Second day..

Of teaching. What?! It's been a while since I've updated this blog (which is basically how it always is), and a lot has happened since my last post at the beginning of phase 3. Basically, I made it through phase 3 (mostly) intact. I did Wallbook for my small group hacakthon, with Christian Soler, and it was challenging yet fun to build something like that from scratch in only four days. After that, our entire troop moved on to working on Staffing Online for about a week and a half. Christian and I were the team leads, and Abraham Thomas was our project manager, which was awesome because he actually has a PMP certification. After that, we all split up to do our individual hackathons. I worked on and implemented all of the requirements into my portfolio, which was fun and gave my project a purpose (besides furthering my knowledge, of course). So now I have a snazzy looking portfolio, a website and database hosted using Microsoft Azure, and it feels great. Now I can actually show my family what I've been working on while I've been off their grid for the past 9 weeks.

After I presented my portfolio to everyone at camp, I had a conversation with David. I had been talking to him on and off about the possibility of working for Coder Camps over the previous few weeks. Now, my plan coming here was to move away to my dream city (Denver, Colorado) as soon as I graduated. Over the course of talking with Dave, I decided I'd be willing to move plenty of places, as long as they weren't in the south. But, I realized how great of an opportunity I have here in Pearland, working with these awesome people and helping improving people's lives. So, when Dave offered me a job to teach here in Pearland, I gladly accepted. Yesterday was my first day, and it was a little nerve wracking, but it feels great to give back to this company that has given me so much opportunity, and I'm helping give that same opportunity to the students now. It's a very rewarding experience. On top of that, teaching this material requires a much more solid understanding of it than being able to do it does, so when I come out of here I'll be the best developer I can be, which is awesome.

Anyway, it's day two of me teaching now and I already feel more relaxed about it. I can confidently answer nearly every question thrown my way off the top of my head, and, if not, a quick Google search gives me the information I need. Right now I'm just teaching fundamentals, but I can already tell the students from this troop are good about asking questions when they're confused and even asking questions well above our current scope of learning on day two, which is great. That's it for now - see you in another month or two!

Beginning Phase 3

This Friday marks the end of the first week of phase 3, and there has been a small lull in the activity level over the last 2 days. Last Friday my troop split into 3 groups of 2-3 people each, and spent most of their free time through Tuesday in a hackathon, each making a project that was different but covered the basic requirements. All of us were mentally exhausted on Wednesday morning, when we presented our projects to everyone at camp. It was an amazing experience, however. Now I can look back and see what myself and one other person can accomplish, given only 4 days. My fellow troop members also created awesome applications, and it's amazing to see how far we all have come in just 6 weeks.

Since our presentations on Wednesday we've been learning about agile software development and familiarizing ourselves with the new group project's code. All of the members of my troop are in the same group this time, which I'm excited about. I love working with everyone in my troop, since we all get along so well and help each other any time we get stuck on a problem for too long. We've been learning from Nick, who's the instructor for the third phase. He's had around 15 years of experience as a programmer, so being able to learn from someone who has been in the field that we're trying to go into is a great opportunity. 

I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks, which will include working on the group project with my team, then an individual hackathon after about a week after that, then it's over. I know it will be here before I know it, especially since I've been here for 7 weeks now and it feels like it's been a week, while somehow also feeling like a year. I'm learning so much here, and it's been so challenging, that I couldn't imagine where I would be today if I decided not to come to Coder Camps.