summer vacation – Teachers Have Lives Too!

05/30/201905/30/2019 Erika S. outfits

It’s here! It’s finally here!

Ahhhh, summer vacation. It’s finally here! Well, kinda. I have graduation tonight and then one more day tomorrow, which will be a celebration meeting and check out. It’s here!!!

This summer B and I will be sticking around Denver for most of the time. I’m really looking forward to getting in a lot of gardening time combined with some mountain biking near town, and of course loads of just chill time. We have a couple out of town weddings, our annual canoe/camp trip, and then we will try to take a road trip about Colorado. Every summer I have to remind myself that B doesn’t get a summer vacation like I do (sucks), so he will probably spend more time at the co-working space than usual.

Finals ended last week, so this week I’ve been cleaning up my room and packing stuff up. I’ve been in weekend dressing mode ever since then, and it’s been glorious. Getting ready in the morning has been so fast! Jeans (the same ones everyday practically), a t-shirt, a sweatshirt type cover, and all set. And who needs makeup on these days? (Just kidding, I do. At least a tiny bit!)

These are the same Banana Republic jeans from before, and I’ve been living in them. The ~~Patagucci~~ Patagonia sweater thing is from a sale they had back in February. I really like the old school label, it’s mostly made of recycled wool (Patagonia is so good at sustainable fashion) and it’s fleecy on the inside so therefore not itchy at all. It is still available on their site! This almost never happens since I only buy things on sale and by the time I get around to posting about them, it’s all sold out. I’m not generally a Patagonia fan, as their clothes always seem like they are made for more petite women. Tops (on me at least) tend to appear too short and boxy in the body and with too short sleeves. But I love their environmental stance, and I like a lot of what they make. Soon I’ll be packing away these fleecy things though because the weather is warming up here! Happy summer everyone!

pullover: patagonia – tshirt: sf giants mlb ? – jeans: banana republic – shoes: adidas

07/28/201707/28/2017 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

The Summer Reset – 11 Mile Canyon

I picked up fly fishing this year with a hand me down rod from B, and some learner’s camaraderie from Rachael. I’ve been out fishing about 10 times now, and I have yet to catch a single fish. Obviously I still have a lot to learn – maybe my knots are too big, maybe my line is too short, maybe my cast is too rough, or just maybe, fish are too damn smart to be fooled by my tricks. Regardless of my luck/lack of skill, it’s darn lovely to be out in the middle of a river, relatively alone, and listening to the sound of water. Even more exciting are the small little adrenaline rushes you get when you see fish smell your fly only to promptly ignore it and eat a bug mere inches away from your fly. One day, fishies, one day.

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A couple weeks ago, Rachael and I took a quick little one nighter camping trip to 11 Mile Canyon with the intent to catch heaps of fish to cook over the camp fire. But then, there was a fire ban in effect. And then, it rained on us almost all evening and night. At one point, huddled under a tree in our raincoats, we debated giving up and driving the 2 hours back to Denver. Thankfully the rain let up long enough for us to cook a meal, drink some beers, and play a few rounds of Bananagrams. Lastly, neither of us caught a fish. Rachael got 2 hits though, so there’s that. It was still an enjoyable 2 days, and we got some lovely views even at the crowded campground.

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Until next time, fishies….

07/17/2017 Erika S. trips

The Summer Reset – The Fjällräven Classic

About a month ago, B and I went on an beautiful, memorable, challenging, and downright epic 42 mile backpacking trip here in Colorado. About a week after we got back from Europe, we set out to start our trip on the Fjällräven Classic. The Classic in the USA is a 3 day trek through the mountains with about 200 like minded people from all over the world organized and facilitated by the Swedish outdoor brand Fjällräven. Here is more info on the story behind the Classic, and info on the USA Classic.

The Fjällräven Classic concept is simple: to encourage and enable more people to get out and enjoy trekking.

You can read more about B and I on the trek here on B’s Blog.

I’ve been backpacking before, so between B and I, we already have the necessary gear. With everything I needed, my pack rang in at just around 30 pounds, give or take a few with/without water. I use B’s hand-me-down pack, an Osprey Aether 70 which fits me really well even though (or because) it’s a men’s pack. For sleeping, I have an REI bag that is rated down to 20˚F and a air pad that frankly is not thick enough. I can never sleep well camping. I wake up ever 20 min or so with aching hips, so I end up tossing and turning all night, every night, no matter how exhausted I am. B and I share a Big Agnes tent, and a Jet Boil stove, and the rest is pretty standard. I have old Keen hiking boots that have never once given me a blister, and I wore light weight Arcteryx hiking pants with sweat wicking t-shirts from Costco. The one and only new thing for me on this trip was trekking poles. They helped propel me up steep grades, tempered steep downslopes, and I’m very, very glad I had them for this type long distance climb. My poles came off of a snowshoeing kit I bought at Costco over the winter, so they’re are not fancy at all, but definitely useful.

We bought tickets back in April, and I quickly realized that I would very seriously need to start training. The route description even gave B pause, so I took a brutally honest evaluation of my fitness level and started planning out my training routine. To ease me into exercising, I started yoga once or twice a week at my neighborhood studio, The Yoga Mat. Prior to this, my exercise came strictly from sporadic 7 minute workouts at home, snowboarding, and walks. To prep my weak and injury prone low back for the weight of a backpack, I started pilates once a week at my neighborhood pilates studio, Manna Pilates and signed up for 3 private lessons spaced out over 3 months. Gradually, I added in running (a mile at a time – I loathe running) once or twice a week, and supplementing my yoga and pilates classes with the Nike Fit App workouts at home. In May, my friend Melissa introduced me to spinning classes at Endorphin. We both bought a 3 month unlimited package, and I started going to their classes 2-3 times a week to work on my cardio endurance, which has always been non-existent. To train for the elevation and just the realities of the trek, B and I went on training hikes every weekend with fully loaded packs in the mountains close to Denver. By the time the classic came around, I felt ready. My cardio endurance was 5 times better than it was, I had stronger core strength, and I knew I could make at least 10 mile hikes with no problems.

B and I are planning to do this same trip again next summer, and we will probably rope some of our friends and family in to join us. The price is a bit steep – as is essentially everything Fjällräven branded – but I really think you get your money’s worth and more.If you’re curious for more, check out the tag #fjallravenclassicusa on Instagram, and Fjällräven’s Facebook page.

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All the photos here were taken by B and I, with the exception of the very last one, which was taken by Ali Vagnini.

07/13/2017 Erika S. trips

The Summer Reset – Paris

Paris…la Ville Lumière. I don’t speak any French past “Bonjour madame!” and “un café s’il vous plaît!” Thankfully, I got a quick little primer on French manners from our Australian-Parisian friends Daniel and Libby the first couple of days of our Paris trip. Parisians are extremely polite, so if you travel there and stick to the usual American manners, you’d be considered rude. Greetings, please, and thanks are very important and expected. For example, when you enter a store, cafe, anything really, Parisians always say “Bonjour madame/monsieur!”, and same when they leave. I certainly don’t do that normally here in the states (though maybe I’m just rude all the time), but I definitely was conscious to greet everyone right away everywhere I went in Paris. I also didn’t experience much of the famed Parisian snottiness/irreverence during my time there. Maybe those two things go hand in hand? I knew I would be out exploring solo for half our time there, with B at his conference WordCamp Europe (the reason for his travels in the first place). So it was really helpful to have a local break things down for me before venturing off on my own!

The best way to get around Paris is by bicycle, and paris has the best ride-share bicycle system, the Velib. So simple, so accessible, and so affordable. For almost the same price as a one way Metro ticket (€1.90) you could rent a Velib for 24 hours, 30 min at a time (€2). Bike lanes are everywhere, and Parisian drivers are very aware and careful of cyclists. The Metro is great for longer distances, but for the most part, I rented a Velib for everything within the main ring of Paris. Compare that system to Denver, where #1 there is no metro at all, and #2 the bike share program costs $9/day. Who would opt to ride a bike when it’s cheaper to just drive or take the bus? #doingitwrong! I loved these bikes so much that I immediately started researching Dutch step-though style bikes the day we got home (I ended up buying a Linus, by the way).

Day 1: arrival via Eurostar, Montparnasse Cemetery, Luxembourg Gardens, macarons from Gerard Mulot, rosé on the terrasse of Café de la Mairie, a stroll through St. Germain, and dinner at Le Bistrot d’Henri.

Day 2: coffee around the corner from Daniel and Libby’s, Blé Sucré for the most amazing croissant I’ve ever had in my life, a stroll through the farmers market near the Puces d’Aligre, rosé at Le Baron Rouge, strolling through Le Marais, lunch at L’As du Fallafel, Le Palais Royal, a walk through the grounds of the Louvre, Palace de la Concorde, rosé at Café du Rendez Vous, Catacombs of Paris, and dinner at Le Temps des Cerises.

Day 3: Arc de Triomphe, stroll all the way down Ave. de Champs-Elysées to Musée d’Orsay, Notre Dame, picnic along the Canal de la Villette, and dinner at Le Bancs Publics.

Day 4: the Louvre, shopping in St. Germain at Monoprix and City Pharma, picnic dinner back at hotel of baguette, camembert, salami, and wine. First day completely on my own.

Day 5: Musee de Rodin at the Hôtel Biron, Sainte-Chapelle, Pantheon, stroll down down Rue Mouffetard (the Latin Quarter) with more croissants, stroll around the Pierre and Marie Curie University, more shopping at Monoprix and City Pharma and street crepes for dinner.

Day 6: The Pompidou Center, shopping at HEMA and other shops in the Le Halles area

That’s it for Paris, but more (domestic) summer travels to come!

07/03/201707/03/2017 Erika S. trips

The Summer Reset – London

Many months ago, in the dead of winter, B mentioned to me that during June, he would have to take a work trip to Paris for WordCamp Europe. B travels quite a bit for work, and I always stay home with the dog. Teacher vacations are pretty much set in stone and our schedules aren’t exactly flexible. But this time…it was during summer vacation.

Paris and London have been at the top of my travel list for some time now. In high school (the 90’s) I would listen obsessively to Brit pop bands like Blur, Pulp, and Elastica, and dream of how cool it would be to be British. I would picture drinking at pubs, cute boys with accents, running into Damon Albarn casually, and wearing DocMartins every day. Teenage daydreams, right? So, when B told me about Paris, I immediately invited myself along, and stuck on a London trip for both of us – boom, summer vacation trip!

B and I have a system that works well for us when we travel to large cities like London and Paris. We do a bit of research on things to see, do, and eat, then make a large list. Then we divvy the list up into days depending on the location. We usually end up checking off 3-4 items off each day, which makes for long days and lots of steps on the Fitbit since we always stick to walking first and public transport second. Our system is simple, and probably the same thing everyone does, but it works really well for us and keeps the arguing contained to how early we are waking up in the morning (I love sleep too much).

Day 1: Arrival in the morning, Big Ben, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, St. James’s Park, Buckingham Palace, dinner at Dishoom in Covent Garden for great Indian food.

Day 2: London bridge, Borough Market (closed from the terror attacks still, so we ended up stopping into a random pub for a full English Breakfast), Tower Bridge, Tower of London, pub stops, and dinner in Chinatown for Sichuan Food (nothing to call home about).

Day 3: Westminster Abbey (Charles Darwin’s grave!), Afternoon Tea at the Covent Garden Hotel, The Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, and dinner at Mahdi for Persian food

Day 4: Shopping at Oliver Bonas for clothes, Full English Breakfast (again) at Kensington Square Kitchen, Kensington Palace Gardens, Hyde Park, Notting Hill, shopping at Superdrug for British beauty brands, and dinner near our hotel at The George IV with sticky toffee pudding.

Day 5: Portobello Markets, neighborhood strolling through Bayswater, Paddington, Mayfair, Belgravia, back to Kensington for Sunday Roast at The Scarsdale Tavern, then all the way to Chiswick – Pub crawling the whole time. It was a very long day on the feet.

We ended up staying at the Clayton Hotel in Chiswick, which is a few underground stops outside of central London (which meant that is was relatively cheap). In hindsight, we should have forked over the extra money to be closer to the center of town, and for a better hotel. It was an average of a 30 min tube ride one to and from London, so the money we saved went directly towards public transport costs. Also, our hotel had plumbing issues and a smell that I couldn’t get out of my nose for days afterwards. In the grand scheme of things through, these were minor issues. Mind the gap!

Next up is Paris!

07/15/201607/15/2016 Erika S. trips

Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi – Part 1

Summer Vaca – it is more than half way through, and it feels like it’s been rushing by at warp speed. This summer, B is also on a “summer vacation” with a 3 month sabbatical from work. B and I started off the break with a month long trip to Australia, hitting up both coasts and a little island along with way. It’s all too much for one post, so I’m breaking it up into 4 parts: Melbourne/Queensland/Perth/Sydney. If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen some of these already, but get ready for photos overload!

First, some background info: B is Australian (with dual citizenship), but he’s been living in the states since the early 2000s. I’ve been to Oz before, but in the 5 years we’ve been together, we’ve never traveled back to his motherland together. So you can imagine how excited I was to be going back there with him, my ultimate Aussie boy-mate. I’d been pushing to make a summer for us/winter for them trip to Oz for about a year already, and then good timing kicked in. B’s brother Kai was getting married! B had a 3 month sabbatical waiting to be taken! The stars were aligned right around my summer vacation, so we booked tickets with the miles we’ve been saving up especially for a trip down under.

We started the Aussie Adventure with Melbourne. Melbourne is the San Francisco of Australia – it’s got the weather, the diversity, and the culture. All that was missing was the hills (Sydney’s got that one). My favorite bits of Melbourne were all the interesting tucked away alleys. Almost all the really neat coffee shops, restaurants and bars were in tiny alleys that in the states we only associate with garbage pick ups and muggings. The alley ways of Melbourne are places for public art (sanctioned or not), and so much of it was right up my alley that I had to remind myself to take photos of only my absolute favorites.

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B and I spent 5 days in Melbourne, and we stayed near the CBD at Fraser Place which worked out well in terms of location, price and comfort. Right around the corner was a great cafe, and stop #1 in Oz always has to be coffee – Flat White, specifically – which they do perfectly. For the rest of the trip, B and I started off every morning and broke every afternoon hunting for a cool coffee shop. One in particular I liked, as it was styled like a little Japanese cafe. B and I looked very much like the giants that we are, surrounded by tiny furniture in a tiny room. Stand out coffees in Melbourne: League of Honest Coffee, Little Rouge Coffee, and Brother Baba Budan.

Prior to leaving Denver, I started a temporary Pinterest board of all the sights I wanted to check out in Melbourne. First was the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail), a sufficiently creepy but cool place to visit, complete with wax busts of prisoners made post-hanging. We splashed out and took the tour, and I learned about Ned Kelly for the first time. The next day, we went to Queen Victoria Market, where I did most of my souvenir shopping. I didn’t buy Ugg boots but B did buy a classic Aussie hat, and we picked up a kangaroo skin – which B instantly modeled for me in stereotypical Aussie fashion. Since B and I love the Denver Botanic Gardens, we also spent a day at the Royal Botanic Gardens. My favorite part was a little nook called Fern Gully, where I imagine is were all the fairies of Melbourne live. We ended the walk through the garden at the Shrine of Remembrance. If you ever find yourself in Melbourne, I recommend jumping in on a I’m Free (tips only) walking tour. B and I did it and it was pretty cool.

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Asia is to Australia as Mexico and Central America is to the US. So you can imagine how excited I was to eat all of the yummy asian foods. I made a list, and we went to all of them and ate all of the things. I was a very happy camper, though our wallet very quickly was not. Australia is not cheap. Standouts were Din Tai Fung (they also have locations in CA and Seattle), the Dainty Sichuan, and Gami Chicken & Beer. As far as drinks, B and I checked out a couple bars but were generally disappointed with the cocktails in Australia. Berlin Bar was worth the trip in that first you had to ring a bell to be let in, then you had to chose which side of the bar to sit it: the East German minimalist/survival side or the West German posh velvet chairs side. The bar itself was really neat, and so was the stairway leading up to the bar. Cocktails were interesting on paper and presentation, but pricy and not particularly tasty and drinkable. Whiskey & Alement had an overwhelming 5 page whiskey menu which B liked, but I generally go for whiskey cocktails like an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan and Im not a fan of peaty, smoky flavored rye whiskeys. The bar standard Old Fashioned I ended up with was exactly that. I choked it down anyway. B was a big fan of this place, though it was weird/confusing with 2 bars in one. There is a side bar within the bar that serves only Japanese Whiskey, but you have to pay at the main bar and convert AUD to Yen.

That’s it for Melbourne! Part 2: Queensland up next!

10/15/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

Scenes from a weekend in San Francisco

I spent this past weekend back in my city by the bay, San Francisco. It felt so amazing to be home – clean air, the smell of blackberry bushes and ~~eucalyptus~~ gum trees, with a favorite walk through my hood. I miss this city so much it was hard to leave to come back to Brooklyn. While I am happy to be home again (with my dog), I think it’s pretty safe to say that both B and I are San Franciscans (or Australian-San Franciscans) through and through. B had been there for a couple weeks already for an Automattic meetup, so he had plenty of time to enjoy the city and time with friends. I flew out directly after school on Thursday afternoon to meet him. The kids were so cute, they took one look at my carry-on and asked to come with!

I didn’t spend too much time with my camera out — instead, I opted to just keep my eyes out. Here are a few snaps from the weekend:

1) Friend/B’s fellow Automattician Rose’s wedding in Kenwood, CA, the ~~excuse~~ reason for the quick trip out west. I borrowed this Nanette Lepore dress from my sister. I figured if she looked fantastic in it, so would I.

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2) A stroll through the north east corner of SF, with seagulls to keep me company.

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3) A Taqueria Cancun stop. OF COURSE! NYC just can’t get the mission burrito right.

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4) A walk through my hood and the neighboring hood, with a stop at the rope swing on Billy Goat Hill.

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5) A stop at Tartine with my favorite girls, Marisa and her 2 little munchkins.

I’ll probably be back sometime in February for the NYC DOE’s mid-winter break. In the meantime, I’ll have other SF blogs to keep me happy, such as Past The Mission and The Local Transplant. If you haven’t already entered the giveaway for a $100 LOFT card, click here for my last post and get in on it!

08/27/201308/27/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, trips

The last hurrah Part 2: the road trip

On the way down and back from Savannah, Grace and I took our time on the ole I-95 and…

1) ate at Cracker Barrel 3 times. That place is so yummy and cheap — we gorged on mac n’ cheese and their biscuits. This is my excited face for good ‘ole country food.

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sunnies: knockaround – tank: f21 – shorts: uniqlo – shoes: saltwater sandals – bag: h&m

2) stopped at the Wormsloe Plantation on the outskirts of Savannah, mainly to check out the long oak lined driveway and for a quick history lesson from the park ranger.

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3) we went to Medieval Times!! A SF friend of mine, Sunny, is from Myrtle Beach, SC. So naturally I had to check it out on the way home. I emailed her for recomendations and she hooked us up with her friend who is a beer wench at Medieval Times. There was no way I could pass up an opportunity to be called m’lady. I freaking loved it, but I don’t think Grace shared my dorky excitement for knights and jousting. WE GOT CROWNS!! Sadly, our blue night “died” near the end after a battle with the black and white night. *tear*

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4) we stopped at so many gas stations I lost count. The best one by far had a Dunkin Doughnuts and a lion statue outside. Naturally, I just had to climb on it and strike a pose. I ended up with a slight burn from the hot steel. Oops!

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08/25/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, outfits, trips

The last hurrah, part 1: Savannah

Summer here in Brooklyn is on its way out. Relatively cooler temps have taken over and I report back to school tomorrow for a planning week, then the first day of students is on September 9th. It’s just about time to put the teacher hat back on along with the fall/winter layers. I think I’m ready for the school year… at least until the “start of school anxiety” sets in and I start getting nightmares and/or insomnia.

As a last hurrah, my friend (and fellow teacher) Grace and I decided to take a road trip down south. I’ve always wanted to check out the south, specifically Savannah, Georgia. I have this crazy romanticized image of Savannah, thanks to movies like Gone with The Wind and uh, *cough* Forces of Nature. I’m drawn to the south, with its lushness, the incredible and controversial history, the drawl (swoon) and most of all, the food (here’s some butter, y’all). Next on my list is a visit to Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. For our trip, Grace and I took 2 days getting down to Savannah and two days getting back. We only spent one full day in Georgia, but it was just about enough time considering how small Savannah really is. The night we got in, there was a blue moon. Grace and I stayed at the 17hundred90 Inn, which is rumored to be haunted and a block away from a historic cemetery. We didn’t experience anything creepy, but after hearing all those ghost stories I did wake up in the middle of the night super freaked out and scared to even peek out from the covers. Grace laughed at me the next day, but I was seriously scared (of nothing)!

The next day, Grace and I walked all over the historic district and then made our way over to the family style soul food restaurant Ms. Wilke’s. The wait in line was well worth it and we gorged on all things fried, stewed and covered in cheese. We walked it all off though, through Forsyth Park and all the other little squares in the area. I really wanted to collect some spanish moss to bring home, but our haunted pub crawl guide Brittany told us the moss was full of chiggers.

Grace was nice enough to help me snap some photos of my new-ish dress, which was perfect for the hot and humid Savannah weather. This dress is as close as I’ll ever get to the ridiculous mullet trend that just needs to die. Proper in the front, party in the back! My new birthday shades from B were a perfect match.

sunnies: knockaround – dress: anthropologie (on sale now!) – bag: h&m – shoes: madewell

08/16/2013 Erika S. fun stuffs, seriousness, teaching

Code Academy, a newbie’s perspective

This summer and its idleness has been turning my unused brain into mush. With a good amount of prodding from B, I’ve decided to revisit my olden days of “coding” by learning some front end development. Mostly just for fun now, with a long range plan of redesigning this blog on my own, and possibly, maybe, perhaps some small side work for future summers. My experience with coding goes as far back as 1994/1995, where my freshman year computer class was introduced to the world wide web through Netscape. This naturally led to a desire to create my own page which documented all my favorite bands. I learned some HTML through viewing the source code of pages, coded a few iterations of personal sites and promptly stopped when it got really complicated with tables. A couple years later came sites like GeoCities, and my need to learn how to code just died. If I had known back then that this tinkering around with coding could branch out into an actual career, I probably would not have just given up so soon.

My background knowledge of HTML only gets as deep as links, images and background colors, so needless to say, I’m starting from the bottom. The internets to the rescue! B suggested three sites for me to check out: Codeacademy, Treehouse and CodeSchool. Code School requires a decent background on the fundamentals of HTML and CSS, so that’s coming later. I poked around Treehouse and Codeacademy, looking for a good fit for my non-existent skill level and learning style. After going through the first demo session of Treehouse and Codeacademy, I’ve decided to go with the freebee and more comprehensive Codeacadamy (CA).

A few things I love about CodeAcademy as a student of code with the mind of a teacher:

It’s free, and therefore I can ~~force~~ recommend that my students use it also. When you start from scratch, it makes sense to save here and shell out bigger bucks (possibly at Code School) for higher level coding.
CA starts you off with the basics. The real basics, from the very very bottom, as in “what are tags?” Treehouse on the other hand, claims to start with the basics, but jumbles CSS and HTML together from the get go, which was confusing.
CA leads their Web Fundamentals track with HTML only, getting you used to the skeleton of a page. After a bit of practice, it eases you into incorporating some CSS inline with the HTML, before guiding you into separate HTML and CSS files. My student brain needs that type of delineation between HTML and CSS in order to fully understand how the two interact with each other. It also helps with a more overarching understanding of why CSS exists in the first place.
CA’s “teaching style” is practice and learn through both repetition and applied skills. It works well with both my old school “memorize and regurgitate” brain and my new school “show me what you have learned by applying it in a different way” brain.
Positive reinforcement! I’m not such a sucker for badges and the like. But I do value positive reinforcement, no matter how cheesy I find it. It ads a bit of cutesy and competition that I know the kids would like. I have a bunch!

A few things I feel like CA was missing as a newbie coder who needed B (web developer) to help fill in the blanks:

There was never any real explanation for coding syntax and the reasoning behind it. Why is it “font-family” and not “font family”? Why is it a “{” in CSS but a “<” in HTML? I felt the need to ask these questions so that I could move away from just memorizing to applying, ie: when spaces are allowed and when you need hyphens. CA goes into a bit of syntax reasoning with the use of a “;” to separate properties.
The individual lessons were too small for my taste. I wanted larger chunks to learn. CA walks you through one tag at a time, which can get a bit tedious ~~I’m such a fast learner I blow by them~~ as my brain needs larger projects with multiple tasks to fully grasp the bigger picture. With CA, you learn headers, then paragraphs, then lists, then tables, etc all as bite sized lessons. Why not learn more at once and use more at once?
I need my vocab to be front loaded (little known fact: I was classified as an ELL until 4th grade) and CA academy does not touch on vocab development. I kept calling things like “background-color” style elements until B corrected me to “properties”. A bit of vocab can help, so that I at least have the right words to use when I’m stuck and looking for help. I already forgot – what’s an “attribute”? So far I’ve gotten one little bit of vocab in CA:
no videos – not something I mind, really. But I can see how some people would be drawn to Treehouse’s snazzy tutorials.
There wasn’t much said about code formatting and code editor use. Little did I know, this question led to a complete TMI explanation from B about tabs vs 4 spaces and nesting and aligning coding practices.

School is starting in a couple short weeks, so here’s hoping I find the time to keep this up during the school year. It would be pretty darn awesome to be able to teach a web design class of some sort in the future. I’ve only been at this for a few days here and there so far — I’m about 60% of the way through CA’s “Web Fundamentals” pathway. I’m still far from embodying my favorite 90’s move character:

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