Rather than requiring additional work for the day of your final, I want to use the final class period to highlight best practices from our semester and to make some summary recommendations. Additionally, I will hand you specific feedback and recommendations on your portfolio(s). For those with print portfolios, I will return those to you that day.

Final Meeting Attendance Mandatory

Attendance at our final meeting is mandatory. Plan to spend one hour. Your grade for your final will be comprised of (a) your presence and participation in that final meeting, and (b) a summary grade for the whole of your completed materials.

Voluntary Final Improvements may be Submitted

To repeat, at this point, no additional work is *required* for the final. If there are improvements that you desire to make, you may submit those at or before the time of our final. If these are improvements to your online portfolio, be sure to provide me with a list of the improvements you made. (A direct link to your online portfolio will also be helpful.) You may report any improvements in our project log, as a comment to the message linked here.

Final Meeting Date and Time

Those who attend the first section of our course, at 2:00, will meet for our final meeting on:
Tuesday, April 28  3:00-3:55

Because the second section of our course meets at a non-standard time, we may have a bit of difficulty scheduling it so that everyone may attend. If you attend that 3:30 meeting, would you please reply and tell me if this date and time will or will not work for you?
Tuesday, April 28, 4:00 – 4:55?

Tuesday, April 14

1. Receive your Job Strategy Report back from me
2. Sign up for mock interview time slots
3. Review what’s coming

DUE Thursday, April 16, by 5:00 p.m.

1. Hard copy of improved Resume and Cover Letter: Please leave it on the center desk.
2. ELECTRONIC copy of Resume and Cover Letter files: Name files clearly WITH YOUR NAME IN THE FILE NAME, and upload them as a comment to this message. (The file must be Word, PDF, or a ZIPPED folder.)
3. The rest of this class meeting will be a work session. I will be off campus. E-mail me any questions you may have.

DUE Tuesday, April 21, by 5:00 p.m.

• Submit an electronic copy of the improved, polished version of your Job Strategy Report.
• It can be a Word or PDF file, or a ZIPPED folder. BE SURE TO NAME THE FILE WITH YOUR OWN NAME IN THE FILE NAME.
• Upload it in a comment to this message in our project log.

April 21 and 23

No class meetings. Instead: individual interviews, as scheduled.

Final Meeting (at the day and time of our final)

1. Submit final, polished versions of portfolio(s)
2. Review best practices from our best portfolios of the semester

I will be taking a bit of time with each individual to receive these.

PLEASE RESPOND IN A COMMENT TO THIS MESSAGE with a link to your online portfolio. If you are submitting a PDF portfolio, also upload it with that comment.

If necessary, I will offer some assistance.

If you have already submitted everything and shown it to me, TAKE TODAY OFF. Enjoy your Easter holiday!

What’s coming next?

1. Tuesday April 14: Individual Review Meetings during class time
2. Thursday, April 16: Improved Coverletters and Resume’s DUE
3. Tuesday, April 21: Individual Interview Sessions
4. Thursday, April 23: Individual Interview Sessions
5. Final: Submit the final, polished version of your Job Strategy Report and any desired improvements to your online and/or print portfolios.

For those of you who will benefit from a print portfolio, please respond to the following message in our project log with your answers to the questions found there:
I WILL be creating a print portfolio, and here is my plan.

For those of you pursuing occupations that DO NOT require a print portfolio, please respond to the following message in our project log with your answers to the questions found there:
I WILL NOT be creating a print portfolio. Instead I will …

• formatting and phrasing the top and bottom
• opening
• declaring the reason for your interest
• highlighting the specific benefits of your education (and perhaps your internship experience?!)
• highlighting specific things about the company to which you’re applying — things that particularly attract you to this company — and things that demonstrate you know who they are
• combining a general attitude of eagerness and humility with subtle but specific evidence that you’re pretty well educated and informed
• ending smoothly, with appropriate eagerness

This letter may not be perfect, but it does most of these things in ways that most of you can pick up something from. Please consult it as you revise your own cover letter. Do not hesitate to “steal” key phrases. I’m your instructor. You should steal phrases from me all the time. (Just don’t steal from others.)

And of course — you are always encouraged to OUT-DO my phrasing. It is not perfectly written.

Download the sample letter (PDF).

1. View a web hosting administration panel, including its process for installing wordpress.
2. Set up your own wordpress website, located at: http://thinking.creative.com/firstnamelastname
3. Login to your wordpress, update the profile password, and add me as a user.
4. View the import options, in case you should want to import information from another blog.
5. Practice downloading, uploading, and activating a theme. (We’ll use this one today.)
6. Investigate how themes work and experiment with customization.
7. Practice creating posts with content and images.

By class time on Feb. 24, 2009:

1. Download, upload, and install a theme you think you *might* be able to use for your online portfolio, assuming you can customize it at least a little.
2. Post at least three posts and two pages of sample content and images.
3. Experiment with customization, testing to see how easy or difficult it may be to make this theme do what you want it to do.
4. Post a reply to this message in our project log with: 
   • a link to your online portfolio
   • a list of the things you like
   • a list of your concerns or the things you would like to modify
5. Come ready to show and report your findings on Tuesday.

Domain Names

If you would like at some point to register your own domain name, here are a couple of good options:

• NameCheap.com
• GoDaddy.com

Hosting

If you would ever like to establish your own web hosting account to set up and host your own web sites, with tons of options and tons of online spaces, WordPress.org lists some great hosting providers.

• WordPress.org Themes Page
• Nattywp.com
• TopWPthemes.com
• WordPress Themes Base
• WP Theme Spot
• Or Google Search under “WordPress Themes”

Once you’ve found two good free possible themes, post each theme name, a link to it, and a short description, in a comment to this message in our Project Log.

Utilizing ideas and perspective gained from our Tuesday class meeting, complete a communication brief for your online portfolio.

Use one of these templates, which provides a basic format and the questions you need to address:

• Microsoft Office for Windows
• Microsoft Word for Mac
• Pages for Mac

Print, staple, and submit this at the first of class.