What's Going On? October 3rd through October 7th

Finishing Up Lesson 4
Last week was kind of a crazy week.  We ended up taking a little longer than expected to go through our notes this week so that we could go over some important concepts that we covered during our lesson 3 assignments.  Plus, our class periods were cut short due to all of the Homecoming festivities.  It seems like students needed a little bit of extra time to finish up our projects for lesson 4, so students will have Monday's class period as a catch-up day.  Students are considered "on pace" for the course if all of lesson 4 has been uploaded to Google Drive by the end of Monday's class.  Students who find that they need some extra time to work are welcome to talk with me about getting into the computer lab before school.

Lesson 5: Images and Image Maps
This week we will start using our industry-standard software, DreamWeaver.  Now that students are starting to get a handle on the basic structure of HTML, we will start using DreamWeaver.  This software will allow us to more easily create links and mark-up our documents.  Students will appreciate the "split-screen" view of DreamWeaver where they will be able to see their HTML code and a browser simulation side-by-side.

During this week's lesson, students will use DreamWeaver to add images to our web pages.  While we have been doing this before, we will learn about some additional properties where we can specify the height and the width of our image.  

<img src = "images/picture.jpg" alt="Picture Discription" height="100" width="150">

Students will also learn how to create an image map.  This is a clickable image that allows us to create different "hotspots" to navigate to different web pages.  DreamWeaver makes the process of making an image map much easier!

Along with this week's assignments, students will need to read chapter 7 and complete the accompanying reading guide.  The reading guide will be due by Thursday's class and we will complete our weekly review questions at the beginning of class on Friday.

What's Going On? September 26th through 30th

 Lesson 4: Links

This week students will be working on lesson 4.  During this unit students will learn how to create links to visit external websites, to link pages within their website and to create links within a page.

We will talk about how to create an absolute link to an existing website:

      <a href = "http://www.waukeshanorth.org">Waukesha North Home Page</a>


We will talk about how to create a relative link within our website:

    <a href = "index.html">Website Home Page</a>


We will also talk about how to create a link fragment (linking within a page):

   <h1 id="top">Top of the Page</h1>

    <a href = "#top">Back to the top of the page</a>


Lastly, we will talk about how to create an e-mail link:

  <a href = "mailto:kkamenar@waukesha.k12.wi.us">E-Mail Mrs. Kamenar</a>


This week students will have a reading guide to complete by Thursday's class.  We will also have our ten multiple choice questions as a summative assessment on Friday.  I encourage students to pre-plan their answers to these questions.  Students can find the questions with answer choices on BlackBoard and they were also included on the backside of this week's reading guide.  Students will also complete three assignments related to link creation: 4a, 4b, and 4c.

Students are considered "on pace" if unit 4 is complete by the end of class on Friday.  If students need additional time in the lab, please check with me.  We can arrange a time before or after school.

What's Going On? September 19th through September 23rd

Lesson 3: Marking Up Text

This week students will be reading chapter 5 in our textbook and completing the accompanying reading guide.  This will help students prepare for our multiple choice questions that we see at the end of the week.  Students are reminded to plan their answers to the questions ahead of time.  This assessment is open-book, open-note, open-internet.  All of the multiple choice questions can be found in the student handout which is accessible on BlackBoard and also by clicking here.

This week we will focus on some additional HTML markup techniques, including how to make lists and how to markup text into sections using <div>, <article>, and <section> tags.  We will learn about these skills and try them out together early in the week.  Students will then have the opportunity to try out these skills on their own with assignments 3a, 3b, and 3c.

Students will be considered "on pace" for the course, if lesson 3 is complete by the end of the week.

What's Going On? September 12th through 16th

Lesson 2: Creating a Simple Web Page

This week students will continue the study of creating a simple web page and finish up their lesson 2 web assignments and complete the lesson 2 review questions.  All lesson review questions are open book and open note.  The questions are also available online so I encourage students to plan their answers BEFORE we take the assessment.

At the end of the week, we will move on to lesson 3 where students will learn some more HTML techniques.

I will be sending in our WCTC applications this week, so please make sure that you have talked this option over with people at home to see if this is a good fit for you.  Students who successfully complete the course with a "C" or higher will earn WCTC college credit.  This is a great (and free) option for many students, even those who don't currently plan on enrolling in WCTC.

Students are considered "on pace" in the class if they have completed our lesson 2 reading (chapter 4), the reading guide, the lesson 2 review questions, and projects 2a, 2b, and 2c by Thursday, September 15th.  Yes, I know that this seems like a lot to get done this week.  Keep in mind that the reading and the reading guide should be taken care of at home and the rest of the assignments can be (and should be) completed in class.

We're just getting started with the basics of web design so it's really important that we build a strong foundation.  Please let me know if you have any questions!  It's much easier to clear up misconceptions at the beginning of the semester than it is at the end.

What's Going On? September 6th through 9th

Programming the Web's Partnership with WCTC

This is just a reminder about our discussion that we had last week regarding our course partnership with WCTC.  Students who are enrolled in our Web 1 course have the opportunity to enroll in a FREE transcripted credit class with WCTC.  Students who choose to enroll in the WCTC course will complete the same coursework as students who do not.  Students who pass the course with a “C” or higher and are enrolled in the WCTC transcripted credit program will receive credit through WCTC in addition to Waukesha North.  Students will be completing the paperwork to enroll in this course this week during class.

Lesson 1: Web Basics

This week, students will continue our study of web basics.  The official WCTC reading assignment is to read the first three chapters of our textbook.  To make sure that students are not overwhelmed by this heavy reading assignment and to make sure that we gain the necessary information from the text, students broke up into groups during class on Friday and summarized a portion of the text on a poster.  This week in class, students will view all of the posters in order to read a summarized version of our text.  While viewing the posters, students will complete our accompanying reading guide and plan our responses to the weeks ten multiple choice questions.  Later in the week we will continue our discussion from last week about fixed width web sites, liquid web sites, and responsively designed web sites.  Students will then find currently existing websites to find an example of each.

Welcome to the 2016-2017 School Year!

Welcome back to school!  My name is Mrs. Kamenar and I will be working with you in your Programming the Web 1 class this year.  This will be my twelfth year teaching at Waukesha North.  This year I will be teaching Honors Geometry, Math Readiness, Fundamentals of Programming, Programming the Web 1 & 2 and Yearbook.  In addition to teaching at North, I am also an assistant women's cross country coach and the school's yearbook advisor.

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing summer.  This summer went by too fast, but I guess it always seems that way.  This summer I got to spend a lot of time with my husband and my two kids, Jack and Laura.  We spent our time going to the zoo, the children's museum, going to the library and swimming.  My family and I took a few days to visit Portugal where we were able to visit a castle, an oceanarium, and spend some time on the beach.


My goal is to keep you up to date with what's going on in the classroom through this blog.  Between the blog and our class schedule of events that will be posted on our BlackBoard class website, it is my hope that all students and parents will be informed about what's going on in the classroom.

In this course, students will learn how to create and design web pages using HTML5 and CSS.  This course, which is offered as a transcripted course through WCTC, allows students to simultaneously earn high school credit through Waukesha North and college credit through WCTC.  The course is broken down into weekly lessons.  Each week students will be introduced to a new web design technique.  We will talk about the new concept in class and try out a sample together.  Students will receive a programming assignment which consists of between 1 and 4 web sites for the week.  Early in the semester, many of the assignments are presented as step-by-step tutorials from our class textbook.  Students will also need to read an assigned portion of the textbook and take a weekly assessment.

In this first week of class, we will talk about different methods of web design.  Students will look at existing web pages online and analyze the design.  Along with this week, we will see our largest reading assignment for the semester.  Students must read the first three chapters of the textbook in order to prepare for our first assessment.  Students will participate in a "jigsaw" activity and a gallery walk in order to help make this first chunk of text more manageable for students.  Students will be provided a "reading guide" to accompany the text so that they can pick out the most important information.

I am really excited to get to work with you this year.  I hope we are all able to learn a lot and have some fun along the way!  If you have any questions as we move through the year, please don't hesitate to contact me.  If you have questions, feel free to e-mail me at kkamenar@waukesha.k12.wi.us.  You can also follow me on Twitter: @MrsKamenar.

Final Exam Week

Final Exam Week Schedule

Our final exam is here!  Here are a few reminders about the week.  Below you will see our exam schedule.  Please make sure that you arrive at our exam ON TIME!   If you would like to have additional help, I will be at school every morning at 7:00am.  Our first exam does not begin until 9:30, so that would give you lots of time to check in and work on your final project.  You do not have to arrive at the beginning of the help session and you do not have to stay until the end.  This is an informal help session.  I would be more than happy to answer last minute questions at this time.  If I am not in lab 300, please check room 807 as I might be helping some of my math students.




Final Projects

You will have until the end of the exam period to complete your final project.  If you need more time than the 90 minute exam time permits, please plan on coming in before the first exam.  The computer lab can be open from 7:00-9:30 each morning.


Programming the Web 1

Web 1 students, please remember that you will also be completing WCTC's multiple choice section for your final exam during this period.  This exam will be made up of 20 questions that you have seen throughout the semester.  Check the student hand-out to see a list of all the questions that could be on the exam.  Also remember, students who pass the class with a "C" or higher will receive WCTC credit.

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