Mr. Baxter's Web Design Class

Monday May 12th

rbaxter — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:00:36 +0000

Hi all! Welcome back, and I hope you had a great weekend!
Please write a blog about your experiences at Stratford this year. How have you changed? What important life lessons have you learned ? How are you going to work harder next year so you do not make the same mistakes you did this year? What are you going to do this summer that will help you grow as a person? Reflecting back on your experiences is a great way to see your personal growth. Please take this assignment seriously.

After your blog, please read about current events on CNN and BBC.

Thursday May 8th

rbaxter — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:55:46 +0000

If you are a senior and exempt from the exam, please go to the bottom of the post. Everyone else, please read the whole thing.

Today, you have a substitute teacher. I would like you to review for the exam that you will be taking in this class. To review for the exam, you need to re-read the articles that we have read in this class.

Here are the links to the most important articles that you will need to know.

History and Future of the Web

Basics of Web Design

Blogging tips for Beginners

Writing Well for the Web

Web Writing

Web 2.0

Be sure you know basic information about WordPress, “blogs“, and basic info about Dreamweaver. Also, know how to blog on WordPress, and the different News sources we have used in class- TIME, CNN, and BBC.

Also, make sure you know ALL of the basic HTML tags and how to insert certain elements into your webpages, including: images, links, and make a background. There will be many questions about HTML and you will need to write the code from memory.

Seniors : Please write a blog about what you have learned in my class. Please write your favorite aspects of the class, and write how this class will help you in the future. The blog should be at least 2 paragraphs of 6 sentences each. After you are done, please catch up on current events on TIME , CNN, or BBC. It has been a pleasure teaching you this semester. You have truly done a great job! Thank you for the memories, and I wish you all success in your future endeavors. Please email me and keep me updated on what you are up to. If you ever need any help, feel free to email me!

Mr. Baxter

Tuesday May 6th

rbaxter — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:20:26 +0000

Please read this article about How To Win Friends and Influence People. This website is an excerpt of one of the best selling business books of all time How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Any person going into business, or the “real world” should have knowledge of these principles of success. After you read it, please write a blog about which principles you will use that you have not used before. Then tell me which ideas you think will most help you in A.) the business world, and B.) relationships with your friends in the future.

After you finish, please read the world news on BBC and CNN. There was a massive cyclone in Myanmar (Burma) in Southeast Asia, and 22,000 people are dead. Another 41,000 are missing. If you don’t know what a cyclone is, read about it here. For comparison, Hurricane Katrina killed 1,836 people, and the 9/11 Tragedy killed 2,998 people. So this is a massive loss of life for such a small country. Please keep them in your thoughts.

Mr. Baxter

Friday May 2nd

rbaxter — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:47:25 +0000

Please read all of the directions before starting on the assignment or clicking on the links.

Today, we will write a blog about the environment and global warming. I would like you to read the global warming fast facts. Take a look at the pictures and read the captions underneath. Then, I would like you to read what you can do at home to combat climate change. Please write your blog about these articles, and tell me three things: — What do you think about global warming– What can we as a nation can do to stop it — and finally, What are YOU going to do to stop it. After writing your blog, read this Wikipedia article on Planet Earth.

Wednesday April 30th

rbaxter — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:37:41 +0000

Today I would like you to write a blog post about an article from BBC. Please choose an article that discusses a global issue or a world news story. Once you have chosen an article that pertains to some other country, please write your opinions and thoughts about what is going on in that country. This is an impotant task because with the growing world market and globalization, you will find more and more connections across the globe for business, entertainment, and friendship. The world is flat. It’s easier than ever to see what is going on in another country, and it’s easy to talk to someone from another country using the power of the internet. After you finish your blog post, please read this article about the beginning of the internet and where it’s headed today (it’s only 1 page).

Mr. Baxter

Friday April 25th

rbaxter — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:02:47 +0000

Please work on your blog entry and stay tuned for further instructions.

Mr. Baxter

Wednesday April 23rd

rbaxter — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:55:31 +0000

Today, you will write a blog post based upon a news article from CNN or TIME. These posts MUST include a picture from the article and a link to the article. You should hide the link in the article like I have done in this sentence. Do not put a “Click Here” for the link, it looks tacky. When putting the picture in the post, please click “Thumbnail” size and “Left Alignment”. Please write a paragraph of at least 6 sentences of commentary about the article of your choice. If you want to see a sample, please look at the previous post.

After you finish your article, please read blog posts from your Classmates, Freakonomics and StuffWhitePeopleLike for examples of good blog posts.

Sample Blog Post for April 23rd

rbaxter — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:41:55 +0000

So it’s official, Clinton won the Pennsylvania Primary. However, she was heavily favored to win (by 25 points) and actually lost ground to a 9.7 pt spread with 99% reporting. This is not the huge win she needed, but she decided to announce on CNN that “I won that double-digit victory that everybody on TV said I had to win”, which I think is ridiculous. It’s like she’s saying “I won the whole election because that guy somewhere on TV said I needed to do that to beat Obama!” Well I’ve got news Senator Clinton, the race isn’t over, you’re still behind by an unbeatable margin, and it’s definitely not possible for you to win farily. But who’s still at it? She is. This is nuts. The democratic party needs to step up and either ask her to quit or the un-pledged superdelegates need to make up their minds and give someone the nomination- otherwise there is no chance for a democratic victory in November. Everyone will start tuning out because it keeps dragging on, and with Hillary doing McCain’s job for him, he’ll be sure to win. Stay tuned to see what happens next! Here’s the full article.

(This is a sample of what your blog post from today should look like.)

Monday April 21st

rbaxter — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:25:44 +0000

Welcome back! I hope you had a great weekend. After you write your blog post, we are going to read about Web Developer Jobs. Please read all 5 pages of this great article. This will help you learn if you want to go into Web Design professionally, or if you should start looking for a different career path. Then, I would like you to read both pages about a Day in the Life of a Webmaster. This next article talks about how much to charge for web design work. Work hard and be sure to ask lots of questions. This could be an important career step in your life.

Mr. Baxter

Thursday April 17th

rbaxter — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:33:49 +0000

After you finish your blog post, I would like you to read the article on the Basics of Web Design. Please do not be on any pages or playing any games, you will lose daily participation points. After you read the article, I would like you to read this article on Top Ten Reasons to Blog. Then, in an effort to teach you more about the blogging world and why we are using WordPress every class period, please read about Blogging tips for Beginners. After everyone has finished these articles, we will move on to a different activity.

Mr. Baxter