That's a great project. Darkroom skills are a vital part of photography as an art form, and a great way to build confidence in your own abilities.

Consider taking test photos to develop that will help you see what you're doing -- things with high contrast and low contrast, large shapes and small details. The content matters less than the variety of features that will help you see if your development efforts are capturing everything you photographed or if the quality is degrading in some way.