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Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsMy suggestions..
Andrew is a great guy I learned mySQL thanks to him! I think he is just introducing too much too fast and it makes it hard to follow. I think maybe a smaller project would of been better, there is alot going on I mean yeah I see whats happening, but maybe just introducing all of these new things in separate videos would be easier to digest. Then afterwards we do something like this form for example which has alot of different functionality, or why not get just one element working at a time instead of creating every variable, than every anonymous function known to man. Just my personal opinion I plan on creating my own problems and figuring out ways to solve them using javascript though.
11 Answers
Chris Shearon
Courses Plus Student 17,330 PointsThe concepts can get overwhelming at times that's for sure. When that happens I look for a different video (outside treehouse) on the same topic. Someone else explaining the same thing in a different scenario can make all the difference. Then before you know it you don't even see the code, you just read it like an sentence.
Samuel Webb
25,370 PointsThis is what I do too.
Allison Walker
17,137 PointsYes! I do this as well.
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsMaybe we can do a weekly challenge in a google group and then we all just work on the same project together, like we just say ok so today we are going to make a quiz application that pops up jquery animation with a thumbs up if you get the answer right and thumbs down if you get it wrong and at the end it flashes your final score and does a little animation with confetti or something like that and add social share buttons that appear at the end so they can share it with others, something like that I think we can come up with some cool projects though, we can use code pen to showcase our projects and then the next step would be is try to get it on an actual website. Employers want to see proven live work on sites not so much codepen code snippets. We can use github to share the base of our start projects and then we all see what we come up with and help each other out if we get stuck.
Carey Cooke
3,952 PointsI like that idea and would be interested in that.
Chris Shearon
Courses Plus Student 17,330 PointsI'm on board. It'd be nice to connect those good with layout and design to those good with the backend(us) to create something awesome. I can put together a little signup form on my server so everyone's email isn't posted on the treehouse forum. If there's enough interest.
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsThanks Carey. Its going to be a private study group for treehouse students only this way we can avoid trolls, or other unwanted people, plus we have worked hard on treehouse to get to where we are at so its best we share it with each other. We will do a project a week I know we are all probably on different time zones so I think that will be only thing affecting us. I am going to think of a way we can all participate, if anyone is unfamiliar you just need a gmail account https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cs0ursqolnp92aed21rr6m7qqno
I created a private group for treehouse and I have a hangout that doesn't expire just click the link and request invitation and I will come up with the first weekly challenge, maybe we can have someone choose it each week its up to you guys really. I want us to switch it up each week though.
Kevin Faust
15,353 PointsHey Gary, I requested an invitation
Tony Mikel
10,661 PointsI feel this course would be better if Andrew tried finishing a function before moving onto different things. The only reason it is hard to follow (for me and others) is the jumping around. I understand all the for loops and everything he's doing on the code level. Following his logic/solution/pseudo-code is hard for me -- Just my two cents. To end on a positive note, I love Andrew as an educator and I'm really loving this class. It is challenging for a beginner and I'm learning a lot. So thank you very much, Andrew!
Michael Wiss
19,233 PointsIf you like books I'd recommend picking up Jon Duckett's Javascript & Jquery. Udemy has an amazing course by Anthony Alicea called Javascript: Understanding the Weird Parts. Codecademy has a great javascript course.
Sunny Singh
1,148 PointsI agree ..right now I feel overwhelmed and almost feel like quitting. For some reason I feel he's not explaining things well or going too fast..I dunno :/
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsDon't quit. We could be study buddies if you want or something. I am always about helping out others. Your only at a 228 right now which means you haven't even finished any tracks yet on treehouse. You have to decide what you want to do and focus on nothing but that, eat breath , and sleep it. I started treehouse may 11 and I am almost at 9k points. I am just saying give it a chance and after everything you do on treehouse make your own application or web page to make sure you really understand the material, and don't be afraid to ask questions because that is what you are paying monthly for so get your moneys worth.
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsOh ok thats weird about your account. Maybe we can all do an unofficial treehouse student google hangouts, and we all pick a topic and figure out how we would work on it, or work on your own stuff think it would help alot though. If you are not familiar with hangouts its cool because we can all talk and share our screens at the same time its 10 people per room, but if anyone is interested in that let me know I will created a group on google and a room that doesn't expire.
Edward Vartanessian
1,219 PointsI'd love that Gary! If you'd like, go ahead and message me on there at deathsquads@gmail.com (I know I know).
I'd say let's use Skype instead, but I think we'd need Skype Premium to do that.
Johnny Garces
Courses Plus Student 8,551 PointsGary- I'd be down for that. Maybe we could start a Treehouse Google Hangout or Slack channel and do pair-programming with whoever wants to get involved.
This javascript class was painful, I'm starting to get back into it after working with Wordpress for a while. I miss JS and happy to be back in the swing of things.
thanks for suggesting this,
Edward Vartanessian
1,219 PointsOne major suggestion I have is that Treehouse shows what the end-result in the course is going to be before we start the course.
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsI think practice is the ultimate way to solidify any understanding of anything. The projects would help then we can modify it in our own vision and enhance and add to it like treehouse suggests on its course with the extra credit at the end.
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsYeah thanks for the suggestions everyone, I hope i didn't come off a certain type of way because it wasn't my intention. I will say I enjoyed Andrew's node.js teaching I was able to follow along with that without any issues. I will check out those books and yeah I have been doing codeschool as well its awesome, and of course codeacademy.com I also have a pluralsight account so I am really hitting this hard.
Chris Shearon
Courses Plus Student 17,330 PointsI'm also on pluralsight and some of those instructors almost put me to sleep. But the info is great.
Gary Calhoun
10,317 Pointshttps://www.livecoding.tv I have been watching people stream on here its good to see how experts work and their workflow, some of them explain things if you ask them. I was learning how to write c++ shaders watching someone work. I think its awesome nonetheless. No matter what we do though learning about anything once doesn't make us a pro at it. We just are deemed the title has knowledge of this language or that one. I think we just need to really think about what we want to do and research crap out of it and see how we can throw it all together and make workable code out of it, seems the only way we can learn but treehouse does give you the foundation and without that you won't have a clue what you are doing. Learn by doing, small projects, then get gradually more indepth. Pluralsight is definitely not for beginners most of those courses are pretty advanced but its good to know that stuff nonetheless. I would say also doing key searches in the treehouse library for topics help to find some stragglers in a language you just learned just make sure to hit the star to bookmark them.
Sunny Singh
1,148 PointsGary I have completed a few tracks , like all the javascript ones before with Dave this and the jquery one , was at 2000 pts since I joined a month ago but there was an issue with my account so my progress was lost . Had to make this new acct 2 days ago Also I paid for a year of treehouse as it was a deal , so not quitting now :P just said I felt like quitting due to his teaching style . I am also doing codeschool and an online bootcamp so yeah I am pretty much invested into making this a career . Of course we can help each other along the way. I have already made a shopping list project on my own for the other course but did not do it this way and now it feels complicated.
I also believe in helping and learning together so yeah I appreciate your support.
Carey Cooke
3,952 PointsAndrew is very hard to follow. Even the jQuery course was very tough to follow, especially coming off JavaScript basics with Dave. I figured TreeHouse had a mandate that this is how things go and everyone had the same methods. I say this because the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript courses were all very similar. A short video or 2, then a quiz, then a challenge with a few objectives, and then on to the next topic. With Andrew it was very different so TH obviously doesn't care how they teach.
There are times when I'm on my lunch break (like now) when I'll get on and try to watch a couple videos. So my time I can spend on this stuff without interruption is from roughly 11pm to about 1am when I finally crash because I can't think straight. HTML, CSS, and JS were very easy to follow and learned a ton from Dave. Andrew, not so much. Not saying he's a bad teacher because he's obviously very sharp, but his teaching style is terrible!
Matthew Rigdon
8,223 PointsAdd me to the group too please!
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsI really just think it was moreless that course. Dave was really good thoughI was able to follow along with ease. I think Dave's way of teaching should definitely be a template of how all teaching should be on treehouse. I will say everyone is doing a great job nonetheless. I think alot can be improved upon. I would also like to see more javascript pprojects we could do that we would be hit with in the real world. Like sometimes I see courses on other sites like udemy "Learn Angular.js by doing 20 projects" Its like wow 20 projects to show a new potential employer or client for freelance. I would like to see something similar by treehouse maybe like a monthly learn by doing 20 projects in php, html, css, javascript etc. I think we would all be pretty sharp after a few months.
Sunny Singh
1,148 Pointstotally agree , I think learning basics and then doing some guided projects is the way to go. Wish treehouse was like that . I have a few courses on udemy that teach 10 projects on JS and jquery but I wanted to do this before I got there. Wish it was all under one roof. Also Codecademy has a projects section , not checked it out yet though
Edward Vartanessian
1,219 PointsYES! I think what Treehouse is really, really lacking are projects that we could add to our portfolio. Even if it's just as a written tutorial as on tutsplus.com.
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsSorry try to join this page https://plus.google.com/events/cs0ursqolnp92aed21rr6m7qqno?hl=en
Johnny Garces
Courses Plus Student 8,551 PointsHi Gary- just requested an invite to this. I'm looking for projects and would love to get involved!
Howie Yeo
Courses Plus Student 3,639 PointsHi Gary I've also requested an invite, would be great if i can join the study group too! :)
Gary Calhoun
10,317 PointsMatthew Rigdon send me your email I will add you to the group I sent an invite but not sure if its you or not there seems to be alot of Matthew Rigdons on g plus
Edward Vartanessian
1,219 PointsEdward Vartanessian
1,219 PointsI highly agree. I nearly quit that course at that point, but I pushed through and finished it. It's painful. I think it's the combo of him introducing so many new bits AND him being everywhere and kind of just teaching as he types. I don't really have a problem with many new things being introduced, but I do have a problem with his methods. Learning from Dave McFarland is a breeze compared to Andrew, but JavaScript was the only course I was trying to learn from him. Unfortunately, it was painful and even though I finished everything with him, I feel I learned very, very little. If asked to build a to-do app right now, I'd fail miserably.
One thing I thought of as I typed this: I feel Andrew teaches you how to search for methods/functions and what resources are out there more than how to build things.
I just don't think he's a good teacher :/