Virtual Portfolio

Well done! Please self critique your blog presentation based on the feedback received from class. What kinds of things were communicately correctly? Effectively? What kinds of improvements need to be made? What would you do differently? What kinds of things do you plan on adding in the future?

The Elevator Speeches are over!

Bravo! You knocked these speeches right out of the ballpark this morning. I was impressed with the strong effort that went into the thought, practice and application. It was quite was evident the time that was devoted to preparing these speeches. Great job! Use this blog post to leave a self critique comment on your performance this morning. Do you think back and wished that you had done something differently? What are you proud about looking back? What did you learn about this important skill? Or about communication skills? Share your thoughts on this assignment. What was so nerve wracking about getting up? What are your thoughts on using impromptu skills in networks and interviews?

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Take time to enjoy a rest while working on those virtual portfolios!

Building Your Virtual Portfolio

This blog posting follows up on our portfolio discussion in class. Hopefully, it will help you create and manage your virtual portfolio as I summarize some ideas shared in class.
The design of your blog should be something that communicates your personality in addition to communicating a sense of professionalism. The colors have to be pleasing to the eye and enhance the visibility of all your words. Be sure viewers can easily read your blog and the colors aren’t distracting to the intent of your message. The titles of the blog should express your personality and be easily remembered by the viewer. You want to catch perspective employer with something that illustrates creativity on your part.
Don’t try to over reach with the technical stuff. Blogger offers a lot of gadgets but remember this is about getting your message across to the viewer simply too. Brainstorm the transferable skills that you would like to illustrate. How can you sell yourself to an employer? It's important that you have good examples of what you do and who you are on your blog to back up your transferable skills. Illustrate these skills in both academic endeavors and outside hobbies, volunteer work, part time employment, etc... Be sure to include your resume and cover letter. You should use Google Docs to post large pieces of information. Give us a brief introduction in each blog and then, hyperlink whenever you can. Do not overwhelm the viewer. Create an easily scan able portfolio for the eye, similar to an easily scan able cover letter. Remember, when using Docs, you must upload your work, save it and then publish it. To do this, click on "Share" and then choose "publish/embed." Once the page comes up that shows your published document's link, you can take that link and put it in the "Edit Html" of your post so that it is immediately viewable on your blog (This is best for PowerPoint’s), or take the link and hyperlink it in your post using the hyperlink button on the "Compose" of your post. To make sure that this works, log out of your Google account and go on your blog as a visitor. Then click on the hyperlink and see if your document comes up. For those of you who may want to upload a video, use YouTube and then put the link in the "Edit Html" of your post.
Go to our blog and view some of my past students work for ideas on designing and writing. You shouldn’t hesitate to reach out to me if you need help. We can arrange to work together online or meet to discuss your needs or just brainstorm

Persuasive Presentations - Healthcare Reform

Post your critiques for the persuasive group presentations here. You will post a critique of a student in another group that had the same step in Monroe's Motivated Sequence that you had in your group presentation. Post comments that look at the strength and weaknesses of the argument and try to move past commenting solely on delivery issues. Discuss the reasoning and evidence used in the speech. Be sure to remain positive in your critique directly your comments towards ideas for improvements as well as praising on places that the argument was solid in both reasoning and evidence.

Step Into the Elevator- Networking- Impromptu Speaking

We discussed in class the importance of developing career networks. Networks are important for developing identify, developing contacts for information, advice, and moral support as you pursue your goals. Kellly Pederson, a Career Specialist, at Rider University states that 75-80% of jobs are found through networks. And, a referral generates 80% more results than a cold call. We discussed that an important part of the networking process is developing a 30 seconds to one minute commercial of yourself. The commercial should contain your background information, current/prior roles in your responsibilities, education and knowledge, strengths and areas of interest and goals. Please post two parts to this blog. First, post your ideas for places that you can reach out to develop these network contacts (religious affliations, friends, prior work situations, etc.) Second part of the post should include your commerical script. Bring a hard copy of your commerical to class too.

Informative Speech - " Did You Ever Notice"

Well done! The first round of speeches went exceptionally well! The topic selections were illustrated with both creativity and audience adaptation. Many of you illustrated a lot of time and application to our class discussions. Thanks for making my job to listen to your speech so pleasant! Please post your self critique here. The self critique should contain a thoughtful self examination of your strengths and needed improvements for the next speech. Please make sure that you highlight in detail at least three strengths and three improvements. I want to read in your critique your planned course of action to work on the improvements that you identify.

Conquering Speech Anxiety

Communication Apprehension seemed to be a major focus in presenting speeches. Two important ingredients to effective speech delivery are reprogramming your "self talk" and putting in proper preparation so you really "know your stuff". Take a look at this clip. Then, post to the blog what your self talk sounds like and a portion of this interview that you identified with in your experience. What does your self talk sound like? What are three practical suggestions that you can give yourself to begin to conquer your speech anxiety?">