Have students create portfolios and resumes. This helps them show off the breadth of their skills. and connect their learning to real-world job skills.

Goal:

  • Students prepare themselves for the job market by highlighting their accomplishments and work from class.

Reason:

  • Professional digital portfolios and resumes prepare students for life outside school.
    • It is difficult to write assessments that capture the breadth of the skills students have learned. Have students create a portfolio that shows off their work throughout the class.
    • This can also be motivating for students to be able to see and share what they learned in the class! 
    • They demonstrate how their new skills translate into real-world opportunities.
    • Students need community support so they can learn what to expect in college, and how to find and succeed in their first entry level job.
  • When students apply to college, jobs, internships and scholarships, portfolios are an incredibly helpful resource to show the work rather than leaving it up to students to explain the work.
    • Portfolios show potential employers and colleges the work students accomplish in high school, which in computer science, is often unexpected and unassumed.
  • College applications are going to add a portfolio component as soon as 2016. Get your students ready!

Action:

  • Use free content management systems that look professional for hosting portfolios.
    • These sites offer students the opportunity to post their resumes, student work, and letters of recommendation.
    • Good tools include wix.com, weebly,com and pathbrite.com
      • These are free, easy to use systems that work well for this task!
    • Check out PeerSpring to host student projects
  • Provide time at the end of every unit, project, and semester for students to update their resumes and portfolios. They should include their new skills and information about their most recent project.
    • This is a great way to end every unit with a reflection and opportunity to celebrate and show off student work.
  • You can also give students a rubric for the skills they need to demonstrate within a project or their portfolio.