Web Unit Session 2 - 1/23/10

Heee-yah!

The Web Unit! Day Dos:

The morning started out with the CSS Switcheroo activity. The students observed the differences in CSS in their page while learning how to apply external CSS sheets. Several students were able to articulate what was changing (the layout, colors, and styles) and what wasn't (the content inside the HTML page).

Next Kevin formally introduced CSS, with a rousing lecture that put only two students to sleep. They learned how to style up a basic website from 10,000 feet, seeing some of the tags but not using them themselves.

The Exploration section was kicked off with Tony showing Hey Monday's (band) website's firebug and explaining why you'd use firebug. Next, students jumped into what has heretofore been known as a "To Do List" but will hence forth be known as an "Adventure List", at the request of several students.

The students took an existing HTML page and added their own background images, colors, and styles by attaching a CSS sheet. They weren't given the syntax, but rather forged their web pages with a combination of remembrance and w3school googling. Excellent initiative all around, but things did get a bit carried away (as will be covered by the two points Kevin lost).

Kevin gained his first point of the day by proving Saige wrong on something (we started keeping track on the white board), then subsequently lost it when he forgot to have students save their work up until just 5 minutes before break. They then had to work through the break, which they did cheerfully. Apparently, they really enjoyed styling up their sites.

The day passed straight on into Certification, when students had to break up into groups of three for their BTWs. A group of four students requested to become a group of four BTW students, and Kevin had to say "three" in four languages before they gave up. (English: "three", Spanish: "tres", Arabic: "ثلاثة", and Albanian: "tre". Kevin did not know these languages before, but picked them up fluently and with impressive alacrity once the students started conversing freely.)

Now in groups of three (and one of two, and another of two but possessing a rain check from the absent Marze), students chose trilogy movies they would make parody sites about. Groups dallied significantly in selection, with conversations being fiercely and academically debated with rigor and exceptional rhetoric. At one point, a group even rock-paper-scissored for the honor of mocking Shrek.

Kevin lost his last point when he recalled, 5 minutes before the end of the day, that the blog question had yet to be tackled. Besma point this out, and, having been the observer of the first error, had two points written up on the board.

Miraculously, most students had already finished theirs earlier during the missed break, and serendipity prevailed.

All and all, absolute blast of an ITA Saturday.