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> Code is not only HTML, CSS & JS

Finished a couple of courses @CMDAmsterdam. Very proud of my first-year students who, with no prior coding experience, create after 6 weeks of learning HTML & CSS.

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First off a Happy 2021 ✨ We are only a few days in but I hope your new year has been off to a good start. To be honest, mine isn’t great so far. I’ve been a bit sick since the last week of December. I’m slowly recovering but still feeling a bit of the aftermath.

I spend most of my time with my family. Watching movies, finishing series, having nice dinners, and playing a ton of board games.

> Unknown Unknowns

People don’t know what they don’t know. Unknown unknowns. That’s why asking ‘are there any questions?’ is not a good question to ask. Even worse is . It’s the difference between ‘have you understood?’ and ‘what have you understood?’. With the second question, you

> Looking at Desks

Call me weird but I like looking at people’s desks. Either in real life at offices or from pictures online. A desk says a lot about a person: how much they value materials, what products they like, if they are organized etc. I’m always on the look-out for new gear on other people’s desks that can improve my workflow. Especially small little tools that do Subreddits like , or even pages on other people’s websites are good places to start looking for inspiration for your own workspace.

> Zettelkasten

The academic year (20/21) of CMD Amsterdam started this week. Our first semester will be online (remote). I’m doing tons of prep work (admin stuff, preparing slides, creating class lists) so students have a smooth start of the year. I’ve also been reading a ton about remote teaching, I’ll probably write an article about it on my .

👋 Hello Friend. Hello Friend? It’s been a while.

At the end of last year, I decided that writing a weekly newsletter was a good idea. Turned out it was a bit… ambitious, to say the least.

> Weeknotes #06

This was quite a busy week. Lot’s of assessments and re-sits which drain your ‘energy meter’ very quickly. Even if it’s just 4 / 5 hours a day (no full days) grading is mentally demanding. You need to be sharp with every student no matter the time of day.

This week was also the first week of the Basic Teaching Qualification. What struck me was that all of us encounter the same ‘problems’ and there are a lot of similarities when teaching that are not related to specific course subject content.

> Weeknotes #04

Last week (several times) students confused Design with Art. To me, design is not art, but design is definitely creative. The outcome is more focussed on function, it leans more towards the usability of the product than aesthetic appeal.

Over the last year, I accumulated a lot of small gear but guessed it was time to upgrade my . First up, a  to keep as a multi-tool in my bag.

> Weeknotes #03

The end of this semester is coming to an end and I’m working very hard on the back-end course and my web animation course for next semester at CMD Amsterdam. It will also my first year teaching in our ‘beginner programming’ course and I’m also doing an in-take for the Basic Teaching Qualification. Next week will be a busy week planning and organizing!

> Hello World!

Here it is, my newsletter! A big thank you for signing up. You’ve signed up to get a ton of curated articles to read, tools to use and book & series recommendations. I’ll also give updates about personal projects, talks & workshops or new articles I’ve written.

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