Valence Electrons and 'many more'

Hello my friends. How are you all doing today? I hope you're doing well because I won't be keeping you company for a very long today. In fact, in a couple minutes, I will be gone. [FOREVER] Jokes. But intense gaming will accompany you through the long night. [cough, cough, the typical nightlife of PinchofKCN ↓]

Anyhow, let's get this over with. So Valence Electrons, you may have heard of this term before in your junior science class  and most likely you've forgotten every single *beep* about it. So please allow me to recap this over again for you. Sigh, you kids...

Valence electrons are electrons in the outermost shell of an atom in which it/they can bond/react chemically with those of other atoms to form molecules. 

There are two very, I mean VERY, simple terms that you might want to NEED to carve them into your brains. 

Closed shell is a shell that has been closed forever a shell that has the maximum number of electron that it can contain. Whereas, an open shell is a valence shell that has fewer number of electrons than its maximum capacity. 

I will now 'chuck' a couple examples at you to end my boring  super intriguing lecture. 

E.g. How many valence electron(s) are in sulphur (S)?

First, you either write sulphur in the electron figuration notation (long or short), you'll get:

              1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p⁴              OR                 [Ne]3s²3p⁴

Now, since we're looking for the valence electrons, thus looking at he OPEN SHELL, that is the '3s²...' shell. 

The maximum number of electron in that shell is 8, but we only have 6. 6<8. Therefore, we have 6 valence electrons for atom sulphur (S). 

You want more practice? Sorry, no, and your words are not heard by our writers' committee. 

You want a joke again? Oops sorry, only some bad humored cartoon this time. 

You just love Holden Caulfield right?! What happened to Mr. Spencer? That curly top-knot sure looks real to me.