Friday! Did you know we only have four more Fridays in school until Winter Break??? My how time flies when you're having fun!

So, hope you all are well today. Go easy on me since I'm pretty tired. My knucklehead son was up all night for the second night in a row, and you know what that means in terms of what happens to his knucklehead father. I get grouchy.

You'll notice that I have linked all of your weblogs in the column at left. As I said, that will be the place that you post your homework and keep track of your visits on the web. You have a standing assignment (hey Nick, remind me to mention this) to review one website a week in your weblog. And when I say review, I mean review.

Today we're going to go over those Internet terms we started researching the other day. Then, you're going to start finding some resource sites that you might use in your work. Here are the types of sites I want you to find:

• Text Images (1 site)
  
• Copyright Free Picture/Graphic Images (2 sites)
  
• Backgrounds (2 sites)
  
• Animations (1 site)
  
• Icons (1 site)
  

I want you to list these resources in your weblogs and link them as well using the code we learned yesterday. This is due Monday, so consider it homework if you don't get it done today.

If we have time, I'll set you up on the class weblog, though I think that will start on Monday. Maybe we'll play with a little more code, whaddayathink?

At any rate, let's do some good work today, have some fun, and have a good, restful weekend. Start thinking about what you're thankful for.

Happy Thursday... One week until Thanksgiving, and then the craziness begins. Have you been good girls and boys???

Today I'm going to check your homework, and we're going to talk about some of your potential ideas for your portfolios. Then, we're going to spend most of the rest of the time in class setting up our web diaries . It's not a difficult process, but I'm hoping you'll like it and find the concept useful. I'll be asking you about the experience at the end of the quarter. The idea is that your weblog will serve as your online portfolio of work. You will post your assignments there, and I will be able to check your work when I need to. It will all be there at the end. And then at somepoint I'll invite you to a class weblog where you will be expected to share ideas, sites, questions, etc. Your participation in that site will count as well. Remember, this is a community of learners, designers, web geeks, etc. Let's help each other out.

What should you use your web diary for? Well, to get credit for homework assignments, they've got to be there. But you can also keep track of cool sites that you visit, ideas for your site, discussions that you have with your mentors, and anything else web class related. (If you want to set up a separate non-class related one, feel free!) Much of the class participation grade that you will receive will come from this spot, so try to get in there often.

Here are your first three entries: #1. The artifacts that you think you might include in your portfolios. #2. The definition of whatever term you were assigned to define yesterday. And #3. Two resource sites on the web for web page creation and design. These should all be in there by the end of class tomorrow.

Welcome back... Just want to reiterate what I said yesterday in terms of the class and expectations. We obviously have a lot of diverse talents and skills in here. Please make sure that you help each other out as much as you can. Also, while this isn't an academic class, I still expect you to stay on task. This could be a lot of fun if you work hard at it. So let's get started.

Today we're going to get a better idea of what we're talking about in terms of student websites. We'll cruise through what last quarter's classes created, and I'll show you what some professionals have done in terms of their portfolios. After that, we'll talk a little bit about what makes a good website, and what makes a bad website. And then I'm going to ask you to start thinking about the types of things that you want to include in your website.

Homework: Tonight, I want you to make a list of ten things that you can/will include in your website. These can be anything that you could represent digitally, i.e. photos, artwork, writing, or even things you could take a photo of to include. I want you to also briefly write about why you might choose this "artifact". Be prepared to talk about some of your choices in class tomorrow.

Tomorrow: The Blog

Welcome to Web Pages and Portfolios...

Please bookmark this spot as it will be the place where you can check for updates on assignments, links to cool sites and information about page creation and design, and links to your own personal weblogs.

Over the next nine weeks, you're going to be creating your own personal space on the web. And, you'll be working with others in the class to create some places for other people as well. I want you to feel free to experiment and push the envelope. Let me know what you want to learn, and I'll try to help you get there.

Today, we're going to try to get a better idea of our talents and experiences and set the groundwork for the course. I'll show you some cool sites that I've found recently that incorporate weblogs and portfolios and a bunch of other stuff that we're going to do in class.