScript. I also gained a solid foundation in best practices, including validity, accessibility, and responsiveness. When I reached the culminating project, it turned out that I had been working on it all along without even realizing, because after each unit, I would apply what I had learned to an original website that I was developing on my own.
So, my very first official coding project was a hair journey website. I’d been documenting the care and growth of my hair on YouTube since 2019. I decided to design my own website to connect with my channel. For the most part, I was pleased with my design, but I knew that I needed to learn much more to make certain improvements. The details about my loc journey website are coming soon on GitHub. I plan to fork the repository from my old GitHub account and continue working on my hair journey website. I have learned enough now about the effects of user agent default browser settings and Bootstrap that I can finally fix the navbar that had stumped me before. I am also considering adding a carousel to that site. It’s a wonderful feeling to have more control over placement and styling now! Anyway, a very special thing happened at the end of the CSS unit. Dr. van Lent told us that at this point we were not yet at web developer status, but we did qualify for teaching assistant positions.
Networking and continued growth
Dr. van Lent specifically recommended that we reach out to an organization called Girl Develop It and request to become TAs. Intrigued, I found and explored the GDI website. GDI is a non-profit committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive, and empowering software development environment for women and non-binary adults. I sent an email to the listed contact. To my delight, my request was granted! I participated as TA in a live Zoom class for the first time a couple of weeks later. I even had the opportunity to lead a section of the course. To date, I have served as a TA for three courses: Web Essentials 1, JavaScript ES6, and CSS Animations, and I have signed up as a student for the Python and React courses. GDI also sponsors virtual community events, such as panel discussions, job fairs, and hackathons. I am so glad for this exciting new opportunity to learn more coding and to make connections with others in the field.
Meanwhile, I still watch a ton of testimonial videos on YouTube. I also listen to podcasts on Spotify and read a few blog posts. These content providers discuss excellent learning resources and ideas, which are helping me to focus and narrow my path. One such video lead me to a boot camp course on Udemy, and I was fortunate to catch a sale! Udemy is great because there are frequent sales, and once you purchase a course, you have continued access. Also, the instructors usually keep their courses updated. Dr. Angela Yu is a phenomenal highly engaging teacher, and her classes have not only brought me to a new level of understanding, they are helping me to start building my portfolio with meaningful projects, including a personal website that I am still developing. I am currently completing the Introduction to Bootstrap course on Udemy.
Blazing a trail
Some of the minutiae and intricacies of my journey have been forgotten, but I definitely recall feeling lost and uncertain at times. Only a few weeks ago, I did not understand a single thing about how to make a site responsive, how to use Bootstrap, or how to navigate GitHub. And at that time, I could not foresee myself doing any of the aforementioned with ease. Now, when I type a ‘g’ into Google search, GitHub automatically populates, indicating that I visit my GitHub more often than I check my Gmail! Coming soon in my Udemy course are: Node.js, APIs, JSon, Databases, MongoDB, Mongoose, and much more. Currently, I know little to nothing about any of these. I must remember my prior experience, and how I eventually learned everything, as I head toward even more daunting tools and languages on the road ahead.
Each of the various courses I have taken has offered different perspectives and has reinforced the most important concepts and best practices in coding. I figured that this blog post would be extremely long like my last one, but since writing the last post, I have begun documenting my projects on GitHub with detailed README files and more thoughtful git commit comments. Please be sure to check out my GitHub for additional updates on my coding. I hope these blog posts serve as markers on my path—a reference for other teachers desiring an entrance into the Information Technology Sector.