Build Your Portfolio
Standards (2)
3.4Employment Opportunities
Search for jobs using online search engines; evaluate the application process for internships, apprenticeships, and entry-level positions.3.8Resumes & Portfolios
Develop a professional resume, personal statement, and industry-specific portfolio that highlights skills, technical proficiencies, and iterative processes.
The task
Build the portfolio site you will use for the rest of this pathway. Every assignment you turn in from here on gets posted to it.
You have almost no work to show yet. That’s expected. You are building the shell: the pages, the structure, and the habit. It fills up as you go, and by the end of the year it is the single thing you can hand to an employer, a college, or a family member that shows what you can do.
Professional portfolios are built around a small number of pages that keep showing up: a landing page, an about page, and project pages that tell the story of each piece of work. Yours starts with the same bones.
Before you start
Read Building a Google Sites Portfolio. You need to know how to publish and republish before this will work.
Steps
Step 1 — Create and name the site
Make a new Google Site on your school account. Set both the document name and the site name to something real. Your name plus “Portfolio” is fine. Nothing should say “Untitled.”
Step 2 — Build four pages
| Page | What goes on it |
|---|---|
| Home | Your name, what this site is, one sentence about what you’re studying. One image if you have one. |
| About Me | Your bio (see Step 3 below). |
| Coursework | Where every assignment gets posted. Empty for now except this one. |
| Best Work | Empty for now. Later you’ll move your strongest pieces here so nobody has to dig. |
Use the Pages tab to add them. They appear in your navigation automatically.
Step 3 — Write your About page
Three short paragraphs, written in first person:
- Who you are: Grade, school, what you’re interested in making.
- What you’re working on: The classes or skills you’re building right now. It is fine to say you are just starting.
- Where you’re headed: A career you’re curious about, or the kind of work you’d like to do. You are allowed to change your mind later.
- Photo: Add a photo if you want one. It can be you, or it can be something you made or something that represents you. (Not required).
- Contact: List your school email and nothing else. No phone number, no home address, no personal email. This site is public.
Step 4 — Set up your first Coursework post
On the Coursework page, add a section for this assignment using the write-up format below. You will reuse this format for every assignment this year, so get comfortable with it now:
[Assignment Title] — [Class] · [Unit] · [Date]
What this is: Two or three sentences describing what you made and what you were asked to do.
Tools used: The software or materials.
What I'd do differently: One honest sentence.For this first post, the “work” is the site itself, so describe building it.
Step 5 — Publish
Click Publish. Choose a web address using your name. Check the audience setting under Manage so people outside the school can open it. If that option is locked, tell your teacher.
Open your published link in a private window to confirm it actually loads.
Submit
Google Classroom Submission: Post the published link in Google Classroom (not the editing link).
Test it first by opening it in a private window. A link that only works when you’re signed in cannot be graded.
Rubric
| Criteria | Approaching | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structure | Some pages missing or unnamed | All four pages exist, named clearly, navigation works | Pages are organized and ordered with a visitor in mind |
| About page | One or two sentences, or missing pieces | All three paragraphs present, written in your own voice, school email listed | Bio is specific and says something real about you |
| Coursework post | Format not followed or mostly blank | Write-up format used completely for this assignment | Reflection is honest and specific rather than filler |
| Published | Not published, or link doesn’t open | Published, link opens for anyone, tested | Site is readable on a phone as well as a computer |
| Professionalism | Placeholder text, “Untitled,” or personal info exposed | Spelled correctly, consistent theme, only school email listed | Presentation is deliberate: consistent fonts, spacing, and image sizes |
Notes
- This is never finished: You are expected to keep adding to it all year, and to improve the parts you built in week one once you know more. Going back and rewriting your About page in May is a good sign, not a wasted effort.
- Keep it after graduation: Your school account gets shut off. The module explains how to copy the site to a personal account, and it has to happen before you leave.