This will be my first time writing a blog (at least with consistent entries), but I think it will be an good experience. At the very least, writing lets me take a step back from a normally hectic schedule and organize my thoughts a bit better. For this first post, I want to focus on my perception of Professor Downing’s Software Engineering class at the time I signed up and how it has changed after attending the first few classes.

When I registered for this class, I partly did it because I need the writing flag to graduate and partly because I heard positive things other people. I was skeptical on how much I would get out of the class having worked with some of the technologies, followed some of the philosophies and read some of the books already. At the same time, I felt that I could definitely still get some value out of it or, at the very least, have an enjoyable class to go to.

After the first half week of school, I have a better idea of how this class will help me in the future. I really like how Professor Downing calls out random people from the roster to answer questions, though it does give me a bit of anxiety. This teaching style is something that I haven’t really experienced in my first 3 years of college, and, as a result, I’ve never really felt comfortable speaking up in class. As I’ve noticed to a greater extent in my Japanese I class that I’m also taking this semester, in which the professor calls on us on enact skits for phrases we just learned, I definitely need to get better at thinking on my feet and processing new ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing how much I will improve on those skills in the next few months.

Last thing is the tip of the week! This is an article that my mentor this summer assigned as “homework” (no, I was not taking classes). It’s called The Twelve-Factor App and it does a good job of succinctly encompassing the software development philosophies I encountered in industry. Read it here.