Summer Teaching

Starting next week, I will be teaching Introduction to Web Design. With only eight students signed up, I thought the class would get cancel, but I got the green light on Tuesday that the show will go on. As I was scrambling to prepare the lesson plan and the syllabus, I realized that the schedule, which will begin on June 2nd and end on July 23rd; is quite condensed. I have less than two months and I my goal is to teach the students the foundations of HTML & CSS. I ended up turning it into a hands-on training bootcamp. Everyday I will teach them how to code and give them assignments. They will have one project to do so that they’ll learn everything from creating a site map to wireframe to complete website.

One of the challenges of teaching an intro course is selecting the textbook. I had three choices: Shay Howe’s Learn to Code HTML and CSS: Develop and Style Websites, Thomas Michaud’s Foundations of Web Design: HTML & CSS, and Jon Duckett’s HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites. I chose Duckett’s. Beside its beautiful design, the content seems to be easy for beginners to understand.

I built my lesson plan around the book and will cover only parts that the students will work with most of the time. My goal is to get them to get comfortable with HTML & CSS. They can learn more design in their upper classes. When I taught Web Design and Usability, which is an advanced class, last year, most students were struggling with basic coding. I want to change in the intro level. I truly believe that you can’t be a web designer, especially today, unless you can code the basics. They will have some work cut out for them.