TLP - Slides With Notes

Web-based Portfolios
and Supporting Executive Functioning Skills
Max Yarbrough 1
Goals and Teacher Standards:

Goals: Standards:
● Support students’ organizational CSTP 6.3 - Collaborating with colleagues and the
deficits for personal projects broader professional community to support teacher and
student learning
● Opportunity to develop a useful
skill of web-design CSTP 6.6 - Managing professional responsibilities to
maintain motivation and commitment to all students
● Assist in reflection of growth over
four years (ESLRs) NBPTS: 3.2 – Teachers Support Student Learning in
Varied Settings and Groups
TLMS: 1.a – Utilizes group processes to help colleagues

work collaboratively to solve problems, make decisions,
manage conflict, and promote meaningful change.
The goals focus on the integration of personal projects documents to a web-based

format.
The standards focus on key areas of growth within teacher standards.
Max Yarbrough 2
What does “Supporting Executive Function” Look Like?

Executive function is a set of mental skills that everyone uses to complete everyday tasks, both at
home and in school, both academically and socially.
Supporting executive function can mean a variety of things
- Building awareness of deficits
- Building strategies and routines that foster good habits
- Removing barriers related to one skill to allow progress in another
Supporting executive function does NOT mean eliminating the need to use executive functions
Clarification on supporting executive function: some students may require scaffolding

that reduces their need to use some executive functions in order to focus on a
targeted area of growth.
Max Yarbrough 3
Your Turn
● Pick one of the executive functions from the list below. In what way does the current
personal project process support that executive function?
- Self-awareness - Initiation
- Foresee / plan - Execution
- Goal-setting - Gauge / Modulate
- Perseverance - Organization
- Self-Monitoring - Flexible Thinking
- Self-Regulate - Stamina
- Self-Reflect - Impulse Control
Examples might include:

- Foresee / plan - Students are asked to alter their weekly plan each Thursday
in the event they are ahead of or behind schedule.
- Goal-setting - Students are asked to come up with and track project goals in a
table
- Self-reflect - Students reflect on their progress each Thursday in their project
log
Max Yarbrough 4
The Website
● Weebly is a free to use website design tool
● Versatility of the website allows for the incorporation of PPAll doc,

EARS notes, etc.
○ Tables
○ Text
○ Slides
○ Pictures
● Additional possibility of using the website as
○ An ESLR portfolio
■ Animas High School
○ S5 personal project
○ Class projects
While many components of Weebly are free, there are paid options that were not
explored.
Max Yarbrough 5
The Website
● Navigate to any personal project

using drop-down menus at the top
● Buttons navigate to the main

sub-pages within a session
● ESLR integration can be included

as an additional sub-page
Students will not be required to create their portfolio from scratch. Instead, this
template will be provided to them complete with drop-down menus, sub-pages, and
linked buttons.
Max Yarbrough 6
Student Example from Animas High School

● Students can incorporate
slides into their portfolios to
reduce clutter
○ EF - Organization
● Students can easily add

descriptions and summaries
of their portfolio artifacts
○ EF - Prioritizing
This student example includes uploaded copies of a physical “pen-and-paper”

assignment. Since Orion Academy doesn’t use physical assignments, these artifacts
will be uploaded as SCRIBD documents (one of the optional elements provided in the
free services).
Max Yarbrough 7
Web-Based Portfolios to Support Executive Functioning

● The following table identifies which relevant executive functions are easily
supported within a web-based portfolio
● The EF skills that are “inadequately supported” will require additional scaffolds to
properly support students
Self Organization Foresee/ Self - Regulate Initiation Execution Flexible Impulse

Awareness Plan Thinking Control
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Adequately
Supported
✓ ✓
Inadequately
Supported
This table includes those executive functioning skills that are targeted by the personal
projects process and do not include all executive functioning skills.
Max Yarbrough 8
Web-Based Portfolios to Support Executive Functioning

● Additional supports will need to be embedded into any web-based portfolio to ensure
student success
● Supporting Self-Regulation
○ Website design is a new experience for most students

○ Provide an example with rubric to guide students who struggle with perfectionism
● Supporting Impulse Control
○ Many students get carried away with needless formatting options
■ Font style/size
■ Graphics/text position
■ Color
○ Prompt students to reformat the website only after the main components are
complete
Not all students require or even benefit from the same supports as others. Teachers
will need to continuously monitor students to identify unnecessary supports, or to
modify the supports embedded within the personal projects process.
Max Yarbrough 9
Pros/Cons of Using Weebly for Personal Projects
Pros: Cons:
● A template website can be created and ● The creation of tables requires the user to
copied by the admin to be shared with download an app
students
● Students can organize their website using ● Creating/removing rows/columns of a

an array of web-building tools table is difficult
● Administrator permissions can easily be ● It can be difficult to place new sections,

given to students pictures, or text boxes in the desired
location on the web page
● Students don’t get full ownership of their

website without paying for a membership
The cons of using Weebly for personal projects outweigh the pros. While Weebly
would not make a good alternative to the current personal projects process, it would
still be good addition to a variety of academic projects.
There is also a possibility that a different website building publisher could be a better
choice as a personal projects alternative.
Max Yarbrough 10
Application to Other Classes

Teachers can introduce website building into their classes for individual or collaborative efforts
● Econ: building a business
● Literature: Students build a website from a character’s perspective
● History: Students build a website from an individual’s/government’s perspective
● Math: Students build a website with tools and examples on how to solve real world
problems
● Science: Students build a website to share lab results with the scientific community
Application of websites to class projects should be done with the intention of

increasing student engagement and supporting executive functioning deficits.
Max Yarbrough 11
Your Turn
● What existing assignments could you incorporate a website into?
Max Yarbrough 12
Culminating Activity: Teachers Create Their Own Website

Try it out on your own or with a partner:
1. Google “weebly login” and click on the first link
2. Click the “sign-up” button
3. Enter your user information (Orion email is

recommended)
4. When prompted, choose a purpose and theme for

your website (personal / portfolio)
5. Choose a weebly subdomain by (your first initial and

last name)
Weebly is a free service, but may ask you to upgrade your account. If this happens,
you can close out of the upgrade options hy clicking the “X” at the top left of the option
window.
Max Yarbrough 13
Your Own ESLR Portfolio
Put yourself in your students’ shoes. Think about additional supports that your
students will require to successfully create a website for their class projects.
Max Yarbrough 14
Your Turn
● What additional supports would you need to provide students to create a website successfully?
Additional supports might include:

- Setting clear expectations
- Simplifying instructions
- Setting time-limits on building the website
- Establishing group roles and responsibilities
Max Yarbrough 15

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Web-based Portfolios

and Supporting Executive Functioning Skills

Goals and Teacher Standards:

TLMS: 1.a – Utilizes group processes to help colleagues

The goals focus on the integration of personal projects documents to a web-based

The standards focus on key areas of growth within teacher standards.

What does “Supporting Executive Function” Look Like?

Supporting executive function can mean a variety of things

- Building awareness of deficits

- Building strategies and routines that foster good habits

- Removing barriers related to one skill to allow progress in another

Clarification on supporting executive function: some students may require scaffolding

Examples might include:

● Versatility of the website allows for the incorporation of PPAll doc,

● Additional possibility of using the website as

● Navigate to any personal project

● Buttons navigate to the main

● ESLR integration can be included

Student Example from Animas High School

● Students can easily add

This student example includes uploaded copies of a physical “pen-and-paper”

Web-Based Portfolios to Support Executive Functioning

Self Organization Foresee/ Self - Regulate Initiation Execution Flexible Impulse

Web-Based Portfolios to Support Executive Functioning

○ Website design is a new experience for most students

● Supporting Impulse Control

○ Many students get carried away with needless formatting options

Pros/Cons of Using Weebly for Personal Projects

● Students can organize their website using ● Creating/removing rows/columns of a

● Administrator permissions can easily be ● It can be difficult to place new sections,

● Students don’t get full ownership of their

Application to Other Classes

● Econ: building a business

● Literature: Students build a website from a character’s perspective

● History: Students build a website from an individual’s/government’s perspective

Application of websites to class projects should be done with the intention of

Culminating Activity: Teachers Create Their Own Website

1. Google “weebly login” and click on the first link

2. Click the “sign-up” button

3. Enter your user information (Orion email is

4. When prompted, choose a purpose and theme for

5. Choose a weebly subdomain by (your first initial and

Your Own ESLR Portfolio

Additional supports might include:

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