Today we are going to begin a project that will last until the end of the semester.  We are going to use our powers of web design and content creation to make a difference in the minds of students and staff at Camino Nuevo..  You may have noticed the big red-lettered poster I keep in my classroom.

The meaning of this poster is very powerful.  It means: don't just use technology to absorb what others have written or created.  We should use technology to create our own content.  Find things that are important to us and the world, and raise awareness and start conversations about them. 

Today you are going to create a NEW website.  One that is DEDICATED to the ideas on my poster.  Every time you create a new blog post for your website, it must do one of the blue-lettered tasks (raise awareness, start conversations, etc). The issues you choose to write about will be up to you.  However, the issues you write about must be bigger than just things you are interested in.  The issues you choose must affect people. You might choose to write a post about the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest.  You might choose to write a post about pollution and climate change.  Maybe you write about immigration.  Again, what ever you choose to write about is up to you. 

I have NEVER had students do this EXACT project before, so I don' t have any really good examples for you that have been created in the past. However, I do have examples of student websites in the past.  I will show you some today, and guide you through creating your new site.

You will today start to do some research and begin designing your website.  Please get ready for me to share my screen with you. 

Link to example article

It's the last day of Novemeber. We have veered WAY off schedule with all of our detours in the last month.  This is very common around the holidays when it comes to teacher schedules and lesson plans.  However, the crazy number of days I have been pulled out of the classroom for film shoots and meetings has made it hard to really get stuff done with you guys.  So, we are going to call it quits on the travel agency project by this Friday. 

What this means is that the feedback you got yesterday from your peers should be adressed and fixed today.  We will be starting our NEXT project on Monday.  For context, we were supposed to start our next project right after Halloween. That's how far behind we are!!!! But that's ok.  We will catch back up by mid January with where we are supposed to be...I hope!

Long story short, you need to read the feedback you got yesterday very carefully and make some changes to your travel site.  Then, you need to address any OTHER issues you know your website has.  If you failed to finish something a long time ago, today is the day to get it done.  Capice? 

In an effort to keep going off topic and NOT truly finishing our travel websites before Thanksgiving break...Let's all do the newest Minecraft Hour Of Code activity.  Hans discovered this last friday.

Click here to visit and complete the Minecraft Hour Of Code Part Two.  You need headphones.

Hey everyone.  Same as Wednesday.  Future Smart is the priority for you as it is going on your grade report.  Second is CodeCombat (click the link from Wednesday's assignment ONLY IF YOU HAVEN'T CREATED YOUR ACCOUNT YET).  Click HERE if you already created your account last wednesday.

For the few of you who DID complete Future Smart AND Code Combat already, awesome! 

You can choose ANY hour of code activity you would like from the list on code.org.  Just click here to go to the Hour of Code page at code.org. 

It has been over a WEEK since I officially posted what we've been doing on our class webpage! not good! Yesterday we were working on Future Smart and a few of you, who had finished, we're working on Code Combat.  We are going to do the SAME thing today.  Just so you know: I will be adding all 7 of the FUTURE SMART modules to your grade book before the end of the month.  That means that if you have all 7 completed you will get an A.  If there are some that are not completed, you will receive an F.
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1. If you are not yet finished with Future Smart, you should be doing that.  

2.If you ARE finished with your Future Smart curriculum, you can use the link below to create a Code Combat account

3. Sign in with your own Code Combat account if you created one yesterday.


​Click here to create a new Code Combat account (ONLY IF YOU HAVE FINISHED FUTURE SMART).

Hey everyone, yesterday we were working on adding the summary to the top of your individual pages.  Check the history on your browser to navigate back to the website I sent you yesterday.  I am hoping to be back by 3:15 today to get study lab going, however I am commuting from the Eisner campus, so I'm crossing my fingers.  Don't forget to add a screenshot of your excel budget to each page.

In all the hustle and bustle of parent conferences last week, I completely forgot that I was not going to be on campus today. I am currently assisting the Camino Nuevo Home Support Office (HSO) with a film shoot. Please feel free to use the approved web sites today.  No Youtube. No Pandora. Just the approved links on my website. 

I am ON-CAMPUS today, but I am at a Professional Development meeting with a few other teachers.  For those of you concerned about your grade, please feel free to NOT play the iCivics game I am assigning today, and try and fix some of your unfinished or incomplete graded work.  

For those of you who ARE done: I challenge you to beat my high score of 367 Electoral Votes and 3670 Impact points in the iCivics Win The White House Game.  Click HERE to play the game. Please use your real name, and print your certificate at the end of your game to prove that you completed the game today. 

Don't forget, the Fall Festival is after school today.  Coach Riñon, Ms. Romo, and I have created an awesome "fishing" game.  Please stop by our booth and try and "catch" yourself a piece of candy.

Okay everyone, we are entering the final stretch on our Travel Agency Project.  Today I have a new Checklist for you that will hopefully help you keep track of all the items your Travel Agency Homepage needs.  The remainder of this project will be focused on continuity (making sure your pages have similar structure and layout) and communication (making sure anyone could easily understand the purpose of your pages and have all questions answered).  Please come to my desk and get a copy of this checklist on your own (I want to see who is reading my instructions).

I have quickly begun re-organzing an older travel site that I made to help you with this final step of the project. 

http://mrgriswoldsworldtravel.weebly.com

Notice how my Homepage is laid out in comparison to the rest of the site.  This is all about organizing information. I've got a nice logo (designed within weebly). Based on my summary, I clearly have a great reputation as a travel agent. You can click on any of my vacation packages at the bottom and it links you to that travel page. And more.

On your menu (click Pages), please add a "Vacation Packages" non-clickable menu item.  Then drag your vacation package pages to the right underneath to make them sub-menu items.

Also, add a standard Contact Us page, and a standard About Us page. We will work on both of these later this week. 

If you would like to create a logo for your company, may I suggest creating your logo on a powerpoint slide and taking a screenshot of it?