Creating a Professional Online Persona

As part of a Career Exploration unit, we're going to explore the idea of "persona construction." At the end of the unit, every student will have created a professional persona that potential employers will want to hire. Please follow the steps below to complete the Unit. At the end of the Unit, please post a comment on this post and paste in your About.me link. Of the many apps that you can attach to your About.me page, you should have at least three apps linked to your page.

Part 1: 

There will be many steps to this process, but the very first will have to be exploring what makes us each, individually, "tick." What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What makes you happiest? Well, let's find that out first by doing the Brief Strengths Questionnaire at the Authentic Happiness website at Penn State.  If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will find the questionnaires. Make sure to record your results.

Part 2:

Next, let's see what kind of a person you are. Self-awareness is one of the keys to leading a good life, or at least that's what Socrates said...  Anyway, you can find out your personality type here. The results of this test are pretty reliable. After you've taken the test, record your four-letter personality type and do a Google Search for "Careers for (your four-letter type)". E.g.,  Google: "Careers for INTP". and you should be able to find some possible career paths for you. This is an example Personality Page for an INTP. Notice the possible careers listed at the bottom.

Combined with the Authentic Happiness questionnaires, you should now be starting to really get to know yourself.

Part 3:

Now for the construction. You are going to need a Gmail account just to make things easier. Eventually,  you are going to have to create a professional network; having a Gmail account to centralize everything makes things efficient.

Let's make an About Me page, and construct the image that you want potential employers see. This will be your electronic business card. From here, you'll want to link to external apps that are following people in your chosen career path.

You'll probably want to connect with people on Linkdin, make a resume and start to create a network of professional contacts. These should be people who know you and could even be a reference for you. Link this account to you About.me page.


Your resume itself can take various forms, but one great one is on VisualCV. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say; the images that you put on this service can have a powerful way of getting what you could potentially contribute to a company.

Another way to publish your personal awesomeness is with a VERY short YouTube video. This can be as short as a Vine (6 seconds) and up to 1 minute, but any longer would be less effective. Here is an explanation of why video is an important, powerful tool in building your online persona. And, of course, there are numerous examples of video resumes that you can look at yourself to get some ideas.

These are the most important things that you can do, but remember that even on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, or any social media website, you are accountable for your image. If you want to have a good public face, it needs to be cultivated. All of the social media websites can be useful for employers to get to know you, but they have to contain only things that you would want employers to  know about you.

Part 4:

Finally, you need to write a cover letter. Here are some examples of three different styles of cover letters. You should address your letter To Whom it May Concern, and then write your letter to a potential employer in the field that you've chosen to pursue as a career. Your first paragraph should be about your personality and what makes you a good employee.. Your second paragraph should be about what makes you suitable for the career you've chosen.

You should write this in a word document, save as a .pdf file and upload it to your Dropbox account. Then share the link to that document, and copy and paste that link to your About.me page.

Literary Essay

Literary Essay for Lord of the Flies

This literary essay will have a minimum of four paragraphs, will be in MLA format, and will require quotations from at least two secondary sources (as well as quotations from the novel).

The introductory paragraph will have a thesis statement.

Each body paragraph will have at least two quotations from your primary source (i.e., the novel), as well as at least one quotation from a secondary source.

Your concluding paragraph should be at least three sentences long.

The essay should be double spaced and in 12 pt, Times New Roman or Courier font.

Here is a link to the scoring rubric.

Here are some resources.

If you are unsure of how to write a literary essay, please visit the following website.

Metaphors Made Literal

For this assignment, you will be working in pairs to make an RSA Animate-style video about metaphors in the play. Please follow the procedure below accurately.

Your final submission will then be a comment in the comments section at the end of this blog post with a link to your project and a link to your script. You could also hand in a hard copy of your script.

Here is the Scoring Rubric for the project.

 With their permission, previous students' projects have been made available for you:  Example #1   Example #2  Example #3  Example #4


Step 1

Find and analyse a scene or group of metaphors (e.g., a particular motif or group of symbols) and find five (5) examples of different metaphors. Although it's not a requirement, you may want to do some research and find out what metaphors are important in the play you're studying.

Write down the quotes and imagine what the metaphors would look like if they were made literal, i.e., what would actually be happening if what the speaker is saying were real.

Step 2

Decide what type of video you are going to make: RSA Animate, Stop-Motion, Lego-mation, or something else. Consider your artistic abilities and go from there. Perhaps you want to use a program like Comic Life or something similar. Here is an example of something completely different that might inspire you.

Step 2.5 (this is to be handed in)

Develop a script in which you (1) say the quote, (2) explain the context of the quote, (3) explain its significance to the play, and (4) explain the metaphor, i.e., explain the comparison being made and why the speaker and/or Shakespeare makes this particular comparison. Here is an example analysis.
Be sure that you have someone edit this for you. It will be assessed for grammar (GLO4), ideas (GLO1), and critical analysis (GLO2).

Step 3

Begin filming. Remember: you are going to do the voice-over later; for now, just begin filming so that you have something to edit. Film all five metaphors.

Step 4

Edit your film and add voice-over. In your voice-over you should follow your script: read the quote, carefully explain the context and what would literally be happening, and explain the significance of the quote.

Step 5

Upload your completed video to the internet. Hopefully, you have your own YouTube channel and can simply make this particular video "public." Otherwise, upload it to your Dropbox account and share the link.


Once you finish, you can post the link to your video in the comments below. Remember to put the names of all group members before the link itself. Again, here is a link to the Scoring Rubric