Web Design Updates

Check Here Before & After Each Class

Message from Ms. Prater

Going forward, I will try to post a recap of what we covered in class on our website. My goal will be to also include any links you’ll need for the upcoming class, so you can click here directly instead of having to copy and paste into your search bar.

This is a learning experience for me too, and I greatly appreciate everyone’s patience as I figure out the best way to support you.

Class Recap – Week 1

Class Recap – Week 2

Class Recap – Week 3

Take a Moment to Celebrate

Congratulations—you have just coded your first website! 🎉

This is an amazing accomplishment. Notice how it feels right now and hold on to it. When coding gets tough, remember that progress happens in bite-sized steps that stack up. It can feel like nothing is working… and then suddenly you hit an “aha!” moment. Keep showing up, keep taking small steps, and those moments will come. That’s the reward on the other side: a growing sense of calm, confidence, and excitement. Tough it out—you’ve got this.

P.S. If you don’t “got this” yet, keep going until you do.

Effort and Expectations

I’d like to take a minute to talk about effort and expectations. What you get out of this class will depend a lot on what you put into it outside of class. When I first learned to code, I took a three-credit course with no prerequisites. The expectation was about 15 hours per week of work outside of class, because technical courses usually combine lecture hours with lab hours, and most of the learning is hands-on.

We are not doing anything that heavy here, but I do think it’s realistic to spend an hour or two each week practicing on your own. If you do, you’ll get so much more out of this experience. Please don’t get discouraged if things feel hard or confusing. I’m here to help you if you want to understand it better, but it’s also okay if coding isn’t something you want to dive deeply into. My hope is simply that you come away with a better eye for how websites are structured, even if you decide this isn’t your thing long term.

I encourage you to start paying attention to websites you visit—how the text, images, and layouts are presented—now that you have an idea of what’s going on behind the scenes. If, after another class or two, you find that hand-coding isn’t working for you, let me know. If most of the group feels that way, we can shift gears and use templates where you fill in the content without having to code everything from scratch. At the same time, if there are one or two of you who are really enjoying this and want to go deeper, I’ll happily provide more advanced assignments and resources. My goal is to meet you where you are and make this class worthwhile for everyone, whether you just want a light introduction or a stronger foundation in web design.

Next Week’s Class

Next week we will most likely meet in the Fellowship Hall. However, if you don’t hear that in the form of an official announcement, plan to go to our regular classroom.

When you arrive, please go ahead and open your computer, pull up your website, and have VS Code and your index.html file open side by side like I showed you. I’ll spend the first 15 minutes of class walking around to check your setups.

After that, we’ll use the rest of the time to answer questions and address anything you’re struggling with or curious about.

In the Coming Weeks

  • Introduction to the About Me template (end goal).
  • Understanding containers inside containers (sections, headers, paragraphs).
  • Difference between <head> and <header>.
  • Preview of CSS styling (colors, fonts, layout will come later).

Class Recap – Week 4

Class Recap – Week 5

Class Recap – Week 6

Class Recap – Week 7

Class Recap – Week 8

Final Projects – Week 9

Our Final Class – Week 10 New Content!