Welcome to Rochester Scholars!
The Rochester Scholars program is a chance for middle school kids to attend a pre-college academic program at the University of Rochester.
My class (Spring Session April 14-18) was called, " Design Your Own Web site!" and I was privileged enough to teach 12 very talented 11-year-olds how to build web sites from the ground up!
For more information about the Rochester Scholars Program, contact the University of Rochester's Office of Special Programs at 585-275-2344 or visit their Web site at www.rochester.edu/osp/.
Today we learned how to create elements like the H1 headline shown above, and how to use the 'paragraph' element like the one used in this very sentence.
We also learned that every tag that is "opened", must also be "closed", and that's what makes it XHTML instead of plain old (old school) HTML. For example, if we open a paragraph with <p> then we must eventually close that element with a closing </p> tag. Same with unordered lists. Because we are using XHTML, our Web sites will also display on cell phones and will also be accessible to those using adaptive technologies (such as screen readers for those who are visually impaired).
Speaking of unordered lists...we learned how to code those, too! The unordered list below displays a list of all of my students with links to the work they did today.
- Cloudia (She's making a site dedicated to Chris Brown...he seems like a talented guy and I look forward to listening to his music!)
- Neeno (He's the Philadelphia Eagles' #1 fan and is going to design an amazing Web site that proves it.)
- Andrew (Who knew that Phantasy Realm was so cool? Thanks to Andrew I now know!)
- Holly (She love's the band 'Fall Out Boy' and is creating a fan site! How cool is that?)
- Peggy (She's a blast! I hope she'll bring her violin in so we can shoot a video and post it to the Web! Plus, she told the RA's that I was nice and smart...so she get's extra credit. (Just kidding!))
- Nichole (A super smart Chris Brown fan (this guy is popular!)...who also helps the others to write their code...thanks for the assist, Nichole!)
- Siri (All I know is...we're probably have to cool it down a bit (But I bet her site will still be HOTT) :-) )
- Jenny (She's really funny and is a natural born leader. She helps me get everyone to class on time!)
- Deodrick (Talented guy who suggested I teach everyone how to put games on their sites...thanks for bringin' the noise, Deodrick :-) )
- Noah (Noah is awesome...hence his site is called "Awesome Noah"!)
- Priyanka (She's doing a great Web site for her school's play at Allendale Columbia School. It rocks! I mean really rocks.)
- Navaar (This super cool dude is building a dynamite looking site.)
Here is a list of other things that we learned today:
- We learned how to embed YouTube videos into our web sites using the <object> element while also extending the element to include special attributes.
- While we were at it, we embedded a couple of flash games as well. I think the flash games have got to go, though....the entire lab was filled with game noises and we couldn't hear ourselves think, much less write code!
- We learned that XHTML pages have 2 sections, the top half, which is called the <head>, and the bottom half, which is called the <body>.
- We created a file structure to hold our source files and our images.
- We made backups of our work in case the computer crashed or our files became corrupted.
- We talked about basic Web design strategies and what it takes to create a great looking site that is easy to navigate.
- We discussed search engines and how Google and Yahoo index and find sites on the Web.
- We learned to separate site structure from site presentation (e.g. making it pretty).
- And we learned to code a Web page by hand using a programming language!
These sites (including this one!) might not look pretty now...but just wait...we're getting to that lesson! Today we coded all of these sites by HAND using the notepad text editor (Not even many ADULTS can code a Web page by hand, BTW.). Next comes the part where we style our sites so they look nice with great typography and color treatment.
All these kids are wicked smart and it was a pleasure teaching them today. I look forward to seeing what they design in the days to come!
-Mike