Sunday, July 22, 2012

weeble wobble

In 504 on Friday I was introduced to a new online resource that will be extremely for me to use when I am looking for a teaching job and become a teacher. Prior to this class I had never heard of weebly.com, a fantastic website that allows you to create an entire profile online catered to your specific needs or interest. It allows you to create anything from a food blog to a business portfolio (for free!). 

Here's what I created during class:

I figure I'll go in and edit a few things to turn it into a digital professional portolio. I will be able to upload videos of myself teaching, both of my blogs, podcasts, photos, and virtually anything else I can think of that will contribute to a thorough portfolio. Right now what I have done to my page so far leaves much room for improvement and I'm looking forward to discovering the in's and out's of the weebly world. I am especially thinking that this tool will be especially useful for me when I am looking for a job post-graduation. I will be looking for work in states outside of Michigan (specifically Illinois), and I will be able to provide potential employers/school admin with my online portfolio so that can know more about me via the opportunity afforded by technology. 

I oughtn't neglect to mention how interesting I thought the other portion of class was, including the decoding/deciphering of symbols and the presentation about angry birds being used in a MAC alum's math class. His presentation was thoughtful and illustrated an interesting way to include video games in a way that engages students and helps them to learn math concepts. Though I respect and admire his strategies, I thought all in all that the most memorable part of the class time was creating the weebly account, but that is also probably partially because I don't give much attention to the idea of incorporating angry birds into my future history classroom (forgive me?).

And now, we've only 2 weeks left of SECMAC Summer term 2012. So let's do some business, people.
Cheers!



Psssst...





6 comments:

  1. I definitely agree that the professional portfolio will be a huge asset when we're on the hunt for jobs. As Kristin mentioned, this sort of technological endeavor could be the "thing" that sets us apart from other candidates. I look forward to having a bit of free time in August to make improvements to my page!

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  2. Christine - I'll make it short, since no comments to your blog seem to "print". Last my last one appears three times, as I thought I had made some error. I've notified Kristin.

    And though I will never make excuses for my age, I must admit that I have a hard time reading the tiny print of your blog.

    I've commented previously that although Weebly is interesting, I'm not sure it is for everyone. I am now proud - at this late point in my career - of my education, intelligence,and experience, and had believed all I would need is a professional resume, or even a cv for future employment opportunities. I may still believe that.

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  3. Aha, Christine! The color of the comments IS the culprit! Changing the template (or the font color, if that's possible - it wasn't in the past) will fix it -- whew!

    Glad the portfolio exercise was useful. I admit it -- even though I constantly harangue on the importance of meaningful tech, pretty tech does tug at my heartstrings sometimes!

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  4. Mike -- I value your input. I will make my upcoming posts a bigger text size. Kristin -- Glad we were able to figure it out.

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  5. This isn't a great amount of creative, insightful feedback, but you mentioned that you liked the code-breaking part of class; what did you enjoy about it? I'm genuinely curious.

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  6. Weebly. Argh. So many decisions! What font should I use, what pictures are appropriate yet humorous, what layout is professional yet still shows my personality? I felt like I needed a student intern keeping me on track, like when we monitored our summer school students working on their final projects. I knew we are supposed to look at this as a sort of digital portfolio, but I would still feel more comfortable if there was a standard (or set of standards) that were more universal like on a print resume. I get so wrapped up in making things look pretty, I sometimes neglect to content. Ooops.

    I agree the former MACer's presentation was very thoughtful. Though I must admit I struggled to stay 100% focused because I was trying to incorporate his suggestions into my own dream lessons. Good or bad, it happened. Guess he should take it as a compliment that his suggestions inspired me :).

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