Drupal Training Experiences

I have had experience with Drupal 5, 6 and 7 before taking this class. I had only dabbled in starting to create a module for Drupal 6 several years ago. Though I have always wanted to start Drupal development since I started playing with it in version 5, I was always busy with something esle and wasn't sure if I could do it. 

I breezed through the first two sections of the course, the beginners and the intermediate. When I was about to the advanced section, we had a family crisis along with my regular job losing 3 people which caused my work hours to dramatically increase. I finally got back to the class about 3 months later expecting myself to breeze through the advance section and not realizing I only had a month to finish the class under the timeline. Fran and the Forcontu family were wonderful. They allowed me to extend my training by purchasing additional time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the class. There is a bit of Spanish to English translation problems with the pdf files here and there, but being able to ask questions about pretty much anything helped clear up any issues. And having the resources of other students who were also participating in the forums to ask questions helped becase sometimes the questions were already asked and answered in the forums. 

The final for each section of the class were well done. They put to use the information used in that section and sometimes pushed you back to earlier information. My final project was challenging. Though I have created websites before, usually for myself or a friend, creating a website for something you choose means you could make it as hard or as easy as you'd like. I chose to make mine challenging for myself. 

I worked on creating a website for the group CO Smiles which is a not-for-profit group based in Denver, Colorado that creates professional photographs for those who cannot afford professional photography or who are in a time of need in their lives. For example, the group offered the families whose homes were destroyed in forest fires to have free family photographs taken. CO Smiles also regularly gives family portraiture to those going through difficult situations at the Ronald McDonald Houses in Denver and Aurora. They also work with families who are making their ways into better life situations through charities around Denver.

Building a website for them was something I knew they wouldn't use since the group tends towards Facebook. It helped to know the group pretty thoroughly to know what would be needed and wanted, but at the same time it made my plans constantly change as I went along since I would think about new features I could implement or things I could do. 

To summarize, if someone is thinking about starting Drupal training with Forcontu. Do it. I had a wonderful experience. In my class there were people who were obviously very adept at Drupal and some who struggled to get through. Our teacher was there to help all along the way, even if you had a question on the final project or on an exam. 

I'm hoping to put my new learned knowledge into practice in building websites and hope to find a junior Drupal developer position. I can be found at TimNormanPhoto.com which is, and always will be, a website I have. Photography is a long time love too. If someone wants to ask me a question or follow up, please feel free to contact me there. Feel free to tweet at me too. Twitter.com/TimNorman.