My math department is losing it’s department head, and two long-term members to retirement. And since the hiring season has now gotten underway, I’ve been looking at the resumes and personal statements of potential candidates. One of them had an online portfolio, with student quotations, sample tests and quizzes, videos of him teaching, and lots of other useful pieces of flotsam and jetsam.

Of course, my critical eye went first to the terrible website design.

But the idea, and the content, were good. And so, in the spirit of picking projects to focus my mind on so I don’t get depressed, I have decided to make my own portfolio.

http://www.virb.com/samjshah

It’s only in the beginning stages, but the idea behind it is go beyond creating something that will be useful when job hunting; it is going to be the place where I document my success, and show off who I am as a person and as a teacher (the two are inseparable). It’s going to archive the little things that just don’t fit or belong on a resume. (Small two day conferences I attended, quotations from students, good smartboards I’ve created, writings from grad school, etc.)

Which means that lots of flotsam and jetsam are going to be carefully placed in there. I want to put on this page all the things I would want to see/read if I were looking into hiring someone.