New 11th grade College Prep teacher Kelsey Coleman and 12th grade College Prep teacher Rossa Dono thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if every student had their own website?” They approached Sammy Lyon, Environmental Service Learning Coordinator & new media consultant, for support and put a plan together so that every 11th grade student at ECHS would design their very own website, learn how to maintain and edit it, and would regularly post exemplary work to supplement their resumes, college applications, and future career searches.
Kelsey and Sammy worked together to create a template for students to follow, and detailed instructions to learn WordPress, a free web design platform that can be used by amateurs and expert coders alike.
From this template, students customized their websites, adding pictures and backgrounds to make them unique. They will be using these websites to post assignments throughout the year, such as a “why I want to go to college” video, personal mission statement, resume, videos and presentations, extracurriculars, internships, clubs, and writing assignments, creating an interdisciplinary digital portfolio showcasing their work at Environmental Charter High School. After this year’s pilot project with Kelsey Coleman’s 11th grade classes, the goal will be to expand the project to all College Prep classes so that every single student at ECHS graduates with their own website showcasing four years of accomplishments.
Three juniors presented their websites to partners at Career Day 2014. Students are thrilled to use their portfolios as a resource throughout their upcoming college application process.
