Blog as much as possible while you're at the Guild. The benefits are plentiful - just ask this guy. And then share it with the Guild in the #blogs channel.
Tracking your learning via a gitbook like this one, is a great way to integrate what you're learning each week
while flexing your markdown muscles to format your notes.
Some of us need to actually write ideas down to process them fully. So, hand us a pen and a moleskine and we're all set. Take good notes. Use or create a system that allows you to quickly access information in your notes. Consider transferring your written notes to a digital format like Evernote for easy searching and indexing.
The idea is to connect the dots between new concepts and current knowledge by looking for relationships between ideas across current and previous projects. This process also surfaces ideas/concepts you may have been exposed to but did not have time to deeply explore during the project cycle.
Key guiding questions:
- How is 'x'related to 'y' if at all?
- What were concepts/words/aspects of the challenge that I didn't know?
- Where are the gaps in my knowledge and experience?
The idea is to see what one can do with what was just learned by applying the newly acquired skills in a new context. If you have a small side project you might apply new skills to that project. Or, you might return to a completed project and refactor your code or build a new feature.
Key guiding questions:
- What do these new skills enable you to do?
- How can you apply what you've learned to previous projects?
The idea is to build a digital portfolio of your work, kind of like an online resume. Link to your github account and feature your repositories, or if some of the projects are live, link to the actual sites. Your portfolio could also be half blog, half resume. Either way, at the end of your program time you'll have a nice, long running artifact that can be shared with potential employers.
The idea is to explore how learning happened by intentionally reflecting on the learning process, seize upon approaches that worked, and replicate them.
Key guiding questions:
- What processes supported my learning this week? (i.e.: did i search for information differently?)
- Did I get more coaching support?
- Did I risk trying out more ideas than I did last week?
- What was most challenging?
- Where did I make the most mistakes?
The idea is to intentionally return to any ideas, concepts or skills a learner encountered but did not have time to fully understand or explore. The sole purpose of this strategy is to delve deep into a topic.
Key guiding questions:
- Why does 'x' work?
- What is 'x' really?