Back to School! Taking CSC256: Computer Programming I

One of my big concerns about starting this project during the summer was what would I do once school started and I had to teach my classes again.  In Kemp's book he wisely suggests you need to aim for about 20 hours a week (about 3 a night) and I was concerned that I would allow this to slip when school started.  I have already seen that if you allow too much time to pass in between studying it takes some time to get back into the flow again.

However, a couple weeks ago, it occurred to me that I work at a college (brilliant right?).  There are a few computer science courses here that I could sit in on.  While we only have a 2 or 3 a semester because we only offer a minor, there is a Computer Programming course this semester focuses on Python.  I debated about whether I wanted to ask my colleague to sit in on it or not, concerned that this would maybe be weird.  However, ultimately I decided to do it.

I think having some accountability here as well as 3 times a week scheduled to learn programming during the day will keep me focused and will actually be fun.  It has been well over 10 years since I was a student in an undergrad class and I am filled with both anticipation and dread.  It will also be a pretty intense experience given that there are only 6 people in the class.  I w
ill have to keep up with my work or risk humiliation at the hands of my co-worker!

I am not taking the class for credit, though I suppose I could.  I guess I am not at this point due to some lingering anxiety about whether or not I can actually survive it!  I have a student who has taken these courses and he insists that they are not difficult, but I will see for myself before I actually get a grade on record!  I will report on this fascinating and potentially humbling experience throughout the semester!

On a side note, I got in a lot of good work yesterday and continue to actually learn about coding while writing about learning about coding.

Total hours into Programming: 69 (4 today)
Total Weeks Programming/Hours per week: 3/23

 Progress on Shaw's Learning Ruby the Hard Way: Finished Exercise 1-9

My Text game: 2 hours, 107 lines


TreeHouse (487 Points, 8 Badges) 

Code Academy Points: 630
Code Academy Badges: 65

Code Academy Skills Finished: 2 (Make a Website, Ruby)

Progress on Hartl's Tutorial Ready to start Chapter 3! 

Resources Finished:
Josh Kemp's No Degree, No Problem 8/14/2015

Chris Pine's Learn to Program 8/9/2015