Wk07/08: Learning Journal Summary


Look back at the HW1 assignment and think about how you would approach it now.  Think about all the things we have covered and how far you have progressed.
Highlight at least two victories. 
    It is very important to celebrate things that go right.  It is VERY easy, and common, to focus on the negatives.  I want you to focus on the positive aspects and really reflect and be proud of the work you have done.  Mention 2-3 areas where your skills have improved, things like 'I really understand access modifiers', or 'I am comfortable extending classes', anything where you feel better now than you did at the start of the semester.


    In all honesty, these last few weeks have been some of the craziest, eventful weeks of my life. In addition to all the action, this class felt very fast paced. One day I’m practicing basic java coding skills, then the next day I’m able to write a basic android application!! This class rotation has really challenged me and my ability to manage time.
For homework, I should have played to my strengths and visually represented the UML diagram on either a whiteboard or piece of scratch paper. Seeing all the fields and methods on a UML diagram really helps when it comes to identifying each of the methods. My initial plan was to blindly follow the UML diagram and pray that my code ran. On top of just plugging and chugging code, my understanding of the inner mechanisms was very poor. If I were to restart everything today, I first try to do surface level rundown of what was happening to code. Break down pieced by piece and try to understand how each of the code blocks worked. 
         The Wins
          Although there weren’t many, the wins that I do claim are truly remarkable (in my eyes). 

1. Getting Legally District Pocket Monsters to even run was a big win! Even though I didn’t design that project from scratch, it felt good to know that the objects and methods I created were actually interacting with each other. Seeing the print statements describe a satirical version of the original Pokémon games was kind of amazing. Leading up to this class, I felt a sense of imposter syndrome. But after conquering my fear of wordy documentation, there was a feeling or accomplishment! 

2. Android studio...There was no way in hell I could of leanred a whole to language in less that 2 weeks right? Just as I thought the heavy documentation was over and that I just got comfortable with java, we started a new project with a new IDE! But the more I worked with android, the more similarities I was able to draw from not only vanilla Java but also front-end development. The way android was coded was very similar to how HTML /CSS and JavaScript worked. This epiphany helped me realized that I ACTUALLY know things about computer science and that I wasn’t a fraud! It also gets me kind of excited about what the future holds in computer science. The knowledge that I have acquired did go to waste and rot in the back of my brain. It just needed some application and now I am able draw similarities. 

These two victories make me sound a bit big headed. And although I made big strides in my understanding of computer science, I still have so much to learn. Rather than be frustrated, I just need to go with child-like curiosity and enjoy the journey. 

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