What should I know coming into class?

Coming into this class, you should have the ability to produce a 3 page website, including the below features. If you do not, then you should spend some time reviewing material.

Please see the Week 1 materials for a review of the below concepts. It also contains links to courses at lynda.com where you could get this review. If you give yourself a few weeks of applied study, you should be able to meet these requirements coming into class.

The website features you should already have mastered include:

Correctly use HTML5 tags to produce the most semantic markup possible for your site.
Incorporate an external stylesheet containing appropriate styles to the page.
HTML and CSS pass validation.
A navigation bar to link all 3 pages together, styled appropriately. Of course, the links should work! You should be able to create horizontal and vertical navigation bars.
Include at least one image in your site, and include at least one background image.
Page layouts: Be able to generate a 3 column layout on your page, with a header and footer that span the width of your page. (Basically, look at the layout of this Canvas site -- one big blue header, 3 columns in the middle, and a footer on the bottom.)
Understand the concepts of positioning, including absolute, relative, fixed, and static positioning.
Understand CSS selectors: descendant selectors, attribute selectors, parent-child selectors, adjacent sibling and general sibling selectors, pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements. Be able to write complex selectors without changing HTML.
Understand CSS specificity.
FTP this site to your web hosting space. On posting the site, all links should still work, and the images should still display. (Good file management should make this all possible.)
This web design should work in Chrome OR Firefox for Mac OR PC. Cross browser compatibility is not a requirement at this time.

Also, please note that I don't judge designs on beauty. We are not all graphic designers. I am concerned that you create semantically correct HTML, and you understand the basics of how CSS functions. Beauty can either come later, or you'll work with a graphic designer who will specify this for you. Beauty is never a requirement in any of the classes I teach, but writing good code is always a requirement.

I need extra help

If HTML 5 is new to you, I recommend you watch

HTML5: Structure, Syntax, and Semantics with James Williamson http://www.lynda.com/sdk/HTML-5-tutorials/HTML5-Structure-Syntax-and-Semantics/77585-2

If you need more help with HTML in general, I recommend:

Up and Running with HTML with James Williamson http://www.lynda.com/sdk/HTML-tutorials/Up-Running-with-HTML/108128-2.html

If you need more help with CSS, I recommend

CSS Fundamentals with James Williamson http://www.lynda.com/sdk/Web-Interactive-CSS-tutorials/CSS-Fundamentals/80436-2.html

CSS: Core Concepts with James Williamson http://www.lynda.com/sdk/Web-Interactive-CSS-tutorials/CSS-Core-Concepts/80435-2.html