October 5, 2019

After my first week of studying the topics, I feel a bit more at ease. I was overwhelmed with everything at first because I haven’t taken a JavaScript class in more than 2 years. I thought that the first two topics would be difficult for this reason. However, I have found that JavaScript is similar to Java which is a course I took last semester. Concepts seemed to click faster than I expected. I still have a lot of studying and practicing to do before I can feel confident using applying these JavaScript concepts to an actual mobile application, but I am off to a good start.

I’m hoping that I will be able to get into a good routine within the next couple weeks studying and teaching the topics. I feel like this class is great because it is helping me understand how to learn new programming topics, which is an essential skill to have. I’m looking forward to seeing my growth in this class.

Group Meeting

October 12, 2019

I was able to teach for the first time this week. I taught the JavaScript basics like loops, functions, etc. Teaching about topics doesn't come easy to me. I felt like I was describing things in too much detail. All of my group members have been programming for a while so I feel somewhat inadequate. However, I know I shouldn't be comparing myself to those who are at a different level than me. This class was not a requirement for me. I took it as a substitution for Professional Presentations to fulfill my supplemental courses. So, I am doing my best to remember that I wanted to take this class for the purpose of learning more about JavaScript. The work I put into studying and teaching the concepts will allow me to have a better understanding.

The only thing that I had trouble understanding was associative arrays. As I studied, I kept getting mixed answers on whether an associative array is an object or not. I have come to the conclusion that they are an object. Next, I need to understand exactly what a JavaScript object is. I believe I will have a better understanding in the coming weeks.

Group Meeting

October 19, 2019

I am already off track of my personal plan that I created at the beginning of the semester. This is because I spend too much time on subjects and perfecting the content that I create for each topic. I am working on having the approach of learning the material rather than creating perfect descriptions of each topic. To do this, I plan to focus on finding tutorials that teach me a good foundation of the topic first, then summarize the basics. I spent most of my study time this week finishing up the basics of JavaScript. I was able to find some great tutorials on YouTube about arrays and associative arrays.

I am still having problems with GitHub and cloning files to my account. For some reason it gets stuck when it is syncing. I think it could be because I have all of my files backed up to iCloud. I'm not able to disable specific files so I think I will stick to manually transferring files to GitHub.

The group recording never uploaded for this week's meeting.

October 26, 2019

I will need to do some rearranging of my personal plan to make sure that I can submit all of the topics before week 9. I have been traveling this week so it has been even harder to keep up. However, I am actually enjoying the study time that I get for these topics. Most of them are topics that I haven't studied before. I'm learning how to learn which is probably the most important thing that I will gain from this class. This will be essential for a web design and development career where languages and methods are always changing. I plan to continue to add topics and their resources to this website so that in the future, I can come back for assistance. This organization strategy is much better than pasting links into random notes on my computer!

I was most excited about my approach to learning about the HTML canvas tag. I hadn't heard about this tag before, but I feel like there is a lot that can be done within the canvas. I followed a tutorial that taught me how to use JavaScript to create a simple game. I know that there is the risk with step-by-step tutorials of copying and pasting without learning anything. However, I made sure to understand each line of code before moving on. I also carefully documented what each function did so that I can look back at it later and understand how it works. I had a lot of fun with this tutorial and loved the struggle of trying to teach the new concepts I had learned to my group. The biggest challenge I still have to fix is figuring out how to pause the game instead of automatically running through it. I'm hoping that as I learn more, I will be able to know how to fix it.

Group Meeting

November 2, 2019

For once, I actually felt confident teaching my group. This week I focused on CSS transitions, transforms, and animations. This is something that I have worked with quite a few times so I was able teach using some live demonstrations on JS Fiddle. I have difficulty speaking in complete sentences whenever I talk to anyone, and teaching makes it a thousand times worse. But this week felt different because I knew what I was teaching. I hope to reach that level of confidence in the remainder of the topics that I teach.

Something that I want to understand better by the end of this semester is how to use proper transforms, transitions, and animations for mobile devices. How can you change animations based on the device that is being used? Some animations look better on desktop thank mobile. I guess this is something that I will have to pay more attention to when using my phone to look at websites.

Group Meeting

November 9, 2019

Something simple that I learned this week that I might need to refer to later is how to use word wrap in VSCode. This whole time, I have been formatting the code by pressing return each time I needed a new line. I discovered that there is an option to turn the word wrap on or off. Go to View then select "Toggle Word Wrap." It is that simple. Now I need to go back and edit some documents to look better.

November 16, 2019

I didn't teach this week, but I have been working on completing the JavaScript object creation topic. I took OOP last semester with Java and found that the base of the concepts are very similar. I still don't quite understand how to use classes in JavaScript however. This topic seemed more dense then the others that I have been working on so I will have to continue working on it next week. I have found the YouTube videos by the Coding Train to be extremely helpful. He teaches concepts in a way that is exciting and informative using both a whiteboard and live coding examples. I will continue to watch his videos to help grasp these concepts a little better.

November 20, 2019

I have been working hard to get these last few topics done before the semester ends. I still want to create quality content that I can use in the future so I'm trying to take my time on each topic without using too much time. This is a very difficult task for me because it takes me a long time to do school assignments. I hope that I can get the topics done in time. I am excited to work on the final project. I have plans to create some kind of recipe app that will pick random recipes and display them to the user.

I was able to teach two topics today during our group meeting. I was the only one that had topics to teach so it was a very short meeting. The topics I taught were JavaScript Objects, and manipulating CSS with JavaScript.

November 30, 2019

Just as I suspected, I wasn't able to finish all of the topics before the due date. Luckily, I was given more time to do so and I get to do the final project! I only have about 2 topics left to complete, then I have to create teaching videos. It will be a little bit weird to not have an actual audience to teach to. I was told to start the project first and finish the topics before the semester ends. My biggest worry is that I'm not going to know how to connect all of the dots to create an entire single page app. I've learned the bits and pieces and now I need to combine them. I see a lot of googling in my future.

December 7, 2019

I finished all of my topics! It felt so good to have accomplished all of that. And now I have a great resource to refer to in the future. It's crazy to look back and see how much I have learned just in 12 weeks. I might have mentioned this in my first journal entry, but I am always amazed at just how much my brain can absorb. It seems to get bigger every semester, full of new information.

I'm still working on my project and have a lot to do next week, but I have the plan sketched out, and the basic HTML format and file organization created. This will be my first time working with an actual API so I know I have a lot to learn and lots of Youtube videos to watch.

December 14, 2019

I have arrived at the last week in the semester. I can't believe I'm done! My app is completed to the best of my ability. I struggled to make the save button work. It's complicated because I am pulling a random recipe from the API so I'm not positive how to store that specific id when the user saves it. However, I did the best that I could and worked on it until I couldn't possibly work on it anymore. Hopefully it is enough to still get a good grade. I feel very confident in my ability to use animations, transitions, and transforms.

Overall, I feel like the app looks professional and like something that could actually succeed if it was worked on further with more added features. In the coming months, I hope to create more apps like this one using the knowledge that I have gained. It really challenges my brain to piece it all together and it gives me the best real-life experience. I am so glad that I substituted this class over public speaking. I learned a solid foundation of JavaScript that I can take and continue to improve upon.