Good Afternoon everyone!

Once you have finished with your ten badges, it's time to continue working on Codecademy.  In the web fundamentals learning tutorial, there a two tutorials you should start working on (pictured left).  Start lessons four and five today.  

Both of these lessons are about CSS, which you are already fairly familiar with.  You will learn how to embed CSS directly into an HTML webpage (internal styling), as well as how to link an external style sheet (External Styling).  We have, as a class, mostly focused on using external stylesheets.  That's because it's a way better way to style your websites, especially as you begin to build multi-page sites.  

Note:  After today, this is going to be a slightly strange week due to a number of things.  First, I am being pulled out of the classroom tomorrow to work on some ongoing projects I have going on.  I will be on-campus, and Mr. DiNardo will be your substitute.  Your assignment will be posted here as usual.  Then, on Friday, the advisory field trip is taking place, so we will have no class that day. 

Clarification!  For the CSS Selectors badge you should use the files you completed in the CSS Introduction badge.  This will mean you need to copy them over to a new folder once you have completed the Introduction Badge.  

Please work on the CSS Introduction and Selectors badges again today (SEE BELOW FOR LASTS WEEKS POST DETAILING BOTH ASSIGNMENTS).  

If you finish badge ten you have free time.

A gift for all the hard work you have been doing:  If you have earned at least 7 badges on Treehouse, you have a free day today.  You may visit the approved websites (please no youtube).   If you are interested in signing up for a game design account on Gamestar Mechanic click the link below (it will say you are enrolling in Griswold CNCA Game Design).  Gamestar Mechanic allows you to design video games without having to learn how to code them.   You follow a basic "quest" storyline where you earn "sprites" (pieces of games) so that you can design your own games in the game workshop.  Once you sign up you can play at school, at home, and design games for all kinds of national competitions.  Just make sure you work on completing the "Quest" first, since that teaches you how to design the games, and lets you earn tools for your workshop.

If you have not earned at least 7 badges on Treehouse, you need to get to work on that today first.  Consider this a much needed catch-up day.

Gamestar Mechanic Sign-Up Link:
http://gamestarmechanic.com/join/redeem/mrgriswold/free

Step One: in our "become a web designer" learning adventure you will find the Intro to CSS badge.  For this learning module there are TWO VIDEOS and a QUIZ. 

1. Watch the first video.  Done.
2. Watch the second video.  Before you do though, download this (right-click > "download linked file as > save in your folder, then open it in Sublime) and complete the task with Nick.   You will need to link the two stylesheets to the HTML webpage, and then fix both CSS docs.  Then save the entire folder in your StudentHAR folder. (Make a new CSS Folder)

Step Two: Start working on the CSS Selectors Badge.  For this learning module there are three videos, a quiz, and a code challenge.   You will also be using the same files you created for the "Intro to CSS" badge.  So, it might be good to make a quick copy of them into a new folder, then open them up with Sublime.

1.  You should watch all three videos, and complete the tasks as Nick completes them.  He will review many of the items we talked about yesterday.  

Well, it's monday again.  We are going to work on reviewing some basics today.  Here is what I would like you to do:

1. Create a new folder on the desktop.  Name it "HTML REVIEW"
2.  Create a new sublime 2 document.  
3. Save it as "htmlreview.html" in your "HTML REVIEW" folder.
4. On the sublime document, create the basic html skeleton (head, title, body).  
5. In the body, create two h1 headings ("this is my heading" "this is my second heading")
6.  Under each heading create two lorem-ipsum paragraphs that are about 5-10 sentences long.
7. Now, time for some divs.  We will do this together.

Hey everyone, I'm still really confused by the fact that only 20 people have joined our class codecademy group.  Who are the 9 who have not yet joined?

There is a discussion posting on our codecademy group that you are required to respond to today before you continue where you left off yesterday.  You have to be part of the group in order to post, so...

Once you have submitted your discussion reply, you can pick up where you left off yesterday in Codecademy, and make sure you are working on the "Objects" badge in Treehouse after that.  Got it?

I didn't get the greatest report from Mr. Martinez on Friday. He texted me at 3:30 Friday saying that this was the only period he had all day with any behavior issues.   I take very few sick days.  I fact, I take so few that I have accumulated almost a full month of sick days in my four and a half years here at Camino Nuevo.  That means when I am not at school, it's a rarity and I expect you to show the guest teacher, in this case a friend of mine, the same respect that you show to me.   The students who were named in his text message will notice a 10 point deduction in their participation grade when I get my gradebook online in powerschool next week.  This is your first warning and I will NOT be meeting with you to discuss it unless it happens again.

On a positive note, I would like to really compliment how great this class has been when it comes to assisting one another.  As I mentioned on the first day of this class, there is going to be a point system set up for helping others on classwork.  I will explain next week.  Keep up the good work.

Now, if you haven't yet noticed there is a ton of self-directed work time built into this course.  This is for two reasons.  The first reason is that in order to complete the Treehouse and Codecademy assignments you need large chunks of time.  The second reason is that I think I can trust 7th and 8th graders (and you all have been showing me how responsible you can be) to pace yourselves and stay on task for the one hour we meet each day.  So far I have been EXTREMELY impressed with the level of maturity you have been showing in watching the coding videos and completing the daily coding tasks.  KEEP IT UP!

So far I have assigned 7 treehouse badges for you to complete.  I will begin going through you class folders and grading your coursework TODAY while you work.  Earning the badge on treehouse and completing the work in your studenthar folder are  two separate grades in powerschool. 

Today's Assignment:

1. Codecademy HTML Basics 1-3  (finish them).  If you can't log in for some reason, try the forgot password link. Also, be sure to join the class group on there when you get signed in today.  The people listed below are the only ones who have joined the group so far.  Here is the link you need to click to join the class group if you still haven't:  CLICK HERE TO JOIN CODECADEMY GROUP

2. Treehouse "Objects" Badge (under HTML).    For the objects badge you only need to create one webpage for the First two videos. Essentially you should combine the content of the two videos into one page. After that, earn the badge by simply watching the remaining video and taking the quiz (no need to create a webpage for the third video).  This badge will show you how to add youtube videos and images to your webopages.

Hey everyone!  I headed to the doctor today to see what he can do about my lingering sickness.  

Please continue earning your Lists and Links badges on Treehouse.  You should have enough time today to earn both.