Artifacts for Portfolio’s and This Week

            If you have been following this blog or if you have read my previous entry about, making an introduction video and portfolio’s you may recall me stating that my portfolio is a little bare. This was due to a lack of artifacts to fill my portfolio; an artifact is a digital or physical document that you can place in your portfolio. A good example of an artifact is the introduction video that the Work Based Learning class made before starting the development of the portfolio. I would link the video to this blog entry, unfortunately though my partner never finished editing the video. Although I do not have my introduction video, there are other types of artifacts that can be used to develop your portfolio. Personally I believe a well written resume is essential to a great portfolio. I believe that the resume give the employer a quick water-downed version of your portfolio. After your resume should be document representing and reinforcing what you claim to be in your resume.

            This week we have been going over professionalism and the proper way to act in a professional environment. Frist we went over how to be responsible in a professional or business area and we reviewed the proper method to go along if someone forgot their credit card at the cash register, or if you over hear explicit conduct/content going on between two employees and it’s not wanted by one of the two employees. For example if a customer has recently purchase something at your cash register line and they forgot it, what would you do? Well we established the morale dilemma on one hand you could take the card and use it for yourself, however the social responsible thing to do is try to let the person know before they leave or if it has been to long turn it in to the office’s lost and found section of the story. 

Working Separately but Together

                A few weeks ago my work based learning class developed a newsletter and there were a few difficulties at first. Things started to resolve when I started to communicate to the group that I was the designer. The newsletter and the presentation looked like rubbish with information sprayed all over it.

             To fix the problem I had, I told everyone to not worry about the style of everything and let me focus on the appearance of the presentation. After I informed everyone that I would do our font color, font size, background, and etc. It started to move little more smoothly, although I had to work around everything that was put into the presentation. Fortunately though I was able to fix the problem with the font’s style and color that the other student put in, also I found a descent background with good color to be displayed on a projector.

            That week in my Work Base Learning class I learned the importance of communication in a group project, and how to effective get a group of people to collaborate on a group project.

WBL Working Together

            Over this last week we have developed a newsletter that goes over all of what we have been doing and learning about in the work based learning course. Each student was assigned to a different part where they would be responsible for completing a page of the newsletter and then they would submit it to me. My part in the newsletter is more complicated then explicitly stated I was responsible for making the cover letter. By taking this Job I was also implicitly assigned the job as the coordinator, earlier when I was talking about each of the class member submitting the pages they were assigned, to me, this is due to me being the coordinator, it’s my responsibility to organize all these pages in a nice and formal order, not only that but I took upon the liberty of making a table of content for our viewers so they can find specific information easier.

            Being the coordinator, and responsible for one of the page with the newsletter taught me a valuable lesson in effectively communicating to the entire group, at first I was having problem getting everyone to send me the information for the student description. This led me to sending a formal e-mail to everyone.

Dear Loyal Followers and Potential Employers;

Hello again I have returned to inform you of my latest task and achievements in my Work Based Learning class. Recently, we have started to film an intro video for a YouTube channel that we will be starting in the future. The video is supposed to demonstrate my professionalism and develop my professional posture. In the video I talk about my high school career and my plan for the future. To be brief I go over my focus elective, business management; my plan after high school, going to The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and what career I want to pursue after college. After college I want to be a video game designer and developed. I think I did an excellent job on my videos but I need to work on my posture and I have to edit the footage, but besides that I have done a splendid job.

After that we started to develop a digital portfolio, mine is kind of bare at the moment because I don’t have any of my achievement as data or a digital copy of them, but I feel like my portfolio will be will filled out after I am able to scan some of my certifications, besides that I have uploaded my contact information and my resume and I need to get more work experience that way I can fill out the portfolio with more work related information. Despite not having all the information that I need for a full and glamour’s portfolio the first website that we used to develop our digital portfolio cost six dollars a week to making it look good so we are going to find a new website to help us develop our digital portfolio.

The Creation of a Digital Footprint

            Anytime you get online you start creating a Digital Footprint, a digital foot print is the data that is left behind by users on digital services. Simply put when you get online and make a post form an account with your credentials, or personal information that post will be link to you and your account until the end of time. Now I’m not saying that posting things is bad, but posting negative things can hinder your ability or possibility to get a job in the future.

            If you are younger and don’t know how this is possible, it’s because Employers or the potential boss also is able to use the internet. The employer will precede to google you and your information to see if anything sticks out like being a criminal. After that, they check you out on any social media that you participate in, mostly Facebook.

            Not all items on the internet will give you a negative footprint you can have many different things showing how outstanding you and your abilities are. The first of many things that can benefit your Digital Footprint is by creating a blog where you speak formally and informatively. With this your employer can see what an awesome job you do at being punctual if you can post at the same time each week or day if you have the time. Also this will show your employer that you pay attention to detail because you won’t have any spelling errors in it either.

            Blogs aren’t the only thing that can give you a positive footprint in the digital world, like graphics, graphs, charts, and graphs. All these things show your employer that you’re not only smart but you are also able to put that data and information on something and describe the information as a visual concept.

            You need to remember that your Digital Footprint will follow throughout the course of the rest of your life. Even after you have a job your boss will watch your digital steps, and if you aren’t careful you could lose your job or even worse your education.

Work Based Learning This Week

            So this week in Work Based Learning we have accomplished quite a bit of progress in pursing our future. First thing is first I must address the class room requirements; I believe this class is moving along smoothly, no complaints I have been getting all my assignments done on time. The most important thing that the students have accomplished this week was starting the PLP, or Personalized Learning Plan. The Personalized Learning Plan is a PDF file that the students fill out to organize their information and help guide them through this course.

            The Personalized Learning Plan is an effective method to realize what you as a student want for your future, it accomplishes this task by asking the students’ personal questions about the student self and their career. I personally believe that this process helps the student start thinking with the end in mind or even help them realize that they themselves don’t like what their high school focus elective and what it is all about.

            The second thing I would like to touch on is the guest speaker, Lloyd Matson, who came in to see the students I believe he presented himself perfectly and not only that but, he actually showed the students that even if you goofed up in high school; but later you work hard, apply yourself and don’t give up, you can climb the economic ladder. Lloyd also showed the students that he was unable to become a physician because he was goofing off in high school, but none the less he wanted to go into the healthcare business. This is when Mr. Matson elaborated on his rise to his current position. He went through so many different changes in his working environment, took so many opportunities and final became the CEO of Premier Medical Group.

            This opened my eyes wide, I realized that through dedication and hard work you can become a valued member of a company and as long as push yourself and take the opportunities that life gives you, you can become exactly what you’ve dreamed of becoming even if you fail at the beginning. That failure isn’t a stop sign if anything it’s an opportunity to learn, so seize the opportunity.

Update On WBL

Greeting My Loyal Follower:

                Today I am giving you an update on my Work Based Learning class and what I think it is all about. Almost a week ago, I posted a passage on what I thought this class is going to be about, this time I’m here to tell you that I have continued taking the Work Based Learning course; not only that but I have expanded my knowledge of this class and what I will be doing with this year.

                I have learned that this class is all about preparing the student of the world for the business world, we will be accomplishing this by a variety of different task. The first thing that we have done is create a living document, or a document that will continue to prove how well organized and educated a student is this could be extremely helpful or detrimental if you don’t keep up with it or if you are downright sloppy.  

                Another way this course helps you be prepared for the business world is that it will teach you how to present yourself as a professional. By this I mean it will teach you human relation, your effectiveness to communicate professional with one another without getting personally effected.  That means you cannot have some who pissed in your Wheaties and then bring your split milk to the working environment. Simply put you can’t have a terrible day then take it out on your co-workers.

                Lastly the skills you will learn to run a business, this is one of my most engrossed in because business make this world run around.  Without the creation of business and trading we would still be fighting of items or trading corn for bread. So it truly fascinates me to learn the way the world works on more of a human/social aspect of it, and this class teaches you exactly that; while the whole time you must reflect upon yourself and decided if the career you have chosen is the career that will make you truly happy with your life. After all if your job is what you love then you will never work a day in your life.