What's Going On? January 29th through February 2nd

Programming the Web 2

Now that we have completed our review of some basic HTML and CSS techniques, students will spend some time working on creating their portfolio homepage that will be used to house all of the web techniques that we will learn throughout the course.  Once we complete our homepage, we will learn about how we can enhance it with some navigation techniques.

App Development 1

This week, we will continue working on learning some of the basics associated with App Creation in the Swift programming language.  We will dive into how we can place images in our app and how variables can be used to add additional functionality.


App Development 2

Once we finish up our refresher app: Guessing Game, we will dive into our new material.  We will spend some time learning about dictionaries, which involves creating some key-value pairs.  We will also dive into how we can use table views.  This all will help us lead up to our end of unit app challenge: Assignment Notebook.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will continue working with items related to the internet.  We will start off the week by talking about secure protocols, focusing in on public keys and private keys that allow us to securely send information across the internet.  We will spend the rest of the week focusing in on HTML5 and JavaScript.

This is just a reminder that Monday is the last day to register for the AP exam and avoid the late fee.  Please follow the link to register for the exam: https://user.totalregistration.net/AP/502389  Students who qualify for free and reduced lunch may apply to have the fee waived for the exam. 

Please note: Only students who take the AP exam will receive the weighted grade for the course.

Welcome to Second Semester!

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone enjoyed their extended weekend after we wrapped up the first semester.  Now that you have had a little break, it's time to get back to work!  Since we are starting a new semester, everyone will be starting with a blank slate for our new grading period.  Since we have a short week, each day this week will be run as a "Monday-style" schedule.


Programming the Web 2

Since it has been a while since a few of our students have been enrolled in Web 1, we will spend this week refreshing our memories of some basic HTML and CSS techniques.  Students who have Web 1 fresh in their minds will have the opportunity to investigate some new CSS techniques that they would like to incorporate into their websites.



App Development 1

This course is an introductory course to app development.  In this course, we will develop apps for iOS devices (iPhone and iPad) using the Swift programming language.  We will be using the computer program XCode in order to complete our work.  Throughout the course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to complete several apps, including:

• Hello World (A basic intro app)
• Multiply (An app to get used to creating buttons and creating a response)
• Tip Calculator
• Word Play (A mad-lib style app)
• Tic-Tac-Toe or Rock, Paper, Scissors

We will start with the basics.  During Wednesday's class, students will start with an "unplugged" activity and discover some basic ideas behind programming.  Later in the week, we will begin to investigate our XCode programming environment and try a little bit of Swift programming.

App Development 2

This is a continuation of our App Development 1 class.  Since it has been a while since some of our students have been enrolled in App Dev 1, we will start out with a review activity to refresh our memories on some basic Swift programming items.  Once we complete the review, we will dive into our second semester curriculum and investiage dictionaries.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week we will continue with our unit on HTML and CSS.  We will spend Wednesday and Thursday using Cloud9 to create our first webpage.  Students will learn how to mark up text using HTML and to add style to it using CSS.  We will finish out the week by talking about secure protocols and how cryptography plays a part in sending and receiving messages through the internet.

AP Exam


Have you registered for the AP Exam yet?  Please be sure to register through Total Registration by January 29th to avoid the $10 late fee.  All registrations must take place by February 7th at 11pm.

What's Going On? January 15th through January 19th (EXAM WEEK)

Exam Week

It's exam week.  Please remember that we will follow a "Monday-style" schedule on Monday and Tuesday.  Our exam schedule will run Wednesday through Friday.  Please be sure to be ON TIME for all of your exams.  Students must attend exam periods for all class, including student aide classes.  Students are not required to attend the "Reviewing/Conferencing" times, but that would be a great time to get some extra help!  Additionally, students are not required to attend during the "Make-Up" exam time on Friday afternoon.

Programming the Web 1

This week, students will have Monday, Tuesday, and our exam period on Friday to work on their final projects.  This final project is a website that includes at least four web pages.  Students will upload their final site to our shared folder on Google drive and also host the page live online.



App Development 1

This week, students should be focused on investigating a new Swift Technique.  Our curriculum partners, Mobile Makers, have offered this as a "Winter Contest", so students who upload their Swift Technique project by 5pm on Friday will have a chance to win some prizes.  Let's show off what you can do!  All projects must be turned in to me by the end of our exam period for our final Summative grade for the semester



AP Computer Science Principles


This week, students will wrap up our activity 2.1.4 where we started marking up web pages using HTML and CSS.   We will spend Tuesday's class period reviewing for our semester exam.  Our semester exam will be a preview of what the written portion of our AP exam might look like in the spring.


AP Exam

Speaking of the AP exam, have you registered yet?  Please be sure to register through Total Registration by January 29th to avoid the $10 late fee.  All registrations must take place by February 7th at 11pm.

What's Going On? January 8th through January 12th

WCTC Fieldtrip

For students that signed up for the WCTC field trip, this is a reminder that this will take place on Thursday from 8-11am.  Please make arrangements will your teachers BEFORE Thursday to find out what you will miss. 

Semester Exam

Semester exams are quickly approaching.  Check out the schedule:

App Development 1

This week, students should be working on their rock-paper-scissors or tic-tac-toe app.  This is our final summative complete app project for the semester.  Students should work to complete this app by the end of the week.  Once this is complete, students should work on finding a new swift technique to investigate.  Our curriculum partner, Mobile Makers, has a contest available to our students who investigate a new swift technique and submit their project by 5pm on Friday, January 19th.  Check out details of the contest here.

Programming the Web 1

At the end of last week, students should have finished our lesson 13 web assignment.  We will wrap up lesson 13 on Monday by taking our multiple-choice review question assessment.  Once this is complete, students will have the rest of the semester, including exam time, to work on our final web assignment project.  For this project, students must design and create their own website.  I have had several students mention that they would like to create a web page for a family business.  Other students expressed interest in creating a resume site.  I would be more than happy to help students brainstorm ideas for the final project.  Additionally, we will have a final 20 question multiple-choice assessment based on the 130 questions we have seen throughout the semester.  This assessment will NOT be open-book, open-note.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, we will continue our study of web pages.  This week, we will focus on internet protocols and then we will spend some time examining some of the languages used to create web pages: HTML and CSS

Students should be working on our practice "explore" summative assessment.  I checked in with students on their topics last week and hopefully, the research portion of the explore task is well underway.  Students should be turning in their explore summative assessments by Friday.

For our final exam, students will have a summative assessment that will be based on what they might see on the AP exam in May.  

Registering for the AP Exam

The "early registration" period for the AP test is coming to an end.  Students need to register by Tuesday, January 30 at 1am.  After that, a late fee of $10 will be added.  The final date for registration is Wednesday, February 7th at 11:00pm.