Kasandra Hyde

Kasandra Hyde

Kasandra is a wife and a mom to 4. After graduating high school she spent the next years going to college, serving a mission in Chile, and jumping around trying out job after job. After attending college in Hawaii, Utah, The Netherlands, and Malta, she graduated with a degree in English Literature emphasizing in Professional & Technical Writing. During and after college she worked in everything from editing to web design to baking to retail to substitute teaching (bless you all you teachers and substitute teachers out there). She also taught painting classes, did massage therapy (completed schooling for that at one point), traded stocks, and ran a small nutritional supplement company. She eventually married, retired from working outside of the home, and settled in to raising children - whom she loves very much. With her kids she has done public schooling, homeschooling, and private schooling. Three of her children now attend Ascend and the next one will be following in their footsteps soon. As a family they spend a lot of time in the outdoors skiing, mountain biking, climbing, and backpacking and such. She also spends an enormous amount of time transporting children to piano, tumbling, sporting things, church activities, to friends’ houses, and everywhere else you can imagine. Oh ya, and she also raises a dog - whom she loves very much.

  • Course Title: Principles of Communication, Elements of Design, and Linguistic Techniques as expressed through Website Creation.

    Course Description: The purpose of this course is to help students learn to effectively communicate their personal interests, passions, ideas, stories, or even business ideas using various principles of language and elements of design.  Emphasis will be placed on understanding and applying linguistic techniques, design elements, and organization to enhance clarity, engagement, and, if applicable, persuasiveness in their communication.

    This class will address some of what makes classical literature so enduring and how students can use principles used in classical literature in their modern communication in modern venues.  For example, classical literature utilizes timeless themes that resonate across different eras and culture, it uses rich language and style, complex characters with a wide range of human emotions and motivations, it is innovative, it grapples with moral questions, it has influence, it has educational values and promotes critical thinking, it is artistic, it has emotional depth, and other qualities that make it a valuable and enriching experience for readers.

    We will also address other types of writing that does not at all fit what we define as “Classic” but that is nonetheless essential and could be described as more informative or technical such as outlines, the type of writing used in manuals, bullet point lists, invitations to events,  notifications, instructions, headlines, summaries, advertisements, catalogs, and other elements of communication that are critically important.

    In this class, the venue students will use to express their interests using these various elements and principles of language and communication will be through the creation of a website.  Students will gain a better understanding of how to use web design and development tools to communicate and engage audiences. Students will learn the fundamentals of website structure, design, content creation, and user experience, with an emphasis on how these elements work together to communicate effectively.  A website is a compelling medium because of the broad tools of the language arts that it lends itself to.  Students aren’t limited to words, grammar, and punctuation.  They can also incorporate design elements such as size, placement, color, organization, style, graphics, music, and video.  We live in a world where all of these tools are widely used to enhance the language arts.  

    Each student will be building a website on squarespace.com.  Squarespace is a website builder and hosting company that allows users to create and modify web pages using pre-built templates and drag-and-drop elements.  As such, in this class we will NOT be covering web development languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript.  We will also NOT be covering subjects like website optimization or advertising or most other technical programming skills. Rather, we will focus on principles of language and communication through web design.  The website will serve as our medium for our language expression.   It will be through the website that most, if not all, assignments will be submitted.

    Expected Outcomes:  By the end of this course, students will have a deeper understanding of how to use the elements and principles of language to effectively communicate their personal interests. They will have enhanced their writing, organization, and designing skills and, if they choose and their website lends itself to it, will have gained experience in integrating multimedia elements into their communication. The course will culminate in a website that showcases their ability to articulate and share their passions with a broader audience. They will have practical experience in web design and development, as well as a portfolio piece showcasing their skills and interests.