Learning Plan - Foundation

What is your long term goal and or career pathway?

My long term goal is to have good knowledge and skills in javascript, and be able to find an internship/job in a big institution where I can keep learning and sharing skills and ideas with other workmates.

What skills (non-technical - human skills) would you like to see developed in yourself while at EDA?

I want to be able to express myself intellectually and be able to write in detail about a subject as needed.

A description of your own strengths and limitations

I guess my strengths are that I’m hungry to learn, I learn to believe in myself and I know how far I can get with my dedication and constant work. My limitation is my dyslexia and have english as a second language, I struggle to express myself and put my ideas into a paper and my very bad grammar (thanks so much to Grammarly app for making my life easier) I think another of my limitations could be my pregnancy, as it is hard to know how I will feel everyday.

Based on the above description, a commitment to how you will manage your workload in this programme. This should include - an explanation of how you will manage yourself to work productively and safely with other learners, facilitators and industry/community representatives.

At the moment having the curriculum really helps a lot to organize the workflow each day. I am also starting to use the pomodoro technique to help me to focus and have break times.

In Bootcamp, I will manage to work productively and safe, keeping a quiet environment and go for a walk and some breathing exercises if I get stress, normally a snack helps a lot for stressful situations too.

A commitment as to how and where you will seek help in a timely way.

I grew up as the only woman in my family and I’m used to having plenty of help, that developed a lazines around investigating what I don’t know on my own. I will work hard to develop my own problem solving skills and if I’m stuck for more than 30 or 40 minutes I will ask for help on slack channels or contact a facilitator.

A description of what you expect from the facilitation team

I expect them to teach with apples and oranges if necessary, to be as clear as they can and have a motivation that puts our moods up as learning can be very hard for some people (me). I expect them to teach best practices and have a comfortable relationship with them.

Any scheduling information such as block-out times when you are committed to other things. For example, you might have whanau commitments such as school drop-offs. It’s important to plan these in.

My other scheduling information can be my appointments with my obstetrician, I know I should book appointments with them between 12 and 2, I will try my best with that but it all depends on my doctor's disponibility.

Learning Plan - Bootcamp

What is your long term goal and/or career pathway?

My long-term goal is to feel comfortable in web development and find a good job that helps me grow as a human and as a developer. Before I preferred large companies, but now I am open to medium-sized companies as well, as long as there is good communication and people are happy to share knowledge.

I am still very interested in being a JavaScript developer. It is scary as it is taking me time to understand the logic, but I guess practice makes the master.

I don’t know what kind of impact I want to make yet but I’m here to discover that.

What do you think your biggest strengths and limitations will be in Bootcamp?

While doing the foundation and investigating more on neuroplasticity, I realized that I have a very fixed mindset. I get disappointed and develop low esteem when I get stuck on an exercise or when it takes me time to understand a concept. That is a huge limitation that I’m working on.

My strengths are that I have all the material and intention to change that state of mind. I’m reading Mindset by Dr Dweck, which is helping me to change my belief in myself. It’s filling me with good vibes, and discusses studies that show how it is possible to grow our minds.

All this will help me keep a positive state of mind during bootcamp - even if I feel stuck on a concept, I just have to remember that it’s all part of the learning process.

What do you think your biggest non-technical challenge at Bootcamp will be?

My non technical challenge will be to not get lost in my head while a class is in session. Sometimes I have a lot of difficulty paying attention when I don’t understand something so my brain just disconnects from what is happening around me.

What non-technical skills - human skills - would you like to see developed in yourself while at Dev Academy?

My non-technical human skills that I would like to develop are communicating and teamwork. I’m normally good at talking to one other person if I feel comfortable with them, but when there is a big group I get very shy and have a panic attack - unblocking that skill would be great!

What are your expectations from the Bootcamp team?

I’m expecting a friendly and open environment, with a good and positive energy.

What are your expectations of yourself on Bootcamp

I expect to foster a healthy, friendly environment with my classmates and the people around me - with the help of resources like:

The Pomodoro method works wonderfully for me, so my plan is to keep going with that method to manage my workload.

Also if I’m stuck on an exercise I will try to figure it out for myself with Google, but if I can’t find an answer after 40 minutes I will reach out for help.

In stressful situations I will do some breathing exercises and go for a short walk, get some fresh air or just a cup of tea as a little break.