What's Going On? November 2nd-6th

Fundamentals of Programming


This week in Fundamentals we'll be working on finishing up our pong app and adding it to our portfolio site.  We will do a formative check to see if we understand the basic principles behind our app.  We want to make sure we understand how the canvas, the ball, the timer, and image sprites all work together in order to get ready for our second "Creative Project".  For this project, students will have the opportunity to design their own app using the principles of animation.  More details about the project will be coming soon!




Programming the Web 1

This will be the final week leading up to our midterm exam.  This week we'll be taking care of lesson 8 where students will learn about the "box model" and how to add space around the elements in our web page.  This week we'll read chapter 14 in our textbook, take the lesson 8 review question assessment, and complete project 8A.  Students need to be caught up with everything through lesson 8 by the end of the week in order to be ready for our midterm exam.




Programming the Web 2

This week students will be working with "form" elements in order to create a more interactive part to our portfolio page.  Students will create a sample form formative assessment to practice all of the elements.  We will then embed a form into our portfolio website by the end of the week.

What's Going On? October 19th-23rd

Fundamentals of Programming

Last week we were working on their "Android Mash" apps which is similar to "whack-a-mole".  Students have been doing a great job creating a customizing their apps.  Students need to make sure that they are answering the reflection questions and are posting them to their portfolio sites.  I want to make sure that students understand the underlying computer science principles that allow our apps to function.  If we truly understand the underlying concepts, students will be able to create much more robust and interesting apps when it comes time to design and implement their own ideas.

This week we will check in with a formative assessment to gauge our current level of understanding of the basic programming principles running behind the scenes of our apps.  We will look at control statements (if..else), events (clicking a button), and time.  Once we make sure that we have a solid foundation, we will turn our focus to animation and complete some challenge problems.

Programming the Web 1

This week students will be finishing up lesson 6 where we started to focus on adding style to our pages with CSS.  Students should have their lesson 6 reading guides completed by Monday's class.  We will take the lesson review question assessment during class on Wednesday.  Please keep in mind that these questions are open book, open note, and open internet.  The questions are posted and I encourage you to plan your answers before you get to the assessment.  We should be seeing perfect scores!  If you don't know the answer to a question, PLEASE ASK!  I can help point you in the right direction.

Students are considered "on pace" for the class if they have completed lesson 6 by the end of class on Wednesday.  This includes the reading guide, lesson review questions, and projects 6A, 6B, and 6C.  Please make sure that you are keeping up with the work as our midterm project is coming up soon!  We will complete the midterm after lesson 8.  If you need some additional time in the lab, please let me know.


Programming the Web 2

Last week students learned how to add a "button click" feature to links.  Students were considered "on pace" in this class if they have uploaded our portfolio home page, completed the "button click" web assignment 2 formative assessment, and added this feature to their portfolio site.

This week we will explore how to create an image gallery.  Students will then add a page to their portfolio that highlights this new skill.

What's Going On? October 12-16th

Fundamentals of Programming

During our last week of class we were introduced to some powerful programming concepts including how to update variables and properties and how to add a time component to our apps.  Students have been working on the "Android Mash" app, which is similar to "Whack-a-Mole", in order to try out these new concepts.

At the beginning of the week, students will have the opportunity to customize their Android Mash app as well as finish up the portfolio page.  We will check in mid-week with a formative assessment to gauge our current level of understanding for properties, variables, and time.  At the end of the week, we will begin our "Pong" app.


Programming the Web 1

This week we will starting our sixth unit which will target our understanding of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).  Students will read chapters 11 and 12 in our textbook and complete the reading guide.  We will also have our lesson 6 review questions to complete.

There will be three web assignments this week: 6A, 6B, and 6C which are all tutorials that can be found in the textbook.  Students are considered "on pace" in the class if lesson 6 is completed by the end of the week.


Programming the Web 2

This week we will learn some more advanced CSS concepts and add them to our portfolio pages.  Students will add a more advanced hover feature to the links on the home page.  Students will also work with transitions and timing and complete a formative assessment.  At the end of the week, students will be introduced to forms which allows the website user to interact with the web content.

What's Going On? October 5th-October 9th

Fundamentals of Programming


Last week students finished up their Soundboard App projects and PaintPot apps.  I was really excited to see such creativity with the soundboard projects.  I can't wait to see what you create next!

This week we will do a formative check-in to make sure we understand why our programs work.  In class on Friday students completed a worksheet to further investigate parameters, properties, and variables.  We will review the worksheet on Monday and prepare for a formative assessment.

Later in the week students will talk about how our apps can incorporate updating variables and timing.  Students will have the opportunity to test these skills when we create the "Mole Mash" app.

Students are considered "on pace" if they have updated their portfolios through the "PaintPot" app and have completed the "Mole Mash" app by the end of the week.


Programming the Web 1

Last week students finished up lesson 4 where we learned how to incorporate links into our web pages.  This week students will learn how to properly link images and create "Image Maps".

This week students will also be introduced to the industry-standard program "DreamWeaver".  This is a program that a professional web designer may use to design and build websites.  Up until this point we have been using a text-based editor.  Now we will be introduced to this state of the art software that will allow us to add more features to our pages.

Students will be considered "on pace" for the course if they have completed the lesson 5 reading guide, the lesson 5 review questions, and projects 5A, 5B, and 5C by the end of class on Friday.


Programming the Web 2

This week students should be putting the finishing touches on their portfolio home pages.  Students should upload the page to a shared folder on Google Drive.  Once the home page is complete, we will investigate some more advanced CSS tricks to add to our pages.  We will try out a "button press" concept together in class and then we will add the feature to our home page.