New, SIMPLIFIED, Student Portfolio System (or 'feeling the fear of not being 'innovative' enough this year')

In past years I always had students create either a blog or a website to publicly share their work and curate their progress.

While I believe deeply in students archiving their work in a public space, after reading Show Your Work, an outstanding book by Austin Kleon, I began to put an incredible amount of pressure on myself to empower students to create beautiful space to showcase their work.

In short, I lost track of the pedagogy, in replace for aesthetics.  It's not Austin's fault. It's mine.  Please read his book, it's hecka inspiring.

I reflected on the lack of improved student metacognition despite my enhanced portfolio systems. Class feedback made it clear that students rarely revisited the posts.

I began to ask myself: What really actually works? (in my classroom, with MY students).

Students asked for one Google Slides presentation per topic because it made pictures and videos easier to organize.

My initial reaction to this statement was one of hesitation.No way! Kleon calls us to share our work in a space we are proud of. Nobody is going to look at your Google Slides! Your work needs be in a beautiful website to be taken seriously!

Again, aesthetics before pedagogy. Not a good choice.

This year, I am putting down my tired attempts at doing what I think is the most "innovative" approach, and following my gut regarding what I feel and my students feel is the most impactful!

I am taking that advice.

I created a Google Slide template for each unit, including spaces for students to link all of their major work (Labs, Case Studies, etc.) and a template for built in student reflection.

The Google Slides portfolio template includes spaces for major work and built-in reflection.

Yes, not as beautiful as Weebly, SquareSpace, WIX, or even the NEW Google Sites.  Ironically however, in just two days of class, I am already noticing a shift in student focus on the project at hand, and not where or how they report it. ​ And...in the end...nothing is stopping us from embedding their Google Slides in a beautiful website. Wink.