dmkeeler6

Today I’m going to discuss my first experience building a website using HTML. The intended audience for my website is middle school math teachers who are new to 8^th grade standards and need help navigating the basics of rigid transformations. Rigid transformations are one of the main geometry standards for 8^th grade math and pave the way for students to understand dilations and then slope. I struggled with understanding these concepts when I started teaching math this year so I thought I would create a resource that could help other teachers in my situation.

The entire project felt like a big obstacle to overcome for me. While I am determined to learn and grow, I am not very tech savvy. I have never done any coding or website building before, so this was uncovered ground for me. I struggled to understand where to even start, but the step-by-step videos provided helped give me a starting point. Once I understood the pattern of how to layer each section it became easier. It reminded me of creating outlines when writing an essay or research paper and that helped me connect to the process. I also used the HTML elements reference to understand when to use each semantic region and that helped me create each element with intention. One obstacle I encountered was how to add images to the HTML code. I was able to follow the instructions on blackboard, but I kept wondering how to get the images themselves into the code. A quick Google search brought an answer, and I realized that, of course, I needed to add the images to the folder I had created in the coding program and then add the file name to my code.

I appreciate this lesson and the chance to learn the basics of coding. I learned that, like any technical skill, coding cannot be rushed and you need to pay close attention. You need to design with intention and really think about why you are adding each element. I appreciate those who code on a daily basis because there is so much detail and intricacy that goes into coding.