Going into the first WOD, I am not going to lie I was a little nervous since it was our first one. I made sure I was as ready as possible, so I made sure to read all the directions before starting. Going through the directions I started to remember stuff we learned from the basics of html website. Little things here and there like headings. Some of this stuff was a refresher from ICS 101 when we had to create our own websites, so I felt a little bit better after understanding the scope of the project. When actually starting the project itself I found myself blanking on a lot of the tags to use, they were either incorrect or I didn’t know where to start. My first try I went over 25 min. After watching the screencast 2 times I tried again in which I struggled with getting the links to work and because of this I went over time so I tried again. Before trying again for the third time I watched the screencast once more to make sure I understood the mistakes I was making. After my third attempt I finished in under 25 minutes and with a better understanding on how to create links to an external page. My advice for this first WOD is to make sure you are transferring all the proper information from the directions to your code properly. A missing letter or symbol can be the reason why your code is not working the way you want it to.
After reading the directions for Browser History 2, I felt confident just because creating the css portion was one of my favorite parts in creating a website in ICS 101. For some reason the css styling skills really stuck to me so nothing was new. This WOD was more of a refresher for me. The problem I did have the first run was properly placing the images we needed to add to this page in the correct location. I was so stuck, and I couldn’t figure it out so from there I deleted my project and watched the screen cast. After watching the screencast, I knew what I did wrong and felt confident I could do it successfully with another try. So, I started my timer, started recording, and ended up having difficulty with adding the different fonts. So after watching the screencast again I knew what I did wrong and was able to successfully complete it after a third try in less than 10 minutes.
Looking at the directions for this third WOD, I assumed it would be easy because we were only changing 2 things from our last project. After attempting it for the first time, I felt lost and needed to watch the screencast. My second time I had difficulty aligning the browsers, so they were next to each other. After that failed attempt, I went back to the screencast to rewatch what I did wrong. The third time, I felt still unsure in my capabilities and found myself successfully completing the part I had trouble with the last night but having difficulty creating the nice three sections. I spent too long trying to figure out why one my sections was not aligning properly so I had to delete the project and start over. Before attempting this a fourth time I watched the screencast to made sure I understood what I needed to do and how I could avoid making the same mistakes. I felt confident and was able to successfully complete it in under 10 minutes
Getting to go through trial and error with these projects, though can be frustrating, it has allowed me to learn from my mistakes. Without these little mistakes and big mistakes, I don’t think I would be able to get the knowledge that I do now. Sometimes it can be frustrating when you think you are finally going to have a successful run but having to end up deleting your project in the end. My advice for anyone starting these WODs is to not give up on yourself and it is normal to run into mistakes (many actually). But taking the time to understand your mistakes and how you are going to fix them will allow you to learn all the necessary skills intended for us to learn with these WODs. Another piece of advice for anyone struggling with the WODs is to not just use the screencasts for help. I found myself referring back to websites that Professor Port has given us. These can be useful and apply directly to the concepts we are learning in our WODs. I am grateful Professor Port uses this style of running the class be we ultimately learn from our own experiences. I am a fan of the athletic approach to learning how to code.