Want to learn EE but just can’t swing the financials for getting to the Southern Fried ExpressionEngine class in January?

The EE community is offering a chance to help you out.

Thanks to Airbag Industries (you know, the guys who did Change.gov) and the other sponsors (listed below) there are three scholarships now available for the class.  The scholarships cover the cost of tuition and the details of applying can be found here.

Hope to see you in January!

Class Sponsors

• Clear Fire Studios
• EE Coder
• EE Templates
• Hambo Development
• Lealea Design
• Made by Fresh
• OnWired
• Slim Kiwi
• Yellowseed Design
• EllisLab

Today was ExpressionEngine’s moment in the sun—Smashing published an extensive review of the EE ecosystem. Train-ee received a number of mentions in the article - thanks Smashing!

West Michigan ExpressionEngine users take note!  Train-ee is sponsoring an informal gathering for you.  Come to put personalities with Twitter profiles, or just for the free beer and pizza.

Who
West Michigan Group-ee’s is for anyone who is a fan of, a developer using, or newbie considering the use of ExpressionEngine.

What
Group-ee’s will be an informal gathering with no set agenda other than to see if we should do it again or regularly as a more formal “user group”. 

For this first one just plan to meet eat, drink and be merry with other local users of ExpressionEngine.  Train-ee.com will provide pizza, beer and pop.

Where
ElevatorUp is providing their office space.  They are at 201 W Washington Avenue, Zeeland, MI 49464. 

When
Wednesday, November 12th @ 6:30 PM until whenever.

Why
Networking, skill development, a chance to win an EE mug. And free beer.

RSVP?
Yes, please send Mike Boyink an email if you plan on coming.

The Small Business tutorial series can now be found as a category in the Free Tutorials section of Train-ee, while the working example site is now at it’s own subdomain of http://small-business.train-ee.com.

Other Train-ee.com updates today include:

• More prominent download links for ExpressionEngine code featured in tutorials—look for the “Need a Jump?“ graphic near the start of the post.  If there are code templates available that will be the download link for them
• A print stylesheet
• Styled blockquotes

I still have a few odds and ends on my to-do list - as usual let me know if anything is amiss.

• CMS Showcase
• CSS Based
• CSS Brigit
• CSS clip
• CSS Design Yorkshire
• CSS Drive
• CSS Impress
• CSS Leak
• CSS Mania
• CSS nap
• CSS Star
• CSS Warfare
• Dark-i
• MostInspired
• Nice Stylesheet
• PixelGangster
• Screenalicious
• Stunning: CSS
• The Best Designs
• UK Design Directory
• Web Design Gallery

Most of the nuts and bolts regarding the new site can be found on the related about page - but I will call out some of the changes here as well.

I had two major goals for this redesign - implement a site architecture that would keep the top-level nav consistent and do a drastic visual refresh.  The first was necessary because - while Train-ee continues to evolve - I wanted to be able to make changes to the products and services I offer without drastic changes to main navigation.  The second was, well, self-evident.  The first design of Train-ee was put together in a hurry in order to get the site live to be able to sell the book.  At the time I launched the site last January, it was largely an experiment.  I had no idea what the demand would be for EE-related training materials so didn’t want to overthink the site before launching.  Now 10 months later I’m better able to justify investing in a better design based on the performance of the site so far - which has greatly exceeded any expectations I might have had.

Other additions to the site:

• If you’ve made a purchase from the site in the past, you should now see links to re-download/view those items in your profile (log in, then click the “Profile” link at the top/center of the site).  Hopefully this alleviates some of the issues with download links getting lost, ect.
• The profile page - along with all the other related member type areas - are brought into the context of the site design for a more unified experience.
• The site features my first tag cloud implementation.  I’ve been reluctant to use these in the past after seeing tagsets get unmanageable and unusable on community site.  In this case the tagset will be controlled by me, and offers me a way to provide navigation to information in ways that would be difficult with categories.
• Testimonials are featured quite prominently throughout the site, and get more specific the more you drill into the site.
• I’ve designed the site with an eye towards having other authors than just me.  If you’ve ideas for EE tutorials that you’d like to post on the site—let’s talk.

I’m sure there will be more to say about the site but for now take a look around, see the sights, and let me know if anything doesn’t work or look right for you (so long as you’re not on IE6 that is, in case it is what it is..;)).

There are just so many thoughts in my head that it seems hard to get them in order, but here goes:

The Instructor
Self-review is very hard, and I know I tend to be harder on myself than most others are.  The first day I came home not feeling well at all about my performance.  Especially after lunch - I could tell I was rambling and the people in the class were drifting.  I felt much better after going back for beer and pizza and talking with several folks and getting positive comments about the class from them. 

The rest of the week I felt better about my performance as I found more of a groove, was less nervous, and just more at ease.  I know I still need practice in keeping the class on task, and not getting too distracted or off-course by comments and questions.  Some revision to the course materials will help in this area.  I did enjoy the teaching experience, and seeing heads nodding after making a point or an explanation was very rewarding.

The “TA”
Having AJ Penninga of PrettySquares there to “TA” the class was so essential I’m almost reluctant to admit how late the decision was made to have him there.  His input on different development techniques, available 3rd party code, and willingness to help folks with the inevitable small details was absolutely essential to the success of the class.  My thanks again to AJ for being there.

The Curriculum
Not bad, needs work.  While the mix of—and amount of -  content I had in the coursebooks ended up being just about right, the sequencing can be improved.  I also want to put all the content into the framework/context of a project site.  I want to be able to show the finished site at the beginning of the week and say “this is what we’re going to build”, then show progress against that goal as we move through the class.  I purposely didn’t do that this first time around in hopes of being able to use ideas/examples from the students instead, but in retrospect that was a mistake.

The group activities went very well - by not only taking the focus off me but also letting the class interact with each other.  It was also nice to get up and be moving around.  I was able to move from group to group providing more focused feedback and attention, and the questions/issues the groups came up with while doing the exercises were spot-on.  I’d love to work in one group activity per day so will look for a couple more.

Class length was about right, I think.  Any less and I’d have to drop something pretty important, any more and it would either be forgotten or not well presented.

The Venue
Yes, we had some issues. Some travel arrangements and hotel registrations were bungled, the overhead projector bailed on day 3, and the Michigan weather saw fit to bring people in and send them out in the rain.  Definitely room for improvement.

However - once people were here, I think the experience was a positive one.  The conference room felt good with lots of windows and upbeat colors.  The hotel rooms were a hit with people (when was the last time you took pics of a hotel room you stayed in? ;) ), we got a nice beach night for a cookout, and the area provided other things to do for people who wanted to. 

The biggest challenge in doing another round will be venue - finding a place with all the right ingredients but in a warmer climate.  September is really about the end of the season for Michigan.  If you know of a place with a fun/funky hotel, walking distance to good restaurants, with other things to do in the area - all located in a warmer region of the country please let me know.

The Food
Oh man - I’m so glad I didn’t do a before and after check on the scales.  Suffice to say - we ate well.  My only concern was the length of the lunches out - while they were a great socializing time I’d like to shorten them a bit as they cut into the class time more than I would have preferred.

The Students
I’ve purposely saved the best for last.  It’s hard to describe the vibe that happened in the classroom - but this was a bunch of folks that just gelled very well.  I saw it right away - as we did an icebreaker that involved posting tidbits about ourselves anonymously to Twitter, then reading through them, figuring out who posted what, and then talking more about ourselves.  Lots of humor came out, lots of great personalities, lots of good-natured ribbing that continued on for the entire four days.  By the end of the week it felt more like summer camp - where you make fast friends and hate to say goodbye at the end.  People were hugging each other, trading business cards, connecting via Facebook/Twitter, and conversations already included talk of a reunion. 

I’m honestly a bit hesitant to do the class again because the group of people set such a high bar for the experience that it’s hard to imagine it happening again.  As I sit here typing this I’m a bit disappointed that I don’t get to head downtown for another day of interaction with these folks.  If you’re reading this - I miss you! ;)

However - I will do the class again.  Where and when I don’t know - between some projects to get back to, an out-of-state speaking gig at the end of September, wanting to revise the course materials, needing to research a winter venue, and with EE 2 looming, it feels like most likely it will be after New Years.

Giving Thanks
So again - thanks to the class sponsors, to AJ, to my wife (who attended the class but also made a great hospitality ambassador and gave me space to develop the curriculum), Daniel, Bryan, and Brandon from Sessions by Collective Idea, Leslie and the rest of the EllisLab crew for promoting the event (and sending the mugs), and especially everyone who took the risk on a teaching newbie and came to the class. 

I’m still humbled by the trust you all showed in being part of this event.