I just created and posted a page with links to my PowerPoint presentations from my American history classes on my GitHub portfolio site. This is a first step in putting my teaching materials online. I should probably also post the syllabi for the classes, but let me take this one step at a time.

The teaching page for my GitHub portfolio looks like a mess now. I need a better design for the entire portfolio site. I originally created this portfolio as a temporary site, so I did envision replacing the site. I like the typography I have chosen, for the most part, but the pages need to be better organized into sections. The home page really needs to be divided up into column-delimited sections with a summary of what one will find on each page. It also needs to have an About section with a short biography and a link to my CV. In fact, the home page should be the About section since the entire site is meant to be about me.

Here’s an outline for the portfolio site that may help me to re-think the site as a whole:

  1. Home page
    • biography
    • CV
    • summary of other pages
  2. Teaching
    • syllabi
    • online teaching materials
    • other teaching materials
  3. Scholarship
    • dissertation
    • list of conference presentations
    • links to pages of interest (e.g., Sun Ra and Fela)
  4. Music
    • sound files
    • scores

This is just a rough outline. I think the first thing to tackle is the home page. I have the beginning of a biography as it is, but I need to add the page summaries.

Let me just sit with these ideas for a bit. I really should wire-frame the pages in order to get the layout tight. In fact, that will be my next step.

One of the things I have never been good at academically is creating a set of goals and objectives before I begin to plan a syllabus or a site. This could be be done at the same time as the wire-framing, but goals and objectives are crucial to creating a simple yet full-featured site. Additionally I need to figure out who it is I am writing my portfolio for. Ultimately I would like to be able to include a link to the portfolio in any cover letters I send out with my job applications. An online portfolio may help me to stand out.

One link that does not need to be included on the portfolio site is for my freewriting blog. This blog is personal. In addition, there are some things in the freewriting blog that would be disastrous for a potential employer to read. The pulamusic.com blog is a more appropriate, on-topic site to link to on my portfolio page. In fact, I need to remove all links to the freewriting blog so that potential employers do not stumble upon it.