How to make a “giveaway portfolio”

1. How to make a “giveaway portfolio” Creating professional quality self-promotional materials

2. What is a Giveaway Portfolio? Folder with print out of resume and other material The Giveaway Portfolio has two items: CD that has electronic materials (documents, audio recordings, videos, etc.)

3. Why? • Gives potential employers access to a lot of information about you • Allows you to stand out as a job applicant • Demonstrates your ability to use technology • Demonstrates your teaching abilities • It is designed to be inexpensive to create so you can give it away at all your job interviews

4. What goes in a Giveaway Portfolio? Printed material: Resume with contact information Business card with contact information Possibly: Philosophy of Education Transcripts Letters of recommendation Don’t fill it up too much with printed material. Be selective.

5. CD • The CD is where you can be really creative. Here are some possibilities: • Papers your wrote (research papers, handbooks, etc.) • Video of you teaching • Audio recording of musical performance • Letters of recommendation (scanned) • Transcripts (scanned) • Examples of student work (scanned) • Lesson plans you created and taught • Photos of you working with students • Powerpoint about you as a teacher • Video about you as a teacher The purpose of this material is to give a potential employer information about you. Think about this as you select materials.

6. General information about print • Remember that most administrators are middle-aged and they need larger rather than smaller print. Do not use less than 12 point type. • The idea behind having some print items in the portfolio is that some administrators will never look at the CD.

7. General information about all items in the Giveaway Portfolio • Be sure your contact information is on all items that are in your portfolio (CD, business card, resume). You never know when items might become separated. Contact information includes permanently good telephone number and e-mail address.

8. Internet Traps • Make sure the e-mail that you share with potential employers is professional in nature. Hotlips@someisp.com is not a professional e-mail. Create a new screen name for yourself and check it often. • Some savvy potential employers will Google your name and/or e-mail. Clean up your blogs accordingly BEFORE you start to apply for jobs.

9. Resume Tips • Put your licensure on your resume. If you don’t have it yet, put “Anticipated, [date].” • It is a commonly stated myth that resumes for college students should be only one page in length. If you have legitimate, necessary material for a longer resume, by all means, use it. • Microsoft Word resume templates are beautiful but they were probably designed by a 20 year old with eagle-like eyesight. They frequently use very small fonts. Be sure to use 12 point type in your resume.

10. Resume Tips • Don’t exaggerate—it will catch up with you. Sometimes this sort of thing catches up with people on the 6 o’clock news (very publicly). • If you are describing a job you have held, use strong verbs: organized, created, trained, led, facilitated, etc.

11. CD tips • Be sure you use programs that are widely available so your files will open on most computers: Microsoft word, Adobe Acrobat, etc. • Make sure you are not creating a CD that has a virus—that is a sure way to not get hired. • Scan letters of recommendation, transcripts, Praxis scores, student work, as if it were a photograph so that the resulting file looks like the original.

12. CD Tips • Consider creating a powerpoint that organizes the materials so that a potential employer can understand what they mean in relation to you. • Be sure the file names of the materials on your CD would be clear to another person. • Consider organizing your materials in relation to Capital U. Ed. Dept. goals or Praxis domains. If you use Capital U. goals, be sure to create a document that lets employers know what these are.